Welcome to "Mach III"

Today I'm proud to show you the first poster from the largest film I have ever undertaken, Mach III. Ever since I began filmmaking I've always wanted to make an aviation film. Flying is one of my all time favorite sensations. As a kid I wound spend hours pouring over pictures of helicopters and fighter jets. But one spy plane in particular, the SR-71 has always fascinated me. I remember being in middle school sifting through pictures of the SR on a school laptop during science class, day dreaming that one day I'd see one in person.

This past year while browsing through SR-71 articles, I came across a story in which a pair of Swedish pilots orchestrated a perfect intercept of the SR-71. Rumor has it that the pilots were even able to achieve missile lock for a short time. That's no small feat seeing as the SR-71 routinely flew at over 2000mph at altitudes of 80,000 feet+. This story had to be told. The visuals I had floating around in my head were too cool to pass up. So I sat down one evening and wrote up an 11 page script that became Mach III.

I was quite happy with the original screenplay, but I knew from my previous "military" short Delta Station that I had a nasty tendency to bog down the action with an excess of cool sounding military jargon. Thankfully my talented friend and co-writer/director Andy Koeger stepped in to work his magic. After more re-writes then I care to mention, Andy had turned my initial draft into a rock solid short worthy of bringing to the screen. Our current draft is a healthy mix of Top Gun action and the calculated tension of The Hunt for Red October. With a solid screenplay in tow, only one hurdle remained, the visual effects.

Up until last year I felt I didn't have the technical prowess to pull off such a film. At the end of March 2014 a talented team of four VFX students and I spent five weeks working nonstop to complete a visualization of the film. We completed a total of 14 entirely CGI shots from the ground up in those few weeks. Some of our frames even approached photo realistic levels. I was ecstatic with what we were able to achieve on such a tight deadline.

At the end of the exercise I knew I was finally in an environment surrounded by talented people capable of creating an aviation film. From that moment on, with enough time and dedication I knew Mach III could be a reality. Now, nearly a year later the project is full tilt. We're half way through principle photography and knee deep in visual effects. I couldn't be happier. We've got an incredible team of 20+ strong crossing into all departments and specialties.

Starting today, I'll be spending my every waking hour knocking out our 50 visual effects shots for the Swedish segment of the film. At the moment, we're aiming to release a trailer in February. Stay tuned. Every Monday I'll be recapping what we've accomplished each week, so check back often. We look forward to sharing what we learn along the way.