Gerald Martin Davenport

1.1 1965 - 1969

Gerald was born at St. Mary's Long Beach Hospital (1050 Linden Avenue) in Long Beach, California to Eric Carl Davenport and Patricia Ann Brakensiek. His father worked as an assembly line coordinator setting up assembly lines for Tub Loc and their roll-over cages for the driver (what he remembers). His mother was a homemaker and did work for RR Donnelley in Illinois in the 70's.

Raised in Buena Park, California in the late 60's, his grandmother Cecilia Brakensiek took him to Knott's Berry Farm after school when it was still a farm. His grandfather Robert Brakensiek took him around the neighborhood on an early Harley Motocycle.

Gerald's obsession with music began in 1968 at the age of 3. Growing up in Southern California his mother allowed him to play the drums — well he pounded on boxes, pots, and pans in the front yard in Buena Park — he graduated to an actual drum kit at age 6, which he had to grow into as it was a too big for him. He had an imaginative childhood daydreaming, writing stories, and creating a world around his metal toy planes that the wings folded up and always pinched his fingers. He was the pampered and spolied grandchild until his sister Carla Christine came along. He visited his father's mother Edith Noyons and her second husband Ted Noyons in Long Beach at their deluxe apartment. They managed The Gondolier Apartments on 5525 East Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach for many years (until the mid 80's).

1.2 1970 - 1974

The family moved to the east part of Mattoon on Lafayette Avenue where he met Tim Fosbender whom he rode bikes with, played cars in the dirt, and everything else. Tim Fosbender gave him the nickname “daffy” which originated from “Daven”. Gerald purposely manipulated his dreams of the ID and the subconscious when he was a child. Gerald's parents had a piano in the living room and he would tinker with it playing melodies of music I heard and created his own. He thought he came up with a new chord, the 'H' chord, but found out later that is was just G chord Suspended 5th added 9th. At the age of 10, he won an acoustical guitar from a music store and learned to play that and began writing songs. Well, lyrics to music may be considered a song, but these were stranger than some of the strangest music ever heard.

Gerald went by the name of Gerry to his friends, because his family called him Gerald, and when ever he heard that, he was always in trouble. So he separated his home life from his outside life. “Gerry with a G” — he would say to remind people that it is not with a J — Gerry Davenport.

The family moved to Scapoose, Oregon for a few years then moved to somewhere in Washington state — “I remember lots of water and visiting Olympia, and having Victoria Marie Davenport, another sister, join us.”

The family Moved back to Southern California for a short time before moving to Mattoon, Illinois. They lived at 2909 Prairie and he attended Lincoln Elementary school which was a large square brick building somewhere nearby. His dad was fond of Dr. Pepper and made Gerald carry an eight-pack of empty Dr. Pepper bottles into town to return them for the deposit and return with a full eight-pack while riding his bike.

On July 25, 1973 Kimberly Lynn Davenport was welcomed into the family and the house got smaller, but Gerald was able to still have his own room.

1.3 1975 - 1977

He played in all forms of school sponsored bands such as, jazz, concert, and marching as a percussionist and drummer. He also sang in the choir. Gerald spent his time playing the drums, writing songs, and stories — and some sleepless and dream filled nights.

In 1977 Star Wars came out. The story, philosophy, and excitement encompassed everything Gerald felt as a boy, everything he wanted to say, and everything he wanted to do. He absorbed the imagery, the sound, and the story into his soul. Like all boys, he wished that he wrote it, and he wanted to be Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. “I wanted to be in that world, but I knew it was not real. I had written similar stories, I had fantastic adventures; and Star Wars reignited the fire, waking my past dreams that were started by the classic movies I saw as a child.”

2.1 1978 - 1979

In 1978 Gerald's father went to California to find work, but the kids found out later that he went there because their parents had separated. Gerald revelled in the absence of his father not around, and his creativity grew.

Late 1978, Gerald moved back to California with his mother and sisters to Norwalk — he did not like big cities, and you could not tell where Norwalk ended and the other cities started. Mid-summer of 1979, Joan, his mother's sister, invited him to go on a trip up north to visit her brother's, Gerald's uncles, Wayne and Michael in Grass Valley. His first view of Grass Valley was from the air in a Cessna piloted by his uncle Michael who gave them a tour and history of the town.

He met Kathy, uncle Mike's wife, and her son Sean, who was filled with energy and a pianist and an actor. A local acting group called the Community Players was performing two plays, Paint Your Wagon and Annie Get Your Gun, in the parking lot of the fairgrounds. Sean performed in Paint Your Wagon and did lights for Annie Get Your Gun. Gerald stayed for the summer, and Sean got him a job running the spot light for both plays. Gerald begged and pleaded with his mother to allow him to stay for the school year. Gerald enrolled at Nevada Union High School as a Freshman in August of 1979.

