I've always wanted to be a filmmaker, but I don't have any of those classic childhood stories where I went and borrowed my parents Super 8 camera and got my friends together so we could recreate our favorite movies.

 

What I do have is this photo of me from elementary school, looking uncomfortable; dressed as Steven Spielberg for what I imagine was some sort of "who's your hero" type of project we had to do. What's missing is the iconic Spielberg beard, which I did have (created by my Mom via an eyeliner pencil) but was promptly removed after my classmates made fun of me, which had led to a bit of crying on my part that convinced my teacher that it was best to just wash it off.

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Despite that childhood set back, today I'm a writer and director working for Reference, a creative studio specializing in technology driven approaches to commercial arts, as well as one of the founders of From The Garage Productions, a collective of artists with the focus of creating original narrative films.

 

I also have a real beard now, which is nice.