Big ups to Justin for the donation. I can honestly say that Justin Johnson is a major part of my growth as a filmmaker. Way back in the day, before YouTube, before Vimeo, before every kid in the world was posting video blogs online, I met Justin on the net during college somehow. I think it was through some kind of Collegehumor.com connection. There were a few of us making shorts and posting them online - there was me, Bobby Miller (Rigged Productions), Jake Lodwick (Blumpy) and Justin (One Trick). I remember chatting online with the three of them about various projects and sites.

Anyway, later on down the road, Justin sent me the idea for a site he was working on called Filmfights - an online bi-weekly film festival. I dug the idea, he got the ball rolling, and Filmfights became big. Through Filmfights, I've met a lot of awesome filmmakers nationwide. Some of them are friends of mine out here in LA now (Dave & Del, and all the Michigan kids who followed them out west). We all sort of grew into it together, a lot of us (myself included) going from rinky-dink stupid videos on one-chip cameras to making full fledged quality shorts. I wasn't really super involved in Filmfights submissions because I didn't really have a "group" of friends into the idea, but I did submit to a few fights here and there.

Even though I've only really hung out with Justin a handful of times, I really do consider him a close friend, and someone who's definitely been influential in helping me get to the point I'm at today. Justin's brought a lot of young talent together, and continues to do so over at IndyMogul.com. And Justin makes pretty much the best vidblogs out there today.

Keep up the good work Justin. And thanks for the support!