Last time I was in San Francisco, I had the pleasure of spending a sunny afternoon with my pals, Jeremey & Abby Lavoi of Team Jaded, and Whit & Claire Scott… which was simply lovely. When I asked Jeremey if anything new and exciting was going on, he humbly told me that a film he and Abby had made was going to be screened at the Skateboard Film Festival in Seattle. So when they put it online, I watched it. And I liked it a lot. It’s visually awesome and a pretty cool story. Even if you don’t skateboard. Congrats on making it to the festival, amigos.
So, as it turns out, I totally lied in my last post. I do have internet. Though i’m still hoping that my guest writer will have something for you soon but in the meantime, here’s where I’m at…
I arrived in Santa Cruz two weeks ago to start the three weeks of Summer Drama Camp that I am in the midst of right now. My official job here is to teach a film-making workshop, alongside two other lovely and talented staff members, ‘Iceman’ and ‘Zula, and to capture documentary footage of the goings-on around camp. Note: we all have camp names… I am ‘Guatemala.’ But the overall experience of this camp goes far beyond that job description… I am, after all, living here for three weeks. And even though it can be pretty exhausting, it’s something I look forward to all year long and an experience for which I am incredibly grateful. Here’s why: The campers are creative, enthusiastic and highly talented. The staff here is made up of a group of people I admire, respect and love – many of which have become dear friends of mine over the last few years. Sometimes I look at the things going on around me and think, how did I get here? (The answer: Craigslist & a good interview). Basically, at the end of the day, even if i’m totally overwhelmed, I know that I am lucky to be here and am mostly just having a lot of fun!
That said, I am ultimately still here to make movies with my campers. So I thought I’d share with you what we’ve done so far… Last week I worked with seven campers to make a Western (inspired by the genre game we play on day one of the week) titled ‘The Return of Wild Willy.’ We had a lot of fun making it and I hope you agree it ended up being a pretty sweet film…
