JO: I’m not sure if this is the full-text of the print piece, but here’s what you can find online of The Oregonian’s short profile of me in the Business section of today’s paper. I met this reporter while shooting the crime scene photos.

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Monday, November 27, 2006
ALEX PULASKI

Freelance filmmaker Josh Oakhurs used to chase his dreams around a mountain on a snowboard but now looks for success behind a camera.

Fade in: Storyteller grabs a camera
In the screenplay of his life, he avoids a “typical job” and works toward directing feature films.

Josh Oakhurst struggles to find an easy definition of his career choice, but one word might capture it all: storyteller.

He has studiously avoided what he calls a “typical job,” instead freelancing video work, editing movies and designing Web pages. In September, he landed under contract at Portland Center Stage, primarily shooting and editing video interviews that play on interactive screens in the newly opened Gerding Theater at the Armory.

The stories he is telling these days are someone else’s.

Jeff Cone, for example, stands before the camera in the theater’s costume shop, surrounded by boxes of shoes, racks of clothes and spools of thread. Oakhurst cradles the camera, rarely speaking, letting Cone describe how he designed a prim black dress to suit the thin frame of a man playing a transvestite’s role.

“That’s great, that’s perfect, that’s all I need,” Oakhurst pronounces, ending the session.

The hard part — the magic, he calls it — will come when Oakhurst sits down before a computer to edit the images.

At 24, Oakhurst keeps edging closer to the feature-length filmmaker he wants to be. Three years ago, he was managing a snowboard shop, until a knee injury slowed him down and forced him to focus on something other than snow.

In April, he moved to Portland, sight unseen, to escape Denver’s sprawl. The work with Portland Center Stage has provided a steady income, but all the while he dabbles in other projects.

He shoots television ads on spec. Grabs his new Nikon digital camera to record images from a crime scene. Mouths off — usually with a dollop of youthful profanity — about cool camera gear, the cops, the guy with a ponytail on the bus.

All of it wins electronic immortality on his Web site. The stories he wants to tell — documenting sprawl, the social stratification of young boys — haven’t found their way to the big screen yet.

“I want to direct feature films,” he said. “But I don’t have any delusions of grandeur. It’s a losing battle in many ways.”

Alex Pulaski

How many commercials are made with gay people repping the products? How ’bout gay hockey players?

Viewing Options:
- Fancy QT
- On the Go iPod (you trendy devil, you)
- Scared of QT YouTube version

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Enjoy.

Families who loose loved ones to violent means morn. Everyone else gets free entertainment.

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Yesterday, police officers shot and killed a man outside a hotel near my apartment. 52 years-old; outstanding warrant for burglary, arson, and weapons possession. According to official reports, federal marshals were looking for the man. They knock on his hotel room, he barricades the door, jumps out the second story window, cops are waiting below, they tell him to stop, he reaches for his jacket pocket - S H O T S F I R E D.

And a life ends.

When we see this on the news, typically we have little passing emotion or feel relief knowing the good guys won. We see images, “it was just like a movie…”, cop cars blazing, snipers on the roof, bloody shirts.

But who was this guy?

The news tells us he was very passionate about his dog. He was divorced. And that’s it - thats all we need to know.

But he also drank Squirt.

And liked pizza.

And behaved like most people do at a continental breakfasts by taking some fruit back to the room only to leave it behind.

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Maybe it was the TV crews. Ruthless. Bored even. Weathered for sure. Disgusting. I saw four cameras making mockery - it pissed me off.

So I started snapping.

Sure, if you live in Baghdad, violent death happens around you everyday - but not in my neighborhood. Breaking into this guy’s hotel room was an attempt to REsensitize myself to tragedy. To violence. To blood, to pain, to death. To horror, to fascination.

To respect.

Not everyone saw this guy as evil. Not everyone wanted him to die. Not everyone, not even the cops are glad he’s dead.

So why run from this? Why hide and gloss over? Why not get up-close and uncomfortable with it? Why not get squeamish, examine the reality, look for emotions, a connection, a fucking message, a reason our heads croon when we see the ambulance gurney?

Why not? Why don’t we feel a bit raw every now and then?

“Oh quick. American Idol is on.”

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*NOTES*
1.) Kristine, Her Mother who was staying in the hotel, and I all declined to be interviewed. Luckily for the TV stations - there were many willing participants.

2.) The cop in this photo (click to enlarge) was a D I C K to the front desk clerk. She was clearly overwhelmed with many different cops pulling her in different directions looking for keys, maps, and master plans of the building. We felt bad for her.

Right after I shot the McDonald’s picture (POLICE LINE: MC RIB IS BACK - click to enlarge), he pulled up and told me to “Get out of [there]. Move! Faster!”. I was polite, but ignored him. I was behind the police barrier anyway; I know my rights.

After I took his photo being rude to the poor girl, we had this exchange:

COP: And, exactly who are you?
ME: I live in the neighborhood. My mother-in-law is staying in the hotel.
COP: smartass Oh. So you’re just a concerned citizen?
ME: Among other things.

3.) There was a kid of about 17 staying in the hotel with his family. After the shooting, he found a window in the hotel looking right into the breezeway where the man was shot. I was out back taking photos of the cop on the roof, and Kristine called my phone to let me know “there was something I should see”.

