Dead End Film House started as a group of cousins making movies together. Skyler, Louie, and I would sit around and build a story. Often I would take the first swing at a script, but the whole point was that we could all change it. We rewrote scenes on the fly, tried ideas on set, and at the end we shared credit. It felt like a band, not a solo act. It's been that way since day one.

Nemesis is the latest film we released as Dead End. This one came from Dylan Cole Black. He wrote the story, directed it, and acted in it. Early on, Dylan and I did look development together. We built a version of the film’s look and talked about Hitchcock films. We talked about tension, about watching a character unravel in a single space, and how black and white could strip everything down to shape and light.

We scouted locations and finally landed on a place that had taxidermy animals on the property. That detail mattered. There is something about a strange room that feels even stranger when taxidermy animals share the space with you. It reminded us of the hotel in Psycho and that sense that the world is watching from the edges.

This film also took longer to make than anything we have done so far. Not because it was impossible to shoot, but because it began during one of the hardest stretches of my life. It would not exist without the work and patience of Dylan, Louie, Hornbeck, and Skyler.

It was also the first project where I shared the Director of Photography role. Hornbeck came on as co-DP and he is a walking library of black and white, camera knowledge, and composition. He understands how small choices in framing and contrast can shift a scene. He is one of the smartest people I know when it comes to the image and probably life.

If something in Nemesis looks great, there is a good chance it came from Hornbeck. If something looks rough or pulls you out of it, I am almost certain that part was my call.

The edit was a blast. Like every Dead End project, though, the edit is never just me sitting alone with a timeline. It is long sessions with Dylan and Louie, watching, arguing, tightening, and occasionally throwing out work that took hours to get. The cut that exists on screen is a five-person argument that finally found some peace.

Skyler has always been a key part of Dead End. Skyler and I decided on the name Dead End over tacos one weeknight dinner. He is the person who quietly keeps the world honest. He throws out lines, fixes beats, and grounds the emotional logic of what we are doing. We are not Dead End without Skyler in the mix.

Louie is the steady foundation of our work. He shows up present and focused. He watches what is happening, offers ideas, and finds little ways to sharpen the story or the rhythm. Every film gets better when Louie is there. He has done that again with Nemesis.

And Dylan is full of energy and ideas. He loves movies more than anyone I know and will talk for hours about them. He sees images and scenes in his head and wants to chase them down. Nemesis came out of his brain and his hunger to make something tense and strange and personal. I am grateful I got to help bring it to life.

Dead End has always been about collaboration. People online might only see one name at a time, or a single face attached to a still, but the truth is that these films are built by a small circle of friends who keep showing up for each other. Nemesis is one more film built that way. It carries my fingerprints, and Dylan’s, and Skyler’s, and Louie’s, and Hornbeck’s.

If you watch it, you are seeing all of us. So... go watch it.