MY STORY SO FAR
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| So… I go to NYU where I make two films and get to be Ron Howard's intern on a newspaper movie. This leads to a lowly job at a lowly NY edit house where I begin the slow process of paying back my student loans. Work on crap toy commercials for two years and then get a fancier job assisting a fancier editor while still waiting for Ron Howard to call and transform me into an important film director. Start to cut Calvin Klein industrials and learn where Kate Moss hides her little heart tattoo. I meet a nice Irish girl from Philly and follow the fancy editor to his own place, become an editor myself and edit some cooler Calvin stuff, plus a no budget feature, plus sizzle reels for a good friend starting out at Nickelodeon. Meanwhile an SFX-director buddy of mine asks me to write stuff for a celebrity-as-puppets show idea he has and his agent puts us in front of the president of Fox and a two million dollar pilot gets green-lit. A few months later I'm not the writer anymore, one of the guys who created Larry Sanders is and I do my best to convince him that I really am a writer and not just an editor who knows where Kate Moss hides her little heart tattoo. Pilot gets made, script is great, puppets are so-so and a new president comes to Fox and throws the whole thing in the garbage. Still, I get a paycheck big enough to pay off my student loans so instead I buy my nice Irish girl a ring and ask her to marry me. She says yes. Keep editing and by fluke my guy at Calvin Klein gets me a gig directing a short film for a haunted house that camps out in the basement of Madison Square Garden around Halloween. Spooky little film turns out well, hits festivals, gets on TV and is bought by a new internet venture created by Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg that will feature content they think is really cool. Soon this amazing venture bursts with the rest of the internet bubble and never happens. But my good friend at Nickelodeon shows my spooky little film to her new boss at a digital channel called GAS (Games and Sports). Her new boss becomes my new boss and he lets me write, direct and edit stuff he needs to put on GAS. This gets me on the field for every game of the Subway Series, inside the locker room at the NHL All-Star Game, on the sidelines of an NFL preseason game and adjacent to a putting green occupied by Tiger Woods. My work wins some awards and I write and produce seven episodes of a video game-themed variety show. When I’m not working I travel the world with my Irish girl. We hit 18 countries before the tank at GAS hits empty and goes off the air. Then me and my Irish girl move to LA. I direct an episode of a Nickelodeon show, get in the DGA, get an agent and get signed to the roster of a small commercial production company. Me and my Irish girl get pregnant. Then the WGA strike happens, the SAG strike happens, second term of George W. Bush happens and then not nearly as much work as I had hoped for happens. Except for my old boss at GAS. Luckily he gets a new job and decides to hire me to direct and produce stuff he now needs to put on Nickelodeon. This gets me working with movie stars, music icons and some of the greatest teenage acting talent on the planet. Not to mention Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob. At the same time my beautiful Irish girl delivers a beautiful Irish baby boy followed 22 months later by another beautiful Irish baby boy. Currently I feel very lucky and love our life on the Westside where I remain very open to but are no longer waiting for Ron Howard’s call. |