Epic Story Telling

I have been involved in film making and digital video story telling pretty much my whole life. My camera and editing suite have been as close to me as my own brother. I feel as if this equipment is a part of me. I love great production hardware and software, and I love making it work in ways it was never intended to. I look at something and my mind automatically starts breaking it down into the elements I need to tell a story in the only way I know how, epic.

My brother Joe and I went to school together from grade school through college. We both studied production. We both also loved watching big movies, like Last of the Mohicans and Apocalypto. Both of these films were epic, with stunning visuals and powerful sound. These were movies that kept you from breathing from start to finish. You could watch the whole movie and never once remember to eat your popcorn or drink your 32 ounces of sugar water. We also loved WWF. I know there’s a sharp contrast between the two, but not entirely. Sure, WWF was over the top and outlandish, but it was also epic. That is all I’ve ever wanted to be, the creator of epic footage.

Early on in my career I had the good fortune of landing a gig called the Mock Prison Riot. While most videographers were cutting their teeth shooting weddings, I was standing in an old prison with prisoners on one side throwing bricks and bottles and corrections officers on the other side with riot gear, shields, flashbangs and teargas. No matter how cool you think you are this is something you can’t prepare for. Once the scenario starts you are in the middle of it, and you can’t leave, and most of all you can’t get a re-do if you screw up. In the heat of this kind of battle, good vs evil, I learned that I had to stay focused, no pun intended, and I had to produce. There was no one to tell me where to aim my camera or what to shoot. I didn’t even have the time to make sure I was out of the way. I was knocked down and trampled more than once, but it all was worth it.

Movies, studio wrestling and the Mock Riot helped make me what I am today. I am a visual story teller. Though much of what I am involved in on a daily basis isn’t very epic, some of it is, and I live for those moments. I also like to make you cry, or laugh or my favorite, I love to make you say “WOW!”. Check out our DeNoon spot, the one with Noah’s Ark. I built that ark digitally on my desktop, and when most people see it for the first time they actually say “wow.”