Describing himself as a small-town boy, Gerald loves the closeness and respect that comes with a tight and friendly community, and Grass Valley was what he missed after leaving Mattoon. Life in Grass Valley in the early 80's, as a teenager, was non-threatening and easy going. He would walk from one end to another in the late hours without any issues or troubles.

2.1 1980 - 1984

MTV was new at the time and they played short movies with a story while the song played. “The concept was not new having visuals with music, but to take the imagery from the lyrics of a song and view visually was a concept that entranced me. But not having the resources available to produce high-end professional quality music recordings, not having the resources to capture images, and not having an outlet for my music was no different with everything else I tried up to that point in my life. I was at crossing without a bridge to get me to the other side.”

Home-video was also becoming popular with over-sized video cameras that were quite expensive. Gerald not having the money to buy one, he learned of a TV Productions elective class taught by Tim Wilson which gave the students access to such cameras and editing tools. Gerald used them anytime he could to learn and practice things that he envisioned. “It was amazingly awesome to see what I saw in my mind to be shown on a TV screen.” Gerald met Richard Paul and David Hannah. The three of them logged many hours creating short film stories with music. Gerald became student instructor for the TV Productions class in 1982 and 1983.

There was a video contest in 1981, and the theme was World Next Door. The TV Production class, around nine students, wanted to enter it. “The concept we came up with was a person trapped inside a video game was enticing anyone to play it. The person playing it had no idea that when they won, they were sucked into the game freeing the previous person. Our idea was written a year before the original TRON movie came out in the theatres and before anyone ever heard about it. The internet was not easily available for everyone.”

Unfortunately, the class never finished the project, but Gerald wrote a song for the projected call World Next Door that he recorded with the help of his uncle Wayne. The song was performed by Sean's band Mad Dash.

Gerald also sang in the choir, performed in the concert and jazz band, and received the first “Student of The Month” award in 1982 for helping out with audio and media for the school. Gerald played the guitar, drums, and sang in a band called Eclipse that he co-created with Nina Martin, and Tim & Terry Kelly who also played other instruments. “It was awesome to change instruments after each set. I love the drums, but getting out from behind them and being able to move around the stage just made the rock and roll dream even better. It was also fun to watch the audience look at you and mouth, He was on the drums.”Tina Kelly and Brian Crane joined a year later.

Gerald met Tamara in 1981, but she wanted nothing to do with him. In 1982 they began dating and they graduated in 1983 together. Gerald left with his father to go live in City of Industry, California where he worked as an Order Picker and Stocker at Best Products.

After graduation, Gerald rewrote the lyrics for World Next Door song to be about the subconscious imagination, basing it off of his dream manipulations he did every night since he was young. It was no longer about the person trapped inside the video game. He started writing a story about the subject and worked on it when he had time, which he had very little free time.

3.1 1985 - 1989

Gerald did not stay long with his father in City of Industry he took a bus back to Grass Valley and stayed with Tamara at her parents house. He slept in Tamara's room on the floor until they were asked to get their own place. Their first apartment was on Biggs Avenue in Grass Valley. Gerald worked at Grass Valley McDonalds as a Cook/Closer until it was robbed one night by Jess (last name forgotten). Gerald's keen observation recognized the masked subject dressed in a winter jacket that sounded like a coworker who went home early because he was sick. Gerald told the investigators to check him out. The money bag and other evidence was found in his car and his room. To this day, Gerald has no idea how the people close to Clark Kent do not notice that he is Superman.

Gerald training as a line cook for Taco Bell in Grass Valley, and during the busy and chaotic grand opening, he did his own flour turns which caught the eye of the owner and the trainers. By the end of the week he was managing the restaurant. He worked there for a year but he left because he was bullied by the older women supervisors and managers. He stopped to eat at the Auburn Taco Bell and the manager recognized him and offered him a job. Gerald ddid it for a few months until the drive became too much for him.

Gerald was hired as a stocker and bagger at One Stop Supermarket located at 420 Henderson Street, which is now Prosperity Lanes, just a block away from where he and Tamara lived. Gerald was moved up to cashier, but still worked as a stocker. Tamara bought Gerald a Canon A1, the same camera her dad had, and Gerald always carried it with him taking pictures of anything to work on his skills as a photographer and pushing his imagination.

