I Have Fear
15 minutes / 2017 (Premiere screening March 3, 2017, Tower Theater)

I Have Fear is a short anthology. Three stories, nested within the other, all dwelling on the idea of fear.

I planned on it being a quickie, with the goal of making the whole thing start-to-finish in one month. I ended up going way past that deadline in post-production, but it still went easier than Black Weeds.

The first two stories came from ideas that I'd been thinking about for a few years. The third story came about as a result of the cast and location that I wanted to work with, and to tie it all together.

Black Weeds
20 minutes / 2013 (Premiered September 28, 2013 @ Salt Lake Film Festival, Tower Theater)

Black Weeds is the story of a depressed guy who is house-sitting. After an encounter with a door-to-door salesman, things get increasingly upsetting and strange.

This was my attempt to culminate everything that I had learned about filmmaking up to that point. I came up with a script that I thought was ambitious enough to be difficult, but still doable. It turned out to be a very difficult production, and took me well over a year to complete.

Although there are things about it that I'm not happy with, I learned a ton, and am proud that I completed it.

Dream
3 minutes / 2009 (first public screening May 19, 2010, Tower Theater)

Dream is a short meditation about the recollection of a dream.

This was my final University project, a 16mm film edited on a traditional flatbed. I decided not to worry about making something entertaining or academically impressive. Instead I focused on an idea that was maybe only interesting to me. I was also inspired by the short story "Birthday Girl" by Haruki Murakami.

The experience of flatbed editing was incredibly valuable to me. It changed my approach in a lot of ways. It's old-fashioned and impractical - but physical. It's hard to explain, but it left a lasting impression. I think the University stopped teaching it a year or two after I left. I'm very lucky that I was able to have that opportunity.

Rear Foggers
5 minutes / 2014 (Premiere screening September 17, 2014, Tower Theater)

Rear Foggers is about a guy who is losing his mind while his girlfriend is out of town.

This was a collaboration with my buddy Geoffrey Leonard (of the band Muzzle Tung). It started off as a joke, then became almost a dare, then we went ahead and made it.

Untitled #1
3 minutes / 2008 (fall)

This came about in a University class (the same class in which I made Dream). The assignment was to shoot a 100 foot roll of 16mm film on a wind-up Bolex. Basically the idea was to prove that we knew how to operate the camera, get a correct exposure, etc.

I didn't want to waste the opportunity, so I came up with this simple story. Everything is in-camera - no editing, no second takes, and I had to do my best to time everything out. It was a little nerve-racking.

Toward the end, you can see the camera move on the final static shot. That was from me winding the camera back up, and forgetting that I had the motor locked on... So as soon as I let go, it started winding again - shaking the camera and cutting my hand.

Untitled #2
2 minutes / 2008 (spring)

This is another school project. Everyone in the class was very confused by it.

At one point, I wrote and drew storyboards for a third part to the 'untitled series', but did not end up making it.