Knell Productions

Robby is officially entered into the Sundance Film Festival, The Slamdance Film Festival, The Experimental Forum, The Chandler International Film Festival, The Big Sur International Short Film Festival, The Sierra Nevada Film Festival, SHOTS: the International Independant Short Film Festival, and the Dam Short Film Festival. Phew, we'll let you know as soon as anything is notified!! Stick close for more @paradigmstudios @white_opus @lakesidefilms collaborative perfections!! I smell a free screening sometime in the very near future!! Stay frosty. #film #filmmaking #director #directing #sonya7s #panasonicgh4 #shortfilm #indie #indiefilm #filmfestival #art #movies #reno #awardwinningfilm #robby #actors #actorslife #whiteopus #paradigmstudios #lakesidefilms

You know how sometimes life can be so surprising you can't believe something? Even though it's physically right in front of your eyes? My experience at the Reno Tahoe International Film Festival was one of these moments. 1. Never in my life did I ever think. That I would go through an experience so challenging. And Somehow, come out of it with a finished piece of solid passion. 2. To be able to have entered that passion into an international film festival. And be nominated for best Nevada short film as well as The Best Actor Award. Which we lost both categories, but somehow (and this is the amazing part). 3. Because of you guys! We ended up walking away with the Audience Choice Award for Best Dramatic Short Film. And not just in Nevada. But internationally!!!!! What this is telling me, is that those of you who were able to make it to see the screening of Robby must've liked it so much. That you guys voted for us! But also, the people sitting next to you must have felt the same exact way! I cannot thank you all enough for supporting us on this film. I can honestly say our blood is painted on every molecule of its being. All who were involved, worked and earned every compliment, every congratulatory hug, and every single smile they were given after hearing the words "that was amazing". Without the help of @actual_eyes (Jessie McCloskey) @101frankenstein (Jose Perez) Kara Tracey, Kenneth Hurst, @vincentamoran (Vinny Moran) @stinky_dinker (Austin Bassi) of @white_opus, paraDigm studios, And @lakesidefilms. I could have never dreamed of making something I've ever been this proud of. Thank you so much for allowing me to lead, learn, and make this film right beside you guys. Thank you so much for the hours and hours of work you've put forth to finish this film!! Thank you for the performances and professionalism that I can only compare to the phrase "above and beyond the call of duty". You all have earned my respect till the day we're pushing daisies. Be proud of this guys! We're on our way!! #film #cinematography #cinematographer #cinematic #director #directing #awardwinningfilm #award #awardwinning #actor #movies #indiemovie #indie #independent #robby #nevada #reno

These kinds of relationships should never be taken for granted because believe me when I say that they are rare. We all picked up on who’s strengths would carry over to our next projects, and executed accordingly. The funny thing is, we all want to try it all. Writing, directing, acting, editing, visual effects, sound design. We want to build off of each other. This bond is one that is made for growth amongst us all. I never thought I could be so lucky as to meet these people. Come to understand them. Befriend them. Know their true thoughts and feelings even outside of filmmaking. This is what being young is all about. Luckily, I get to experience it in my own, very unique way with Jesse and the White Opus team. A team that I am now apart of. Hopefully forever.

I made this little flat art for my upcoming short film “Robby” I guess college taught me a thing or two.

     Due to all of these conditions as well as my working schedule/ personal project schedule. Things became clear to both my girlfriend and I that we had to separate. It just wasn’t fair to her that I was almost never around lately. We’d been dating for two years and it was amazing through and through. But I did take some things for granted due to upcoming film festival deadlines and a nearly finished thirty-five minute long short film my team of friends and I have been working on for the past year. She felt as if I was being neglectful. That’s the worst thing I think I could have ever done to someone. I wonder how long she truly had been feeling this. I’m young, I have passions, and the relationship was absolutely one of them. Just so much was happening at the same time. What was I supposed to do? Tell my job no? Not continue to strive forward to finish a year’s worth or work? I mean we talked about it. I explained that this would be a temporary time. That my jobs client was coming to a deadline. That I was closing in on my short film. But it was already too late. I could tell she wanted out and that she still loved me. No matter what she said that’s what her face read. And now the person I thought to one day be my wife has vanished from my life. And I lash out with emotional binge drinking and hard consumption of marijuana. I’m almost out of control. I’m at the control border and I'm clawing at the iron door snarling and gnashing my teeth with a foaming mouth. My eyes are no longer occupied by my normal baby browns but by two hollow shells of a black empty void. My legs are taken over with large pus rode stumps breaking into a sea of purple spider veins under bruised beaten skin. My arms are completely dead but my hands with knives for fingers have minds of their own texting and calling her and deleting and hanging up before completing either task. And my face is a mask of concrete. With a sole disgusted face, I don’t recognize. All I have now are the goals. To one day make movies. Internal pain is a perfect disaster for goal ridden morons such as myself. I guess in the end I got everything I wanted. I’m such a fool.