In 1986, after several hundred tries at sending demo tapes to publishers and record labels, Gerald decided to record his own album with the title “World Next Door.” Digital technology was in its early stages and was quite pricey. He took nearly three years to do a complete rewrite of all his material while looking for Analog-Recording Devices only to find out that Digital was near the same price. Gerald joined ASCAP as a writer member and a publisher member with World Next Door Music - ASCAP Publishing. He originally wanted Aria Songs, but ASCAP did not allow that name for some reason.

In 1987 Tamara and Gerald were married at Western Gate Way Park with an informal, formal wedding. Music was put on hold when One Stop Super Market was going down hill and the owners were looking to sell, so Gerald and Tamara, tired of the small town and its limitations, moved to Lake Elsinore with their Cockatiel Lyric. Gerald was to get a job at a super market and Tamara was going to help run Atlantic City Games, a joint family casino gaming entertainment business, in Riverside, California. Gerald fell in love with the concept and took a natural liking to the games and their odds. Tamara went to work with Eric at JC Carter in Costa Mesa which left Gerald to rework and revitalize the gaming business as the manager, receptionist, party organizer, pit boss, blackjack, craps, and roulette dealer.

One day, Gerald came home to a sobbing Tamara because Lyric was not feeling or looking well. They tried to find a vet in the late hours and drove hours and found one but they were not open. Lyric died in Tamara's arms that morning. Gerald was unconsolable for three days, he went to the ocean and sobbed. Coming to the realization that Lyric was poisoned by his fathers wife — she did not like him when they brought him, the relationship to withered and they avoided each other until Tamara found out she was pregnant, she wanted to go home and be with her parents. Tamara and Gerald moved back to Grass Valley to live with her parents in a house on Kate Hayes.

Gerald began learning the art of screenplay writing and took World Next Door and formatted it into a screenplay for film in 1989.

4.1 1990 - 1994

Gerald and Tamara did not know the sex of the baby, but old-wives-tales they did (tying the wedding band with a strand of the mother's hair, if it spun one way it was a girl and the other a boy) pointed that it was a girl. So they had a girl name ready. A boy was born on April 9, 1990 at 8:09 PM and was unnamed for several days. The conundrum of putting who's father's name first for naming the boy. Would it be Eric Douglas or Douglas Eric? Either way one father would not be happy, or so they thought, so they decided to name him outside the family names.

Wanting a classic, historic, old English name, Gerald came up with Charles, but Doug, his father-in-law said “What's up Chuck?” Richard Aria Davenport sounded cool and had the initials RAD, but again, Doug, said “Hey Dick.” Gerald had an idea to move the middle name Aria to be the first name and have a cool name as the middle, but Tamara was not in agreement with any names he came up with. Gerald jokingly said “Why not Eleven, like in craps?” Tamara agreed but said to remove the first 'E' at the beginning and have it be Leven, like Yo' Leven! at the tables. Gerald's mother was not to happy about the name and called Aria “A El.” She spoke the letters of his first and middle name.

Gerald was hired on as stocking crew at the up coming Grocery Outlet in Grass Valley, and by the time it was opened, he was in training to be the second in command which included managing the store, hiring & firing, Ordering, running the freight, and forklift operation.

Gerald and Tamara started Vegas Unlimited, a casino entertainment company for events, parties, and fundraisers. Doug and Gerald made all the tables from scratch in the small garage on Kate Hayes. Emulating what he learned earlier but raising the bar with better equipment and caring dealers, Vegas Unlimited was busy for three years until Tamara and Gerald, wanting to be their own bosses, enrolled in the Grocery Outlet store ownership program and had to move to Vacaville in February 1993.

Gerald, Tamara, Aria, a new baby girl, Kyriè Sierra Davenport born on December 30, 1992, and all their belongings were moved in a weekend to Vacaville and they were ready for work Monday morning at 5:00 am. The Vacaville Grocery Outlet was operated by the parents and brother of the wife of the owner of the Grass Valley store. There was no great welcoming party for them and their presence was met with friction by the owners. The employees were surprised when Gerald ordered 4 trucks to fill the store and changed the layout, but customers and sales increased. Still not getting appreciation from the owners, they asked corporate when they would get their own store.

When a couple who joined the program long after Gerald and Tamara got their store, Gerald and Tamara's love, excitement, and commitment to the Grocery Outlet organization dwindle. They asked to be moved, but no one could afford them, so they quit their high salaries to move to Placerville, California in August of 1993 and work at the Placerville Grocery Outlet for half of what they were making.

