I’ve been traveling the world for many years now and I’ve picked up loads of tips that can make your trip easier, cheaper, more fun and often safer.
The Hook 3:47 AM call time. Victoria, BC. February. The set for Maid smelled like sawdust and stale coffee, and the BC dampness had already soaked through my rain shell—the cheap one I bought thinking “it’s just drizzle.” By hour six, I had a headache sharp enough to ruin my focus, and by hour nine, … Read more
The 2 AM Reality Check LAX Terminal 1, 2 AM. My flight from Sundance just landed three hours late. I’ve got two Pelican cases stuffed with camera gear from Going Home post, a backpack overflowing with festival swag, and exactly zero energy left to deal with LA traffic. The Uber line snakes around the terminal. … Read more
How I Got Scammed at the Colosseum (And How You Won’t) Twenty years behind a camera taught me to spot fake lighting, fake setups, fake performances. But somehow, I missed the fake ticket vendor outside Rome’s Colosseum. The guy had a booth. Professional-looking laminated badges. Even a printed rate card. The sun was brutal, the … Read more
The Moment I Wanted to Quit (And Kept Filming Anyway) I was standing in the middle of a crowded market in Lisbon, camera in hand, and completely paralyzed. Not because anything was wrong. Because everything was right — color, chaos, light — and I had no idea how to film it without looking like a … Read more
That Bangkok Coffee Shop Moment I’m sitting in a Bangkok café at 2 AM, frantically uploading 47GB of footage from a day of shooting street markets. My flight leaves in six hours. The Wi-Fi keeps dropping. My laptop’s at 23% battery, and the only outlet is behind a guy who’s been asleep at his table … Read more
The Footage I Lost in Victoria (And What It Taught Me About Travel) Three years back, I’m standing in Victoria, BC with my Sony and a dead backup drive. The entire first week of footage—gone. Not corrupted. Just… gone. I’d been so focused on getting the perfect shots of the Inner Harbour at golden hour … Read more
The iPhone Shot That Made the Final Cut We were three hours into shooting “Married & Isolated” when my DP’s DSLR overheated. We needed one more shot—a tight macro of wedding rings on a table. Simple shot. Critical for the edit. No camera. I pulled out my iPhone, clipped on a $25 macro lens attachment, … Read more
The Ultimate Business Shoes Guide For Traveling – Why is it so hard to find dress shoes well-suited for the professional polish and rigors of a company trip, yet versatile enough to be dressed down after a hard day’s work at the hotel bar? And why are so numerous of the options so very cringeworthy, awfully for women? Great…
The $847 Castle That Changed Everything I paid $847 for three days in a 400-year-old castle outside Prague. Not to stay in it. To completely take it over with lights, fog machines, fake blood, and a crew of six. The owner made us coffee and asked if we needed the dungeon unlocked. Two years earlier, … Read more
The Frankfurt Problem I’ve been stopped at Frankfurt customs twice with film gear. The first time, I thought documentation meant having serial numbers written down. Three Pelican cases, one Blackmagic camera, and zero idea what an ATA Carnet was. The customs officer asked for one. I didn’t have it. Two hours later, after proving I … Read more