My earliest memories with a camera are playing with my aunt’s camcorder when I was a kid. My sister and I would write skits and film them, I would use it to capture family events, and I thought it was one of the coolest things ever.

Growing up anytime I went on a trip I would always get a disposable camera and snap photos relentlessly. Occasionally I even got one without my finger covering half the lens! I never consciously thought about my love of being behind or in front of a camera, it was just natural to me.

In high school my friends and I started going overboard on class projects (and usually missing half the requirements in the process). Once, we made this great (read: weird) music video about Mead Five Star Notebooks.. I remember watching my friend edit the video in iMovie and was blown away by the magic he was creating.

A couple years later we once again traded the five slide powerpoint assignment for an ELEVEN minute (sorry Mr. Heck) video recounting the Battle of Chancellorsville (there’s about 30s of historical information in there 😂) .. only this time, I was the one behind the wheel. I downloaded a free trial of Sony Vegas Pro and stayed up all night working, and a love for editing was born.

Soon I was off to Indiana University to study film production; beginning my personal YouTube channel and my freelance journey shortly after.

Over the past ten years I’ve made hundreds of YouTube videos, filmed dozens of weddings, and created content for churches, international businesses, local non-profits, and more.

• I like cats.. a lot. Maybe too much. In high school people called me cat boy.

• I love anything Marvel. Drank the MCU kool-aid a long time ago. (Daredevil is my fav MCU hero)

• I love watching movies and tv shows, and specifically going to the movie theater. Something about the popcorn and candy, getting a bunch of friends together, and watching a film on a big screen is just magical.

• I was an A-Lister at Chick-fil-A before they had their current app and rewards program.. iykyk.

• My favorite bands are Coldplay, NEEDTOBREATHE, Of Monsters and Men, Mumford and Sons, and Twenty-One Pilots.

• One of my best friends and I co-own a very large NERF collection and host periodic NERF wars with our friends. We go all out at basically creating laser tag-style arenas with lighting, music, and barricades.

• I’m currently typing this sentence at 12:36am.. I’m a night owl. My wife Lindsay is an “in bed by nine” kinda girl. She’s the bird, I’m the worm and it’s plain to see, that we were meant to be.

• I love filming weddings. It’s one of my very favorite things to do professionally. You can read more about that at www.orangefloatweddings.com :)

If I didn’t plug Grilling a Murderer on this site somewhere I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

Grilling a Murderer (or GAM for short) is my award-winning web series (you’ve probably heard of it…..).

My senior year of college a friend and I accidentally started creating a short form detective show about grilled cheese… turning into five years of my spare time producing three seasons and a live Christmas musical (the series is about five hours total in length).

It starts out as a mostly improv’ed, filmed by people who are holding a camera for the first time, mess. And ends with a six-episode two hour final season that is actually decent and makes sense. I was the director, script writer, producer, star, editor, sometimes the camera man, etc.. basically a $0 budget, one man production, but also with 300 people helping me by acting in it for free, giving rides to people, randomly becoming a camera operator or sound guy, etc.

It’s very much an amateur-level production, but I’m very proud of it and it’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.

I even rented out a screen at my local AMC and did a big premiere for the final season for 100 of my friends. :)

You can watch it (and a bunch of other weird stuff I’ve made) at YouTube.com/ErnieJo.