Manifesto

Loves

-Interesting, arresting, and unconventional camera angles
-Cityscapes
-Wet pavement during night sequences
-On-location shooting
-The work of Stanley Kubrick; following shots, across the room sideways
camera trucking, long distances between camera and subject(s), sterile
environments.
-Chase scenes
-Loose ends
-Characters who have the same names of the actor portraying them.
-Horror movies, westerns, mob movies, spy/James Bond movies, movies based
on historical events and novels.

Hates

-Love stories
-Lame soundtracks (strings and overly sweet scores)
-Boring, overly complex, go-nowhere plots
-Ridiculous, and complete lack for realism.
-A heightened, and saccharine sense of romance and love – see also 'love
stories'.
sound stage shooting (unless its absolutely necessary, or completely
practical.)
-sentimental chick flicks (not too sound like a complete male pig, but you
know what I'm talking about)
-An unattainably perfect and flawless character (especially as a
protagonist); humanity is important, and all characters must remain
human–thus imperfect and flawed, capable of being deceived, happy, sad,
sick, etc.

Style and Techniques in the past

-camera-following shots of main character
-sped up/time lapse footage in order to illustrate the passage of time
-shooting in a car from the windshield perspective
-hanheld shooting
-tripod shooting
-trucking on a wheeled device

Content of my past work

-single-person narrative
-documentation of the passage of time from the side of a highway, and from
a car on the actual highway itself
-how-to video
-montage of buildings, structures, attractions in Memphis
-forced human interaction

How I want my work to grow, change, transform

-I want to use more people, more often, yet I'm still drawn to the idea of
single person storytelling, but perhaps featuring others interacting with
that main character.
-in continuing with the statement above, i want more human interaction.
-i want my movies to be more and more about real life, and all the
bullshit that comes with that. (money, bills, work, school, bosses,
girlfriends, friends, family, etc.) In other words, things that we all
have to deal with.
-I want to shoot more angles, every time.
-I want my movies to be able to reach eveyone, no matter where you come
from, i want you to 'get it'.
-I want to use people in my movies that i think are not only "good for the
part" but people i like to work with and who are passionate about the
work, like i am, and who are willing to help in anyway they can.

How I want my Work to function

-I want my work to be a vehicle through which i explore and examine
various circumstances and situations most of us find ourselves in and
around throughout our lives. The familiarity of real-life events, only
with small exaggerations from time to time.
-I want people to feel like they know my characters, or could know my
characters–love them, hate them, it doesn't matter to me, as long as you
feel something while watching them.
-My work should function as a narrative, as a story, and although i wish
the work to be about real subject matter, or the events of real-life, my
movies should be an escape, a detour from harsh reality; not always taking
itself so seriously.
-With that said, humor should be a subtle device, used sparingly, and with
finesse.
-When watching my movies, i don't want people to focus on aesthetic
choices so much, as i want them to focus on the mood of the story, and the
way the characters carry that mood throughout the course of the film. Is
there feeling in the characters' eyes? What is that feeling? How does the
movie in general make you feel?

My role as a filmmaker

-To tell a story (no matter how small, out of order, complex, simple,
stupid, clever, it may be.)
-To organize real life into smaller, clean-cut pieces so that this story
can be told with relative ease.
-To communicate my feelings, thoughts, and ideas about a certain subject,
character or event; and subsequently present that to a larger audience
than myself.
-To interest, please, captivate, baffle, anger, or arrest my audience with
the things i put on screen.