Tamara did not stay long as she found work at Shingle Springs Nissan in Placerville. Gerald stayed on as a manager and his first time ever working evenings and weekends. The owners were friends of the parents that owned the Vacaville store, so their was no love from the new owners, or glorified managers as Gerald found out what everyone really was. Gerald and Tamara were upset that they left without anyone stopping them, or at the least, asking why after the hours and hard work they put in.

Gerald was let go due to a check they say he signed allowing someone to cash a large check. He hated doing that service and would always pass it along to the other manager when he could, and if he could not, he would come up with an excuse not to do it. The signature in question was no where near the mess that his was, so it was not his, and he took them to employment court. When coworkers, that he thought were his friends, testified against him. As he walked out of the proceedings he told them all to have a wonderful life. Gerald and Tamara have not stepped into a Grocery Outlet since.

Editing video from VHS tapes was quite difficult and not very inspiring. “I did not have the ability to take the video and put it into the computer, and tape to tape editing was quite arduous. I kept video taping with the thought that one day I would be able to create a library of movies that would be easy to view. I was thinking VHS but wanted DVD.”

Moving back to Grass Valley in March of 1994, Gerald found work at the Grass Valley Group in Nevada City, California in the shipping department as a temp. Within a year, Gerald was making $10 more than he started and thought maybe he would be put on permanently.

5.1 1995 - 1999

In March of 1995, Gerald interviewed at Bud Plant Comic Art for a shipping position. The interview lasted over an hour and was offered the position, but he gave Grass Valley Group one more opportunity to keep him on. When they said they could not, he put in his notice. He was the first person in the the department, in a long time, that they had a going-away party. He left honored and sad he was leaving but needed stability and a solid working foundation with benefits. Gerald was introduced to vegetarian food at a BBQ at Bud Plant Comic Art and became vegetarian that day.

Editing video became easy but not cheap. The ability to digitize footage into the computer was more accessible and video editing software was coming of age. “I tried Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro, iMovie, and other obscure software titles and found that Final Cut Pro was much easier and much more usable. But getting the video to a format that was ready to view was still, for me, a bit troublesome. Nonetheless, I still worked on my craft learning the tool.”

He also got hooked on the internet, mostly how it was coded, and began to create html pages and Gerald and Tamara purchased Davenportz.com for their anniversary — davenports.com was taken by a jeweler and not even used, so Tamara suggested using a 'z' instead.

Gerald worked for Bud Plant Comic Art for over 5 years in shipping & receiving. He also got to go to Comic Con. When he was surpassed for the shipping management position and the receiving management position, he realized that he was the odd one at the company. He did not party the way they did, nor did he do much of anything that his other coworkers did after work. Tensions rose and he was forced out by not being welcome at work with remarks, looks, and inconsistant job duties.

April 1997, Gerald and Tamara purchased a home at 124 Eureka Street in Grass Valley and spent time remodeling it and fixing up the yard. It was a small house for the four of them, but they made it work and cared for the place. Gerald built a music studio in the far corner of the basement that was 98% sound proof. Purchasing a Roland VS-1680, sixteen digital tracks of recording, he began the journey to record his first self-produced album/cd.

6.1 2000 - 2004

In December of 2000, Gerald was infected with a simple little cold that lead to a major sinus infection that lasted until February of 2001^[A]. Gerald worked for five months at Moule Paint & Glass as a glazier, window, mirror, and shower enclosure installer in Grass Valley, California. Gerald went to Autometrix as the shipping and receiving manager from July 2000 to March 2001.

Gerald attended Apple's World Wide Developing Conference in San Francisco in June 2000. As a WWDC student member he was offered a one time hardware purchase at a 35% markdown. He chose the 17" Powerbook which had a DVD burner. He purchased the full version of Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro and edited the hours and hours of video he took over the past 15 years into nice organized packages. The powerbook was the answer he needed to furthur his creativity.

In 2000, Gerald opened his Davenport Website Designs to the public and began programming the world wide web to showcase the family, his music, and other creations. Gerald also borrowed video cameras to tape events and little stage bits, eventually purchasing a Canon Ultura MiniDV camera that he recorded over 200 tapes of family and other events.

In January 2001, Gerald took classes at Sierra College in Grass Valley focusing on computer science. math, english, and music. He worked as a packer at Booklegger, a golf book mail order company in Grass Valley from June 2001 to August 2001.

November 2002, he went back to Grass Valley Group on a promise that he would become permanent full-time after the retirement of one of the employees in February 2003. But when she left in December, Grass Valley Group could not make him permanent and he was thinking they were reneging on their deal. He acquired part-time work as a seasonal package loader and unloader at UPS. They asked him to come on full-time, but he was committed to finishing up his education and they black-listed him from working at UPS ever again. Gerald will NEVER SHIP WITH UPS EVER AGAIN.

