My project is a short 13 minute HD film titled "The Diver". It is the follow up film to my 2011 Student Academy Award nominated film "The Dust Machine" which has screened in numerous national and international film festivals and was created while I was earning my MFA degree at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"The Diver" is a mixture of miniature sets, live action, computer generated imagery, still photography and animation. I have been working on the project for the last seven months and it is 85% complete.

Much of the project was shot in my editing studio in Louisville, Colorado on a miniature stage in which props could be intricately set up and arranged. As well, the project was filmed in California, North Carolina and underwater in a pond located in Northwest Pennsylvania.

"The Diver" is about the life of an inanimate object, a plastic toy diver, who is trying to find the meaning of his existence and his place in the world. The film starts with a voiceover while we see images of galaxies swirling amidst the shore of the ocean at night. "Where did I come from?" "Why was I created?" Soon after, we realize the voice is coming from the bodiless head of a plastic toy as comes down an assembly line in a factory. The story then follows this head as it is attached to the plastic body of a toy diver and eventually ends up sitting on a store shelf. From there the story continues as the diver is purchased and taken to a house where he encounters all manner of hardships and joys.

Note: I currently teaching drawing at Front Range Community College in Longmont Colorado, although the pay is extremely low I enjoy working with the community and teaching something that I am passionate about. The Awesome Foundation grant would be incredibly helpful in getting this project out into the world!