Screenplay Writing

During the last few weeks at my job for the LDS Church, I have been writing and writing. My boss (a producer) left to Brazil to direct a ten episode T.V. series for BYU-TV. He asked me to take over for him while he was gone. He was in the middle of pre-production, so that what I've been doing.

I've spent time coming up with concepts for youth curriculum videos. Lucas had three major general conference talks to create videos for. My process has been the following:

1. Read and listen to the talk.
2. Put everything on paper that I can possible think of.
3. Listen to the talk again.
4. Come up with a proposal.
5. Present it to a couple of other producers to get their feedback.
6. Revise.
7. Review and revise.
8. Finalize.
9. Pitch the idea in the meeting.

For one particular video, I have come up with four or five proposals (each having multiple variations). Writing is harder than you think! I have pitched or sent my proposals to the leaders in charge of approving them.

Finally, I have started to write screenplays for them. I use a software called Celtx, which I love and started using at Davis High School back when the software was free. I'm so glad Mrs. Greenwood suggested it for her students. Luckily, I have retained my free subscription. I do not believe it is free any longer.

Anyway, to make a long story short, writing is harder than I thought. I have found when I put all my thinking power into something and then take a break, that's when the good ideas come. I have also discovered that making writing a collaborative effort and getting feedback only improves your story! I am thinking of more creative ways to tell the story. Think about showing your audience, not telling them!

The End.

Wedding Video

This is a video I produced for my wedding reception. I edited this, but a big thanks goes out the photographer, Brittany Cascio. You can click here to see her blog. Also, my good friends, Jackson Danluke and William Hunt helped to film my proposal.

Student Film

It was really fun to help my friend Jackson Daneluk on student project he is producing. The script is really intriguing and thought provoking. He actually used an old film camera. No battery powered digital cameras this time. It was fun to see how that worked. Slowly I've been learning more and more about cinematography from him: aperture, focus, filters, light color, and intensity, etc. It's all been fantastic. I enjoy helping my friends and I hope his project turns out well!

They Changed My Title!

Looking through my deal memos (work contracts for the Media Services Department The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), I noticed that a couple of them listed me as "Post Production Editor." It's crazy! Most of my time spent working for the Media Services Department these days has been spent editing. I love it!

The following is a list of things I have worked on as an editor lately: A video about a mission president in Hawaii, a video about LDS Philanthropies, a video about Catholic Nuns, a video about Peter the Apostle, and a series of video about working the Church different departments. These videos have been for BYU-Hawaii, the Mormon Channel, Faith Counts, and the HR Department of the Church. I've also been able to work under a lot of amazing producers and I've edited on Final Cut Pro X and Premiere Pro CC. It's been a fun last month!

Being a Production Coordinator

I had the great opportunity to do some production coordinating and set dressing for a video commercial. The producer knew my work from a couple of other projects I had worked on and called me to work on the piece. It took a lot of time and I was able to do a lot of things. I helped with everything from location scouting, scheduling, creating the call sheets, to coordinating actors and crew members. Here are some pictures from the shoot.

My good friends Alex Thompson and Jackson Daneluk helped me. Jackson was having some fun and decided to put on our statue of liberty costume that we purchased as a prop. It was a fun shoot and a great group of people! Alex is in the picture above that and is holding the clapperboard. Both are hard workers and both are actually interested in screenplay writing. I have read scripts that both of them have worked on and I think both of them have a lot of potential. I would recommend both of them for other projects!

Here are a couple more pictures from the shoot.

Three Commercials For Weber's Career Services Center

Here are three videos I produced over the summer for Weber State's Career Services Center. There will be more videos to come soon. To be updated on what is to come, visit the Career Services Website by clicking here. Be sure to also like their Facebook page! To find out more about the making of these videos, click here.

Call for Actors and Extras

Did you miss your chance to be an extra in the last commercial shoot I did? Well, don't miss your chance now. If you're interested, please fill out this form. Production is going to be on Friday September 19th and Saturday September 20th. Lucas James McGraw is the Producer! It's going to look great. Lucas has Produced YouTube videos (e.g. Mormon Messages) that have gotten hundreds of thousands of views.

Click here if you're interested!