A lot’s happened since my last post:

PUTTY HILL has been playing strong throughout the US; we’re preparing for a wide release in France through ED Distribution (supported by ACID, it opens in Paris theatres September 7th); I was part of a group show at the Baltimore Museum of Art and won Maryland’s prestigious Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize; I attended the Robert J. Flaherty Film Seminar last month on a fellowship; I broke my right arm.

But the most important and exciting thing happening in my world right now is the feature film we’re shooting in Baltimore August 1st, I USED TO BE DARKER

Once again, we’re cobbling together investments and using Kickstarter to launch a very time-sensitive campaign.

My producers and I wanted to craft a campaign that pushed beyond what we’d done with our successful effort to finish PUTTY HILL in 2009. In a typically impulsive decision, I decided to make a bold gesture and shoot a video that would demonstrate my commitment to this project. I told no one but my student intern, Clayton Lee, we shot and edited it in less than three hours, and launched it the following day.

Will it be successful? I certainly hope so. We’re asking for $40K, three times more than we set out to raise for PUTTY HILL, but already, in three days, we’re close to 15% of what we need to meet our goal. Our hope is to have enough money in place mid-way through production to push it into the can.

I USED TO BE DARKER is a project co-written by partner Amy Belk, starring musicians Ned Oldham (brother of Will and Paul) and Kim Taylor, as well as very-talented newcomers Deragh Campbell and Hannah Gross. It will be shot by my good friend Jeremy Saulnier, who DP’d both my previous features, and will combine many of the same crew and collaborative team behind PUTTY HILL with some new friends, like Amy Dotson and Nomadic Independence Pictures.

I feel a bit like I’m playing chicken with a freight train, pushing ahead without all our financing in place; but at this point, two weeks out, I won’t back down. I may not have an abundance of talent or even great luck, but I don’t give up, and I’d like to think that goes a long way.