Video
In case you missed it, my demo reel is on the home page. The videos below are presented in their entirety. With the exception of Clip This!, I am pretty much in every frame of every video. Enjoy.
Christmas Eve
Christmas “Eve” from Gateway Church on Vimeo.
So Christmas Eve finally got posted on Vimeo. It’s the longest film I’ve done, and by far the most work. For this 16-minute film, I was on set for 30 hours. So much fun. Plus, I was able to bring Ray Rosales and Kristi Fleming into the project. I had worked with them before in an acting class, and they both did a great job. Laurie Coker, who plays Eve, was an absolute delight to work with, and pitch-perfect for the part. I don’t know any other actor who could have done quite that well.
The thing that strikes me about this film is how beautiful it is. All the outdoor stuff was shot on South Congress in Austin. There are a couple of shots of me with the capitol building and the skyline in the background that I’d like to have printed and framed. The crew did a phenomenal job with the lighting and sound (this was my first experience with ADR work), especially given that we only had a week to film, and that week was probably the windiest of 2008.
Matt Patterson wrote the screenplay for Christmas Eve, and it was originally going to be 30 minutes long. Due to a variety of factors, it had to be cut down to 16 minutes, and the story suffered a little. Matt also directed the film, and he graciously allowed me to write my dialog with Eve as she’s showing me to the “special” store. I think it turned out well.
The soundtrack was performed with a live band when the film screened during Christmas. That was an amazing experience. The recorded soundtrack that goes along with the Vimeo posting has a few glitches, but all-in-all, the whole film is very well done.
Clip This!
This is a film I did with Gateway, our entry to the Austin 48-Hour Film Project 2008. This was our third year to enter. I didn’t act as much in this one as I did the previous two, but in a way it has more of me in it because I wrote it. We drew the Fantasy genre, so I crafted (hopefully) a delicious blend of The Twilight Zone and reality TV that shows how the former is actually more true-to-life than the latter. Clip This! made it to the Top 10 and won awards for Best Director (Justin Girdler) and Best Music (Ramy Antoun).
Long Night Coming
Here is Gateway’s entry for the 48HFP 2007. We drew drama, which isn’t much fun, and shot mostly at night, which actually was kind of fun. It was a family affair for me as well because four of the seven actors who appear are family members. My wife Elizabeth acted in the role of my character’s wife and bedmate, and two of the bar patrons are my brother-in-law Ethan and his wife Julie. This was a Top 10 film, and my co-star J.D. Carrera won the award for Best Actor. I like to think he couldn’t have done it without me.
Arrivals
Arrivals was my first experience with actual film. It was 2006, I had just met director Matt Patterson, and he had no idea that I had never taken an acting class in my life. I’m glad, because he asked me to join the Gateway team for the 48HFP. This sci-fi short is the result. It was tons of fun, and the experience made me want to pursue acting for real. I don’t think I was horrible in it, but I certainly hope I’ve improved since then.
Live People
This is a short I wrote about a guy who has just a little bit of a sixth sense. We submitted it to both Sundance and SXSW. It was rejected by both festivals. I struggled for a while to figure out why, then I realized it just wasn’t all that good. It was the first thing I ever wrote that ended up being produced, and it shows. Instead of being a story, it’s a guy telling a story. Still, it’s certainly watchable, and it enabled me to team up with Matt Patterson and J.D. Carrera, which is always good.
Formula You!
A silly little infomercial type of video poking fun at the part of our human nature that wants to improve but doesn’t want to try very hard.
Tagger Body Spray
That’s me in the background as Dr. Lanos the stoic scientist. Sadly, the only person I’ve ever actually punched in the nose was a 16-year-old kid, and it happened while we were shooting this. It only happened once. I swear it was an accident.