Late in pre-production I received  inquiries about adding  additional crew members. I was getting a bit leery of adding more people since I prefer to travel light in order to  keep a small footprint on assignments. My  response was  no, but  that changed when one university student worked his magic to persuade me to at least hear him out.  After some back and forth Facebook messaging (I guess that is what kids do these days in lieu of phone calls) I agreed to  let him give me his pitch. Dylan is  studying audio engineering and  media production at Belmont University in Nashville. I met him when he was a young teenager and he always dabbled in music and anything  techie.  He proudly calls himself a geek but don't underestimate him.  Dylan is also an experienced mountaineer, an accomplished  snowboarder and skateboarder.  He was a natural choice to shoot rider Nick Jone's latest video.

 After he submitted a convincing essay on why I should have him on my crew,  I thought it might not hurt to have an adventuresome techie (besides myself) along on the shoot so I invited him to join us.  Dylan spent weeks assisting me with   taking  inventory, making sure all of the equipment was in good working condition then prepping and packing the gear for the long journey to Uganda.

Last week I wrote about my Director of Photography, Jan Kohler.  This week,  Brown University student Emily Jones is on tap. Emily… what can I say about this young woman?  What can't I say about her?

For the Nyaka project, I knew I would need a good boom operator and all around production assistant. It would require someone who has a great work ethic, good temperament and positive energy.    Emily was perfect for this role.   She is one of those people you need to have on set when things go south or an interview gets a bit emotional.  I am sure she does not realize this, but Em has a way of of looking at you and you know all things in the world will be  good.   I had no doubt she would be the perfect crew mate.