This will never be the best looking thing in my portfolio.
In fact, it includes some of the very first video exports I ever made. No-one shows their early work, for obvious reasons. We grow and get better by leaps and bounds.
However, this is the project that changed the trajectory of my life – and I think that’s worth remembering and talking about.
This is the project where my friend Zach and I stayed up all night in my garage (picture below) dreaming about something that hadn’t been done before – but believing in it enough to take a chance.
We put together a pitch: part 1 was a video (below) to help setup the more practical part 2 (also below), which was a bare bones flow chart of how we get there.
We sent the email when the sun came up and went to our respective full-time jobs. A few days later, the Director was bringing us Starbucks at 9 PM on a Sunday night where we pitched him the Kickstarter breakdown for a few hours. Shortly after midnight, we got the green light and we were live in 5 days.
The project was more successful than we could have ever imagined. We had raised the largest amount in Kickstarter history at the time and were featured in Deadline, Variety, CNN, The New York Times and more. I left my full-time job and joined the production to capture BTS videos and unit stills (hero image above is Marshall Allman who played Don Miller in the film). We stayed on to help market the movie as well.
I made life-long friends, got a crash course in filmmaking, and discovered my deep love for the process and the people.
