It's all about the Journey

Here you'll find a hodgepodge of different videos and podcasts.

All with accompanying text to provide context into the process.

*WARNING - there is strong language in some of these where marked.

OKC COMBAT SPORTS

We had the great pleasure to document the journeys of the founding members of OKC Combat Sports.

BR CUSTOM HOMES AFFORDABLE HOUSING VIDEO

Ronnie Baugh of BR Custom Homes wanted to film a promotional video outlining his ideas for affordable housing in the OKC/Metro area in conjunction with the newly formed Building Roots Foundation.

Filmed on a Sony FX6 and FX3 with the very talented Jake Ramsey and Kenny McGraw and with the help of the incomparable Mike Darter.

Casey Twenter, my writing/producing partner, Jason Wiles and Derek Phillips, who starred in our first film, and I all got together over a weekend in Edmond to hash out a series idea we had. After months of writing and an intricate series bible (located in the button below), we called in some favors, headed to Los Angeles, and, with very little money, filmed the following sizzle reel. WARNING: very strong language

I've always been a bit of a spook. One night, Jeni went to be at a decent hour, and I decided to wander upstairs to play a little Resident Evil. It wasn't long before I was immersed in the game, anxiety on high alert. Then, from downstairs, something clanged. I lightly called for my wife but received no response. Shortly thereafter, a BLAST from outside. Even upstairs, I could now hear the shuffling of feet outside of our home. Several more pops, a smattering of distant laughter, and, suddenly, I was in a full blow panic attack knowing full well our house was under attack. After what seemed ages, I unplugged a standing lamp and held it in my right arm like a joust, tucked a metal folding chair to my left arm, and carefully made my way down, just knowing something was going to pop up from behind the corner at any time. When I finally made it to the bedroom, I woke up my beautiful (and none too happy) bride and asked if she'd heard any of the noises. "Yes, Jeff, I have," she said calmly. "Because our lame asses always go to bed before the fireworks on the 4th of July." As she rolled over, a soft, distinct "Idiot" (apropos) MAY have escaped her lips.

So, it'll be pretty easy to see where the inspiration for the following came from. I was grateful to my pal Jason and a couple of other buddies for coming out to help on this one, but...it needed/needs a LOT of work. To which I have zero desire to do. I do love the concept, and I do like some of this, but it's warts and all, and when it comes to shorts, I never go in with grand ambitions to enter festivals, or to really even put them out into the world. It's practice, pure and simple. But, we're learning here, and I think it's important to show the glaring flaws along with anything polished during the journey. And, hopefully, you'll be able to point out all of those glaring (and maybe more subjective, not-so-glaring) flaws in the finished product. We had a two man crew and filmed it during one night. Payment was pizza. Equipment was free (thank you, NG). More thoughts after the show. WARNING: strong language

Okay, for starters, it's 3 minutes too long. At least. The lighting is...bad. We had one cam operator and a sound guy. None of us knew much, or very little, at least, about lighting. The part in the attic made sense on the page. The alarm system housing system was in there, and it needed new batteries, but it wasn't clear enough. That plastic bag he's holding held the batteries. The noise from that bag, which he discards before entering, was what he was supposed to hear while in the attic. The noise from the TV isn't great, but it was good enough to convey a horror film, I thought.

My biggest gripe, though, probably, is that towards the end of the night, I wanted an insert of the knife Jason drops when he runs in to check on the kids. I mentioned it twice, but the tired crew and actor(s) didn't think it was necessary, so I relented (note: avoid being a jerk at all times, and always consider others, but when you're sure of something, and I mean really sure, be a jerk. Or jerk-ish.). Then, I wanted to show it in the background again as he's cleaning the glass. Its absence from where he originally dropped it was the catalyst for him to look at the door, which is now open, but we didn't make it clear enough that it was closed and locked beforehand. Just tons of mistakes. But, see, you LEARN (hopefully) from those mistakes. So either start making yours, or keep going.

This trailer (which never ran before the show) was created to convey the tone of the sitcom using one of actor/musician Brad Carter's songs. I wanted to make a throwback with this series, a mix of late 70's Burt Reynolds with a heavy, heavy dose of Caddyshack and Stripes.

I took my first original script ever written, pitched the idea to Hearst/Verizon, and they greenlight it, script unseen. And the reason it was unseen is because I had to take 110 pages and turn them into roughly 250 to fit the 8-episode minimum requirement. From the time it was accepted until I finished the script took a total of one week. I was possessed. During that time, Jason Wiles (again), Corey Moss, our great pal and the man who championed the project, and I were scrambling to secure casting, locations, travel, crew, rebates....we got the greenlight in early June and were filming, on a golf course, by the middle of August on a budget of a tad over $900,000. To say we called in some favors was an understatement.

A childhood friend of mine named Ryan Chapman just so happened to be the head golf pro at a beautiful course at Lake Texoma, and it just so happened they had created 4 new holes, leaving 4 unused. So we used those leftovers for every golf shot in the show.

Verizon disbanded the streamer, Go90, in association with Rated Red, 6 months after our show launched, and now it's gone forever. We did get permission to cut it down to 1 1/2 hours for a film - because it originally began as a narrative, that thread still ran throughout the series - and we even had a distribution deal. But, there was a change in the creative department. This happens a lot. Now, the new guy could've hated the film. Or, a lot of times when positions change, the new hire just wants a fresh slate. This occurred during the Pandemic, so it isn't like streamers weren't clamoring for material, and this film version would, at minimum, kill a bit of time and elicit at least a few chuckles.

For now, I have a fully cut film sitting on a hard drive at my home, and there's almost a zero percent chance anyone will ever get to see it. I hate that most for the actors, who were all fantastic. You've seen this kind of story before - rich developer wants to buy land on the cheap, locals try to stop him - but there are a couple of scenes that we all love and enough other laughs (and a love story!) and originality to make it worthwhile, even on the extremely limited budget (we housed the entire cast and crew on a lodge at the lake. A lot of fun, but super expensive.). Filmed it in 3 weeks on a 6-day work schedule.