A Fist Full of Film

This is the Rebellion against overproduced images often in the digital world. These are images made from my film cameras. Each image I shot myself. The subjects are often friends, and acquaintances in their world.

Choose to Chance the Rapids, Dare to Dance the Tides Acts 27 has a story of Paul the Apostle crashing his ship on the beach of Malta it what is today known as “St. Paul’s Bay.” The crash site is supposedly south and west of the Salmonetta barrier island on the leeward side of Malta. It is here in the 1st Century, that Paul gets bit by a viper and survives. This happens during his 3rd Missionary Journey. The reason this story is pertinent is that the Christian viewpoint has used this as an illustration of the fervor it takes to pursue the faith. It is an illustration that is used often in songs by country singers, Neo and Trinity when they go to the Source, in “Serenity” when Mal and the crew crash at Mr. Universes’, and Ripley grinding metal on metal in the transport in “Aliens.” The illustration and the symbolism is that against all odds, against all instincts of survival, you pursue the dream, the passion, the purpose till your body(ship) is broken and you have no life left.   Many times Craig(Pictured Here) and I speak on what our traits are, and we believe that we cannot do anything else. And to give in to those things, the trappings of a life less lived, one of safety, one of comfort and predictability, bothers our soul. Not that we have arrogance, or selfish pride in our job title, O the contrary, we have demeaned, and bond-servanted ourselves to a world that is cruel, all for the sake of buying precious time for a chance at something resembling our dream. It is sad because an exit strategy from this, a departure from the goal set in our hearts by our guts, is an essential death warrant to the thing we have held on to for so long. I wish I didn’t have this drive in me to be passionate about what it is I do, because sometimes I think it will kill me. I wish I was good with working at a regular job somewhere punching a clock about 10 miles from where I grew up. Things would be much simpler then. I would have concerned myself with the everyday, lamenting over resolutions of tv screens, the quatity of hotdogs vs. freeloaders, the color of the microwave, the two-tone Pier 1 paint job of the living room, and the coaching decisions of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But that isn’t in me. It would be dishonest to enter into that world without regretting what I leave behind. It takes courage to dream. And even more to follow through. And even more than that to follow through, fail, and pick yourself up again with the help of friends. This is a crazy town, this city of Angels, 14 million people, and overnight anything can happen, one coffee meeting, one conversation changes everything. Only the ones that live here know and understand, and each time you pay the rent, that’s 30 more days of being in a position to have that conversation. I am following this dream as best as I can, for I can’t do anything else. Otherwise, I’ll be the guy working at Bed, Bath, and Beyond who has stories of working on the set of Super 8, Indiana Jones, and Inception, that nobody will ever believe. And the body of my work and art will be like a beached hull of this ship. The sun will bake at its withered teak deck, the salt will erode the gunwhales, and the hull will decay with each crashing wave. You might as well have a Masamune samurai sword used to slice and spread butter. I’m blessed to have people here in LA who push me, who team up with me to pursue this, who are storyboard artists, actors, directors, writers, models, art directors, photographers, and most of all friends.  And our only mission is to help each other out to get to that spot.  Al Pacino said it like this. Paradise Cove, CA Rolleiflex 2.8E Schneider-Krueznach 80mm Agfa Retro 80

Choose to Chance the Rapids, Dare to Dance the Tides

Acts 27 has a story of Paul the Apostle crashing his ship on the beach of Malta it what is today known as “St. Paul’s Bay.” The crash site is supposedly south and west of the Salmonetta barrier island on the leeward side of Malta. It is here in the 1st Century, that Paul gets bit by a viper and survives. This happens during his 3rd Missionary Journey.

The reason this story is pertinent is that the Christian viewpoint has used this as an illustration of the fervor it takes to pursue the faith. It is an illustration that is used often in songs by country singers, Neo and Trinity when they go to the Source, in “Serenity” when Mal and the crew crash at Mr. Universes’, and Ripley grinding metal on metal in the transport in “Aliens.” The illustration and the symbolism is that against all odds, against all instincts of survival, you pursue the dream, the passion, the purpose till your body(ship) is broken and you have no life left.  

Many times Craig(Pictured Here) and I speak on what our traits are, and we believe that we cannot do anything else. And to give in to those things, the trappings of a life less lived, one of safety, one of comfort and predictability, bothers our soul. Not that we have arrogance, or selfish pride in our job title, O the contrary, we have demeaned, and bond-servanted ourselves to a world that is cruel, all for the sake of buying precious time for a chance at something resembling our dream.

It is sad because an exit strategy from this, a departure from the goal set in our hearts by our guts, is an essential death warrant to the thing we have held on to for so long. I wish I didn’t have this drive in me to be passionate about what it is I do, because sometimes I think it will kill me. I wish I was good with working at a regular job somewhere punching a clock about 10 miles from where I grew up. Things would be much simpler then. I would have concerned myself with the everyday, lamenting over resolutions of tv screens, the quatity of hotdogs vs. freeloaders, the color of the microwave, the two-tone Pier 1 paint job of the living room, and the coaching decisions of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But that isn’t in me. It would be dishonest to enter into that world without regretting what I leave behind. It takes courage to dream. And even more to follow through. And even more than that to follow through, fail, and pick yourself up again with the help of friends.

This is a crazy town, this city of Angels, 14 million people, and overnight anything can happen, one coffee meeting, one conversation changes everything. Only the ones that live here know and understand, and each time you pay the rent, that’s 30 more days of being in a position to have that conversation.

I am following this dream as best as I can, for I can’t do anything else. Otherwise, I’ll be the guy working at Bed, Bath, and Beyond who has stories of working on the set of Super 8, Indiana Jones, and Inception, that nobody will ever believe. And the body of my work and art will be like a beached hull of this ship. The sun will bake at its withered teak deck, the salt will erode the gunwhales, and the hull will decay with each crashing wave. You might as well have a Masamune samurai sword used to slice and spread butter.

I’m blessed to have people here in LA who push me, who team up with me to pursue this, who are storyboard artists, actors, directors, writers, models, art directors, photographers, and most of all friends.  And our only mission is to help each other out to get to that spot.  Al Pacino said it like this.

Paradise Cove, CA

Rolleiflex 2.8E Schneider-Krueznach 80mm Agfa Retro 80

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