31 in bozeman

I can't remember the last time I spent a birthday in LA - I think I was in my mid-twenties - but the older I get the less important they seem to become. The importance of these yearly milestones have shifted to the people I've met in-between, which brings me to the cast & crew of the short film I worked on Willow Creek Road.

Last month I recorded sound in the beautiful state of Montana. The producer and AD, Jon and Josh picked me up from the airport and brought me to Lauri's. Lauri had kindly opened her beautiful house to the whole crew where I was lucky enough to have my own room. Sort of 

I really didn't mind my porcelain roommates partly because I was exhausted by the time I stepped into that room. Looking back now it seems crazy how we all managed fit in that house. Every member of our crew played a vital part in making the production a success. It didn't hurt that a lot of them were big game of thrones fans, which made for a great viewing of the season 6 finale. 

All of the good vibes made for a sad goodbye. 

On the last day everyone had early AM flights so by the time I woke up the house was empty with the exception of our 1st AC, Andy who I had worked with on a previous gig in LA. I can still remember the eerie calm of that morning as we sat in the living room and waited for Lauri to take us to the airport.

I'm 31 now. Nothing really has changed and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Maybe it's a little bit of both? I don't know. I can't believe I still haven't finished this post. Adios 

the remnants of jonas

last night as my flight from cleveland began to climb above the cold remnants of jonas, i took a glance at my google calendar to realize how little of january i had left. 

had it really been 3 weeks?

i spent most of it living inside a cuban bubble mixing sound in the beautiful city of havana but now that ive been back i keep trying to pick up the fresh scent of 2016 slowly realizing that its gone and that the year has marched on ahead of me.

i sat on my non-reclining middle seat with these thoughts. i tried to sleep them away but i couldnt. i found that i had several podcasts saved on my phone and for the next few hours i began to listen to the kind, gentle, and wise words of alistair begg and r.c. sproul. ironically both of them were speaking on the futility of life and both were teaching from the book of ecclesiastes. the term living under the sun was thrown around, which simply states that without purpose everything we as human beings do and acquire is meaningless; that in essence we are all just useless passions.

https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/the-search-for-satisfaction/
http://renewingyourmind.org/broadcasts/2015/09/01/vanity-of-vanity

useless passions? seems kind of harsh. well, it can be but luckily we all have a hope and its found in Christ. apart from Him we are all left to our own devices, which according to the author of ecclesiastes all leads to vanity of vanities. most of the tough and painful lessons that ive learned were all caused by my own vanity.
it was great to hear sproul and begg put things into perspective and as we began our initial descent the rumblings inside my soul began to settle. it seemed like a few moments later but as i drove on the 105 i began to think of 2016 and the path that was laid before me, which at the moment was the on-ramp to the 710 freeway.

one step at a time 

unfinished business: cuba

6 months and a new year later and i'm back in miami international getting ready to board a flight to the island. there's unfinished business for the amigo skate crew and for the next two weeks we're going to try and unravel what the impact of the lifting of the us cuba embargo has done to the local skate scene and in a greater scheme the people. i'm excited to sweat & break bread with my good cuban kin. 

untitled denver project: week 3

things got dark on week 3. somewhere in-between, reality got muddled and the line between whats real and what isnt had been crossed; im perosnally finding it difficult to pinpoint when we actually crossed it. a big part of my job is to objectively listen between tracks and channels in order to make sure i get clean dialogue and proper levels but this production has been strange in the sense that since we really don't have a script, the majority of what we get has been dependent on what is currently hapenning; life is basically shaping this film. our directors, nathan and mike, have had the crazy task to lasso these crazy situations that they're placing our main character not fully knowing how he'll react and trying to piece the story together.

as the sound mixer/one-man-band, i usually dont get too attached to the actors but in this case i have but the twisted part about week 3 is that i dont even know who that is anymore. all i know is that this doc/narrative feature will be one big mind f#%k and im very excited in how our directors and editor will piece it all together. we have 2 more days of production and something tells me that this rabbit hole goes a bit futher and possibly darker.

stand by.

 

untitled denver project: week 1

denver, colorado has been home for the past week and itll remain this way for the next few. ive been out here working on a experimental doc/indie feature and its been pretty insane. till this point ive never worked on a production that had no script or any kind of shot list, which for a sound mixer can be challenging, especially when you're also booming

    

 but luckily we have a pair of crazy/brilliant directors in nathan silver and mike ott who are steering this ship that for now is being called "the untitled denver project"

so now that week 1 of shooting is wrapped, we get a day off to chill and explore beautiful sunny denver