current status: completed

PROJECT NEWS

6-22-04

Hitchhiker has been chosen as the winner of the Performing Arts - Filmmaking category of the 2004 Golden Key scholarship awards.

11-15-03

My name has been included onto the Internet Movie Database as being the director, cinematographer, writer, and editor of Hitchhiker. The names of the composers: Wendy Colonna, Kevin Bogle, and Matthew E. Hayes have also been added to the IMDB.  Michel Rubini, of course, already had been included before the creation of Hitchhiker because he has long been established in the industry.

11-10-03

An article about Hitchhiker (and me) has graced the pages of Lafayette, Louisiana's leading newspaper, The Advertiser. 

11-7-03

I drove down to Corpus Christi, Texas today and got to watch Hitchhiker on the big screen at the Edgeworks Short Film Fest along with nearly 300 other people crammed into the theater.  My film got not one, but two, rounds of applause for the beginning and end of the credits (most films only got one round).  Although I will admit Hitchhiker was not the very best film at the festival, I think having been a one-man crew, a teenager, and a budget of less than $150 says something.  On a more sobering note, I noticed more than ever the imperfections of Hitchhiker while watching it with a room packed with strangers who laughed at all the wrong parts.  But hey, at least I got'em to laugh, dammit.

11-2-03

Hitchhiker has been added to the Internet Movie Database.

10-23-03

Hitchhiker has been selected by the Edgeworks Short Film Festival to be screened on November 7, 2003!

9-17-03

HITCHHIKER TRAILER NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

Trinity University's user html site is finally back up and working... for now. This means that I can post the Hitchhiker trailer online for all to view.  (This also means that my second film, Waves of Fate, is also downloadable from its webpage.)

9-7-03

Today I made a second movie poster for Hitchhiker.

And here's a third poster.

8-24-03

I mailed off the entry tapes for the Slamdance, Santa Fe, and Olympia film festivals last week. I'm finishing up the entry form for Sundance today and should mail it off in a couple days.

As a side note, I've begun conceptualizing my next short film (yes, already), tentatively titled "The Tunnel".

I've also read the first hundred pages of Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without a Crew today.  Pretty inspiring stuff; it gives me hope after all.

8-14-03

Today I put together this nifty movie poster for Hitchhiker.

8-13-03

Hitchhiker now has financial backing! Thanks to Charles Richard of Bayou Boeuf Electric, the film will get submitted to at least a handful of film festivals around the country.

8-12-03

Hitchhiker is done! All editing, sound effects, mixing, etc. has been completed and I've already typed up a list of film festivals to submit Hitchhiker to. All that's left is to find distribution funds...

8-11-03

THAT'S A WRAP! After a day-long struggle against the weather gods, who drenched everything west of Lafayette, Louisiana for something like 500 miles, I managed to film the handful of shots that remained in the film. Was it chance or fate that I narrowly escaped the long-expected rain? As my film so professes, who knows? ... and does it matter? Regardless of the weather, top-rate footage was recorded and final editing begun.

As an added bonus to the day, www.FilmMakerMagazine.com has added Neverthought Films to their film sites list!

8-8-03

Filmed the final scene with Gerard, Chris, and Jenni on the dirt road. Only one more day of filming ahead.

8-6-03

Filmed Gerard and my Dad at Mel's Diner for the opening scene.

8-4-03

Constructed and edited the opening and ending credits.

I personally contacted Michel Rubini, the composer for the theme song of the 1980s/90s television show "The Hitchhiker", and received permission to use the song in my film. This ought to add a bit of nostalgic flair...

8-3-03

Shot Gerard running through the canefield. Things are really starting to come together in editing.

8-2-03

This was probably the craziest day yet. After filming Gerard and Chris risking their lives for the sake of film on the side of the highway, we proceeded to drive to the canefield to shoot more of another scene. As I attempted to pull over on the side of the road, I failed to notice that a large thicket of grass covered a ditch of about two feet lower that the adjacent roadside. Needless to say, my car soon discovered a new resting place. With my car at a forty-five degree angle on its side, Gerard attempted to call his insurance company, which he thought would be able to pull my car out free of charge. Not so. Having lived in Canada for a large portion of his life, Gerard believed that basic towing and pulling services (such as would be used frequently in snow banks) would be just as available here. This was not the case. Before I had to cough up some money to get a tow truck out in the middle of the canefield to pull my car out, a truck happened to pass by and offered to help. With a towline attached to the back of my car from his truck, he successfully yanked my car out of the ditch. But the peril did not end here! I had been flooring my car in reverse to help get it out, and once it was out, it wanted to keep on moving backwards... right towards the other truck. With reflexes like lightning, I slammed on the breaks mere inches from the other truck's backside. The day had been saved and the shoot could continue once again.

