I’ve been working on my documentary “Rolled” for the past ten months. It’s a full time job that I think about everyday, including on weekends and often in my sleep. Back in February I called my good friend Keegan Uhl (who is a director and has a kickstarter campaign you should watch) to get some advice from him as I started to push forward with Rolled. As I mentioned in the post “I’m Making A Documentary, It’s Called “Rolled” he said to me, “remember, when you make a documentary it never goes how you expect it to – don’t fight it, embrace the chaos.”

Four weeks ago I went down to LA to continue filming after a few month hiatus. I met with my good friend Drew Manning who has been helping me piece together the story of Rolled as it unfolds – or unravels. Use whatever imagery you’d like. Drew said something similar to Keegan, and it was good to hear again. “You make a movie three times. You write it, you film it, you edit it. Each time it becomes a different film then the last.” As we began filming I quickly realized that these two statements were going to be amplified for my film. This is why…

Rolled is about the legacy of a group of kids who have been toilet papering houses for over 30 years. I was in the group with my three dear friends, Kevin, Mike and Matt back in the late 90′s. I connected with them asking if they wanted to recount our experiences in the group, as we have a lot of stories to tell, and these three guys are especially good at telling stories. In addition to talking with them about our experiences, I wanted to meet the guy who started the group, which we did, and track down the current group to see how it’s holding up 10 years after we left it.

I got myself deep into the project very early on, filming those first interviews. All of this is explained in my Kickstarter campaign which was launched and successfully funded in August. As the video explains, all I had left to do was head down to LA to meet the kids who are currently in the group.

All I had to do… This is where I began to “embrace the chaos.”

After raising money on kickstarter my life went from moving at a Usain Bolt pace to a Looney Tunes Roadrunner pace (even faster.) A lot of good came out of raising the money. At that point people knew that I was going to be able to make the film. I was introduced to a very talented cinematographer, who brought on another camera op so we could do two camera shoots when needed. Serendipity would have me meet a great audio operator, and link up with several extraordinary production assistants, and a DIT (Digital Imaging Technician). I also got to spend several weeks in my home town staying with my parents and reconnecting with people I don’t normally get to see while I’m visiting over the holidays. But what I didn’t expect was what I found when I finally had the opportunity to meet the current group of kids.

Matt, Kevin and I had our first meeting with current high school group a while back (unfortunately for us, Mike lives in Amsterdam and was not able to join us.) I’m not at the point where I’m able to talk publicly about our first meeting, or the meetings that followed with the current group. I’ll say this though, It has changed the story. They were not bad interactions by any stretch of the imagination, they were just different then we had expected. They put me in a position to rethink the way we’ll be presenting the documentary. “You write it, you film it”, “embrace the chaos.”

There is more filming to come. The story is certainly still writing itself. But I have this to report. The footage so far is beautiful. The people I’ve been working with bring a talent and creativity that far surpasses what I ever could have hoped for. The direction the film is headed has given me the energy that I felt in January when this all began and again when it was funded in August. I’m riding a high that I wish I could share with everyone. I’m thankful for the few people that were with me to experience this past month. I’m excited by my new friends and colleagues. But most of all I’m overwhelmed with excitement in knowing for sure what I want to do for work and with my life.

Here are some images that I can share from shoots. You won’t learn much about where the story is going but at least you’ll see that we’re working.

Proof that I am alive. This was taken one of the days we shot.

Ricardo our DIT.

Matt and Kevin on one of our days together.

Andrew on audio, and Maren on everything important to make sure this all happens.

Chelsea Mayer, A huge help both with filming & just about anything else that needs to get done.

The very talented cinematographer, Mark Lester.