The other night I was at MATCH in North Hollywood, having drinks with client, friend, and Xanderhouse Productions Producer Cheri Waterhouse, discussing a project. While we were there I ran into an old collaborator, Shawn Michael Patrick, the star of Not Afraid!’s Viet Nam war drama, GLAZED.

I hadn’t seen Shawn in a few years and we had the quick opportunity to catch up. He had just finished his second to last sell-out performance of LADY, written and directed by Dirty Sexy Money creator Craig Wright. Shawn and the play have received good reviews from StageScene LA:

“Shawn Michael Patrick as Dyson and Matt Kirkwood as Kenny both give absolutely sensational performances. Patrick is dynamite with a burning fuse, and charisma which masks the damage that his repeated infidelity is causing his family.”

As well as Daily Variety. Not to mention the sell out crowds speak for themselves.

Shawn was a joy to work with on GLAZED, and since then his career has really flourished with parts on CSI, Entourage, Weeds, Brothers & Sisters, and most recently a recurring role on Dirty Sexy Money.

Congratulations Shawn, we applaud your work and wish you continued success.

Ever increasingly as the tools of our trade become more and more accessible, writers and directors (or writer-directors, or Preditors, or what have you) find themselves picking up the camera and shooting, or buying some inexpensive editing software and cutting their story themselves.  They might dabble in creating their own special effects.  They might do their own color-correction.  Then there are the up and comers who have never even conceived of what Hollywood might consider “film crew” and are comprised only of these jack of all trades people who just get it done.  So what do we call these people who can do it all?  I call them story-tellers.

As I said before, film-making is about collaboration with other story-tellers. Whether you wear one hat or many. Whether you tell your story through words, images, wardrobe, or special effects, we’re all there for a common goal: to make a film.  So don’t get bogged down by titles.  Let your writer try his hand at editing.  The edited film is the final re-write after all, and they could bring something new to the table you might not have guessed.  Listen to the ideas from your special effects technician.  Talk over character with your wardrobe person.  Try your own hand at an aspect of film-making you’ve never considered.  Let everyone cross pollinate their thoughts with the common goal of telling your story, and watch as it blossoms.

I am a story-teller. What do you do?

Some people consider film-making the art of the Auteur, and while new digital technologies are certainly making it possible for a single person to create a film all on his or her own, I don’t subscribe to the Auteur Theory. Film is a collaborative art. It always has been, always will be.  As I filmmaker and story-teller I rely on my collaborators to bring something to the table and help make our art better. Whether it’s a script review, edit notes, shot composition, production design, or of course an actors performance, the collaboration with another mind invariably elevates your material to a higher level.  People have ideas and will see things from perspectives and come from places you could never imagine.  That is the magic of film-making.  Those are the moments that drive me.  That surge of adrenaline when a collaborator off-handedly puts something in perspective for you after hours of banging your head against the wall.  The spark that keeps you going at 2AM when you’re on take 16 and your actor tries something new and the whole scene comes together.  Collaboration is key.