Graduating from Sierra College in June of 2003, he transferred to California State University, Chico in September to continue his Computer Science degree where he met Adam James Veseley who was also a CS student. Adam told Gerald about an idea for a short film about paintball. Gerald wrote the first draft of Paint 2006 after he got tired of waiting for Adam to do it.

In 2004, Gerald received a call from Apple asking if he was ready to start working for them. He was, but in October 2004, Gerald enrolled at Video Symphony in Burbank, California, a Film and TV Post Production school, where he met Kevin Church, Dan Nelson, Kristien Gabriel, Jeanette Dubois, and many others that would be influential with his education. During school, he was asked to follow David Markey at The American Cinematheque, Egyptian Theater Hollywood, with a camera, for David's Love Doll's Fully Realized premiere presentation. He was also offered first dibs at editing it, which was added to the bonus features of the DVD titled A Tribute To David Markey.

Gerald edited for a couple of days and got a rough cut. Kevin told David who came to be the director to fine-tune it with the monkey pushing the buttons which people call the editor. One day, they were working on the beginning and decided to take a lunch break. When they cam back, David wanted to review the beginning and began to berate Gerald because he though Gerald changed things and the beats were off. Gerald was about to walk out and call him a nasty name, but he realized if he did, Kevin and his crew would not work with Gerald again. So he did a trick that one of the Video Symphony instructors showed them on the Avid system. You can assign keys to do certain things and also to do nothing. Gerald tapped on a key that did nothing 10 times. When he was done he replayed the sequence and David said, “That's better.” Gerald wanted to give David a punch in the face, but his laughter inside knowing he did not do anything made him see that David just wanted to show who was in charge. “I am not going to be a jerk and dumbass like him when I make my movies.” To continue the rude and inconsiderate person that David is, Gerald had to purchase his own copy of the movie at retail.

Gerald crammed weeks of instruction in so he could spend more time at home instead of driving down for a 4 day class, driving home for a week, then driving back down for a two day class. Gerald finished and graduated the 18-month program in half the time it took everyone else.

7.1 2005 - 2009

After graduation Gerald found uninspiring menial work as a temp stain mixer at Preserva Wood in Auburn, California for three weeks in September 2005, and an installer of security systems, whole house vacuums, and home theatre systems with Beam Easy Living Center in Grass Valley, California for two weeks in October 2005.

After learning what causes productions to be delayed, and seeing several productions get shelved for various reasons, Gerald came home and officially started Aria Pictures on January 1, 2005 with the intent to move the creative process to completion to a more streamlined and personal way. With nothing to edit and stay fresh since being away from Video Symphony he felt this emptiness, he decided to produce Paint 2006. Tamara reluctantly agreed to let him pursue his hair-brained idea. In October 2005 the film was made with help from his son Aria Leven Davenport and daughter Kyriè Sierra Davenport. Gerald handled most everything to make sure that it would get finished. “I did not know how good or bad it might be since I never done everything by myself. I was amazed that it turned out really good. Everyone involved was happy with it.”

Back in the early, to mid, 2000's Apple used to host a yearly Insomnia Film Festival and 2006 was the last year they held it. Gerald, Conner Decker Ring, and Chris Frank wrote and directed Eleven Minutes Late on November 10 - 11, 2006.

Another way Gerald decided to stay active at editing was to offer his services to the public with DVD Memories in October 2006.

Gerald was hired on as an instructor at Bitney College Prep High School in Grass Valley, California to teach Web Development as an elective from August 2007 to March 2008 when their funding ran out, meanwhile started working at Franza Enterprises, Inc. in Grass Valley, California as the office receptionist answering phones, filing, and organizing jobs that led to him becoming an estimator doing measurements, proposals, and running the seal-coating crew from March 2007 to May 2, 2008.

Gerald learned of a film event in Sacramento and landed the editing position for a 10-minute short called Detective A that was for Access Sacramento's A place called Sacramento 2009 screenplay contest. Gerald won the Best Technical Achievement award for editing and post-production work.

