I owe my life to Bozo the Clown. Literally. My dad was one of the first of Larry Harmon’s Bozo the Clown TV franchises to wow the kids in the Orlando, Florida area. Growing up I learned a lot about makeup and what you could do with it and in the 1990’s I began working as a special effects makeup artist on independent and commercial productions in the southeast. After college, I moved into directing, creating local commercials, promos, PSAs and short films. In 1996 and 1997, my regional work began winning awards, and more regional advertising and PSA work followed. And then…
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Haxan Films, Artisan Entertainment
In 1997, I was asked to join the 5-person team to make “The Blair Witch Project.” As Production Designer and mythos/backstory writer, I worked to create the immersive atmosphere for the landmark indie blockbuster, fabricating a great deal of the legend of the Blair Witch, which became the content of the website, and creating the iconic “stickman” symbol that was central to the film. I returned to write “Curse of the Blair Witch,” an hour-long SyFy special presented as a documentary about the "real" story of the Blair Witch legend, later writing and directing “The Burkittsville 7” for Showtime and “Shadow of the Blair Witch” for SyFy.
Carolyn DeCassan and myself working on the house seen at the end of “The Blair Witch Project”. Most of what we had to do was cover graffiti.
In 2004, producer Matt Compton and I formed Visible Man Productions to focus on special projects which tend to walk the line between content and advertising.
That year I wrote and directed the mockumentary “The BPRD Declassified” for Sony and Revolution Studios to market the release of Guillermo del Toro's “Hellboy” for FX Network, and in 2005 I directed a series of award-winning webisodes produced for Audi’s “The Art of the Heist” campaign.
For 9 years, Visible Man created branded content, found footage, fake commercials, subversive advertising, and webisodes for a variety of entertainment projects including “The 4400” (USA Networks), “True Blood” (HBO), “The Colony” (Discovery), “Homefront” (THQ), “The Ruins” (Paramount Pictures), and “John Lithgow: Stories By Heart.”
In 2009, I directed the critically-acclaimed sci-fi/horror film “Alien Raiders” for Warner Brothers. In 2016 “Future Boyfriend,” a sci-fi romantic comedy I directed and edited, was an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Ben, John Lithgow, and team watching playback on the set of “John Lithgow: Stories by Heart.”
Working with Carlos Bernard and Keith Hudson on the set of Alien Raiders
With a passion for theater, I’ve directed numerous plays including “Baal” by Bertolt Brecht, “Richard III” by William Shakespeare, “Occupation” by Ken Ferrigni, and Kurt Vonnegut's “The Sirens of Titan” adapted by Stuart Gordon, as well as serving for two seasons as co-artistic director for the Sacred Fools Theater Company in Hollywood.
Cinematographer George Feucht, Ben, star/producer Emily Bell, Writer A. Vincent Ularich, and star/producer Ron Morehouse at the Tribeca premiere of “Future Boyfriend.”
More recently, I’ve directed 2 seasons of the award-winning horror/comedy web series “20 Seconds to Live” as well as an acclaimed 10-part horror fiction podcast for Shudder (a premium horror streaming service) called “Video Palace”, and an 8-part horror audio drama for Audible called “Catchers”.
Read my series “The Making of The Blair Witch Project” on Dread Central
Daily Dead interview with Stuart Gordon and Ben Rock