Doug

About Me

During the summer of 1969, a nice middle-class couple was exploring the wonders of human anatomy in the back of an Oldsmobile 442. Nine months later, a man frantically jumps behind the wheel of that same Oldsmobile. Although it was seventy degrees and quite humid in Houston that day, my father insisted that he needed to warm the car up before they went to the hospital. After a few hours, I popped out into the world at 7:01PM, the eighth of March.

Six years later, my father got a new job in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Where? Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s near Oklahoma City. Which is north of Dallas, Texas. Anyway, as I went through grades one through twelfth, I learned about many things. But like most things you learned in school, I’ve forgotten most of them. I was really shy most of the time. Didn’t get into any fights. Didn’t do anything bad. So you might say that well, I was boring. I didn’t even find a date to the prom. So let’s jump ahead and skip the boring part shall we?

Wanting me out of the house as quick as possible, my parents suggest that I apply to some colleges after graduation. My mind was turning. Wow, I could go to UCLA, Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Oxford, the choices were endless. I could be earning a six figure paycheck sitting behind a desk. What a life! However, I failed to grasp that my dad wasn’t willing to sell off everything he owned just so I could go to college. We made a compromise, I would go to Oklahoma State University. Only two famous people have come from there, county singer Garth Brooks and Detroit running back Barry Sanders.

So in the fall of 1987, I went to college. I flirted with History, Business, Engineering, English, but I just couldn’t decide. The last film school class graduated that year so that wasn’t an option. Radio sounded interesting so I interned at the local NPR station KOSU. I guess I did such a good job that they didn’t have anything else for me to do, so they didn’t ask me back. I was kind of bummed about that until a friend of mine got me into ETS, a facility run by the university that produces full semester courses on television and beams them live to high schools around the country. If your school didn’t have a German teacher, no problem, we’d set it up so you could still take German by satellite. I enjoyed it so much, I worked for free there until I graduated.

Now my path was clear. I enjoyed working in television. I’m a creative guy. It’s a match. That’s what I’m gonna do with my life. So I graduated and looked for a job. Guess where all the creative television jobs are? Los Angeles. What television jobs could you get in Oklahoma? NEWS STATIONS. I hated news. I mean, I REALLY hated news. So what did I do? Get a job at a local news station. Why you ask? I was young and didn’t have any balls quite frankly. I wanted to stay near my friends and family.

So in 1993, I started work at KJRH TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At first, it wasn’t bad. I liked most of the people I worked with and they seemed to enjoy me. I worked up from being a studio camera guy up to audio engineer. I’ve been an audio engineer ever since. I had a stable job. Didn’t have to work too hard like other people. I wasn’t rich, but I was a little above poor. So I should be happy right? I wasn’t. I knew that I had talent inside of me, but I was at a loss at how I could put it to use.

Then I met Jeff at work. I'd give you his last name but he screwed so many people that I think there is still a bounty on his head in Texas. Anyway, Jeff was doing everything he could to make a movie. He wrote a script (not very good) and got a bunch of rap artists to star in it. I admired his drive. So I began asking myself -- if he can write this slop, why can't you? So I decided to start writing in 1998. I loved it.

For a while I only submitted my work to screewriting contests figuring that if I couldn’t stand out in those, then I’m not ready for Hollywood yet. It took me about three and a half years of hard work until I received my first sign that maybe I was good at this stuff. In the year 2001, I was a semifinalist in the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Out of 5,000 scripts, mine had survived along with a little over one hundred others.

Since then I’ve been working on feature scripts for Hollywood and short scripts for local production. I’ve directed three short films and two music videos. Still, I see myself as a writer who can direct. The next big step is to write my first novel since I have this giant space opera that needs to get out of my head and I could use a challenge.

Who knows what else is on the horizon? But I do know one thing, I will have a writing career sooner or later.

Unless someone gives me an NHL hockey team for my birthday. Wow, that would be kind of cool too.

Goal

To be a working screenwriter.

Professional Experience

Screenwriter
October 1998 - Present

Director
Terror Within Productions
February 2008 - March 2008

Director
F.R.E.E.D.A.M. Records
April 2005 - May 2005

Director
CelticKraut Productions
December 2003 - February 2004

Groups

Contacts (6)