Experience

After starting a career as an actor of stage and screen, in 2001 I started to work behind the camera, writing, directing and producing my first independent short film Mann In Driving. Inspired by many of my late night drives across the country, Mann In Driving tells the story of a thickheaded traveler battling drowsiness on the open road. The comedic short, and main character Mann, was born out of my love of cinema growing up as a kid watching old reels of Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, and Abbott and Costello that would play at the local pizza restaurant my brother and I would frequent (thanks Franco’s Pizza of North High Street).

More of a live-action cartoon, Mann was the common man - the idiot man-child that is in each of us. This was my first experience taking a story from concept, to script, to screen. With the help of fellow indie filmmakers, Mann In Driving was shot on digital video and edited in Adobe Premiere, both burgeoning technologies at the time. You could say I cut my editing teeth cutting this movie on my computer. With reverence for the silent films of Chaplin and Keaton, the story was written without dialogue and sped up in post-production giving it the feel of 16 frames per second for film. I worked with a local musician for the opening and closing score, and then added sound effects and a track of vocal reactions for the main character.

Mann In Driving was selected for the 2001 Short Film Showcase presented at the historic Strand Theatre in Delaware, Ohio, and received well by the audience. More significantly, I had found a passion for filmmaking. As I continued to work my day job selling office equipment, I devoted all of my other time to learning and honing the craft. With the support of other independent filmmakers, writers, directors, and producers, many of whom worked as professionals in the production industry, I became a student of the business. I liken this period of my filmmaking career to being in “real life” film school, working in every aspect of production from production assistant, to boom operator, lighting, and cinematography.

By 2005 I had written, directed and produced seven more installments in the Mann series of films, including, Mann In Love, Mann In Daytrading, Mann In Rehab, Mann In Trick-or-Treat, Mann In Babysitting, Mann In The Slip (Official Selection, Chicago “Really” Short Film Festival, 2005), and Mann In Hock, which would go on to win Video of the Month in the Independent Film Channel’s MediaLab Competition, and also win the award for Best Director.

It was also during this time that I would start to employ my filmmaking skill set for others working freelance writing, shooting, directing and editing. I first shot and edited two short films for a local sports medicine company for their annual employee celebration. I was then contracted by a start-up company to edit and complete post-production for three commercials and an infomercial for their product “The Baker’s Edge Baking Pan,” which went on to have success in the home goods market, and is still available today.

Other freelance projects include: writing, shooting, directing and editing a commercial for a local law firm; directing and producing a series of product intro videos for Creative Memories; shooting, directing and editing five videos for MadLab Theatre’s production of the multi-media play Flow; writing and editing three commercials for Out Of Our Heads! Improv; editing a pitch video for the game show Cinemadness; and shooting, directing and editing an industrial video for the Wayne Dalton garage door and opener company. In conjunction with a regional production company based out of Dublin, Ohio, I directed and produced a compelling documentary video about hunger for the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, and an industrial training video about retirement for Nationwide Insurance.

I worked in production as a freelancer until 2012 when I was hired at Teleperformance as manager of video and media production, where I currently work. In this role I work with internal corporate clients to develop videos from concept to completion, writing scripts, shooting live video, directing, editing and creating motion graphics for promotional, training, and educational videos that are distributed both internally and externally on social media. See below for samples.

Throughout my freelance and corporate career I have continued to work on personal projects, directing and editing On Watch, a dramatic short film about a recently returned Army veteran's battle with post-traumatic stress disorder, and writing, co-directing, and producing the award-winning independent feature film Minus One, which found distribution with MY Spotlight Independent and is now available in the US and UK on Amazon Prime Video.

Most recently I found myself going back to the character I started with, writing, directing, producing, and editing Mann Vs Fish (Winner, Best Narrative Short, World Premiere Film Awards, 2020). Below are materials from pre-production, production, and post-production, and the finished short film.

Guest Speaking and Appearances

• WRITER’S BLOC, Guest Speaker, May 2011
  Screenwriting: from script to screen
  The Thurber House, Wayne Rapp

• COLUMBUS STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Guest Speaker, July 2009
  Screenwriting
  Nestor Hall, Prof. Rita Bova

• WRITERS TALK, Guest, June 2010
  Screenwriting and Minus One
  The Ohio State University Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing, Doug Dangler

Education and Research

Below is a list of the classes and workshops I have taken:

• MasterClass, Directing
  Ron Howard, 2019

• MasterClass, Screenwriting
  Aaron Sorkin, 2020

• Cinematography Workshop
  Scott Spears, 2006

Over the years of classes and from having worked with various production creatives, the following is a list of a few of the books on acting which I have read and continue to come back to for new contextual discoveries and inspiration:

• The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives, by Lajos Egri

• Conversations at the American Film Institute with the Great Moviemakers: the next Generation, by George Stevens, Jr.

• Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect, by Claudia Hunter Johnson

• Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television, by Judith Weston

• Directing the Film: Film Directors on Their Art, by Eric Sherman

• The Directors: Take One, by Robert J. Emery

• Essentials of Screenwriting: the Art, Craft, and Business of Film and Television Writing, by Richard Walter

• Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen, by Steven D. Katz

• Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay, by Syd Field

• The Godfather Notebook, by Francis Ford Coppola

• Making a Good Script Great, by Linda Seger

• On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King

• Screenplay: the foundations of screenwriting, by Syd Field

• Story: Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee

• Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction by a Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Winner, by Jon Franklin

• Writing Movies for Fun and Profit!: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too!, by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas F. Lennon.