Hey gang! Tomorrow, I will have been living in California for 6 months. Let’s recap:

In February of this year, I had been out of film school for 4.5 years doing video work in Atlanta. My brother and I had written and directed a feature and were looking for distribution. A friend in LA asked why I didn’t move to LA. I couldn’t give him a solid answer so after much consideration, I decided it was time to head west to try and make it as a writer/director in Hollywood.

I left my home in Atlanta in early April. The drive west was spectacular.

My car broke down 80 miles outside of Los Angeles. It had to have the engine replaced – wiping out my savings. I had to borrow a friend’s car for my first week.

I lived with total strangers (who I met through a friend of a friend) for a month in Santa Clarita (30 miles north of LA.) We call this couch surfing.

I interned with Ed Saxon Productions for a month. Ed Saxon produced Silence of the Lambs, That Thing You Do, and the recent film Away We Go. (Interning is for no pay.) Ed and his team were great and I learned a lot.

In May, I moved into a friend’s garage apartment in Glendale and lived there for 2 months.

During this time, I got a job as an Assistant Editor for a reality show that airs on E! (The show is called Reality Hell.)

After my two months in the garage apartment, my cousin and his wife moved to LA from Florida and we got an apartment together in Burbank. (We’re 7 minutes away from Walt Disney Studios.)

I got an annual pass to Disneyland and have been to Disneyland more times than I can count – it’s cheaper for me to go there now than to do pretty much anything else in the area.

The feature I wrote and directed with my brother got picked up for distribution. Dangerous Calling will be released on DVD in February.

Over the last 6 months, I’ve met a ton of great people and made some great friends. I’ve learned a lot about the “industry” and about “networking.” I’ve grown as a person more than I thought I would. My job with the Reality Show has ended (the last episode of this season aired a week ago) so I’m looking for the next step in this awesome adventure. There should be some exciting things happening in the next 6 months, the biggest of which is:

My brother, Josh, is moving to California in January! He’s bringing along his wife, Becca, and his son/my nephew, Grant! I’m so excited. In January the adventure continues with both Daws Brothers taking over Hollywood!

Stay tuned for more updates about our Adventures in Filmmaking.