1. When and why did you decide to be a filmmaker?

I've been in love with movies for as long as I can remember, but it took a while for me to realize that there was a process behind making a film. During my sophomore year of high school, I took an after-school video editing class with a friend and started to get interested in the post-production side of things. We shot and edited short pieces that usually resembled something you might see on the evening news, but it was the first time I had access to a camera and editing equipment (this was back in '96 so we only had linear, deck-to-deck editing equipment).

Around that same period, I saw Clerks and Brother's McMullen for the first time, and after watching those films I said to myself, "I can do that." It was the first time I had seen a film without the 'gloss' of Hollywood and I could see how they were cutting corners and using what they had available to them to make the film. Even though I was shooting on video, what I was shooting didn't look all that different from those two films. After that I rented everything I could get my hands on that looked low-budget. I was renting five or six videos a week. I accidentally started watching films from the 70s and once I saw Five Easy Pieces I was sold on being a filmmaker.

2. What do you think makes a great director?

I'm not sure. I can tell you what makes a bad director... directors who scream on set. Nothing destroys a film quicker than a director who loses control of his emotions. Once a director does that the cast and crew aren't trying to make a great film... they're trying to avoid angering the director. Keep the tantrums for later after you've gone home.

3. What is the most helpful book you've read on filmmaking? What is the most helpful behind-the-scenes special feature you've seen?

Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices by Rick Schmidt is probably the best book on filmmaking that I've read. There are hundreds of books on how to write a screenplay but they should be read and then never looked at again. Schmidt's book goes through low-budget filmmaking step-by-step by someone who has made low-budget films. When was the last time Syd Field or McKay sold a script? And now that we've entered the 21st century there are numerous websites and blogs that contain just as much great information. The one other book I would recommend is Writing Short Films by Linda Cowgill. She does a wonderful job of laying out the differences between short film scripts and features.

As a director I like watching any special feature that allows actors to talk freely about what they like and don't like. Dinner for Five on IFC is a good resource because most of the guests on that show are actors, and they do start talking about their process and what they don't like about directors. For my money, and again, this isn't really a special feature, but the best thing to watch is A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies.

4. Do you feel it's necessary to go to film school? Did you have any traditional education or training in this industry?

I don't think you have to go to film school, and now with so many resources available to everyone, I think the need to go isn't as great. However, I would recommend film school for no other reason than you will meet a lot of other people that have the same passion for film as you. You are instantly exposed to a pool of talent that you may not have had access to. You have access to free equipment and instructors who want to help you learn. And more importantly, you get to make short films that you can screw up but still get a passing grade on so you're not wasting thousands of dollars with no reward. At least, you're getting an education out of it.

I went to Webster University in St. Louis, and have tried to stay clear from doing PA work. I had a bad experience with an MTV shoot that came through here during the summer of 2001 and swore I wouldn't crew for anyone, other than friends, from then on out.

5. What are the most difficult challenges you've faced as a filmmaker and why?

Funding has been the most difficult part of the whole process for me. When I shot my thesis film I decided that I wanted to shoot it on Super16 and so it took a long time to raise the money to actually do that. Luckily, I won a Kodak film grant along the way, but it took another year after getting that grant to finally raise enough money to fund the project, and it only happened when one of the academic advisors at Webster was able to figure out a way to get a student loan to cover the remaining budget.

6. What are your favorite films and why?

There are several films that I would consider my favorites, and those are the one I would watch on any format, anytime. They would be Klute, Days of Heaven, Carnal Knowledge, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and The Apartment. I think Jane Fonda gives one of the best performances I've ever seen in Klute. She has complete control over her character in that film. In addition to Fonda's performance, Klute has one of my favorite moments in film... towards the end when Fonda and Sutherland's characters are shopping at a fruit stand. It's hard to do the scene justice with a description, but it's a perfect example of "show and don't tell."

7. Who are your favorite directors and why?

Terrance Malick, Altman, Hal Ashby, and Alan J. Pakula.

8. Who are your favorite actors and why?

Elliott Gould, Faye Dunaway, Jack Lemon, and Julie Cristie. More recently, probably Maria Bello, and Paul Schneider.

9. Why did you choose Texas Snow as your first feature?

I was working on a new script that quickly became bloated and I had no idea what the story was about anymore. Around this time I realized I was nearing two years since I had directed my last project. While submitting my thesis film to festivals I had written two scripts that would be impossible to self-finance so I ripped out a storyline from the bloated script and sat down to rewrite it with the intention of directing it over the summer. What emerged was Texas Snow.

10. How did you finance it?

I wrote the script with the intention of keeping the budget under $2,000. When it was over, I applied for a new credit card with a $2,000 limit and just used that. My back up plan was to shoot every other weekend so I could use my paychecks to finance the film. I just decided that I was going to make the film no matter what and found a way to pay for it.

11. How did you find your actors and crew?

I placed an ad on the St. Louis Filmwire and on the St. Louis audition page for actors to send in their headshots. Everyone except for Libby (whom I worked with on my thesis film) was found through a casting call.

The crew was extremely small and I'm friends with Keith and Rob (DP and Producer respectively). We only needed a few additional people over the course of the shoot. We never had more than four crew members, but normally, it was three.

12. Do you think it's important to make some short films before tackling a feature? Why or why not?

There are certainly enough examples of filmmakers who haven't made short films before tackling a feature so I don't think filmmakers need to; however, if you've never directed it does give you a feeling for what production is like on a much smaller scale and financial risk. Most of the better directors working today made short films before going on to a feature.

13. As far as filmmaking, what do you think Missouri offers that other places don't?

I think we have a lot of talented people who are willing to work for nothing more than a meal and a free DVD to help you get your film made. That being said, I'd like to see the Missouri Film Commission more involved in fostering Missouri filmmakers locally. None of my emails to the Missouri Film Commission are ever answered and I've talked to several people who have had this same experience. The state of Texas offers $150,000 worth of grants to their local filmmakers each year and I'd love to see a similar program here in Missouri.

14. Do you have any tips for keeping actors comfortable and happy?

I try to keep everything on set very calm and easy going. I also put in a lot of effort to be prepared for the scenes we're shooting and to know how they fit into the rest of the film. I hope that by having this understanding the actors will sense that and feel like they're able to take more chances with their performance.

15. How do you get ideas for writing?

I will keep a notebook or a file on my computer that contains notes and ideas for a script. Usually it's a phrase, a word, or a line of dialogue and that will lead to an idea. I try to take that idea and write ten or fifteen pages as quickly as possible to get it out of my system and to see what the idea looks like on the page. This initial burst is always terrible, and that's why I try to get it out of my system. While in my head the idea sounds great, but once it's on the page, I can see that there's still a lot of work to do. I'll file that idea away and come back to it every once in a while with new notes. Last year I finished a script based on a five-year-old idea. It wasn't until I changed the Hero from a man to a woman that the story fell into place, and once it did, I was able to finish the first draft rather quickly. That first draft wasn't very good, but the spine was there so the revisions were easy.

16. What is the most important piece of advice you'd give an aspiring filmmaker?