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Mental Health in the Film Industry: What Nobody Tells You Before Your First Big Production It was day 14 of a 16-day shoot on Closing Walls. We were running on four hours of sleep, craft services had run out of everything except black coffee and optimism, and one of my most experienced crew members — … Read more
First Assistant Director: How to Become a 1st AD (The Real Story) I’ll never forget my first day as a production assistant on “Blood Buddies.” We were three hours behind schedule. The lead actor’s wig wasn’t ready. Rain was forecast for noon, and we had two critical exterior scenes left. Everyone was losing their minds. … Read more
The Hook: My First Day as a “Director” Was a Disaster I showed up to the set of “Blood Buddies” thinking I knew everything. I’d watched every Nolan film twice, read Hitchcock interviews, and built shot lists in my head for weeks. Then my lead actor asked me a simple question: “What’s my motivation in … Read more
The Hook I was twenty-three, working a night shift at a video rental place in Vancouver, when a customer asked me to recommend “something that doesn’t play by the rules.” I handed him Pulp Fiction. He came back two days later. “That watch scene,” he said. “I had to rewind three times to figure out … Read more
The Beach Laptop Lie I’m in a Bangkok hotel room at 2 AM, uploading 47GB of footage through an ethernet cable I bought at 7-Eleven because the WiFi died. Again. My Instagram story from six hours ago? Me editing poolside with a coconut. Both things happened. But only one tells the truth. Three years ago, … Read more
Overview: TL;DR Being a PA is the best (and hardest) way to break into film. You’ll fetch coffee, wrangle extras, and learn more than film school could ever teach you. Expect 12-16 hour days, physically demanding work, and being treated as invisible—but also getting paid to watch pros work. Essential gear: comfortable shoes (seriously), a … Read more
The Garden Hose Rain Scene Disaster Picture this: me, standing in my backyard at 11 PM, aiming a garden hose at my lead actress while my neighbor peeks through the fence looking genuinely concerned for my sanity. The vision? A dramatic rain scene that would make viewers weep. The reality? My actress shivering like a … Read more
Quick note: Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you buy something through them, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I actually use. If something’s garbage, I’ll tell you—commission or not. The $3,000 Lens I Never Used Last year, I did something stupid. I … Read more
Reasons To Buy A Smartwatch For Those On The Go – A smartwatch is a computerized wristwatch with functionality that goes beyond timekeeping. While early divisions can perform basic tasks, such as calculations, translations, and game-playing, 2018s smartwatches are effectively wearable computers. Many run mobile apps, using a mobile operating modus operandi. Some smartwatches function as…
When Everything You Shoot Looks…Flat I was about halfway through editing “Going Home” when I realized the whole thing looked like a high school yearbook photo. Static. Lifeless. Every shot at eye level, medium framing, utterly predictable. The story was there. The performances were solid. But visually? It had all the excitement of watching paint … Read more