Campus MovieFest Grand Finale

This weekend was a blur.

For those who don't know, this past week I was in Hollywood, CA for the screening of my film, The Strong One. This Saturday was the screening, along with other Campus MovieFest short films.

The screening went well, and received positive response from those who saw it.

Saturday evening was the awards ceremony. Out of 5 nominees, I was thrilled to receive the award for Best Director. The experience was surreal.

Near the end of the ceremony, my film, The Strong One, was selected as Best Picture.

I am so blessed and thankful to receive this award. Being awarded this honor has made me think back to all the things that helped me get to this point: My parents reading novels to me as a kid, my friends putting up with me as I tried to direct a film at 16 years old, all the teachers that encouraged me and challenged me. The feeling of being blessed was overwhelming.

I am thankful for the opportunity to share my films with so many people - To spread stories that help us as humans better understand life and truth.

I would like to say a special thanks to Campus Movie Fest for providing the opportunity; Josh Bielick for providing the amazing visuals and music that bring the story to life; Tim Reavis for his trust and vulnerability in allowing us to use his story; my parents for their undying support, and God for the strength and ability to do this.

A rainy day in February on the set of 'The Strong One'

The playwright Christopher Fry said something which summarized my passion for story and my drive for imagination. It says:

"Imagination is the wide-open eye which leads us always to see truth more vividly."

Los Angeles and Campus Movie Fest

The past 48 hours have been a blur- but an amazing experience!

After completing a video production job in San Jose with Producer Jenn Halweil, I flew in to LA on Wednesday morning and arrived in the afternoon. Wednesday evening I met with Animator Amanda Newton (recent grad from Chapel Hill, and current intern for Marvel Animation Studios). We were joined by Filmmaker Ashley Maria (Check out some of her work at http://www.ashley-maria.com/) who is a recent grad from USC film school.

Thursday I met with my team, Josh Bielick and Tim Reavis and we joined the CMF events at 5 pm. Later, we took the LA Metro to the Hollywood Arclight Theater and watched Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (more on that later, just remind me). After the film, we joined up with the CMF networking event and networked late into the night.

We woke early this morning, ran to 'K's Doughnut Emporium' for a breakfast of champions, and made it back in time for a Q&A with Wally Pfister.

Josh Bielick, Tim Reavis, and I at Campus Movie Fest Launch party.

Stay tuned for more pictures and updates, and thanks for following!

Trip to California...

After a couple of weeks of editing on IPSEITY, yesterday I began my trip to Campus Movie Fest Grand Finale in Hollywood. Although this event does not start until Thursday the 21st, and I don't arrive in LA until the 20th, I recently was contracted for a video production job in San Jose between the 18th-20th, which worked great for my travel schedule. I am very blessed to have the opportunity to work on this job!

I flew into San Jose yesterday, and began production of several testimonial videos today with Jenn Halweil. Tomorrow we will continue production, and Wednesday I will fly to LA. Screening is on Saturday.

San Jose is beautiful- You can see part of it from my hotel window- Hotel room provided by the client!

Stay tuned with more pictures and updates to come!

Post Production begins...

Here we go! After several weeks of syncing audio and organizing the footage, we have finally begun the editing on IPSEITY!

Katherine Drew and Charlie Allen in the intense opening scene.

I'm very excited about the footage and cannot wait to begin to show pieces of it as we edit more and more. I also plan to screen one scene from the rough edit at Campus MovieFest Grand Finale, so if you are going to be there, make sure to ask me about it! Stay tuned for some news about a theatrical trailer, and more updates about the editing as we go as well.


Also, stay tuned for updates on my trip to LA for the Campus Movie Fest Grand Finale! I will be in LA starting Wednesday, June 20th, and will try to update my blog daily until we leave LA on June 25th.

Principal Photography is DONE! and other news...

As most of you may have heard, Principal Photography on IPSEITY has wrapped! For those who don't know, this means that all of the scenes have been completed, and we are now on to post-production.

Post-production begins with organizing all of the takes, synching sound, and then beginning to edit, scene by scene.

Thank you to everyone who has put so much time, effort and hard work into this production. Stay tuned for updates to see the fruit of all the labor we have put into this project!

In other news, my film The Strong One was screened at Cannes Film Festival this past month, and will be screened in LA on June 23rd. I will be flying out for the screening with Cinematographer Josh Bielick and Poet Tim Reavis for the CMF Grand Finale. I was also one of five directors to be nominated for the Golden Tripod Award for Best Director, so make sure to stay tuned for some updates on our trip!

To follow more of my updates, you can follow me on Twitter!