Enter bloody shirt.

I include that image, not for horror, but for respect. This is where the man lay dying. This is what happens when bullets fly. It’s not pretty (Grand Theft Auto should teach us that, shouldn’t it?). In any case, the news media won’t show anything like this - because it’s too graphic. Sensationalize they may - but to a point. No reason for tooo much detail - lest someone get upset and call the station.

After I snapped that photo, the kid’s dad entered the room and yanked him out. Then this happened:

DAD: Son, why weren’t you at church with us this morning? Did you forget we had church together?
SON: Dad! When are you finally going to get that I don’t believe in that GOD STUFF!
DAD: %&*S %$#^* #!@^#^^&* [ head begins to explode ]……….

4.) For the record, I didn’t break into the guy’s (former) hotel room - the cops already busted down the door, and when they were done collecting evidence, the room sat open in plain view. All I did was duck the hotel’s blue tape “barrier” and flip on the lights.

No doubt - that room was creepy. If I believed in ghosts and Jesus and things, I’m sure I wouldn’t have lasted long. The window was letting in cold damp air - busted too by the cops I believe. The curtain would fly open and glass would continue to fall and shatter - a draft would circle the room [shudder]. Jeepers.

Except I’m going to explain it to you. New site functionality and look - here’s what I did:
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Navigation
#1 reason for the update. I hated the way my old WordPress configuration handled the sidebar navigation. The old site created hard-links on the sidebar for every single page I created with no option to hide certain pages which I wished to structure three or four layers in. As you can see, the new nav has been divided up a little better - hopefully pulling you to the “important” links and structuring the content in a more intuitive manner.

New Look
Since I started with the navigation redesign, updating the look was only natural. You can bet I’ll probably redesign the color scheme about once a year - this is more reflected by ADD than anything.

Currently, I went with a brighter, more eye pleasing motif featuring whites, tans and light blues. Overall, I think this new design looks a bit more growed up, don’t you think?

For web inspiration, there’s a great site I peep when needing ideas -www.k10k.net. If you look under “pixel patterns” long enough, you’ll find the current background pattern I’m rocking. Not everyone likes those repeating background tiles - but I thought it would be cool to use one this round.

New Pages - New Content
Good stuff here. Under Current Reel, Articles, and Vlogging you’ll find a section of older work I’ve dubbed 24 QT Links + Commentary which I hope is relatively self explanatory. Much of the content from the old sidebar has moved here in addition to a few new/ older short films and way-back-when pieces.

Even if you’ve seen all the videos on this site before, I urge you to go take a look at this page and read some of the associated commentary. Most of this is all NEW insight into where things came from or why they came to be as shown. Regular readers will remember an Indie HD feature that I was directing/ trying-to-get-off the ground called F*CK HIGHLANDS RANCH. One of the short films I’m currently repping, Saturday Night Meathead Fights was I direct vignette resulting from the work on FHR. In addition to the SNMHF short, I’ve added three more clips from the FHR taping + my musings on each piece to give you an idea of where we were going.

For the record, where I speak about the lack of “Big Money” being the reason the project stalled - “Big Money” to us in this sense meant $75,000 - $200,000 - not exactly “BIG MONEY” but certainly enough to be referenced as “big money” to most Indies. If you take a look at the additional clips I uploaded and find yourself asking where that kind of dough would be spent, note that the inter-cutting of standup and on-location ranting was only about 40% of what we were going for.

In any case, I haven’t written much about F*CK HIGHLANDS RANCH since SNMHF dropped, so this is a spot where you can learn more about it. For the record, FUCK here is supposed to be spelled with a “heart symbol” in place of the “U” - the title and the spelling are meant to become a lot less vulgar after viewing the film - more akin to a double entendre than an outright offensive remark. I’ll let your imagination fill in the rest (hint: Chuck is G A Y).

Also new to the “old work” page is a short critique of the Misunderstood” video I directed in 2004, and one of my favorite pieces from 2003,Wakeboarder Steve.

Other New Stuff
Other new additions to the site include a page of never-before-seen Snapshots and a much improved Bio.

Regarding photography, I’ve now have an open spot to add a proper photog portfolio, but I’m sure no one’s holding their breath. In time - perhaps.

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So, thats the skinny on the updates. There are always additions or changes to be made. Let me know how all this is sitting with you, and I’ll try to give you more of what you like and less of whatcha’ don’t.

Coo.

In February, Kristine and I are eloping to Isle of Dominica for a private wedding and honeymoon. Photogs on the island are hard to come by, so last weekend I picked up a new Nikon D80 with a Nikkor 18-135mm lens to handle memory preservation.

Although Nikon slimmed down the body of the D80, I actually prefered the size of the D70. On the D80, my right pinkie finger slips off the bottom of the grip. I’ve got (glove size) large hands and at times I long for a bit more heft in the grip, but over all the size/ weight issue of this camera is superb.

I feel like a proud new father with this baby. You can bet every interesting photo I take will end up on this site wether or not my pictures have anything to do with whatever reason you come here.

Hope that’s cool with you.