Name, Age, City and State: Gary Wheeler, 40, Huntersville, NC

Job-title: Filmmaker

Web/blog site URL: www.levelpathproductions.com; www.thetrial-themovie.com

Give us your job description in 25 words or less. President of Level Path Productions and independent Director/Screenwriter and Producer.

Describe a typical workday. What I do on a particular day depends on what phase of production I’m in on a film. Let’s take a day during a film shoot. I usually will have an early call time which means I need to be on the set by about 6:30 AM ready to shoot. Breakfast is served starting at 6 and I like to be one of the first people there to welcome the crew as they arrive. On my last film, we shot an hour away from my house so I would wake up at 4:30 and drive to the set. Have breakfast with the crew, usually the cinematographer and 1st assistant director to talk about the day. The worst thing you can do is not be prepared when it is time to start so I make sure I’m at the camera ready to shoot at 6:30. We rehearse the scene with the actors a few times, then decide where we want the first shot to be. Then we release the actors to hair and make-up (if they aren’t done) and we set up the shot. Once the shot is ready (45 minutes or so), we bring in the actors and start rehearsing again but this time with camera. When we are ready we start shooting. We hope to get about 20-25 of these set-ups (shots) in a day. This last shoot, we ended at about 6:00 – 6:30PM most days and it was another hour drive home. Then reading the scenes for the next day and reviewing our shot list. It makes for a long day.

What led you to realize that you wanted to do this type of work? As a child, I was drawn to the world of film. Fascinated by it. I made my first film when I was 16 years old. It was called “The Corruption of a Soul” and was the worst film ever made! But I caught the bug and never looked back. That was 24 years ago.

Did you have any heroes or mentors in your industry that you admired? I have always had filmmakers I looked up to. Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola. Actors like Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, Liam Neeson.

What type of education or training was required to land your job? I have a degree in Broadcasting with a minor in English from Appalachian State University and some Master’s work at Regent University.

What do you love most about your job? Working with talented and creative people. I love the screenwriting and script development portion as well.

What one part of your job do you wish you could hire someone else to do? Fundraising.

What advice would you give to teenagers wanting to get into your field of work? Keep making movies. Everybody has bad movies in them. Start early and keep working. Learn everything you can about the business. Read books about the industry and watch movies. If you want to be a screenwriter – start with Save The Cat by Blake Snyder.

How does your job allow you to use your God-given gifts? It allows me to be creative and to have fun. Two things that God created me to be.

Do you have any hobbies or off-hours pursuits that teenagers would find of interest? I love reading and sports. I’m a huge Atlanta Braves fan if that matters at all!