At the age of 5, I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker. All my actors and crew lived right across the street and on summer vacations, we'd run around in our backyards shooting movies. Well, we'd pretend like we were shooting movies. These were the days of Hi-8 cameras and those bad boys cost serious green.

   Lets just say, an overpriced consumer camera wasn't high on my parents' priority list. They were more concerned with feeding a family and saving up for three youngsters' college educations (which later helped pay for a film school with more motion picture equipment than I could ever imagine). So for the time being, we got by with whatever we had.

   I became an avid dumpster diver rooting through our household trash bags each week. Cardboard dolls leftover from toilet paper rolls served as lenses for our camera body built from a pink cardboard box. It was the perfect shape and size, just not the right color. So I tried my best to hide the box's labels with black construction paper. We used that thing so much the masking tape holding it all together had peeled away to reveal just how fake our camera really was.

   After a particularly long day of shooting, we retired to my house where my mother had prepared a nice crafty meal of peanut butter sandwiches and an ice cold pitcher of Crystal Light. While she was serving us, she noticed a pink corner of the box where the construction paper had peeled away. Just enough of the original label was showing for my mother to realize where I had gotten it from. Her cheeks grew bright red with embarrassment, but I wouldn't know why until much later on. It turns out, my first camera was made from an old tampon box.

   Realizing the innocent mistake, my mother helped me find some more construction paper and used heavy duty duct tape to cover up the holes. We never saw that pink labeling again. I'd like to think I've learned a few things since those days. With camera prices dropping and overall quality improving, we are far from the days of tampon box cameras and make-believe movie sets. Its become easier than ever to finance, produce, shoot, edit, and distribute your own films. Yet the same age old adage still applies,

   My plan for this blog is simple. I'd like to use it to teach a few tricks that I've learned over the past several years and more importantly, learn from others. I plan to focus on the craft and possibly share my passion for the subject matter I cover while on assignment. All are welcome to comment and share any advice you have to give. Thank you for taking the time to read and I look forward to hearing from you soon!