I'm sorry to bug you, but I have to ask you some questions. When you first started out, way before you had any experience whatsoever, how did you begin? How did you start filmmaking? How did you assemble a crew?

It's funny, cause there are people on these boards with waaay more experience and knowledge than me, but this thread makes it sound like I'm a celebrity or something

Okay, let's see...

To start with, I've been homeschooled my entire life, which is what gave me time to do all the nutty things I did. I got into filmmaking at about the age of ten, making totally awful, completely improvised "movies" with my little brother and an uncle's Hi-8 camera. Needless to say, if those ever got out, I'd be ruined. By 14 or so, I made my first short which had planning and editing. It was the painfully bad, 30-minute Fluff Brain: 000 (pronounced, double-oh-nothing), a James Bond spoof with bad special effects.

Between 2001 and 2004 (when I was 15-18) I created Stirling - one of the worst movies known to mankind. Clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, and taking three years to the day to create, it had to be edited down to 2 hours before it was fit for human viewing. Many of my test audiences died, but the end result was less lethal.

On that film I had a crew of about two or three on every set, gathered from cast members who weren't on at the moment. The cast consisted of friends, most of whom could not act, and none of whom were playing the right age. Yeah. It sucked.

In 2005 I made my first two short films that I will let people watch. Fletcher the Alien Catcher was supposed to be an entry for the Amazon/Tribeca short film contest, but the server died as I uploaded it on the last day, and they wouldn't let it in later. On that film I had a crew of one: myself. I shot it in a week, for about $200. I used totally natural lighting, barely any location sound, and a cheap Canon ZR40, with a hell of a lot of thought put into the shots. I had a home-made dolly, and a home-made $14 steadicam.

After that movie, I made Banana Road (on this site, 2nd place in the Road Contest). Again, crew of one, shot in four days, cost around $200. In both of these shorts I was shooting with one actor (my wonderfully patient little brother Bryce, who helped lug equipment, and had to wear the most uncomfortable costumes we could imagine.

A demo reel cut from Stirling got me into NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where, for once, I have dozens of willing and equally dedicated friends and fellow filmmakers to help with projects, and access to New York's thousands of indie actors who will work for free. It's an amazing change, but I think my years of one-man hardship have taught me a lot about how simple things can be.

Current and recent projects include two radio dramas, A Poodle Called Alfonzo, and Devil's Sea.

I DPed on a short experiment film called Everything I've Done, shooting HDV, for a fellow student here, and I'm currently DPing on an extremely ambitious 20 minute short which begins shooting Saturday.

Does that about cover it?

quote:

this thread makes it sound like I'm a celebrity or something

You ARE a celebrity, TD. The world just isn't aware of it yet.

E.

quote:

Between 2001 and 2004 (when I was 15-18) I created Stirling - one of the worst movies known to mankind. Clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, and taking three years to the day to create, it had to be edited down to 2 hours before it was fit for human viewing. Many of my test audiences died, but the end result was less lethal.

Dude, that's probably one of the funniest descriptions of someone's movie I've ever heard. I laughed out loud at that. I've got the same kind of humor about my stuff as well. More power to you man.

OH I actually thought you were a celebrity. Lol. I was thinking I was so lucky that I was talking to you. Anyway Thanks for telling me about how you got started. I am amazed by all the work you did. F.T.A.C is still my all time favorite. You covered everything. Thanks for answering those questions. You have inspired me beyond belief. Thanks for everything.