In early May of 2009, Kyriè was attending acting classes in Sacramento at It Factor Studios. Gerald and Tamara watched one session and at the end Ryan McKinney told the class that Access Sacramento was looking for actors for their screenwriting contest A Place Called Sacramento. Gerald looked it up and saw they were looking for cast and crew. Attending their cast and crew call event, Gerald submitted his demo reel to several filmmakers and became the production audio and film editor for Detective A by Victor A Nieto. Gerald lived in the area since 1979, and this is the first time he is hearing about this event. On the way home from the 2009 cast and crew, Gerald began thinking about a story he could submit in 2010. He started with an idea similar to National Treasure where John Sutter buried gold in the State Capital building pillars in Sacramento that a distant relative discovers in a journal. Forty pages were written for the untitled western, adventure, mystery between May 2009 and February 2010 that included horses, gun play, and wagons.

7.2 2010 - 2013

^{[^A]}For seven years Gerald would get infections from November to February. He went to an allergist and found out he was allergic to Cedar Trees — and they had a HUGE one in the backyard.

Cutting it to 10 pages and removing. On his 20th draft in early March, he asked his family to help with with a title when Aria said, “Dad, you've said the title five times already.” After nine months and five more revisions, Gerald submitted it.

In early May Gerald was informed that the THE GOLdEN TREE was one of the ten films selected for the 2010 Place Called Sacramento contest, and he pondered how he was going to make the movie. He remembered that in 2009 he met Brendan Brooks, who needed help exporting a video from Final Cut Pro, at a Final Cut Pro/Video group meeting (an extension of the Sierra Mousetrap Macintosh User Group held in Nevada City). Brendan joined the production along with one of the Sierra Mousetrap Macintosh User Group members, Jim Heck, who had an interest in camera's & audio and wanted to be involved.

Only needing five characters and he had three already cast, the cast & crew call event on May 19, 2010 he had the longest line all evening. The film received more than sixty actors and crew submissions in addition to another thirty more from email. Gerald cast twenty-eight actors with a total of forty-five people working on THE GOLdEN TREE film. Gerald rewrote the screenplay to include them, and made it longer to incorporate the possibility of a thirty minute or more version to send to film festivals, potential producers, and give the actors more screen time.

Gerald helped out at Double Oak Vineyard & Winery in North San Juan, California as a grape picker & bottler for three harvests: 2009 - 2011. One fall morning in 2010 while picking grapes, the sun shone through the grape vines and leaves sparking an idea for a story that became Petite Chardonnay which he wrote, directed, and edited.

Gerald received an email from Ron Cooper asking if anyone could help Guy Pace with his film Treasure Chest of South Sacramento, because his camera man and director left the production. Gerald did not hesitate to volunteer himself, Aria Leven Davenport, and Brendan Brooks to help him make his film. Gerald and Brendan Co-Directed and operated the camera on the film.

Gerald did part-time camera work for Touchdown Productions which recorded high school athletics, music al performances, and plays in Nevada and Placer Counties from February 2010 to August 2011.

Gerald wrote THE GOLdEN TREEs — a sequel to THE GOLdEN TREE, the WATERING hole, and Petite Chardonnay — a shortened version of Chardonnay to submit to the 2011 Place Called Sacramento screenplay contest. Disgruntled with the event and the rules after the 2010 event, Gerald wrote all three of them without any Sacramento locations mentioned or used in the stories, each one mention Sacramento once. Thinking they would want to see the continuation of the family in THE GOLdEN TREE or maybe a touching family story in Petite Chardonnay, Gerald was perplexed and surprised when the WATERING hole was selected. Gerald made Rob Tillitz the producer since he was using his bar. Tillitz replied, “So I guess that makes me your boss?” Gerald directed and edited the film. Gerald brought Brendan Brooks, Jim Heck, and Scott Slotterbeck to help with the production of the film.

Judith Plank, writer of 2010 selection Butterscotch, told Gerald that she was impressed with his film THE GOLdEN TREE that she wanted him to do the production of her film BUDDIES for the 2011 Place Called Sacramento contest. Gerald enjoyed Butterscotch and read the screenplay for BUDDIES and accepted the offer to bring himself, Brendan Brooks (Double B Productions), and Jim Heck (Wandering Eye Media). Gerald was first assistant director and editor on the film. the WATERING hole won the Producer's Choice Award with four votes and Buddies was second with three votes.

Mark Hoffman asked Gerald to edit An Ignoble Caper, a 7 minute short film for Sacramento International Film Festival's 48 hour film festival contest in April 2011 that was directed by Vincent D. Miles.

Working together often, and doing productions outside of Aria Pictures Brendan Brooks, Jim Heck, and Gerald created Breckport Media Solutions in 2012, coined by Heck, to offer and deliver quality High Definition Video, Responsive SEO Website Design, Interactive Kiosks, and print solutions for businesses, organizations, or personal needs.

