Fantasy casting is a reality for almost any filmmaking.

I’ve never really understood the allure of fantasy football or baseball.  I think my friends who speak with great passion about “their” players, trades, stats, are a teensy bit bat-shit.  But that’s just me.  I’m luke warm about sports unless I’m either playing them or watching them right at that second.  However, the world of film has its own version of fantasy football: Casting. (continue reading…)

Here’s a moment I love from Entry Level. Sam Beirstagen (Cedric Yarbrough) is Clay’s job counselor. Big help he is. (continue reading…)

“I just finished watching Entry Level and loved every minute of it.  Is there a soundtrack available?  If not, do you have a list of the songs and artists from the film?  I’d love to have it.”

– Chris

Thanks, Chris.  Making Entry Level was a labor of love for me and a lot of other people, so I always like hearing from people who enjoy it.

I get asked about the soundtrack a lot.  (Possibly my #2 question in film fest Q&As…right after requests for the Pear Tartlet recipie.)  Personally, I love the music from the film and feel very lucky that we got to use it.  Amine Ramer and Alexandra Matisse, the music supervisors, found around 60 truly amazing songs from independent artists for me to choose from to help create the mood of the film.  The proposed songs for the movie are still one of my favorite playlists on my iPod.   (continue reading…)

Here’s the trailer from Entry Level.

Entry Level is my first feature film.  Someone summed it up as. “An enjoyable comedy about job-seekers.”  Yep.  (I wouldn’t want to get a swollen head with all that praise.)

The film follows chef Clay Maguire (D.B. Sweeney) as he loses his restaurant, girlfriend, and self-respect, then tries to re-enter the workforce by going out on a bunch of job interviews.  (Not really the way to regain your self-respect!)  Along the way he meets other perennial job-seekers (Missi Pyle, and others).  He also gets ‘advice’ from his job counsellor (Cedric Yarbrough) and homeless pal (Kurtwood Smith).

Entry Level won awards for Best Picture and Best Screenplay at the Visionfest film festival.

My first feature, "Entry Level."

Entry Level stars D.B. Sweeney, Missi Pyle, Kurtwood Smith, Taylor Negron, Lisa Ann Walter, and Cedric Yarbrough.  Some real comedy greats–and I got to write their dialogue and direct them.  That was pretty much heaven as far as I’m concerned. 

I’ll probably be writing a lot more about various aspects of the film as this blog continues.  I wanted to get a quick description about the film up on the site.