Filmmaking
This article offers an overview of my filmmaking, detailing both current and past projects along with my contributions to each. If you are curious about the progress of the projects I'm currently working on, please visit the current projects page.
"I believe that filmmaking - as, probably, is everything - is a game you should play with all your cards, and all your dice, and whatever else you've got. So, each time I make a movie, I give it everything I have. I think everyone should, and I think everyone should do everything they do that way." - Francis Ford Coppola
History
Acting class circa 2008. I'm on the right at 22 years old with my scene partner Jason.
Childhood to High School (1995-2005)
I've been involved with filmmaking since childhood, around the ages of 9 to 11, when a friend and I used a VHS camera to create news reports and tell stories with action figures. It wasn't until high school however that I rediscovered my passion, culminating in my senior thesis project, a slasher film called Bite about a mysterious student who was biting people at my high school. I'm currently searching for my copy of this film so that I can upload it and we can all undoubtedly cringe at it.
College Years (2006-2011)
Longtime friends and collaborators from CSUMB—Casey, Erica, Mark, Me, and Nick—circa 2010.
I then attended Cosumnes River College to take business classes, but ended up disliking debits and credits so much in my accounting class that I pivoted to video making and acting. While most videos from that time no longer exist (the DV tapes are mega toast, RIP to my first music video starring my best friend Johnny), several acting clips were preserved online on my Iceofdoom YouTube channel.
Continuing my college studies at CSU Monterey Bay, I dug deeper into filmmaking, gaining a formal education and meeting most of my current filmmaking friends who have worked with me on many productions throughout the years. Notably, in 2010, I teamed up with Casey Poma to create a comedic and mostly improvised web series called Grape Flavored Waterslides. I also completed my capstone/thesis film, a documentary short about my sister titled A World of Her Own," and with this film graduated in 2011.
Casey Poma and Ralph Blanchard of Cat cat Productions pictured behind the scenes, collaborating on a film script while enjoying a mixed drink.
Post-College LA Years (2012-2018)
After Monterey, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue opportunities in the industry and ended up primarily working in the Art Department for short films. Later, I worked full-time in Rights and Clearance for Reality TV. During this period, Casey Poma and I founded Cat Cat Productions, producing nine short films and various YouTube-style videos. Additionally, with my friend Nick, we created "Her Face" under Big Sword Fight Productions, marking my notable solo project outside of Cat Cat Productions, though most of my college friends, including Casey assisted in its creation.
Graduate School and Present (2018-)
The crew of Custodial Arts after wrapping on set.
Returning to college at SDSU after my time in Los Angeles working in reality TV, I pursued a Master's Degree in filmmaking with the aim of teaching at the college level. During this time, I maintained collaborations with friends from CSUMB and co-founded Pathetic Productions alongside new colleagues like Matt Benson and Lucas Williams. Together, we've produced several short films and a web series. Graduate school not only honed my technical skills but also bolstered my filmmaking style and confidence in expressing my creative voice. Today, I continue to be a filmmaker while working in educational technology at the University, where I also teach a genre-specific class.
Noteworthy Filmography
This is not a comprehensive list of projects, but rather a selection of some of my more noteworthy endeavors during different eras of my filmmaking journey.
Some descriptions below include a "More info" This is dope, right? hoverable item that reveals additional information about the project.
Early Filmmaking 2005-2011
| Year | Title | Work | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Bite | Short Film | Writer, Director, and Camera | A slasher horror film about a mysterious biter at my High School. Created as my senior project film an opening my renewed interest in filmmaking. |
| 2009 | The Pen | Short Film | Writer and Director | Produced as my first short film for an introductory production class in film school. |
| 2010 | Grape Flavored Waterslides | Web Series (7 episodes) | Co-Creator, Co-Writer, and Actor | A comedic web series, collaboratively created with Casey Poma as a precursor to further joint projects. |
| 2010 | Marty, A Very Special Duck | Read Along Book Video | Writer and Director | Conceived for my final project in a Sound Design class, sparking my passion for sound design. |
| 2011 | Digits | Short Film | Writer and Director | My first short film where I felt I truly honed my directing skills, for the TAT 341 Directing class. |
| 2011 | A World of Her Own | Short Film | Director and Co-Editor | A documentary exploring my sister Patri's life and its impact on our family, serving as my capstone/thesis film and one of the first times I felt vulnerable with what I had created. |
Cat cat Productions Era 2012-Present
For a more detailed list of media created by Cat Cat Productions, please see this page.
