Found Stories Personal series
Story
There aren’t that many people who grow up in a family-owned hotel. Ours is a 50-year-old, 15-room lodge outside Capitol Reef National Park, and my family took it over when I was 2, so I’ve basically lived there as long as I can remember. We don’t have TVs, and the cell service and the internet aren’t really great, so people just sit around with a glass of wine and talk, people who normally wouldn’t connect.
I’ve met people from Nepal with crazy stories, people from the Appalachians, biker gangs from the Southwest, deep-sea fishers from Florida and bikers from France, and I just love it. I’ve always been fascinated by the stories that people and places have to tell, especially the ones that don’t usually get told.
I started this to recap some of my stories, my projects and the people I’ve met, so I can share them with the rest of the world. As for what’s next, I’m just looking for the next story I want to share.
Credits
- Director, DP and editor
- Tommy Van Dyke
The House That Stayed
It’s just an old, rundown cabin out in the desert. I’ve known about it for years from driving past it, and I always thought it was cool. I filmed some static shots of it with the nature, the wind and the light, then paired them with an old Western poem I found and used ElevenLabs to make the kind of voice I was looking for to read it.
The Billion Dollar Barber
Zaxter became my barber about 10 years ago, when he was the apprentice at Scissor and Bone and the owner had too many clients. When he opened his own shop, I just kept going to him. In the chair it’s haircut therapy, talking about life, the good, the bad and the uglies, and he’d always ask, “What’s a big win since last time?” It could be as simple as finding a dollar in your pocket, or landing on the moon. That’s where the title came from, and The Billionaire Series is meant to be its own micro-series within Found Stories.
Filming him, the biggest thing was his dedication: jiu-jitsu, the hot room, the cold plunge. His whole thing is taking care of things before his kids wake up, so he can be with them in the morning and again at night after work.
Frames
