My reflexive response to stress is to draw… On the page, the gunfight by the vat of acid seems daunting, but as a comic book it’s a scant 13 panels… Easy-peezy.

They got it almost right. The headline reads “Alums Harris and Wolske inflict killer rednecks on the birthplace of the king.” (For clarity: the king of rock n’ roll, not pop). But, there’s a lot more team spirit than they realized. There are actually 5 UCLA alums involved in the project in critical roles. Daniel Alvarado wrote the script with me (UCLA MFA Screenwriting). Corey Wish is one of our three producers (Justin Wolse and Erin Hagee the other two), and Corey was the …

Derek Steiner is our location scout/coordinator, training under $5 Cover’s Martin Lane – he’s a horror fan and he’s done a great job of finding us some very creepy places to shoot. Here are some photos of key locations from Derek and Justin Wolske (producer)

The first two days on the road produced pictures of a rainbow in a dust storm and the western hemisphere’s largest cross, not exactly horror fare.

The last day – a snake farm – more like it!

I’m writing this from a Motel 6 in Grant, New Mexico, on the road to Memphis Tennessee to begin production on Savage County, my first “real” project as a director. I decided to blog the process, in hopes that it would be of some use to somebody to have a window into my particular route into first-time directing and to see a little of how we’re attempting what we’re attempting with the time and resources we’ve got.

This is all watchable at the official $5 Cover site – but I’m posting it here as we wind-down on the official launch and TV airings of $5 Cover.
This was an incredibly exciting project to be a part of, and has been a continuation of a weird intersection of my life and Memphis, Tennessee that started with my first-ever short film “The Knocking Box” playing at Indie Memphis, continued with $5 Cover, got deeper when “Address to Silas on the Occasion of the Retreat at Los Angeles County” won best …

Another passed-on idea that I’m reposting because I still think it holds water: a game show that rewards players for their ability to lie convincingly, not about personal information (a la “what’s my line?”) but about facts. It’s pure bluffing – poker without the poker. It’s called “Million Dollar Bluff.”
As always, would love to hear what you think, whoever you are.

From Warrior Queen (a UCLA thesis film I produced – filmed in Ghana, Africa) Hezekiah Lewis (director), the other two producers, Heather and Yule and two real superheroes, Hiro and Robin.