Ever since it first came out, I have been a massive fan of Bethesda’s 2011 masterpiece The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I’ve been playing this video game off and on for the last several years and it’s delivered each time I return. Skyrim has a beautifully written main questline with an immense number of terrific side quests that I still haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of. On top of being drop-dead gorgeous, the story and world of the Elder Scrolls is rich and deep with

Recently I’ve been fortunate to have revisited and revitalized my undying love for Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry's universe created back in the 1960’s has always had a special place in my heart. The concepts, themes and ideas presented in Star Trek are extremely thought provoking and, sometimes, brutal reflections of our own society and our own humanity. For me, growing up and watching Star Trek, it’s difficult to imagine the world that the iconic show first emerged in. Americ

The first time I had ever listened to Steely Dan was back in my youth when Rockband 2 was in its heyday. I was 13, discovering classic rock and obsessing over the game and it's tracks: Teen Age Riot, Ace of Spades, Bad Reputation, Spoonman, the list of fantastic songs goes on. My dad raised me on Led Zeppelin, Rage Against the Machine and 90's grunge. My mom's playlists consisted of 80's Pop, Quiet Storm radio and whatever was on the radio at the time. Amongst the list of ama

It’s been a long time since I’ve written on my blog. I’ve checked in on my website every now and then over the last few years, adding content and adjusting things here and there. I’ll take this opportunity to give a full recap of everything that’s happened since my last blog post. There’s been a lot, but I’ll try to be brief. My last post was April 1st, 2020. Nearly one month into the coronavirus global pandemic that shook everyone to their core. Reflecting now on the pande

It's surreal, looking at my blog right now. My last post was about Blade Runner and how it took place in 2019 Los Angeles. I felt like it was crazy to be living there at such a time. The futuristic, run down, rainy steampunk city didn't feel far from the truth. It's now March, a few short months later, and things are quite different. The entire state of California is under a strict "stay at home" quarantine, advising people not to go outside. Over 3.2 million Americans appli

The last few months have been pretty surreal for me. It's been a crazy whirlwind of new experiences, emotions, settings and people all in a very short period of time. After wrapping up post on Roses and graduating from Vancouver Film School in British Columbia, I moved down south to Los Angeles, California to start working. Over the last three months I've been networking with other filmmakers, picking up small film jobs where I can and trying to make ends meet while I still

Less than a week ago, my team and I finished post-production on my latest short film called Roses. It's about an obsessed, middle-aged gardener named Dave who goes crazy at the sight of his neighbor's rose bush. One thing leads to another and before you know it he's covered in blood and tearing the flowers apart. Now that it's done and I can look back at it the completed product, I can safely say it is my best work that I have done up until this point in my life. Even after w

January has been good to me. School, projects and life are back in full swing and it feels amazing. I've also been blessed with small but comfortable amounts of free time that I've used to catch up with reading, writing, watching movies and hanging out with friends. Some of the new movies I watched in January include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Days of Heaven and Punch Drunk Love. But, by a long shot, the best movie I watched this month goes without question: Call Me

Here it is! The end of the year and the most difficult list of films I've ever written to date. After tallying them up, I watched 175 movies this year that I've never seen this year (give or take a few). I didn't stay exact and true to my resolution I made just under a year ago but I digress. The experience and challenge to watch new content every day lingered in my mind every day. My passions in film making are with writing, directing and editing and watching all of these fi

eustress : noun : a positive form of stress having a beneficial effect on health, motivation, performance, and emotional well-being This is outrageous! Blasphemy! What on Earth is this? A combination post of two months? This is unfair to the other ten months of the year! To be completely honest, the only thing more valuable to me than money nowadays is time. This past term in Vancouver has kept me busier than I've ever been before in my life and the experience has been exhi

This past October I have only been able to watch only a few new movies. As the intense year in Vancouver continues, my free time diminishes. With that said, the caliber and quality of each movie I watched this month is worthy of top spots in themselves. I made an effort to watch new and exciting films, and I couldn't have been happier with that decision. For the first time in what feels like a long time, I have a strong Top 5 list and a few very tough decisions to make. Her

Let me start this month's iteration Top 5 by apologizing to all of you and myself. This past September, I barely managed to watch five new films. Of those five, only three of them were worthy of making my "prestigious" list. Beyond attending an intense new film program and making new friends, I watched more old films this past month than new ones. Almost every class I'm in uses examples of older movies during lectures to display high-level film making and storytelling in acti

introvert [noun] in-truh-vurt 1. a shy person. 2. Psychology. a person characterized by concern primarily with his or her own thoughts and feelings via Wikipedia on Introversion: Introversion is the state of being predominantly interested in one's own mental self. Introverts are typically perceived as more reserved or reflective. Some popular psychologists have characterized introverts as people whose energy tends to expand through reflection and dwindle during interaction.

It's good to be back here again writing about my last month in the world of movies. Aside from watching several great films for the first time this month, I started the next chapter of my life in Vancouver, British Columbia. For the next twelve months, I'm undergoing an intensive program at Vancouver Film School here in Canada. The school year is broken up into six-two month segments, with the first three terms dedicated to understanding film and covering all the basics. The

Here we are again! This is the seventh time I've written a post like this, but it excites me every time. A rare chance, once a month, to look back at everything that happened to me and the amazing films I watched for the first time. Outside of movies, nothing much happened really. I took a vacation to Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast with my family and received my physical Associates degrees from Scottsdale Community College. I've taken this summer easy, trying to relax and

What!?! Top four?? Not top five? Unfortunately, yes this is true. No, I didn't only watch four movies this month. But of the films that I watched, only four of them were worthy of putting on this list of great films that I watched this month. Any fifth films I watched would've stuck out like a sore thumb. I'm not going to single out any of the films that I watched for being not up caliber with the films I put on my list, but I wouldn't want to write and review a film that I

Every time I sit down to write these monthly posts it gives me a chance to reflect on what has happened to me in the last month of my life. This current reflection and post is evidence that my life is getting crazier and busier with each passing day. It's not a struggle to keep up with such a fast-paced world, but finding time to do other things like watch a new movie every day or play video games is getting sparse. Sacrifices are soon to come. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't ho

Here we are yet again, the end of one month and the beginning of a new one. I feel like every time I sit down to write these I have something new and exciting to tell my readers. This post won't be any different. My short film La Esencia, which has been a subject of the blog in the past and has been my main focus this past year since it's inception, was just selected to play at the 2018 Scottsdale Short Film Festival. I couldn't be more excited to show the world my movie and

Holy cow, what a month it has been. I finalized the offline edit for my short film La Esencia earlier this month, started working with a composer and sound design team, and to top it all off I unlocked all the mini-games and extras in Mario Party 7 for GameCube. Oh yeah, did I also mention I watched a TON of amazing films? I know last month I said my list was going to be difficult, but that's nothing compared to my list this month. Making a "top five" list helps me remember

It's that time again! I found myself really looking forward to writing this post, mostly because I watched a lot of amazing films this month. However, narrowing all the movies I watched this month down to a top 5 is a challenge in itself. I watched a lot of REALLY awesome and spectacular movies this month, and unlike January I didn't come across one film that I didn't like or couldn't finish. In case you're curious of my criteria for choosing movies to watch or picking my to