As the owner of a small production company, I spend most of my time turning other people's ideas into reality. TV commercials, marketing videos, corporate pieces ... I truly do enjoy the agency and client-direct work I do. After graduating from film school, I deliberately headed to a smaller market because - unlike my friends - I didn't like the idea of being a tiny fish in the huge oceans of N.Y or L.A. To a great extent, that strategy has worked for me. While my former classmates have worked on high-profile projects, their roles have been strictly below-the-line. I, on the other hand, mostly work on local and regional jobs, but I'm generally either director or DP, and have a great deal of creative freedom. Freedom instead of prestige: It's a tradeoff that has worked well for me.

But, I have to confess, somewhere deep inside me, there's always an itch. Usually, I'm not even aware of it. Sometimes, I feel it when I see a particularly beautifully-composed shot in a movie. Or, when I get drawn into the immersive and fascinating world of an unusually good episodic TV show. Most acutely, I feel it when I awaken from a vivid dream, and think, "Wow, I'd really like to shoot that." It's the filmmaking itch: the God-like desire to imagine a world, breathe life into it, and see it populated by interesting characters with intriguing lives.

Very often, I meet people who tell me that they have a script. Very good. But most of them have never shot their scripts, and never will. After all, to make something that really looks good costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or, at least, it used to.

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