Fire-Wired Blog

Making "Elf Off the Shelf," photo by Erin Hogan. I love the experience of watching something great. It could be film, TV, a stage play, live music, and many other arts, that feeling of you and a piece of art meeting for the first time is exquisite. There's only a couple things that top it, one is actually creating that art. When I discovered the real power of movies around 13 or 14, I think I watched my favorites on a loop. I would toss in new discoveries here and there, and it quickly grew into an obsession. But then a funny thing happened, I borrowed a camera from my media production classes in high school and one Sunday afternoon my friends and I made a mockumentary mixing skate culture and free-style walking called " Midwest Money Money. " This rush was similar to watching movies but the intensity was jacked to the nines and I carried that feeling for weeks. I showed our film to everyone and anyone who would sit in front of a screen with me. The filmmaking &

No, that title is not a typo, Tiny Explosions transformed into Tiny Possessions this month to participate in the 48 Hour Film Project Des Moines Horror and things did not go as planned. Sam Pace-Tuomi hosting Screening Group A. Our filmmaking weekend started pretty normally. Friday night kickoff, brainstorm, and writing session. Around 10:30 we broke all set to make a film called "Death Wizard," then Saturday morning about 2am I woke up to a screaming child who didn't want to tell us why she was up but didn't want to go to sleep, so we watched cartoons for 10 minutes and she ran off and started to cry. Meanwhile, I was just feeling dizzy, lethargic, and had a sore throat. Next thing I know I'm running to the only 24 hour Walgreens left in Des Moines to get kids ibuprofen and I get back to sleep around 5am. Kiddo number two wakes me up at 7am and I am a big ball of yuck. I told the squad I was out, Tiny Possessions crumpled like a wet shirt, and Death Wizard vanis

After participating in the Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project for 11 years, Tiny Explosions has won the big prize; Best of Des Moines . This was an absolute shock, for everyone on the team.  I think we all have gotten used to attending Best of City just to see our film on the big screen one more time. To see our film called as the big winner knocked us all out. There were legit WTFs flying and tears falling. Our 2022 submission "The Run" is in no way a traditional award winner of any sort. It is a broad comedy that relies on body humor that frequently gets associated with middle schoolers, with some moments that will seriously make your brow furrow, turn your head, and ask the open air "What the hell did I just watch?" And I love it. See what I mean? I am pretty proud of the edit, the look, the performances, but for this story to take home any prizes is surprising. The top prize? Just typing that makes me shake my head and wonder if there was a ballot counting error

 A year and a half ago I had an idea for a short film. Between that moment and roughly a year later I turned that idea into an actual thing, No Shortcuts . That is probably the best thing in filmmaking; a match is sparked and if you've got the supplies you can get a pretty righteous fire roaring. Well my small fire came together this past March and TONIGHT in Burlington, Iowa at the Snake Alley Festival of Film , audiences will get the chance to warm their hearts and minds with it. Did that metaphor work? I'm not sure. Idea, production, creation equals match, spark, fire. Right? Oh well. I've been watching a lot of Justin Hawkins Rides Again lately so I'm prone to metaphorical and performative fun at the moment.  If you haven't been playing along, No Shortcuts is a one-man-band film I produced over the course of 2021 and early 2022. It's a mix of my 8 year-old self wishing he had the strength of The Ultimate Warrior so he could run a mile in 5 minutes and my 38

Rarely do I frame myself this way, but I am a "creator." I make content. Professionally my creations mostly are for the traditional medium of television, but I also make a LOT of content that goes directly to the internet. If you see a TV camera man around town with a heavy camera on their shoulder, following a reporter and a subject you immediately recognize that the hard work that person is enduring. Shoulder mounted cameras look impressive and heavy. If you turn and look at the reporter that's where opinions vary. Are they actually "working?" Prepare yourselves for a long one. Of course they are, but over time I've learned if people don't understand a role or a job they get frustrated, possibly angry, and denigrate a person they think has it easy. The above video was produced by Tom Buck , probably one of my personal top three favorite YouTubers. Every week Tom releases a video about audio and video production equipment, how they work, and how they c

Well it took 10 months but FINALLY..."No Shortcuts" is in the can. A one-man band short film I undertook in Winter 2021 to give myself a creative project when I had practically no free time is shot, cut, colored, scored, and ready to be submitted to a few festivals. Now looking back, I gotta say it was much more work than I was ready for. No Shortcuts has practical effects, computer generated effects, sound effects, compositing work and color touches that all together make it happen. Most films require a lot of post work, but science fiction requires an additional layer of care to make them work and not turn an audience off. Much of my efforts worked well, some will be nitpicked. But that's okay, I wasn't going for perfection. I was simply going. I will say I learned a lot about my tolerance for imperfection when tired and/or cold. I also cemented my belief filmmaking is meant to be a collaborative endeavor. Not only to produce a better end product, but get a grea

The Film Lounge returns with a new season of powerful and exciting locally produced films. Join us on air and online Jan 31 and Feb 7 for Season 6 as we celebrate Iowa filmmakers with @ProduceIowa and the @IowaArtsCouncil ! #TheFilmLounge #IowaFilm pic.twitter.com/VAA30XfQDA — Iowa PBS (@IowaPBS) January 10, 2022   For six years one of my ongoing projects at Iowa PBS has been The Film Lounge . When the show launched way back in 2016, the show was brain child of Chuck Czech, former local programming manager at Iowa PBS. Chuck and I both started at Iowa PBS in 2014 and in the years leading up to the creation of The Film Lounge we spent a fair amount of time talking movies and filmmaking. In particular there was one night in 2015 after the crew wrapped a day-long broadcast of high school volleyball championships and everyone stayed up far too late sharing a few beverages in the lobby of our hotel. That evening Chuck and I talked our career paths and our love for film for probably th