Pluimr Tumblr - 2011 - Pretty good.

31st December 2011

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2011 - Pretty good.

A new year is usually a pretty stressful time for me. Right after cozying up to the comfort of the holidays and looking back on a successful year, I turn around to look at 12 months of question marks and uncertainty. Even though the dividing line between the two is arbitrary, and even though I’ve been doing this freelance directing/DPing thing for five years, it’s a little nerve-wracking. So it’s a good time to look back on 2011, what I would consider a successful year, and try to maintain some momentum going into 2012.

Black and Decker Spot - I directed a short spot for Black and Decker’s website. It was a simple video, with an interactive element that lived on the front page of the site for several months. Directing a successful spot for a big company was a nice way to start out the year.
DPed lots of stuff - Even though I’ve been moving away from DPing during the last year or so, I still love it. This year I shot a wide range of great projects: Pretty Little Liars, a few spots for Break (one of them a web spot that turned into a national commercial), Web Soup, The Soup, Funny or Die, and two 360 videos for huge brands (Cracker Barrel & Meijer).
Directed lots of stuff - I got to direct a bunch of fun projects in 2011. In May I directed 10 short videos for G4’s Road to E3. Had a great crew and we shot and edited all of these in 10 days. It was a quick turn-around but in the end I turned in 10 solid videos & NBC/Universal showed them around internally to other branches of the company as an example of a how to do a great campaign. I also directed some stuff for Mt Dew, but mid-way through the plug was pulled on it midway through, but I’m still counting it. And somewhere in there I directed a Funny or Die video with Tommy Lee, and that was pretty cool.
A company - Since NBC/Universal doesn’t mess around with dudes who operate “production companies” out of their apartments, I started an LLC called Double Bad Industrial. Now I’m a dude who operates a PRODUCTION COMPANY out of my apartment, and let me tell you, the difference is huge.
A new home - I moved downtown into a loft with my girlfriend Shannon. It is a great place with a pool I’ve never swam in and a workout room that I don’t use enough. And for the first time in my life I bought a dining room table. Now I’m all grown up.
Honkers & Channel 101 - I didn’t do enough stuff for Channel 101 in 2010, but I made up for it this year with 3 failed pilots and one 4 episode series, Honkers. Honkers started out with what I thought was a joke script from McCafferty. I read it and thought it was just an excuse for him to squeeze non-wife breasts (it was), and didn’t really think anything else of it until a month later. I asked him if he wanted to do something for Channel 101 and he asked “What about Honkers?”. Over a text message, I kind of shrugged my shoulders and agreed. It wasn’t until we actually started shooting it that everything clicked for me and the show that we were making became clear. I had a great time working with everyone on it, and was really proud that it got nominated for so many Channy awards this year. It’s a small thing, but getting nominated and knowing your peers and friends like your work enough to nominate it means a lot to me.
Wrote some stuff - McCafferty and I put the final touches on our spec feature “Red Rain”, and I wrote a half hour comedy spec, something I need to do more of. It’s not too terrible either.
Working with (old and new) Friends - One of the things I love most about doing what I do, is that I get to work with lots of really talented people, who are also great friends. This year I worked with so many great people that I shouldn’t even try listing them, but I will. McCafferty, Seger, Karnell, Wade, Jonah, Danny, Zach, Manasewitsch, Beane, Tyler, Sobeleski, Forrest, Raul, Morgan, Bob, Brennan, Dawn, Zach, Jeffrey, Sasson, Ross, Greg, Derrick, Willy, Paul, Mel, Bleyaert, Vatche, Holly, and many many others.
Directed a TV Pilot - One of the highlights of 2011 kind of came out of nowhere. I was stuck in traffic and got a call from a producer about a pilot called Epic Meal Time for G4. Two days later I was meeting with them, two weeks after that we were shooting, and now, the pilot has been sent to the network to see if it will get picked up. Whether it does or not, directing this pilot was a great time and marked a big step forward for me. I’ve been shooting and directing short things for the past few years and I’m proud of (almost) everything I’ve done. But this was a chance to step up to something longer, something meant for broadcast. Hopefully this is the first of many.

Here’s hoping that 2012 is bigger and better for all of us.