After the 2011 Access Sacramento's Place Called Sacramento event Gerald said no more because of the way they run the event, until Dänna Wilberg asked him to help with her film The Producer for the 2012 contest. Gerald did not hesitate because he enjoyed her writing and her films The Push (2009), Little Thieves (2010), and Borrowed Time (2011). Gerald directed and edited the film, as well as, did the digital effects. During the final days of production and post-production for The Producer, Gerald began pre-production for Petite Chardonnay with production beginning in August of 2012.

Gerald was asked the last minute to edit Vincent D. Miles' If We Really Loved Each Other, for Sacramento International Film Festival's 48 hour film festival contest from March 30 - April 1, 2012. Mark Hoffman asked if Gerald could edit his 5 minute short The Choice for the LifeFest 5x5 Film Festival which won Best use of Prop, Best Actress, and Best Picture at the 5x5 LifeFest May 5, 2012.

March of 2013 - August of 2013 gerald worked at Kmart in Grass Valley as an early morning hardline merchandiser. “I sort of like the job. It was mindless work allowing me to think about my future, path, and what I wanted to do. But it was a mindless grunt position with no real appreciation for what my talents and skills. Hearing that after Sears bought Kmart, the whole thing went down the drain: no parties, no fun, no bonuses, and no raises — appreciation. I need to find something else.”

Cheryl Noble, station manager for Nevada County TV, a public access TV station in Grass Valley, asked Gerald to help her create an event similar to Access Sacramento's A Place Called Sacramento screenplay contest. This was Gerald's opportunity to get take Access Sacramento event and make better. Calling it “Here in Nevada County,” Gerald pitched a 6 page presentation for the NCTV board who told them to go for it for 2014. Gerald offered screenwriting classes to help out aspiring writers and even offered his, Brendan, and Jim's time to help out the filmmakers with all aspects of production if they needed it. She later took all the credit and most of the money the contest brought in and skipped town afterward.

7.3 2014

Only ten screenplays were submitted. Bruce Bradly submitted two. Gerald wanted to give the filmmakers less stress and told Noble that “Bruce should just do one. How is he going to make two when he has no one to help him on one? ” Gerald read all of the screenplays and there were a couple that had potential and others that were no where near reading ready let alone production ready.

Wanting to stay unbiased and give support to all the films, Gerald turned several people down until Noble said it would not be a problem if helped on the films — she encouraged him to participate. Gerald began working with Steve Dakota on his story The Wrecking Yard that was also selected for the Place Called Sacramento contest. Work began to re-write it to make sense, work on art and graphics, and work with actor needs as well as finding locations. Steve drove up and picked up Gerald in Grass Valley. They had a long day driving around Sacramento looking at potential locations and how they can make it work. Gerald was trying to make the production easy and doable. Steve wanted to use a 57' Chevy owned by Gerald Mathew Young and Gerald was trying to figure out the logistics of getting the car to the various locations all over Sacramento, and how to plan the schedule. Gerald thought he was helping Steve out by letting him know there was a car to his right, Steve exploded and explained how long he has been behind a wheel and does not need any help. That made the rest of the day very tense. It was very quiet on the way back to Grass Valley, and when Steve dropped Gerald off, Gerald missed closing the door and went to close it when Steve drove away with his passenger door still open.

Steve sent an email the following day that had a few questions, but more like statements. Why do you refer to our screenplay as my screenplay? Why do you back-seat drive? Why do you micro-manage? Gerald replied with: It is your movie, not mine. I mentioned the one car the whole day that was blind to me and I know blind to you. And I was not micromanaging, I was managing in full. Being the director and the production manager, I need to know and plan everything so the production goes smoothly. Have you made a film on your own? Have you made one and delivered it to thousands of people to see? I wanted your film to be organized, specially since I have to convince my team to go all over the place you want to go - for free. Steve dropped out of both contests and was never heard from again.

Bruce Bradley found out Gerald was free and asked if he would help him with his movie Oberon's Gold. After the let down from Steve, Gerald had to get his team all revved up. Oberon's Gold needed lots of work on the story. The original idea was like a Cheers, where famous people came into the bar and did much of nothing — there was no story, just a who's who of outlaws, bandits, and historic western folk. Gerald co-wrote new material, directed, and edited the film.

Noble kept changing the rules and criteria of the contest and Gerald had to explain that it needs to stay the way it is, but when she was adamant about wanting NCTV to get an Executive Producer credit on all films, one filmmaker left the contest. Gerald said, NCTV does not deserve that credit and told all the other filmmakers what she wanted. The ignorant ones agreed, but a few in know said no and she kicked them out of the contest. Two of them were Bruce's films which Oberon's Gold was almost completed. Noble also relieved Gerald of his duties helping the contest and renamed the contest to Foothill Films. Jim Heck came in and took his place and the relationship between he and Jim disappeared.

