Fire-Wired Blog

20 years ago I used blog a lot , at least for me. Blogging was a way to keep a written record of my thoughts and experiences. It wasn’t anything ambitious, just trying something to communicate. After a couple years I realized it was a fun repository of my life to look back on and have a few laughs at what I felt was important at that point in my life.  Today, I don’t really have as much time to blog and I don’t feel the need to fill the internet with my written silliness. I do not feel that way about video’d silliness. In fact, I am as in love with creating videos now as I was in 1999 when I first learned how to edit in Media 100 & Final Cut. The only difference between now and then is I’ve produced hundreds of hours of video content at this point and the projects are starting to whiz by. So instead of just letting them fall into the void, for the last few years I’ve been toying with the idea of producing commentary companion videos . This week, I did just that for ...

, Recently I've fallen down a rabbit hole of modern independent film. Indulging heavily in the works of Jeff Nichols, Lynne Shelton, Mark and Jay Duplass, David Gordon Green, Joe Swanberg and many others. Normally this wouldn't be something worth posting about, but somewhere along that path I came across a smattering of interviews with Joe Swanberg talking about his film Drinking Buddies . Joe is quite prolific and he ascribes much of his work to the community he travels in of filmmakers, writers, and actors. I love the idea of a "community," people who live and breathe filmmaking and creating. Time and again I've espoused my love for the traveling film competition, the 48 Hour Film Project. Filmmakers and fanatics banding together for a whirlwind weekend creating a short. As great as it is, the Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project is two days, two out 365. For many that's plenty, but for the rest of us it's not nearly enough. Considering Joe Swanberg ...

I am a man who takes pride in his efficiency. In August when I edited my Farm Crawl video together, it took me about 7 hours. I sat down at 9 am and started picking out my soundbites, put it all together, wrote a couple songs for score music, and by the time I finalized it the clock said 4pm. This month the same thing deal happened when I put together my BfBl Harvest Party video , only it took me 5 hours. When I have a vision, and know my footage, I crush my projects.Yesterday I set my sights on a much loftier goal. Every morning when I'm eating breakfast and getting ready to start my day I think through what projects I'm working on. This week I've got two big projects to produce and a tight window to get them done. The travel show I co-produce, One Day Getaway , has an episode due on Nov 8, and the community interest show I occasionally produce, Oskaloosa Today , has an episode due on Nov 9. Well both projects have been shot and digitized, and all that remains is putt...