I recently just bought my first car mount from Rig Wheels. It uses 6 rubberized magnets that are actually quite reliable in high speed shots from a car. I’ve only tapped into part of this piece of equipments potential by limiting myself to just a car, but I see the true potential can actually be anything with magnets. A fence, a metal door, a metal staircase. This piece of equipment is rather amazing when it comes to the opportunities it delivers. 

Screen Shot of my beautiful girlfriend. I wanted to experiment with interesting framing. Really delving into Fincher here with this one I think.

Finally. I’ve been waiting for this 35mm lens that I ordered from China. Thing is so nice in low light, and it only cost me 29 dollars. The only grievance being that I had ordered it from China. Twas October 19th when I placed my card numbers into the procrastinating services that is DinoDirect. My fault. No updates. No curtsey emails. Nothing letting me know that this thing had been shipped. They offered a tracking number that only works (I found out) if you put it in the mail services tracker that will be shipping you your order. They never stated I had to do that at all on their site. Finally I figured this out after It finally hit November. I’m sitting here reading the shipping statement again. “25-30 business days for the US”. Okay it’s been a month. I look on their site and they put in the tiniest red font. “Due to Chinese holidays, all deliveries are postponed”... So I guess it took them an entire month to ship the freaking lens! How long is the Chinese new year? Good god. So I hit them with an email. “Hey! where the crap is this thing? It says you haven’t even shipped it yet”? They answer. “Dear Steven, due to the holiday ur package has been delayed. Pls be patient”. They told me to be patient when They didn’t even ship it yet! They can gladly take my money the day of me ordering it, but good god they can’t ship it yet. That’s what I get for buying a cheap lens. The funny thing is. The lens rules! it comes out with a really sharp crisp image. I filmed the above screen capture using nothing but my porch light. I threw on a little Lumetri color and the thing looks like something James Wan would have done. Here I am it’s December 20th, and I didn’t get this thing until December 10th. Can I say it’s worth it? I’ll let you know.

I made this short last year for the Holland Projects 3 minute film festival in Reno. I got first place!!! I wrote, directed, edited, and acted in it. My budget was 0. I just bought my Panasonic GH4 and had no money to make a film, but no way was that going to stop me.

I’m the kind of guy who needs certain things when I can’t afford them. I found this link to this site for some Dirty Lens Overlays. I’m not a hugeeee fan of these but every so often I find myself wanting to check these kinds of effects out on some shots. Here’s a link to some free ones. Boom

I went to the community college in Reno, Nevada. Truckee Meadows Community College. Not really a film program, but they did have graphic design. At first, I wanted to be a comic book artist. My love for comic reading/drawing is probably what led me to filmmaking in the first place. Due to the comic industry not existing in Reno the thought came across as “really reaching” for me. Besides I had found my true calling. So here I am now, 2 years later. I don’t know how I’ve come to particularly be in this industry but if I can say it in one word it’s “connection”. That, unfortunately is how it works in Reno, but I believe my skill set to be getting somewhat noticed and want a true film community to start here. I’ve met some amazing people so far who are willing to be on the same page. But I don’t want to end it here. I want to know other thoughts from everywhere. Here, on this blog I will share my ideas/ links to things I had questions on/ thoughts on this lifestyle. I’m a guy who has questions. I’m not a “Top Dog”, I’ve never had a film crew of more then 5 people. I usually never have a budget, but I still feel like i’m a success. I find success in everything I do. Filmmaking is never done a certain way. There are some rules to it, but finding ways around them is always the most interesting part to me. Take it or leave it. My information is strictly from my findings and my learnings. Some of it might be obvious but you never know (shrugs) you might learn something.