I used to watch parents film their kids at places like Disneyland, and Pacific Ocean Park, typically using their 8mm. Bell & Howells, Keystones, et al. I wanted a movie camera more than anything. The 16mm. preojectors we had in school were the best -- I always wanted to make a film that I could project using those old 'Filmosounds.' My photographic experimentation would continue with still-film, however.

Throughout the course of several years, I would continue my film experimentation in 35mm., using old hand-me-down cameras as always. (By now, I had a nice Bell & Howell 'Canonet 19' which my Grandfather had given me.) Landscapes were my preference, and I always opted for ambient light, and sensitive film-stocks (usually 'Tri-X' with a little push). My photographic activities have progressed off-and-on for the last thirty-five years, resulting in some interesting archives (even a historical photograph, or two... or three).

Although I had experimented with movie film a few times over the course of several years, I didn't begin shooting motion-picture film until about eight years ago, when a 'Cinekodak Special' 16mm. camera fell into my hands. (I had several 'regular-eights' which I had toyed with before; the film became unavailable. R8 film just became available again in the US about four years ago.) I began to shoot everything, and nothing in particular. An idea would simply pop into my head, and I would sieze the moment with my camera (and I still do this today). Spontenaety is the key -- art is created by the very spark which possessed me to reach for my camera and spin the shutter.

Of the numerous ideas and concepts I have had for film, I have yet to implement any of them on any notable scale; production is a new ball-game. For an engineer of twenty years, this is truly an art form -- not "show biz." My experimentation continues. My archives up to now are made of literally miles of film, with a few very prescious frames which I call "incidentals" (i.e. an impulse or notion produces both an outstanding and unrepeatable result in very short form). Some projects require a few years to complete; there isn't always time (or money) to complete them in a scheduled time period.

Although I have felt some of the deepest inner movement from the works of those like Fellini, Goddard, Rosselini, Truffaut, Kubric, Kramer, and others, my real focus is on documentary work (which is not to say that I do not or would not have the desire to delve into the realm of drama, or melodrama). I feel moved each time I watch Pare Lorentz's "The River."

I watched the newsreels fade away from the movie theatres when I was very young. They seemed to have taken a more sophisticated form when they went to television. The cameramen were along the order of a pack-mule, wearing a mount to support their heavy sound-on film cameras (typically Auricons & CPs). The days of the lone newsreel cameramen armed only with their 'Filmos' and their precognition had all but vanished.