AN ORDINARY FAMILY available to watch on iTunes and YouTube!

You can now check out an indie I edited on iTunes and YouTube, Mike Akel's An Ordinary Family.

Click here for iTunes

Clicker here for YouTube

And if you need a preview of this award-winning and heartfelt feature film:

My short film "Do Over" wins Best Comedy Film at the 2012 Iowa Film Festival!

My short film "Do Over," which I co-wrote and directed, was named Best Comedy Film by the 2012 Iowa Film Festival. Awards will be presented on June 25th. The festival runs June 25th-27th.

I share this award with my chief collaborators - producer Andrew Logan and co-writer/editor Taylor Allen - as well as with a hard working, dedicated Austin, TX based cast and crew.

I've never been to Iowa before. Although the main venue for the festival is in... Illinois? Well, I've been to Illinois already! It's a long story, but oddly enough the awards will be handed out in Moline, IL.

No matter where the award is handed out, this is wonderful news and I am humbled by it as I'm sure there were many great films in contention and many others that were not fortunate enough to be a part of the festival. For as many acceptances and positive feedback we have received, we have also dealt with our fair share of rejection. I write this simply to say to anyone reading this who is currently or about to send their film out into the world via festival submission: It's tough (and it's expensive) but there's an audience out there for your work and it makes the process so worth it when you find them.

Here are the full list of winners of the 2012 Iowa Film Festival.

Learn more about the feature narrative I'm currently editing, "All That Remains"

I've known director Marko Slavnic since the seventh grade. We both went to film school together and both pursued film careers after college. Now we get to work together on Marko's feature All That Remains, which I'm editing for him.

Another former classmate of ours, Leila Kalmbach, wrote this piece about the film. Check it out and consider donating to the Kickstarter campaign.

My script wins an award at Las Vegas Comedy Festival

A short sketch I wrote called "iPad: Weather Control" won "Best Other Script, Skit, or Commercial" at the 2012 Las Vegas Comedy Festival. I had no idea they had announced the winners until my friend and AD on my short "Do Over" Derek Franzese texted me congratulations. Thank you, Derek!

By the way - check out Reticent Pictures, the home for Derek and his team's comedy shorts.

As for "iPad: Weather Control," it's a spoof on iPad apps and Apple fanatics (and don't get me wrong - I do all my work on Apple products; it's just some friendly spoofing). Don't know if I'll be able to shoot it as it involves some complex special effects, but maybe someone out there will see this award and think, "I should give this guy some money to make this. I want to see this 'other' script made right away!"

See all the other winners here.

"Test Day" gets some exposure

The short film I made at the University of Texas at Austin, "Test Day," has been generating a bit more activity than usual in the last week or so. An educator in Los Angeles posted it to her facebook page, I received an email message via YouTube asking me where I fall on the issues the film explores (if that sender happens to read this post, I apologize for having yet to respond - I will!) , and now assistant professor Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has posted it to his blog. Hmm... is something in the air? "Test Day" has always sparked debate and discussion, but aside from placing it on my website, I haven't ever let it out there on the internets for whatever reason. Maybe that should change.

50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain Blog by Gabriel Saxton-Ruiz: He re-posts some very interesting and engaging articles about Latino identity that I think is worth checking out.

If you're curious: "Test Day" played numerous film festivals from 2005 to 2008 and won prizes at festivals such as the 8th Cine Las Americas, the 1st Flatland Film Festival, the 2008 Phoenix Film Festival, and the 2005 Sidewalk Moving Picture Film Festival. I have included it at the bottom of this post. Hope you enjoy!

Texas Independent Film Network: AN ORDINARY FAMILY screenings

The Texas Independent Film Network was founded a few years ago by friends Louis Black and Ryan Long: "TIFN has built a circuit throughout the State of Texas, including population centers like Austin, Dallas and Houston. This is a chance for audiences across the state to see amazing films that might otherwise not appear in their cities, all the while supporting indigenous filmmaking right here in Texas."


For the month of April, TIFN will be showcasing AN ORDINARY FAMILY, a feature dramedy I edited for Mike Akel. If you live in Texas and want to see if it will be playing in or near your city, CLICK HERE.

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN: "All That Remains"

While I am pushing myself to write and direct more and more, what butters my bread is still my work as an editor. Editing is  more than a day job - it's still my favorite part of the process of making movies. I love shaping performance, seeing the structure of the script build back up after production, tearing that apart and finding new and interesting ways the footage can be put together. I love to edit, and I have been fortunate enough to build my editing career around editing feature length films.

I teach part-time now as a way to ensure I have a steady pay check (and to keep my shooting skills sharp and get inspired by my students' enthusiasm and wacky ideas), so editing a feature can be a challenge with that schedule. Since January, I've been cutting part -time on a feature written and directed by a friend I've known since the 7th grade, filmmaker Marko Slavnic. His film is called All That Remains. It is a drama about two Bosnian brothers following the directions their father left them in a letter just before he died. The through-line is simple and direct, but the emotions and Bosnian history are complex and we believe makes for a heartfelt, beautiful story about identity, family, loss and coming to terms with a painful past.

Movies are an expensive art form and Marko needs help to finish this out this summer. Please consider making a donation to and spreading the word about his Kickstarter campaign. Check out the video on the page to learn more about the film, Marko's perspective on the story, and to get an idea of the look and feel of the project.