Check back within a week or two. We will see you again.

Through my connections at Columbia College and for my final credit towards my BA, I was blessed enough to be able to intern for Ron Howard during the show. It was a really great learning experience and a really great way to end my college career.

Anyways, if you CLICK HERE, it will take you to a Columbia College Chicago newsletter update that talks about my internship. Enjoy!

"Wait. What? You mean you've gone and directed another project? I haven't even gotten a copy of the last project you directed?" Some of you are thinking this. I assure you, that I have not forgotten or left unfinished my other projects, but films take a long time to make and I think it's always good to have a number of projects in the works lest you get caught with no projects to work on at all.

Waiting for the Coroner was one of 6 films made for this years Columbia College Chicago Practicum program. What is practicum you ask? I'll tell you.

Practicum is a program the film/video department at Columbia puts on. Each year, they take 6 directors and 6 producers out of hundreds who apply and set them up with a team of students, equipment and most importantly, financial backing and we go off and make a film. It was Bruce Sheridan's idea, he is the head of the film department and he will tell you that there is a school of thought that film students, especially undergraduates can't be taught the high level of professional collaborative film making that exists in the real world and that no film school funds student films. But Bruce and Columbia have been doing it for years now and doing it successfully. So I was one of the lucky 6 directors chosen this year to direct.

Now, that is the politically correct definition of practicum, but what is it really? Practicum is 20 angry college faculty members yelling at you about your creative choices for an entire semester. Practicum is taking calls at 3AM about a crew member who isn't doing their job, or needing a permit, or the wallpaper you wanted for the set is to expensive. Practicum is getting 45 emails in your inbox at once. Practicum is not sleeping. Practicum is living, eating, and breathing film and the quality of your script 24 hours a day. Practicum is film making and I would not have it any other way.

I was even more lucky to be teamed up with Austin Bedell as my producer. Nothing would have happened without him. Few producers have I ever worked with have been harder working, more creative, more protective of his director or more understanding of the script (so much so tha he could have directed it if I died). On top of going to school full-time, practicum takes up about 30 to 40 hours of your week. Not only did Austin go to school full time, put in tons of hours on WFC but he also worked pretty much full time as well (I guess we all gotta pay the bills, and Columbia isn't cheap). I am grateful for Austin. He has set the standard for producers to work with.

Our film (which I will now refer to as WFC) is best described this way: After the discovery of his dead mother, a man must confront his estranged son and his own fear of acceptance to what is gone and what still exists.

The film is about 10 minutes long. Cast of 4. Crew of seemingly thousands but in reality it's more like 60. We shot over 4 days. Our location was a white, empty apartment, that we dressed from scratch, from carpet to wallpaper to dishes in the kitchen. We had about 3 months of pre-production. Developed and went through about 9 drafts of the script. The film started as a dark comedy with something like 30 characters. We turned it into a 4 person family drama (which film would have been better? Who knows?). 4 writers are credited in the film. We had more than that work on it. 5 months of post production. We had test screenings, questionnaires, faculty feedback and eventually a lack of faculty feedback and we had to make our own decisions.

Then there was the music. Coroner, in my opinion is a film that works without any music. Another film with no music called White Ribbon was a big inspiration in the film-making process for me and I think Coroner has a similar but smaller aesthetic. However, to most people, the film needs music. In today's world of speedy cuts and loud action sequences, Coroner needs music. But how do you score a film that works without music? You bring on Ramon Reyes. My magical composer who also composed for Seasons. He did a great job of capturing the right emotions and wrote a score for us on a tight deadline. Less then a week and a half.

And all of it was put together and it turned out to be a successful film. A woman approached me after the debut screening and told me the film brought her to tears. That is probably the biggest compliment I can get. My film affected someone. It made someone feel something. And especially with Coroner, where things are left open to interpretation, all I wanted was for the audience to feel something, it didn't really matter what.

The film isn't an audience favorite. It is a heavy film, not a crowd pleaser and I am OK with that. The other 5 films that were made by the other teams alongside of WFC are fun, funny, more cinematic, playful or carry sweeping messages and each shows excellence in a particular genre.