Noble contacted Ron Cooper of Access Sacramento about the credit and in an email to Bruce Bradley and others, she retracted her ruling on Bruce's movies and allowed them in and capitulated her want for the Executive Producer credit. Gerald already distraught and could careless about the contest was begged to help Bruce do his next film The National Exchange, since he had issues with his director. Gerald scrambled and assembled a small team to spend three days inside one of the rooms at the historic National Hotel, in Nevada City, California. Gerald wrote additional material for the film, directed, and edited it.

Gerald introduced Mark Hoffman to Donna Cobb and her story Second Chance, Nevada County, knowing they would pair really well. Gerald helped one day on set up until they were at a house and Noble was there. He felt it was best to stay away since he did not have any nice words or feelings toward her kind.

Gerald applied for a shop position at Byers Enterprises but he was told he was not qualified. Days later they called him and asked if he did Website and Video work as a hobby. Gerald told them he did not. They asked him to come in for an interview. Gerald was hired on November 3, 2014 as an experiment. He labelled himself as the multimedia specialist doing their website, videos, graphics for marketing and internal operations.

7.4 2015 - 2019

In 2015, Brendan Brooks submitted Today to the NCTV screenplay contest and was accepted, he offered Gerald to be his First Assistant Director and Editor, but Gerald did not want to be a backseat Director, he wanted Brendan to do his film, so Gerald did his job but stayed in the background when it came to certain decisions. Mark Hoffman enlists Gerald to be his first assistant director and editor on the Yard Sale.

Gerald declined opportunities to be involved in five short films and a full-length feature in late 2016 and all of 2017 due to working on his own productions looking for financing, working many hours at Byers, and not wanting to have conflicts on set on some of the productions. “Some may think I am arrogant and egocentric, but that is far from the truth. I do not have time for people that ask me to come and help them on their film and then do not take my advice or suggestions and do it their way, which may not be wrong, but a waste of time. I know I am not Richard Donner or Quentin Tarantino, but I have made a few films before and know how to get it done easy, fun, and collaborative way. I told myself early on after the David Markey thing: I will not be a filmmaker who is a jerk, does not listen, or makes the set uncomfortable. And I will not work on any film that has those kinds of people in it. So, NO. I will not help you on your movie.”

Aria Pictures had a Film Showcase on April 9, 2016 to celebrate Aria turning 26, and to share 11 shorts films Aria Pictures has been involved in. It was also to say goodbye to short films and usher in a new direction of feature length projects, starting with Paint, Gobe Normal, Chardonnay, or something else.

In 2017, Gerald was brought in at the beginning of Mark Hoffman's The Elevator: Little Room for Justice. As the interest grew in the film, so did the amount of people wanting to help and take over. Mark allowed a willing group of people that promised great things for the production, and Gerald did not want to compete and cause problems, so again, he removed himself from the team. Months later, when the film should have been completed, Mark needed help to make the film as the interest or commitment from the other people vanished. Mark enlisted Gerald to be the Director of Photography, First Assistant Director, and Editor, knowing Gerald would not let him down.

Kyriè and Aria both graduate University and moved down to Southern California to pursue each of their dreams and career goals. Aria is a Flight Instructor and Kyriè has been doing Acting workshops and working at Universal Studios — and she loves it.

Gerald enjoyed a full year of Nevada County Adult Coed Softball umpiring for Western Nevada County Softball Association, as well as, being the Coed President.

Production for Mark Hoffman's Little Room for Justice began in 2019.

7.5 2020 - 2024

One of those productions that Gerald was brought in at the beginning is Mark Hoffman's Little Room for Justice. As the interest grew in the film, so did the amount of people wanting to help and take over. Mark allowed a willing group of people that promised great things for the production, and Gerald did not want to compete and cause problems, so again, he removed himself from the team. Months later, when the film should have been completed, Mark needed help to make the fim and enlisted Gerald to be the Director of Photography, First Assistant Director, and Editor, knowing Gerald would not let him down.

Gerald and Tamara started dating in 1981 in their Sophomore year at Nevada Union. They were married on July 18, 1987 at Western Gateway Park in Penn Vally, California. Interesting fact: It snowed the day before and threatened the morning of their wedding day. Gerald has been a vegetarian since 1990, and the rest of the family followed in 1993. He was baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints on October 22, 2014.