Craft, inclusion and collaboration
With a 3+ decade dual career in software development and arts production, I have acquired a lot of diverse skills. Some I’ve even developed deeply. Some call me a renaissance man, a generalist, a swiss army knife. But those just refer to skills. What matters more is what I care about – people, relationships, artistic craft.
I love film collaboration because it brings all of those things into focus and connects them — Both in the art and in the making. I have surrounded myself with a community of people who love to make fun and interesting stories. In order to tell stories that mean something to someone, you have to care a lot about and understand how characters relate. You have to capture the authentic story underneath the plot.
Behind the camera, relationship is also important. I work hard to get to know and care about the people I work with. This connection makes us work like the proverbial well oiled machine. We have each others back.
We have a problem in our world and in our industry. One of exclusion. Gender. Race. Sexuality. Belief.
I’m not one to be on the front lines railing with my fist in the air, but I am one to be in the trenches making sure that in my circle, things are better. I am deeply committed to having cast and crew who are diverse.
Skills
With my essence in clear view, what are my skills? I can do many things and I have specialized in some of them
Directing – I have a certificate in directing from University of Washington and have attended the Advanced Directing for Film class at Freehold Theatre taught by John Jacobsen. That intense training, coupled with my natural way of connecting with people, helps me tell stories in an authentic way. I love working (playing?) with actors. I love what they bring to the art. I hold a safe place for them to experiment and together we find the truth of the character and her world.
Editing – Stitching together a story can be a very technical process. The technical side is just there to support the storytelling. Editing, for me, is more intuitive and very rhythmic.
Audio Engineering/Recordist – I started with recording all the sound effects and voices for my 3D animations. Now I’m in my second recording studio and I’m recording voice and music in there. I’ve also recorded location sound for many film productions.
Camera Operator – My first video gig was working for the Bumbershoot and Folklife festivals recording behind the scenes video.
DIT/Data wrangling – As an editor, I’ve often had to take raw footage from a shoot and get it ready for editing. This involves organizing the clips into scenes and syncing the audio with the video. I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out workflow in this area.
Mentoring – I love to teach. On many of our crews, there are a percentage of people who are new to a role. I am often the one who will get them trained up and will supervise them as they learn on the set.
Post Production/Visual Effects – As a former animator and as a senior software developer, I realize there is much in common with those worlds and the world of post production and effects. I bring all of that to the process and love working with the effects artists. I know enough of the Visual Effects and compositing worlds, that I can communicate fluently with them.