A filmmaker is born...


       Wes’ love for movies first emerged at an early age, when he began to draw famous movie monsters on handouts during church. Glued to the TV anytime any movie was playing, his love for movies soon became apparent as he fought the powers that be from sending him to bed at night before the movie he was watching was over. He would soon meet his life long bestfriend at the age of 5, whose dad would help Wes’ parents install a life changing electronic device at his house called the VCR.

Throughout the years growing up, Wes was equally infatuated with film and horror, seeking out every book, tv show, and movie on both subjects. Being as close to the material as he was, Wes was constantly teased about the similarity between his name and that of a particular legendary filmmaker, although the association was entirely welcome.

Wes stayed as close to horror as he could growing up, constantly begging to rent the scariest R rated horror movies from the video store and dragging parents to the theater to get into R rated horror movies. As well as, working in haunted houses and haunted forests around every halloween, not to mention reading Fangoria whenever the opportunity permitted.

Fast forward past a few years that included his younger sister’s babysitter who lived in a genuine haunted house and told him genuine ghost stories that he’s never even heard of anything similar to this day, and Wes meets the contact lense maker,Chris, after a longtime search for unique contacts (having worn glasses and contacts most of his life.) Chris’ resume included Brad Pitt’s lenses in Interview with the Vampire, and creature lenses for the X-Files. Wes commisioned Chris to make a pair of white lenses to wear around school, luckily, before the likes of Marilyn Manson made them trendy. Wes would also later commision Chris to make a pair of glowing red UV reactive hard lenses for ‘Suburban Decay’.

Shortly after, a horror film came along called Scream that rejuventated the horror genre and inspired an amateur filmmaker named Robert Lasowski to create his own “fan-made” sequel to Scream called ‘Scream Louder’ before the official release of Scream 2. After watching Scream Louder and realizing that a career in filmmaking is what Wes had been wanting to do all his life, it solidified Wes’ decision to become a filmmaker. As soon as video production class began in high school, Wes went to work using the equipment intended only for small student projects in attempt to film a feature length “fan-made” Scream spin-off of his own.


The Amateur Era

'98-'99

'99-'00

'01-'02

'03-'04

The Hiatus '04-'09


       After production wrapped on Wes’ final amateur feature, there had been no plans for future amateur productions. From that point forward, Wes began to use the new perspective his experiences had given him to start working on screenplays with the intention of developing them into major motion pictures. During this time, Wes also cut together ‘Behind You’ three seperate times, starting form scratch each time, to see how much of an improvement was made with each print before the final cut was sent to composer, Guthrie Lowe.

Meanwhile, the notes began to pile up as Wes revisited old ideas too elaborate for low budgets and new ideas that would spark writing frenzies. As the material began to grow and the number of potential projects became staggering, careful consideration was given over the years in selecting only the very best projects with the greatest amount of potential.

When the best projects were eventually narrowed down, the material for each began to grow exponentially. Formal notes, story outlines, handwritten drafts, formal drafts, shotlists, reference photos, storyboards, production design, key art, costume design, location scouting, budget estimates, projected shooting schedules, and potential casting, etc., were all layed out for each of those projects, waiting to be presented to the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

As work continued on the development of the projects, Wes continued to study films, the business, and the industry itself, intensely, preparing to one day transition into professional filmmaking. Towards the end of the hiatus, Wes built Horror Film Magazine (.com) in an effort to document these studies, with the intention of sharing his perspective on filmmaking with other film fanatics, movie buffs, film students, and even industry professionals. Quickly gaining popularity across the blogosphere and film related websites in general, the site displayed great potential of its own. However, once it was discovered how time consuming it was to publish articles, editorials, and reviews on a consistent basis, the site has since been updated less frequently as the priority remains on Wes’ film properties.

The greatest value that these rigorous studies presented, was being able to look at the history of cinema under a microscope tp ensure that the projects Wes focused on were unique and incredible enough to stand out in the oversaturated industry of filmmaking.



The Hollywood Era


       As Wes began to feel the end of the hiatus, HFM had opened up a door to an aquisitions director who screened ‘Behind You’ to a small audience in Beverly Hills for the film’s first screening. Shortly after, Wes moved to Los Angeles with the intention of living somewhere in the proximity of the film industry and unintentionally landed right in the middle of Hollywood.

Armed with an arsenal of his best projects, Wes is currently working his way into the industry, jumping on every opportunity that may lead to his first major motion picture production.


The Post-Hollywood Era, Present Day


After making the right connections in Los Angeles way sooner than expected, Wes returned to the southeast to set up his first major motion picture production in Tennessee. More updates will trickle in as announcements are made public.