| Year | Title | Work | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Die-ing Pan | Trailer | Co-creator and Actor | A proof of concept trailer for a feature length film Cat cat will one day make about a killer frying pan. First project for Cat cat Productions! |
| 2013 | HOnTed Dog | Short film | Co-creator and actor | Cat cat's first horror short film and the start of using food puns to motivate the title and plot of our narratives. |
| 2013 | Old Saint Dick | Short film Series | Co-creator and actor | Cat Cat's inaugural Christmas Special introducing the Saint Dick character. The series includes subsequent sequels inspired by Ernest movie titles: Old Saint Dick 2: Saint Dick Goes to Jail (2014) and Old Saint Dick 3: Slam Dunk Saint Dick (2016). |
| 2014 | Apple Die | Short film | Co-creator and actor | The food puns continue as does the horror. Features the first fight scene in Cat cat history! |
| 2015 | U.Ph.O | Short film | Co-creator and actor | Initiated Cat Cat's homage to film and film director's era with a 1960s Sci-Fi B-movie, becoming our most watched film on YouTube, marking a shift in style and narrative. |
| 2016 | Salmonrai | Short film | Co-creator and actor | An homage to Samurai films and Akira Kurosawa, showcasing a leap in cinematography and quality while maintaining Cat Cat's signature silliness. |
| 2017 | Yeehawbanero | Short film | Co-creator and actor | Tackling the Spaghetti Western genre, our award-winning film, demonstrates our love for Sergio Leone films. It's also our only film to have been on a streaming service (so far). More info. It remains our only award-winning film to date, having won Best Western Comedy Short and Best Comedy awards at the Wild Bunch and Sunnyside Up Film Festivals in Arizona and Oklahoma, respectively. It was also selected for The Billy the Kid Film Festival in Texas and was a finalist for the Wild West Film Festival in Vacaville, California. For a brief period, the short film streamed on Great American Westerns, a now-defunct platform for Western genre films. |
| 2022 | The Brat Snack | Short film | Co-creator and actor | Our most ambitious project to date, inspired by John Hughes' 80s teen comedies. Edited over two years. Currently in the festival circuit, premiering at Planet 9 Film Festival and recently screened internationally in Austria at the Willlachen Comedy & Satire Film Festival. More info. This Cat Cat project features the most characters and longest runtime (33 mins). Filming began in 2020 and wrapped up two years later due to extensive editing and added visual effects work. Between juggling film school and jobs, this project took considerable time and a toll on our emotions. I'm grateful to Casey for his hard work and dedication on this project. I think in this project you can also see how far we have both come as actors. |
Art Department and Reality TV Era: The Paying Work Years 2012-2017
| Year | Title | Work | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-2016 | Short Films and Music Video | Art Department Projects | Graphic Designer, Set Dresser, and Art Director | During this period, I contributed to various projects in the Art Department, gaining experience and making significant connections. Notable projects included a thesis film at AFI Film School led and a music video featuring YouTuber Trisha Paytas. More info. Notably, I served as Graphic Designer and Set Dresser for my first film outside of film school Dr. Gutman's Eulogy, part of a thesis project at AFI Film School led by Lauren Fitzsimmons, a successful Production Designer who has since sadly passed away. I gained valuable experience during this time, truly understanding how bigger indie productions worked and made significant connections, including working alongside Carly. Another memorable project during this time was serving as Art Director for a music video featuring YouTuber Trisha Paytas called "Showtime." I distinctly recall a mishap with breakaway glass (sugar glass bottles) I left in the car and melted, requiring the actor to handle them carefully to conceal their deformities from the audience. It was quite an experience. Needless to say I never worked as Art Director again. |
| 2013-2017 | Reality TV Productions | Post-Production | Post PA, Assistant Post Production Coordinator, Clearance Coordinator, and Clearance Supervisor | I worked in Reality TV on various productions, gaining valuable experience and accumulating memorable stories. Highlights include my favorite projects like Vet School(2015) and Big Giant Swords(2015), and a Made for TV movie Dead of Winter: The Donner Party (2015). More info. While in LA to pay rent and fund my personal projects, I worked in Reality TV on various productions. I started as a Post-Production PA and worked my way up to Rights and Clearances. It was definitely an interesting time in my life, but I'm happy to be working in education now. My first show was Preachers' Daughters in 2012 for the Lifetime network, and I concluded with Little Women Dallas in 2017, also on Lifetime. |
Solo Projects and Graduate School Era 2015-2019
| Year | Title | Work | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | The Adventures of Chiro and Urg | Web Series (2 episodes) | Co-creator, actor, and Cinematographer | Created for boomsalad.com, combining live actiong wiggling-object animation, a technique further developed in My Little Robot Son. |
| 2015 | Murphy Ranch Swing | Min-doc / Art Installation | Producer, Voice Over, and B-Cam | A collaboration documenting an art installation of a swing in a now-nonexistent location, marking a unique project with friend and Cat cat collaborator Dan Hampton. |
