Early works revisited: Introduction

Since my creative output has been limited lately, I figured I'd take the opportunity to look back at some earlier projects of mine that haven't yet been documented on the web. This will allow me to record some of the details before I forget them entirely and also share them with anybody who might be interested (granted that may only include my future self).

I was going to start at the beginning and work my way forward, but that would just be too embarrassing too soon, so instead we're going to start at what I consider to be a turning point and go in both directions through time from there. At the rate I've been blogging, it will take multiple years to cover everything I want to cover, so I hope you are by no means expecting this to be wrapped up quickly with a constant stream of entries.

Another disclaimer: The works I will be discussing are ridiculously indulgent and pretentious and hold very little entertainment value. But at the time they were made I considered each of them to be a personal, artistic statement. I still hold them dear, even if they are dated and laughable. I'm aware of their flaws... they were made by a kid after all.

And just to set a little context, most of these videos were made before YouTube and some of them before digital, non-linear editing (at least for me). It was a time before everybody carried a video recording device in their pocket. There was still some magic in the medium for me. I knew nothing about photography and was training myself in video production. For a long time it felt like anything was interesting if you put it in front of a camera. Believe me, I tested that hypothesis by shooting some pretty mundane subjects.  Editing was a thrilling puzzle. I loved putting two shots together and discovering what fit and what didn't.  So much of it is based on intuition rather than hard science, which was a nice change of pace from the track I found myself on during school and in my career.

By working on my own movies, my appreciation for watching movies deepened, especially lower budget, independent films because those are the ones in which you could still see the seams.  There was a local film festival held at my college my freshman and sophomore years that was incredibly inspiring to me.  I was a no-budget filmmaker and I liked to see what could be done with similar / the same constraints.

Projects I want to discuss (in a rough order):

- Marco Polo
- Four Rocks Down
- A Night in January
- Quit
- The Winter War
- Placebo Road
- Drunken Laundry
- Cottage Cheese
- Dreamer
- Unproduced scripts

A few of them are already online and clips from almost all of them show up in my early demo reel, but I have some additional things I want to document about each.  Maybe I'll scan some handwritten notes and shot lists for the projects or include some deleted scenes.  I even have a campus-televised interview with me discussing the meaning behind "Placebo Road" that I might share. This is going to be fun!