As we were told from the start, it is not about the film you end up with, it is about you learning in great detail the collaborative film making process. I learned a great amount and I came out with some good friends, good professional contacts and a good film. I couldn't be happier.

Now on to the film festivals. I shall keep you all updated!

Putting one together is harder then it sounds. Especially choosing the right scenes. I know that my reel is sort of ever changing as I continue to grow my body of work. Enjoy!

Seasons - Bus Montage

The player will show in this paragraph

Over the summer, I have been working on the final sound mix and musical score for the film. Ramon Reyes did an amazing job on the score and it has really made the film feel complete. The film is about 95 percent complete and in a place where I am comfortable getting it in front of audiences. I hope to have the final touches completed within the month and then I will be scheduling a big Chicago premiere and a running on the festival circuit.

If you were involved in Seasons, I can't thank you enough for your help. Soon you will be hearing from me about getting your copy on DVD (maybe even Blu-Ray). I am also working on getting everyones name on IMDB. I will post pictures from the festival this weekend soon.

To celeberate I am posting a video. Every year Columbia College Chicago produces a 2 minute video for each graduating film and video student. It is sort of Columbia's gift to each of us. It is called FrameWork (previously FlashFrame). This is my FrameWork Video.

"The 17th Annual Hokin Honors Exhibition features students of outstanding artistic achievement in photography, fashion, graphic design, film & video and all fine art media. The exhibit is juried by local arts professionals. All participating artists are nominated by faculty and staff members of Columbia College Chicago"

I am also featured in an article in the Columbia Chronicle(the Columbia College newspaper). Click here to read it.

The gallery, as stated above is a mixed media Gallery, full of photos, painting, sculpture, interactive media, fashion and film and video. Each of the works were in competition with each other and the jurors had the difficult task of choosing 4 pieces of art to award 1st through 4th place to. There were no categorical awards. Each piece, no matter what kind of art was in being judged against the rest.

I arrived at the reception, and mingled about looking at the art, all of which was excellent. I wandered to a prominent display on the back wall in the gallery which held three LCD screens hung on the wall, with headphones hanging from them. Those screens were displaying my films and there were people watching them. Film is not a typical "gallery" sort of medium so seeing this display of my work seemed, odd, fresh and exciting. As I looked on, the awards presentation began. The presenter began to name the various award winners, 4th and 3rd place to Art and Design Students, 2nd place to an Interactive Media Student and finally, 1st place and 500 dollars to a Film and Video student. And then I realized that she had said my name.

There are over 50 pieces of art being exhibited submitted by 27 students. In a school of 12,000, most of whom are very good artists, it is a total surprise and very exciting to win fist place prize at the exhibition. In the world of art, film and video often sits at the bottom of the barrel with painting and sculpture being the highest form of art. Rarely, unless you are in a contemporary or modern exhibit do you see film and video incorporated into the gallery environment. Not only is this an exciting opportunity for me, but it is also quite exciting for film and video students all around who might be able find recognition and exhibit their work in the less traditional setting of a theatre. The cash prize was also a nice touch.

The Jury for the exhibition has quite a resume and was made up of; Sabrina Raaf, a Chicago-based artist working in experimental sculptural media and photography; Lisa Dorin, the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art; and Lori Waxman, an art critic for the Chicago Tribune.

If you live in Chicago, stop by the Hokin Gallery. It is at 623 S Wabash, on the first floor. If you are reading from some far away place, take a look at some of the pictures below.

Underneath, underneath the the earth,
we cannot receive messages,
telegraphs dissolve and radio waves are halted.
And we can never know.
The burning flames above
force us ever closer to the molten rock below.

And I wish I could have seen her
with flowers in hand and her hand clasped with his
for that scene, though a painful one, is a needed closing.
But now our excursion deep below has come to pass
and I can never know.

The follow that I am, follows the trail
that was left for me in surveys,
in the wasting of time.
Here. Underneath the earth is where I am but
where is she?

The follow that I am, regrets my very following.
And as the end nears
and we try to save ourselves below,
I cannot think of life, nor of saving it.
For I am not alive. That luxury was taken
by my very speculation.

Written Sept. 23 2008