Little League - Gabe Hits Four in Loss

Gabe's new and improved swing is finally coming around. After weeks of tweaking his swing to incorporate his hips more, thereby giving him more power, he's finally starting to make consistent contact.

Tuesday night he went 4 - 4, with two line drives to the outfield and two strong hits through the infield. You can see the highlights HERE (you know the drill, big file, Internet Explorer).

In an otherwise typical night at the fields, we fought back, but ended up losing 13-9 to the Oldsmar Indians. Gabe pitched three-innings and struggled a bit, but for good reason. He's trying off-speed pitches (change-ups, no curve balls) during different counts... they require a different release point, so, like his swing, these additions to his pitching repertoire will offer some challenges at first, but we're hopeful he'll have it all worked out by All-Stars.

Sonlight Pictures Blog - Update

Don't forget to frequent the Sonlight Pictures Blog, where we're updating our progress on our first Christian short film called Club God.


The Club God short is scheduled to shoot this Saturday, May 3rd and stars Brian Shea and John Snell.


On the blog you can read about how to make Do-It-Yourself (DIY) lights and Props being used for Club God and future projects.


After Club God, we'll be shooting a six-part Christian web comedy series called Purgatory, USA. It's a very funny comedy about a young girl, Nikki (played by Dorothea Bauer) who must spend the summer with her flaky cousin, Babs (played by Tiffany Ross).

The Purgatory, USA script is already written and we've had a successful read-thru... we'll have more on that in a few weeks.

I'll be keeping the blog updated with all of our busy work this summer, so stop by and make the Sonlight Pictures Blog one of your favorites.

Fox News Promo - Update

So, as mentioned in our trip to New York City, while showing the kids the Statue of Liberty we were asked by some people from Fox News to participate in a pro-American promotion.

Well, about two weeks ago we got a call from the producer, Brad, asking us if we could send them some pictures and home videos they could incorporate them into our spot. Apparently there is going to be a website that shows all of these videos... Brad will let us know when its up and running.

So, this past week Dea and I scoured our old pics and old videos and picked out 50 pics and 20 video clips over the years that augment what we said during our interview. I put them on a DVD and sent them up to NY. Sending these personal memories off to Fox News certainly takes a fair bit of trust, but Brad had been a stand-up guy so far, so I'm confident they'll be used in a positive manner.

Can't wait to see the end results.

Little League - Games Continue, So Does Losing

The Cards finished up a three game tournament this past weekend, finishing 0-3. As a matter of fact, we were the only Safety Harbor team to go winless in the tournament. We could have won two of the games, but found ways not to do it. That's been our season.

This is the first season where I've seen a large portion of a team simply choose not to improve over the course of a season. It's not for lack of coaching or practice... they simply don't care enough to make the extra effort or to think ahead.

Frustrating for the few players who care and who are competitive.

Gabe's pitching went well and his hitting is finally coming around. The last game, from the left side he hit a line drive over the center fielder's head and got a single. The next at bat, on the right side, he hit the ball so hard we thought it was going to be his first home run, but it was caught at the fence by the center fielder. So there were some positives.

Gabe hates losing... really hates it. So, he's been really challenged being on a team with kids who don't share his drive. That's Little League, though. It's supposed to be more about fun than it is about winning.

So, we talk about it, saying the Lord is challenging him to lead by example through the tough times. By not giving up. By working hard. By staying positive.

And I shared my experiences with him... when I was in a kid I was on a Little League team that went winless one year. Right after that I played football and was on a team that went winless.

I remember asking my Mom why God won't let me win? She said, "Perhaps the Lord is preparing you for something later on in life."

And she was right. Not settling, not giving up... that's a strong part of who I am. It's what allowed me to handle the numerous rejections actors get in their careers. And what continues to drive me today.

So, it's tough for my son right now, but it doesn't mean the struggle will go to waste. I wonder what fruits this time in his life will bear years down the road.

Cloverfield (2008)

A long time ago... about ten years ago, I made a short film called Raw Footage. My directorial choice was to have the audience watch the film unfold as if they were watching the raw footage of a tape found at a crime scene. Where my story revolved around the murder and eventual killing of a news crew, Cloverfield revolves around the raw footage of a going-away party in NYC that ends up capturing the attack of something massive and mean.

Viewing Cloverfield on my fairly large movie screen in my house was hard to endure, at times, because the hand-held camera shaking was almost unbearable. Sure, the director had to show the kids running from the menace and that wouldn't entail smooth camera shots, but a little less verocity to the camera shake would have been nice. Normally, I wouldn't mention such a thing as directorial choice, but in this case it actually got in the way of me enjoying the story he was trying to tell.

The story itself is about a surprise going-away party for Jason Hawkins (Mike Vogel). The camera is manned by his brother Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and his best friend Hud (T.J. Miller) as they collect goodbye messages from the awaiting guests. Soon after Jason arrives and some personal drama unfolds between him and his girlfriend, who abruptly leaves, the party continues until the apartment shakes violently. The party goers rush onto the roof of the Manhattan building to see what is happening and find, in the distance, something destroying the city.

Jason receives a call from his trapped and injured girlfriend in her apartment across town. Unwilling to leave her behind, Jason, along with his brother and friends, head off to rescue her even though she lives directly in the vicinity of the creature killing everyone.

The story moves very quickly and the acting from a cast of relative unknowns works well enough. Despite the camera shaking, which lessens the impact of the film, the end result is an entertaining movie. If you're prone to motion sickness, car sickness or vertigo, I'd watch this film on a regular-sized television... or have a bag handy, just in case.

On a side note, the cool thing is that the camera I own, the Panasonic HVX200, was used to shoot many shots in this film.