When the Journey Found Me: How The Mail Lady Pulled Me Into Filmmaking
In 2023 fresh off a long run on tour, tired, fulfilled, and searching I found myself standing at a crossroads.
I didn’t want to jump back into music videos.
Photography didn’t feel like home anymore.
Corporate production? My spirit wasn’t in it.
For the first time, my heart was pointing in a different direction.
I wanted film.
Not just to work on films I wanted to become a filmmaker.
How It Started: A Conversation That Changed Everything
A couple months before it all unfolded, I kept reaching out to a local DP named Carl, who would eventually become the DP of The Mail Lady. I had no real lighting setup, no resume, and barely any understanding of how film sets truly operated but I had desire. I kept asking him to let me come out, shadow, or touch a single light stand if it meant learning something.
He finally gave me a shot on a makeup day for a project called Trigger.
At the time, my “kit” was laughable compared to where Black Arc Studios stands now a Godox 200w, a 150w, and a couple of tube lights. Enough to make a little magic, not enough to pretend I knew what I was doing.
But that day lit a spark.
The Day Everything Shifted: Walking Onto The Mail Lady Set
When Carl brought me onto The Mail Lady, something in me flipped.
I showed up like I’d been doing this for years confident, hungry, ready.
But little did I know…
I knew absolutely nothing.
I didn’t understand set terminology.
Didn’t understand lighting ratios.
Didn’t understand how to collaborate on a feature film.
What I did understand was that this felt right.
This felt like purpose.
And because I was documenting my journey heavy at the time, I filmed almost everything the setups, the mistakes, the learning curve, the energy, the laughter, the exhaustion. I didn’t realize I was capturing the exact moment my life was about to pivot.
Behind the Scenes: The Vlog That Shows It All
So here it is a full behind-the-scenes vlog from my very first feature film experience. It captures:
Lighting setups with my bare-bones kit
The chaos and excitement of being the new guy on set
The moments where everything finally clicked
A team of people who unknowingly pushed me toward my destiny
It’s nostalgic now… because The Mail Lady became the film that started everything for me.
You can stream The Mail Lady today on Tubi, YouTube, and Amazon Prime but what it meant to me can’t fit into a streaming description.
The Moment I Knew Filmmaking Chose Me
By the time we wrapped, I knew something deep:
Filmmaking wasn’t just something I wanted to try.
It was something that was going to take over my life.
And it has.
Every project since then from short films to full productions traces back to that one moment when I stepped onto set thinking I had experience… and left knowing I had a lifetime of learning ahead of me.
This wasn’t the beginning of a hobby.
It was the beginning of Black Arc Studios.
The beginning of a world I didn’t know I belonged to yet.
The beginning of a journey I’m still documenting, still learning, still chasing.
And honestly… I wouldn’t have it any other way.
