But, sadly, growing up in Hampton Roads, Filmmaking didn't always seem to be an accessable thing. At one point in my youth I wanted to make a stop motion Transformers movie. And then came the sixth grade, wherein we had this project where we had to make commercials. My group (a commercial for Fila sneakers) suggested that I direct. So I borrowed my grandmothers camcorder and did just that.
That's where the bug started to get me. In the time I had the camera after completion of the commercial, I made a sequel to Terminator 2 in which another Terminator (played by me) was sent back to kill John Connor. It was three minutes and VERY bad.
I didn't do a damn thing to further my dream of filmmaking for almost a full seven years after that. Then came Senior year of High School. Scream had come out and become the most popular movie amongst my peers. And rightly so I might add, the dialogue (at least in the first one) was spot on and clever as all hell. And I thought "If this guy can be making movies, why can't I?" Knowing deep in my heart that his writing wasn't all that hard: a few snappy pop culture references into an old formula and voila: INSTANT HIT. Scream got me thinking about movies a lot more seriously. But it was something else that would once and for all convince me I had to do it.
I saw Chasing Amy in December 97 at the behest of my brother and immediately fell in love with the world of low budget filmmaking. Particularly the likes of Kevin Smith, Sam Raimi, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven. I'd always been a horror fan, but Kevin Smiths rather simple and heartbreaking love story got my sites out of the cineplex and into the arthouse.
This is when I began writing Red Right Hand, a cheesy and overly referential horror short. A BAD one I might. We were going to produce it during Senior Year, but several casting issues quickly convinced us (Being myself and Co-Producer Roy J. Ayres IV) to scale back and forget RRH.
I then moved on to SAMHAIN: THE CURSE OF HALLOWEEN, a more serious piece of Horror fare that at the time would have been far too costly for a company (then called HADDONFIELD PRODUCTIONS) that had literally NO money.
Over the summer after graduation HADDONFIELD did in fact complete its first film, a schlock-fest written and directed by the aforementioned ROY AYRES. After that it was back to another pass at SAMHAIN before changing the name of HADDONFIELD PRODUCTIONS to DIRTY POOL PRODUCTIONS.
After that came FADE ON SILENCE, my first full length screenplay and first Romantic Comedy. This like every project thus far has not reached fruition. But I'm currently working up the balls to complete a short Romantic Comedy entitled: KINDER WORDS.
Wish me luck.
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