Now it was three years later, and, even though I tried, I couldn't raise the money to get another feature film started. I only did some independent TV directing.

I had written an action script that had all the swashbuckling action stunts in it that I had loved as a kid watching Errol Flynn on TV. It also had a great story with lots of martial arts in it.

One night the completed script was lying on my sofa. As I stood over it, I thought, I have to make this movie even though it probobly won't sell. Should I continue with this?

I had financed and used investors on my first feature. It was a long drawn out production, that caused me endless hassles, large debts, many disappointments and no income from the minor distribution it had. I had worked six months to pay back most of the production bills, but I still wasn't completely out debt.

Did I want to go through all that again? Was this another sword fight epic that would get me much deeper into debt and end my dubious film career?

However, I loved the story so much and wanted to use all the martial artists that I had met on my previous movie. And I loved samurai movies and Chinese sword fight movies, so much that I was feeling compelled to make this new movie.

I had seen most of the guys that were in the San Francisco State University film department drop out and get regular jobs, so I was alone with my dream of making feature films. I had noticed they all started giving up at age 26.

Why that age, I wondered? But the answer came quickly. It was 4 years after graduating. They gave it a shot, but then girlfriends, wives and even parents started to put the pressure on them to quit. After all, age 26 was getting pretty old to continue with an impossible dream. Why had they given up so soon? That answer came when I saw a joke sign in a store window that read: I feel so good now that I've given up all hope.

Yes, give up and there won't be any more struggle or disappoinments from money men that promise financing and then don't deliver after wasting six months with them. Funny, I never considered giving up before this. That's how movie crazy I was. But If I could just do this one more movie, I would be satisfied, if I was financially forced to give up making feature films.

So looking down at that white script on the green sofa, I finally, I said to myself, "I don't care. Even if this movie bombs, even if I can't sell it, I will still have the movie. It will be made."

And this was my dream movie. The one that I really want to make. I didn't know it at the time, but I was more of an artist than a businessman, because completing that particular movie was more important to me for self-expression than doing someone else's project (which there were none) or working my way up in the Hollywood system (which there were no open doors for me).

So, I said to myself, "What the hell," picked up the script off of the sofa and began preparing a schedule and budget. The next week, I announced my project to my friends in the martial arts business and attracted some small investors. I set the start date for six weeks later and went ahead with casting, costumes and securing locations.

As there was a large cast, many of them invested in the project. Six weeks later, I had enough money to be out on location filming in Panavision with Technicolor Labs doing the processing.

Since I wanted to do a swordfight scene and a couple of stunts that I saw Douglas Fairbanks do, I including myself in the cast as one of the five good-guys that tries to get back a girl kidnapped by Asian gangsters. I was a little worried that some might think I was not a serious director by also being in the film. But since I figured it might be my last movie, I decided to play out all my dreams.

Two days before filming started, my cameraman complained, "What do you want to be an actor or director? " So, I decided not to act in it. However, being so busy preparing for the first week of filming, I couldn't spend the time to find someone to replace my character, so I was stuck with me. But acting and doing my planned stunts in this movie has been the greatest satisfaction for me.

Years later, it's not so much the fact that I directed the movie, what people mention when they see it, it's the fact that I was in it. So after that, I never listen to anyone who tries to talk me out of my dreams. That's me in the trailer in the gold shirt.

When I drove out to the location on the first day, many of the actors had arrived and were in costume. I could see the swords-women with their shinny blue Chinese costumes and the fifty extras all wearing black as I had told them to do. The cameramen were setting up. Make-up was already happening. Actors had flown up from Los Angeles. They were all here 40 miles from San Francisco in my hometown hills that I had used for filming my 16mm action movies when I was in college. "This is fantastic," I thought. "What an opportunity to make something really good."

I came to the instant conclusion to not just shoot a few master scenes. I would use the necessary film to get all the coverage I needed to make a cinematic film. If I went a little over budget, I would make up the difference by selling part of my percentage in the movie. It would be worth it. Six weeks after that I was finished filming.

The post-production money came slowing, but that didn't matter as editing took little money by doing the work in my own apartment. I finished the editing working by myself for four months and loved every minute. I did the final 16 track mix at Fantasy Films in Berkeley that had a state-of-the-art mixing room.

My movie, Weapons of Death was picked up by an independent distributor and broke a houses records for attendance at a New York and San Francisco theater. With three features under my belt, I was on my way to three more and then discovered I had a talent for novels, so I expanded into "the communication business" instead of just the film business.

This finally led me to direct my movie heroes: Rod Taylor, Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris, Nancy Kwan and other stars, in my two novels that I turned into full-cast audio-books: Rock Star Rising and McKnight's Memory. 

Reflecting back, I realize that age 26 was too young for my film school friends to give up. Age 30 was too young for me to consider not making the next movie. And now, I know, any age is "too young" to give up on anything.

Don't let anyone talk you out of your dreams!

An equally big turning pointed happened in 2018 when I decided to risk it all again on my 7^th feature film; Forbidden Power.

Winner of 33 first-place international awards.

All awards at IMDB sanctioned. Here's six of them:

2018 - Best Picture out of 1,000 entries at the BITB Hollywood Film Festival.

2019 - Best Original Screenplay - New York Film Awards

2019 - Best Science Fiction - Oniros Festival St. Vincent, Italy.

2019 - Best Thriller - London Flicks Film Festival.

2019 - Best Feature Film - New York Cinematography Awards. 

2019 - Best Original Screenplay - Florence Film Awards Italy

After a one-night affair with a mysterious woman, a young man wakes up alone with sexually transmitted powers.

He searches for the woman to find out the source of her power and why he was chosen.