Spent a few days working in New York.... while in Boston and Salt Lake. Ahh, the power of the internet! Working yet again with Nathaniel Hansen, and I remotely produced this shoot. They had a pretty quick turn around time for this, but the finished product looks great. See below:
http://www.nathanielhansen.com/commercial-film-production/manhattan-prep-school-promo-documentary/

After a busy summer of traveling I've decided to make the move out West...and have ended up in Salt Lake City. It's not quite LA, eventually I'll get there, but for now this place is treating me well. I've had the opportunity to work with the Kyle Korver Foundation, and this month I shot and edited a video for them about one of their big service projects. Great guys and a great cause. 

Watch the video here:  http://vimeo.com/2936742

Gulu, Uganda has been my home this summer. Last year was my first time in this war-torn region of Northern Uganda, and I was a bit nervous and unsure of my surroundings. Not this time. I taught a filmmaking workshop along with the wonderful Shola Ajayi, who is a collegue of mine from Film School. We worked with the non-profit organization THARCE-Gulu, to put together this arts empowerment workshop, and really wanted to help create some positive images of Gulu through social media and filmmaking. Our students were between the ages of 20-30 years old and were awesome.  Eliza Dushku and Rick Fox also work with THARCE-Gulu and brought us amazing laptops donated by HP. 

All in all, it was one of the best trips of my life. I can't wait to go back.

Here is one of their projects: http://vimeo.com/26091869

I am working! In February I traveled out to LA, as I was hired to direct/shoot/edit this video, along with two profiles which aren't live yet.. A bonus was to have Andrew- help out as the director of photography.  Elizabeth was an inspiring woman...and she loves shopping for a good bargain. I can relate.

I had footage air on CNN today. It was very exciting for me, and even more exciting for THARCE Gulu to get some amazing publicity, thanks to Judy's daughter Eliza. And yes, I really did take a screen grab of my name. Like I said, it was an exciting day.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/02/21/Iyw.eliza.dushku.cnn?iref=allsearch

I LOVE my job. I'm working with Swiss TV, as their US Production Coordinator for their television show "SF on Tour". It's always been my dream to work on a travel show and this hasn't disappointed. The crew is small and includes the director, on-camera host, dp, and soundman. Everyone has been so nice even when I have trouble pronouncing their German-Swiss names.  The trip takes us from Bisbee, Arizona, to the Grand Canyon, to Sedona,  to Las Vegas. It's been an amazing journey, and even better because the crew is so wonderful.

Producing an independent film on a shoe-string budget is not for the faint-hearted. After taking a few days to recover from my trip to Uganda I drove 6 hours to New Jersey to work on Matt Lawrence's feature debut, Two Pints Lighter. It's a quirky, dark comedy. Matt always makes funny, cool short films and we went to film school together and I always thought highly of him, so when he asked me to be his Assistant Director on the film I said sure. What a month it's been! When you spend one month living and working with the same people it can be taxing, but it can also be awesome.  It's been a true learning experience, and I think it'll be a great film. Here are some photos...

You may have heard about child soldiers...children who were abducted from their homes, forced into a violent life of slavery and fighting. Northern Uganda is one of the places where this happened. And this is where I spent my July. Though the war ended years ago, the aftermath can still be seen in the town of Gulu. It was here that I traveled with a group organized by Judy Dushku, who is a professor of Government at Suffolk University. She is heading up a new non-profit called "THARCE-GULU". This group went to build huts for vulnerable, war-affected people in the community. I went along to document the housebuilding, and also to bring instruments, books, dvds, laptops and cameras in order to start an arts center through THARCE. I lead a one-day 'storytelling' workshop with a group of war-affected students. One day was definitely not enough, and I think that as THARCE Gulu expands and develops, I might go back again.

It was an amazing month. Very life changing! Videos to come soon...

Sometimes things work, not by chance but by hard work and good character. Maybe luck has a little bit to do with...I consistently feel lucky to work with Nathaniel Hansen, who is one of the nicest and most competent filmmakers I know. I just finished up producing a corporate video for him! As producer, it's my job to hire the crew, and I was equally lucky to have all around quality crew. This may have hands down been one of the smoothest shoots I've ever worked on. Great team, awesome clients. It couldn't have gone much better.
http://www.nathanielhansen.com/commercial-film-production/studio-shoot

I've spent January in Utah, watching films at Sundance, and attending the Sundance Windrider Forum. Windrider is run by the amazing John & Ed Priddy Brothers, who I was lucky enough to meet in person. You will not meet nicer people and the Priddy Brothers have a long history of supporting inspiring and uplifting films. Mind the Gap is being featured on their website this month and I am really honored. Much thanks to the Priddy Brothers for their support!

I absolutely love being in Park City during Sundance. Yes, there are tons of wannabe filmmakers and posers, and I probably fall into that category, but there is an energy that is really also really inspiring. Another highlight of the trip was getting to meet Heather Rae, who is a fantastic indie film producer with a penchant for telling honest stories. She produced 'Frozen River'- which is just one of her wonderful past films, but a personal favorite of mine . I really liked her because she seems very intimidating...she's gorgeous, classy, smart, successful and yet was so down-to-earth.  It's great to have women role models. 

See MTG featured on Windrider here:
http://windriderforum.org/2010/02/03/sometimes-all-we-can-do-is-mind-the-gap/weeblylink_new_window