When did you start making films?
I was 13 years old when I made my first film. I was a skate punk at the time but I was no good at skateboarding, so I started filming my friends. We used an old VHS camera that my buddy Luke’s dad had around. I remember all the films looking really bad, but we had fun. I didn’t get serious until high school, and even then it was really just an excuse to hangout with my friends.
How have you made a career from it?
Barely. Really, it just takes a lot of patience. Things start out really small. Senior year of high school I teamed up with my best friend Tripp Clemens and we started a small production company, Windy Films. Anytime you make a film, you have to convince people to trust you with a lot of their money, so starting small and ending with something tangible to show for it has been crucial.
What are your plans after college?
That is a good question. I hope I can keep making movies and traveling. I don’t seem suited for a real job, so filmmaking feels like a good fit.
What kind of films do you make?
I do a little bit of everything. I seem to keep making silly horror films for class because they are the only valid excuse for running around an abandoned school with a chainsaw and saying it’s homework, but if I had to pick one thing to do for the rest of my life it would be documentary film. I have spent the last 2 years working on a feature length documentary about people with physical disabilities and it has been the single most rewarding experience of my life. That should be done in the spring, which is very exciting. (You can learn more about it at endlessabilities.org)
What was your favorite subject/what are your usual subjects?
Anything near the water. I grew up on Martha’s Vineyard and I love being near the ocean. I spend a lot of time on boats and I get to film a lot of sailing, so that is a dream come true.
Where’s the best place you’ve travelled to for your films?
I would have to say Tibet. It was the first place I traveled purely for work. I was 18 at the time and while all my friends were sitting in some terrible introduction to economics lecture, I was gallivanting about in Shangri-La. I was also lucky enough to spend the summer driving cross-country with my 3 best friends in a beat up bus. We took 6 weeks and drove 6,000 miles. It was about as much fun as four 21 year-old guys could have.