ABOUT ME

Reading List

-Hitchcock/Truffaut (François Truffaut, 1966)

-Adventures in the Screen Trade (William Goldman, 1983)

-Making Movies (Sidney Lumet, 1995)

-The French New Wave (Ed. Peter Graham, 2009 edition)

-Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective (Richard Schickel, 2012)

This is true of people and it is true of movies. As a Director, I believe in the role’s purpose as a Quarterback, relying on their teammates, coaches, staff etc. The comparison lacks slightly in that a Quarterback is often viewed as the most important person on a team. With film or television this is not true, everyone from the lowliest PA to the top producer is a key contributor in making a successful film. I internalize this in my production assistant work, where I work as hard as I can to be a support for anyone who needs it—because that’s the role and it is vital that it is done efficiently and earnestly. However, a director is a leader and needs to be capable of calling the plays when everything goes to hell (because in the little that I’ve learned already, it will). In other words, they need to be driven, be confident in their vision, and find purpose in all of their decisions to still get the highest quality out of every shot and line. Just because Option A won’t work doesn’t mean that there aren’t a multitude of other solutions that just need to be discovered.

When I direct, I find conviction for every decision. Camera placement, angle, lighting, the work done with actors—all of it must be thought out in detail so that the audience will interpret the scene as intended. I love watching movies with friends who are not filmmakers and asking them how they felt about a given scene. I will then go back and look at how it was shot and draw what the director did that elicited those emotions—and if I believe the audience failed to understand the point why was that? Maybe a dutch tilt could have been used, maybe there were too many cuts creating a panicked feel. I love that every element of a shot contributes to the way we perceive it, the way that a single story could be wildly different all because of lighting or score. I listen to the ideas shared by my DP, my AD, or my Producer, and I’ll often find their advice insightful, but at the end of the day I need to believe in the purpose of every shot before I can follow through with it. I know I’m still learning, and it’s more often than not that I will look back at something I’ve made and think of two new ways I could have shot the moment and want to turn back time, but I am always assured that I, along with my cast and crew, knew exactly why we were following through in the way that we did.

For example: The very first shot of my student short Double Shot. The film opens with a tracking shot of black boots walking down a street while the audio indicates that they belong to a girl on a phone call. The shot lasts only a few seconds before we cut to a medium where the audience first sees Grace’s face, and stays with her from there. So why start the film that way? Well the answer is more than just, “because I asked myself what would Tarantino do?” I did it this way for two reasons which I believe are emblematic of how a director needs to think—for emphasis of character (or story), and for practical efficiency. In opening this way, the audience does not know who the protagonist is, but they already know what she’s like, she’s kinetic. She is on the move and has places to be. The audience is thus prompted to ask, where is she going? By starting with simply her feet walking, we can create intrigue into who she is and what she is headed towards, while also learning that this is a character who charges towards situations. The practical reason for the shot regarded the plot. Without writing a full synopsis, nor giving anything away, think of the story as influenced by Palm Springs or Groundhog Day. There needs to be a start point, a moment which the audience can recognize that time has looped over. The shot of just the shoes walking is uniquely separated from the rest in the film such that it is an easy marking point for a “beginning” of each new cycle. Further, it is an easy shot to do that won’t lead to inconsistencies since the start point has to be exactly the same each time to indicate the “do-over” to the audience. Of course I look back and have new thoughts, she could have been faster for instance, but I still believe in the shot, and use the further evaluation as learned experience for the next time I want to create a such a feeling.

I am in the process of writing a feature-length coming of age comedy about students participating in the National Model UN competition.

I am also adapting a short story I wrote for my honors thesis about a lawyer’s panicked drive down Manhattan to make it to family court on time, as well as another about a Jewish editor for a student university newspaper who has a crisis of self, and faith, when an anti-semitic incident occurs on campus.

I am working on two documentaries in collaboration with Jasper Soloff.

Finally, I am developing a short film about a post-grad’s fight against depression and suicide as they face a world they no longer feel they fit into. I am hoping to begin principal photography in December.

I am also always looking for freelance PA work since I find no better education than being on set and learning about production through doing.