Camelback Bridge

   

On Friday Nov. 21 we shot the bulk of the photography for a new short film titled "Camelback". The film is being shot near Sanford NC at the Camelback Bridge.

It is a story of an older gentleman and the bridge which serves as the grounding place of his entire life. During the film we learn how the old man's life and the bridge are woven together. This is from a screen play that I wrote last winter as I was reflecting on the changes in my father's life, and how the community he grew up in was ever present in his life. While the story is not biographical of my father it does reflect some things I know about him. There are small bits of historical information included in the film.

   Playing the part of the "Old Man" is a young actor by the name of Jan Hensley. Helping with the shooting chores were Harvey Robinson who shot many of the shots, and Carolyn deBerry  who did all of the on set coordination and shot some awesome still pictures of the production.

   The day proved to be cold but not miserable. We did start the shoot with lunch in Siler City at Johnson's Burgers, home of the best cheeseburgers in North Carolina. One of the highlights of the day and most scary, OK and pretty much fun was throwing a Panasonic HVX200 off the side of the bridge and letting it have a controlled free fall for about 40 feet, this should prove to be a very cool shot.

Southern Culture

I am honored to have been asked to be a contributor to an amazing project being put together by The Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss, and published by The University of North Carolina Press. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture is a 24 volume set of books that will cover everything Southern. Some volumes are finished, some still in progress, we are providing images on powwows in the Southern United States.

Irata Music Video

On Saturday night I had the pleasure of working on a music video for Greensboro based band Irata. I was the director of photography and worked with Kevin Pojman and Grisson Davis who produced and directed the project. Working with me on the shoot team were Christian Parson and Harvey Robinson, both of whom shared camera and lighting duties, and Carolyn De Berry, who held the camera crew together. We had a great crew and some very cool sets, not to mention a very tolerant model who put up with some cold wind, pine trees, and driving a massive Cadillac with an 8 track tape player. We all had a lot of fun shooting for a great band.

Vote '08: Funny or Foul?

This all started as a test for a ring light and became the story of getting ready in the morning. (No, it's not autobiographical.) Many thanks to our friend Andy for his comic skills and being willing to do this stuff and push it to a higher (or lower?) level of humor.

Some people may think we went too far, so we decided to take a vote, being election season and all. Is it hilarious or horrifying? Did we go to far or not far enough? Let us know what you think, and we will enter you into a drawing! Please share your comments here, where everyone can share in the fun, but also send us an email to let us know how to reach you if you win.

The poll is open until the real election day - November 4!

Current TV

Our film on Paperhand made it to number one on Current.TV, Both Coe and myself were really excited.

Also I went to see the Paperhand show tonight in Chapel Hill, it was a great experience, see these guys do their thing, Really inspiring for me!

New Film-Paperhand Puppet Intervention

Today has been really exiting for the new film by myself and Coe Doulas. It was uploaded to current.tv yesturday and climbed to the #2 film in less than 24 hours. Coe and I have had a great time putting this short film "Paperhand Puppet Intervention, Activists in Their Community"together. We had  help from Christian Parsons and Carolyn de Berry in making the project happen. We first talked to Donovan at Paperhand in the winter, so it has taken almost 8 months to get this completed. Thanks to Jan Burger and Donovan Zimmerman at Paperhand  Puppet Intervention for having us in their studio and for talking about the experiences. They have a great show in progress now please support these guys. Also thank you to everyone who has voted our film up in the current.tv count.

48 hour Film Project Award for Our Film

Our Film "The Hourglass" won an award for best Art Direction. As I said before we had a great team and everyone worked really hard. The shoot day was long and very hot, then came the edit. We were ahead on our edit plan and went home to sleep. 

A great time was had by all. I do wish we had not been to busy to shoot production stills.