| 2017 | A Series of Questions | Short Documentary Film | Creator | A personal documentary capturing several moments with my nephew Richard, with plans for a sequel reflecting our evolving relationship. |
| 2018 | Apparition Hunters | Short Film | Co-Writer and Actor | Produced during a 48-hour film festival with the CSUMB group, winning awards for best writing and use of character. |
| 2018 | Warp Out | Short Animated Film | Writer and Animator | My first venture into 3-D animation and short film production during Graduate School. |
| 2018 | Absolved | Short film | Writer and Director | My debut live-action film in Graduate School, showcasing evolving quality and storytelling, and screened at the San Diego Film Week Festival. |
| 2019 | Her Face | Short Film | Co-Writer and Director | A supernatural thriller/horror film inspired by my sister, filmed in 2016, and involving friends from CSUMB. First true project outside of Cat Cat Productions after undergrad in collaboration with Nick Gustafson. Premiered internationally and received recognition at several film festivals. More info. This project, which began production in 2016, took three years to complete in post-production. Despite making several mistakes, I'm proud of it and learned invaluable lessons that prepared me for my return to filmmaking in Graduate School. It is the only film released under Big Sword Fight Productions (so far), in collaboration with frequent partner Nick Gustafson. The film premiered at the Oaxaca Film Festival in Mexico, where we attended in person and did a Q&A. It also screened at Austin After Dark, Horror Films in Hotlanta, and the Oregon Scream Week Horror Film Festival, where it won Best Actor for Aaron Talavera. |
| 2019 | (UN)PAUSED | Short film | Writer and Director | A pivotal qualifier fillm in graduate school, involving old and new connections from CSUMB and SDSU, that won Best Graduate Film at the SDSU Filmmakers Showcase. It was my first time working with an animal on a film, specifically Erica's pet dog, Mars (RIP). |
Pathetic Production and Post Grad Era 2019-Present
| Year | Title | Work | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Custodial Arts | Short film | Actor | Part of the first efforts of newly formed Pathetic Productions, where I focused solely on acting. One of the most enjoyable experiences in Graduate School, collaborating with Matt Benson, Sean Brandt, and Lucas Williams. More info. While we had collaborated before under our own names and have since rebranded some of those collaborations as Pathetic Productions, Lucas, Matt, and I first worked together on his Midway project The Dinner Party (2019) about a dinner party turned violent diaster for which I served as his Assistant Director and at the time was dealing with a hernia. A group of filmmaking enthusiasts—Matt Benson, Sean Brandt, Lucas Williams, and Kyle Deguzman—formed Pathetic Productions in 2019. Our debut film created under this moniker was a comedy short called Give & Toke, where I served as Assistant Director to Kyle. However, Custodial Arts stands out as one of the few films where I focused solely on acting. |
| 2019 | Going Up? | Short film | Writer and Director | My official entry into Pathetic Productions, also directing a child actor for the first time. The film featured a cameo by Lucian from Custodial Arts, hinting at the Pathetic Universe. Awarded Best Actress for Kate at the SDSU Emerging Filmmakers Showcase. More info. Directing a child actor presented a unique challenge as the script required her to chew copious amounts of gum. Little did I know, the sugar alcohols in sugar-free gum have a laxative effect when consumed in large quantities. I still feel pretty bad about this, but she as quite the trooper. |
| 2020 | Gotta Sign For It | Short film | Co-creator and actor | A pandemic-era horror collaboration with Matt Benson, featuring my acting and directing for my Sound Design class. Carly assisted as camera operator, and the film screened at San Diego Quarantine Film Festival and GENiUS Ultra Short Film Festival in Los Angeles. More info. Due to the pandemic, Matt recorded the voice of the unseen villain remotely, and I acted and directed myself in our apartment, pretending to hear it. Carly was cinematographer! |
| 2021-?? | My Little Robot Son | Web Series | Co-creator and Actor | An ongoing project starting as a pandemic-era homework assignment, evolving into my thesis for film school, and now continuing as an 8-episode mini web series. Aiming for distribution across all video and social media platforms, it's my most ambitious project to date under Pathetic Productions. |
Acting
Looking back, I've been involved in a considerable amount of acting in my own productions and those of my friends. Secretly, it's one of my favorite roles on a film set, alongside writing and directing. While I seldom act exclusively (with the exception of Custodial Arts), I have recently taken on roles in my friends' films as well.
| Year | Title | Work | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Born Again | Short film | Actor | Directed by Andrew Norbek. I deliver a dramatic monologue in this short film, a performance I'm particularly proud of. |
| 2021 | Heart of a Cheetah | Short film | Actor | Directed by Lucas Williams, this Pathetic Production features my largest acting role to date as Ralph (I know, right?), an introverted recluse with dreams of becoming a cheetah. It challenged me to portray a character very different from myself, showcasing vulnerability and taking risks in my performance. |
| 2023 | The Professor | Feature Film | Actor | Directed by Ron Najor. I played a small role as the literary agent to a writer character, marking my debut in a feature film. |
