A Quick Bio

I've been a filmmaker since my high school days. Well, I shot video back then, and I do again now, although now it is in the digi-cinema arena and back in the day we were rocking the VHS. I was going to head into quantum mechanics after high school but had a pretty significant event in my life - ask me about it sometime. That event made me realize that life's too short to not do what you're passionate about, so I changed direction and went into media and filmmaking.

I was the Production Manager for WTWO-TV, the NBC affiliate in Terre Haute, IN upon graduation from Indiana State University. I had directed the weekend newscasts and shot and edited corporate videos and commercials for the station as a part-timer while in school before running the department from 1990-94. While there I also created an educational children's show (Stepping Stones) that aired on Saturday mornings and actually won our time slot against national cartoon programming. But the best thing about being in the 'Haute - I met my wife at the MDA Telethon when I produced the show and she ran the local MDA.

After TV-2 I went back to school to earn my MA in Film and Video from The American University in Washington, DC. An excellent place. Can't recommend the university, program or city highly enough. I won a few awards for the films that I made and screenplays I wrote, including for Believe, my half-hour, 16mm thesis film. While finishing up film school I purchased a Media 100 editing system and started Good Morning Egg Productions, my film and video company. My wife and I moved back to the midwest, choosing Cincinnati as our new home, and GME flourished here for five years. I worked with big (P&G, AOL) and small (the Beechmont Automile, G&A Marketing) companies while keeping my hand in film work - I've edited five feature films (plus a few shorts) for directors other than myself. A few are on IMDb, but not all. I've since shuttered the decidedly for-profit GME in favor of a new non-profit venture (Red Thread Media) that focuses upon creating media with a message. That's still in-process.

In 2000 I started teaching adjunct for the Audio/Video Production program at Southern Ohio College (now Brown Mackie College) in Cincinnati. Doug Yeager, the current Associate Dean there, was on the AVP staff and had worked with me on a couple professional movie projects. I wanted to teach (it's why went back to film school) and when the Department Chair position opened up I was fortunate enough to get the job. A year later I was running the AVP, Accounting, Business Administration and CAD programs for SOC - but not teaching any more. An adjunct I had hired told NKU about me (she was a recent Norse grad) and a position that was open seemed to fit my talents and interests. I moved across the river in 2002 and have loved it ever since. I progressed from being a 'mere' assistant professor to officially coordinating what was then the Radio/Television program in 2005. In fall of 2007 we restructured the program to more accurately reflect the nature of media creation today and renamed ourselves Electronic Media & Broadcasting. In December 2007 I was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor, and on July 1, 2008 the department was given control of the campus television station, which I direct. Life is Good. Busy, but Good.

The biggest project I've headed up is the feature-length Alzheimer Project - a narrative/documentary piece on how Alzheimer's Disease affects the family. That's currently in narrative post and documentary production, with a completion goal of the summer 2009. I helped bring the 48 Hour Film Project to Cincinnati, and I produced that event in 2005, 2006 and 2007. I'm also one of the founders of the College Movie Festival - a wild moviemaking educational experience/competition between the Greater Cincinnati area media programs. In 2007 one of our NKU groups won the CMF - that movie is featured on the official EMB website. The '09 version of the CMF will include again grow, as more colleges as our 'circle of friends' expands out from the city a bit more. From these two film festival experiences I was asked to curate and direct the 2008 Film Fringe - part of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. The Know Theatre's annual celebration and exhibition of cutting edge theatre, art and performance placed the film component playing alongside the live theatre. It was successful - we doubled attendance from 2007. So we're trying it again in '09 with a new feature - a movies-made-for-the-Fringe event where filmmakers complete the phrase, "Life on the Fringe is...". We'll see how that goes.

My life involves much more than film - but that's a whole different kind of bio. :-) Join us, and I'll talk about that kind of stuff in class. Hope to see you on campus!