Biography

An avid reader, he has a library of over 1000 books on film history & filmmaking.

While shooting one day on the beach for the film "1500 Steps", he was so caught up in his work that he neglected to put sunscreen on his legs. By dusk they were so badly burned he couldn't physically stand for the next three days.

A lifelong student of magic, he has a tattoo of an Ace of Spades on his right arm.

I once asked a film student on set where the slate was, to which they said that one of the perks of digital filmmaking means we no longer need a slate. I replied that just because we all use Google maps it doesn't mean we should get rid of street signs.

A film production is like a snooker table. During a game of pool the balls roll around the table and bounce off of each other, but this cacophony is a natural part of the game. And the thing that prevents the balls from rolling off onto the floor is the four barriers surrounding the perimeter of the table. Likewise in a production, by the very nature of the process, there's a tendency for there to be a natural amount of disorder - problems arising, issues with money, long and stressful days, actors or crew colliding with each other etc - but what prevents descent into complete chaos is certain barriers put in place - a good grasp of the budget, good scheduling, well-structured script, solid crew etc. When you examine films that historically had horrendously difficult productions with myriad problems, a lot can often be attributed to the removal of one or more of these barriers (for various reasons) and as a result the "balls rolled off onto the floor".