Okay folks – you asked for it – welcome to my new blog!

For three years I’ve been talking about building a proper website but I’ve never had time to actually do it.  Then in the last month, the stars aligned with a 3-week hiatus from SNL (Saturday Night Live), a few slaps in the face from some web-savvy friends and a collaboration with an amazing designer and developer named Rebecca Goodwin… and here we are!

What you can expect from this blog: my main goal is to offer some insight about what I do and I how I do it.

For example, I shot an SNL spot called “History of Punk” that aired this weekend.  In my next post, I’d like to go over in detail exactly how we shot it; the unexpected challenges of this particular shoot; how the timeline went down; my concept for the lighting, the gear and workflow we used and how we finished it in less than two days… Hopefully I’ll convince some of my conspirators to chime in — I think it would be great  to hear from our director, Rhys Thomas, about striking the right tone in a mockumentary that’s also a tribute to Margaret Thatcher; and/or from our colorist, Emery Wells, about the challenges of re-creating the look of archival footage circa 1977.  The SNL Film Unit has been an amazing experiment in film style that I’m always excited to talk about.

As most of you know, any production no matter the scale usually has a great behind-the-scenes story to tell – sometimes better than the script!  I also plan on going back through my reel and telling some of the often hilarious, always ridiculous stories behind the shoots.  Like how the Louis CK “Lincoln” spot was shot just days after Hurricane Sandy and during a city-wide black-out.  Or how we were still shooting green screen shots for “Djesus Uncrossed” at 4am on Saturday morning – the same day the finished spot was broadcast…I also plan on including my feature and documentary work, where I can go beyond the DP-side of things and talk about writing and producing.  At all times, you can expect to hear about the incredible teams that I get to work with; filmmaking is a collaborative art form and I’m constantly learning from my talented friends.

Hopefully some of these posts will be helpful to you and not just my own nostalgia!  I’d also love to hear from you — you can go to the Contact Me page and suggest what topics you’d like to read about.