Growing up, I never anticipated being in Hollywood, or even acting in general. I had about 10 lines in a small community theatre play when I was 9 years old, but that was the extent of my thespian pursuits. I don't think I quite knew what I was going to do when I grew up. There were always the thoughts of running my father's construction business, but as I got older, I just kind of lost interest in the idea. Of course, there's the ten year old's dream of playing basketball/baseball/football/anything with a ball. I did dream of playing pro in any of those aformentioned sports, depending on which season it was, but that was all for naught too. In basketball, I could shoot a little, and I was real tall as a kid(like 5'10 or 5'11" at 12 years old), but I couldn't run, and had no footwork, so once kids could jump over my outstretched arms, I was finished. Baseball was decent, but I only knew how to hit fastballs, so once I helped my team win the league title in 5th grade, that was the extent of my success(In 6th grade, I had a coach that didn't think much of me, so I never got any better). Football wasn't much....just two years of flag football, and one highlight of intercepting a pass and taking it 80 yards only to inexplicably slow down at the 1 yard line and get caught(we didn't even score either). I did achieve some success in tennis, and still play to this day, but once I figured I wasn't going to be the next Becker or Sampras, that ended also.
Next, there was the Navy. I gave it a serious thought of joining the Navy after high school, and even went to a recruiter with a friend of mine(who would end up going to the Air Force), but decided against it for reasons I do not remember now. Eventually, I would move to Tennessee and go to a school named Lee University, and believe it or not, that's where I would finally find my calling.
It started when I was in a chinese languages and culture class. I was sort of struggling, and finals were due. My teacher gave me the option to make a small movie about her English as Second Languages course. I took it, got a B for the course, and finished my foreign language requirements.
But I knew I had found my calling. I was hooked on movies from there on out.
Now mind you, this school wasn't exactly the upper echelon of film studies. In fact, they only had one film studies course, and the rest was mostly theatre. Combine that with living around working class people all the time, and having no previous aspirations of anything in entertainment, it seemed like a crazy dream to chase.
I've also been known to make pretty crazy decisions. Maybe it's my nature.
So I ask our basketball coach if they wouldn't mind me filming their team for a little documentary. I expected it to be one of those 30-40 minute highlight reels with soundtracks that teams hand out to their kids at the end of the year, so it wasn't much, just something to start me out. A $500 camera later, and I got started.
I just never knew how far this little movie would go.
The team ended up going on this crazy run, so it went from highlight reel to documentary right off the spot. Then the team let me use their earlier footage, and all their present(at the time) footage for even more highlights, so I was pretty much mixing up a cheap $500 camera with a $5000 Canon XL1. I could definitely tell the difference in post production.
Then the team got all the way to the Elite 8 in the national tournament(NAIA.....not NCAA), so I got a nice little run out of the movie. I was talking to quite a few film festivals, and even ESPN about a story where one of the players had a heart attack and had to play the role of supporter all year, and how he handled the situation. Since post production went into the next year, they asked me to call back at the end of that year(2003 actually).
My chances looked REAL good. They started like 11-1, and even had a #1 ranking in the country. Then they ended 6-17 and missed everything altogether. I don't know if that team knew how close they might have been to something big, but there's nothing you can do about things like that sometimes. The movie ended up at one film festival in Houston(honorable mention in documentary category), and on a cable access network in Tennessee and Georgia. Not exactly the big time, but not bad for a first timer with a $500 camera.
I can say that 2003 and 2004 were some of my more successful years. I graduated from Lee with a communications degree, I got my first degree black belt in taekwondo(and anyone that knows my lack of natural athletic gifts knows how much this shaped my current personality), and finished this movie. My father said to me, after I graduated, "now we look forward".
I always look forward. Nothing will ever stop me.
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