Zachary’s genesis is the story of a fourteen year old boy and his neighborhood friends, and their quest to make films inspired by the works of Spielberg in their backyard with nothing more then a consumer friendly automatic camcorder. How would they fair in their attempt to recreate Jaws in a suburban swimming pool, or Jurassic Park within a tree line that separated some middle class homes on one acre lots? Well, to skip ahead a few chapters, (because I’m not writing this blog post for a grade or to get into college) they didn’t. But gosh darn it did they have fun trying, and that light hearted summer fun was something that never left the young director even till this day, and is something he hopes to communicate through his work for decades to come.

Now, to make the awkward shift from a biographical blog post to something, I supposed more of the “auto” variety, hello! I’m Zachary, the same character from the previous tale. Yes, that was a true story in case you’re struggling to follow along, and yes, I’m overly sentimental about the past. I remember the day my friends and I first picked up that consumer-friendly camcorder and wondered, “can we make a movie with this?” It was an exciting question. After all, we didn’t even know if it was possible for anyone to make a movie without millions of dollars and animatronic dinosaurs. We proceeded to make dozens of movies, most of them being very bad, but we carried on anyway. I think what defines the creative journey the most is trying to find the courage to make bad things, and be okay with them.

I recognized pretty quickly the power films had as a storytelling medium. I was the kid who loved to write short stories and draw comic books but when I discovered filmmaking I fully embraced it as my preferred way to express my storytelling impulse. There’s something magical that happens when you combine audio with visuals, and music with motion, especially when you’re constrained to the format of a timeline. With video, you tell a story through the juxtaposition of images that are presented in succession. If each image is able to contain its own idea, then by slamming ideas together you can get new insights. A prime example being the ape from 2001: A Space Odyssey that uses a bone as a weapon to defeat another ape tribe. The ape victoriously throws the bone into the air, and the film match cuts to an unidentified space ship that many speculate to be holding nuclear weapons. In one simple edit, the movie communicates something inherent about human nature that transcends the time between primitive humans and humans capable of touching the stars, all by simply placing two shots next to each other. In this way, films do not always need words to be insightful, and that’s what I love about it. Filmmaking is the art of knowing when to hold onto a shot, and when to cut away. It’s about knowing the subjective difference between a close up and a wide angle shot. You can make a character feel trapped by placing them into a small frame, but you can also make them feel trapped by placing them into a frame with too much space. It’s a context dependent art form, and depending on the context, you can communicate different messages, or the same message by doing something in an opposite way. This amazes me, and makes me want to explore the depth of this medium even more.

My love for filmmaking developed over the years as I explored it in other formats. From real estate videos, to local commercial work, I’ve dipped my toes in just about everything, (except TikTok, Bleh). Something I didn’t expect as an aspiring young filmmaker, however, was for me to do as much wedding videography as I had. After almost six years, I’m still amazed at the authentic emotion you can capture on someone’s wedding day. As a director, my goal was always to try and convey as much emotion as I could through the performances of the actors. With weddings though, the emotion is already there and you just have to make sure the cameras are rolling. In that way, it’s almost like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s incredibly rewarding hearing from couples that the wedding video I made for them made them weep. The goal of filmmaking has always been to make people feel something, and with wedding films you can make friends and family members feel the same things the couple was feeling on their big day. I feel extremely privileged to be able to document any couple’s wedding day, and share their joy with their families through this medium I’m so passionate about.

So that’s me in a nutshell. From filming inflatable sharks in my swimming pool to capturing memories, (my dream is to do both at the same time. If your wedding is nautical themed please hit me up). I’m extremely excited about this venture with my talented wife Emilee, and we hope we can spread the joy you have for your future spouse, (assuming you’re an engaged person reading this)!