The FHS Film Association
 While I had previously gained some experience with video by working with my father, as well as through my 2004 and the 2005 documentaries for the National History Day academic competition, the films I produced during High School are really what fed my interest in video production.
In the spring of my sophomore year, Wes Spears (a good friend) and I co-founded the FHS Film Association (our film club) to explore our varied interests in filmmaking. Many of our early films even lacked scripts. Those that didn't saw suffered from bad acting, bad audio (true sign of an amateur), and bad editing. But we all had fun.
With time, our numbers grew and we all honed our skills, as we each found our appropriate roles. Wes was our premiere writer; Nathan, our sound man; Patric enjoyed working on horror films; and Devin was our comedic relief. I generally served as line producer, videographer, and post-production editor. Logistics were a huge part of my contribution; in other words, I was the guy who worked the phones (no text messaging at the time) and cajoled everyone into showing up for shoots. Over the summer of 2008, we were successful in getting a grant so the club could upgrade to "prosumer" grade HD cameras, opening up exciting new possibilities, but also creating many new challenges.
By our senior year, Wes and I had focused on one project we really wanted to complete by graduation, a short feature film called Project Hero (a working title that stuck). We almost didn't finish it in time. Shooting from August 2008 to April 2009, with the majority of post-production during the 60 days preceding graduation, we managed to produce a 50-minute feature film, our biggest and most polished production yet. You can screen Project Hero here, posted here in three segments: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
 You might like to see some production stills that were taken while we were shooting Project Hero, as well the director's commentary, to get an idea of what was involved in the production.
As graduation approached, I worked to pass on leadership, equipment, and bits of knowledge to the FHS underclassmen. For me, the Film Club made high school an exciting and interesting time.
More importantly, the experience showed me the possibilities for a career in media and production.
You may also want to visit the now-retired FHS Film Club website, which I've archived within this site. From the home page, click on "Films" to see a compilation of our work.
Also, take a moment to view the First Anniversary Trailer, which will give you a feel for our first year of production; or sit back and enjoy A Work In Progress, which shows the lighter side of our work.
| 
In my first year at Vanderbilt I had the good fortune of discovering a great group of students, known at Wilderness Skills (or WilSkills), who take a whitewater paddling, climbing, or backpacking trip almost every weekend. Of course, I had to shoot video, to capture both the beauty of the environment, and the camaraderie of the trips …