8-1-03

Shot a few "filler" shots of Chris and his truck.

7-30-03

Updated the look of the Cast and Crew pages.  Also made it easier to contact me... if you so desire... by putting my email on the Crew page and on the Neverthought Films homepage.

7-29-03

Really big update to the SCREENSHOTS page!

I filmed some shots of Dustin (the bad guy, a.k.a. "Bobby") running around in the canefield and firing his fake gun. Unfortunately, my tripod broke after it was screwed down too tightly and fell. Bummer... Dustin got cut up pretty badly running through the cane as well. On the bright side, the footage shot today looks fantastic. I even spent some time in "post" today adding a flare to the gun when it is fired.

7-28-03

Reshot the hood mount scene, this time with audio. Filmed Gerard and Chris talking inside the truck one at a time. Finally, I shot the sun setting (to be sped up later). Working into the early hours of Tuesday, I edited everything into one long dialogue scene.

7-27-03

Filmed Gerard walking through the cane and on the dirt road.

7-26-03

Filmed parts of the walking montage scene along the side of the highway in front of Mel's Diner. Got some strange looks from inside the restaurant and two police cars even watched Gerard and me from an adjacent parking lot. No confrontations, though, so all is well. Upon reviewing the footage, Gerard's thumb was only mere inches away from roaring 18-wheelers. At least it'll look realistic.

7-25-03

Filmed some of the truck ride scene which involved the implementation of a hood mount.  To avoid window glare yet have the actors well-lit, I had to shoot with a clear sky while the sun neared the horizon in the afternoon.  Anything else would result in the actors being hidden behind a shield of light.  A couple screenshots have been uploaded.

7-24-03

The scene shot yesterday has been edited and SCREENSHOTS have been added to the website.  I've had trouble getting my computer to correctly capture DV AVI files, but I managed to capture low-quality MPEG movie files from the camcorder so I can at least edit a rough cut.

7-23-03

At around 1AM in the morning, the storyboard was finally completed and ready for the day ahead.

A revised screenplay (third draft) was typed up at around 8AM, cast meets at 9.

First day of shooting is successful.  Although I was not able to film as many shots as I would have liked because of talent availability constraints, the end product nonetheless looks good. 

Because the scenes involved Gerard's character getting "shot", fake blood made of ketchup and corn syrup was used to illustrate his wound.  A few cars passed us while we were filming on a road and promptly called the police, inventing stories to explain what they saw: A man (Gerard) and woman (Jenni) supposedly had gotten into an argument and the man was shot and bleeding while another person (me) was seen with papers (the script) and the assumption was made that the matter was about a legal matter gone awry in the canefield.  After a short interrogation from an amused police trooper, we returned to the task at hand.

7-22-03

I plan to finish drawing the storyboard tonight in preparation for tomorrow's FIRST DAY of shooting.

Finished building the inverting bracket for my homemade steadicam. This will enable fancy moving camera angles near the ground.

7-21-03

Rented a Sony VX2000 from the South Louisiana Community College. (Alvin Henry was too difficult to recontact.)

7-16-03

Half of the storyboard has been drawn comprising the first two scenes.

Mr. Alvin Henry, a professional lighting gaffer and film production instructor, has offered to secure the production of Hitchhiker with a high-end miniDV camcorder. (Because, can you make a movie without a camera? Hmmm...)

7-13-03

Story synopsis added.

7-12-03

The Hitchhiker website gets a new look!

7-11-03

Casting completed for all characters.

7-10-03

Second draft of screenplay written.

7-9-03

Neverthought Films is on the map! www.neverthoughtfilms.com is now registered, but there now seems to be a pesky banner that won't go away.

Fixed the banner problem by rerouting to a secondary title page.

7-8-03

The story has been finalized and the preliminary screenplay completed.

Majority of casting completed.

Shooting locations have begun to be scouted.

7-5-03

This film is currently in preproduction.  The story has changed several times and will probably change again before filming actually begins.  Filming should be finished by mid August and postproduction completed by October 2003.

Updates to come in the near future.