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Why do I keep creating content? Why do I continue to write with no hope of having it be read? Why do I shoot short films with no chance they could be seen? Why do I write books with limited options to getting published? ​Why am I asking myself questions? That's just lazy writing. The idealistic answer to those questions is for the sake of creating art. The simple act of creating something out of imagination is what fuels me and I would think, many others out there. To be crea

I haven't directed anything since last year when we did the 3rd season of Scenes from the Movies, which was last year around this time. And I haven't directed a short since we did the prequel of the highly-promising feature Life Ends @ 30 called "Escape the Room", which I believe was three years ago, but it's been so long I can't remember. And the last project I directed that wasn't a comedy was my first web series, The Puzzle Maker's Son. Nine years ago! This brings us to No

Change is inevitable and sometimes needed. I'm hoping to create some changes this year. Whether I'm successful or not remains to be seen. The first change is one you may notice. It's the website. I did some redecorating. Now, some of these may change as well. Some background photos and such, but I figured it was at least ready to make live and since the new book is coming out at the end of the month, well, it made sense to do it. That's right. A new book. The follow up to Ada

I posted this photo yesterday on my Instagram with the caption "The Dream Never Dies". It's a chalk drawing of the Up on the Roof logo. Up on the Roof is the name of my production company. The name has been around since the early 90s and it represented a majority of my shorts, the web series and the feature. But after I posted that photo, I kept thinking that the caption is misleading. Dreams are not concrete. They are not bankable. They are wishes. Dreams drive us. They insp

SlideShare is a valuable tool in the world of information sharing, so why not do one myself. I think it's extremely useful in terms of presenting a resume in a different light. No matter how great your resume may be, it's still something people have to read. We're living in the visual age. Why shouldn't our resumes be visual experiences? There are countless examples of interactive resumes on-line. They're eye-catching and full of information. Creativity shouldn't be discounte

Think you need to see a therapist? Nah. Make a short film. I remember showing this short to some people and I'd always preface it by saying. "This is loosely based on my personal experiences", but after rewatching this short I can definitely say that I was absolutely fooling myself back then. Dear Lord, this was about me all the way. Watch then read below. I purposely made Alex's dream nebulous. I didn't want it to be something specific, because everyone's dreams are not my o

I like short films. I know they're out of style for some. When the age of relatively low-cost digital tech arrived and the general ease it is now to shoot, edit and post on-line content, the advent of the web series was a great draw for many, including me. Obviously. Just check out my stuff. The chance for episodic storytelling was huge, but at the expense of the short film. (Technically, they're not films, but the name stuck and calling them "short movies" or "shorts" doesn'

Many years ago. (Actually, 14 years ago) Holy crap. That was 14 years ago!? Anyway, 14 years ago I ventured to make a short film with our awesome HD camera. Can you imagine how awesome it would look? Spoiler: Not as awesome as it would look today. Now, I wish I had some great tale about how I came upon the story of "The Hero", but I can't remember where it came from. I wanted to do a "Damsel in Distress" story, but modernized. I also wanted to do something with a bit more act

You need to adapt. Change. Rethink the things you do in this life. Always. You can’t allow yourself to become complacent. I’ve often said that when I feel stuck or in a rut, it’s due to the fact that I’ve become content with my life. And while the sentiment behind that statement is true, the choice of the word ‘content’ was wrong in my usage. I am content. Complacency should never be associated with being content. Being content is a good thing. To paraphrase Jane O’Connor the

Why change the website up? What I had before wasn't really a web site. It was a blog disguised as a web site. It served me well. I guess. I never really got feedback either way on it. But it was a useful tool in getting some of my content out there. But I wanted more. I wanted a site. I also didn't want to pay someone to monitor posts and updates, when it's really easy for me to do it. I tried several times, unsuccessfully, to get a site up through Wordpress. Unfortunately, I