Chadd Green

In Which I Explain Later

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For those of you who are new to leehurtado.com, you’re probably wondering about the “Hurtado Street” reference.

Well, by way of exposition, before I upgraded it to a full-on website, my blog was known as “The Hurtado Street Theater.” It’s an allusion to a line I wrote into the first screenplay I worked on, Dating Danielle (back in 2007, when I first started working with Nikki and Chadd). It was a lot of fun, and more than that, it was the beginning of my writing career.

So, this being Throwback Thursday and all, here’s the story that started it all:

Now you know. Thanks for wanting to know, and for following along.

Until next time, “be seeing you…”

Seven Years? Already?

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Me being me and all, I might have missed it entirely, but for a couple of notifications from my LinkedIn app that friends were congratulating me on my work anniversary.

That was the reminder that this week marks seven years that I’ve been working with Nikki and Chadd at PrimaDonna Productions, Inc.

Seven years… Continue reading →

The Proverbial More, Part II

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Tonight I’ll be at Monarch Academy, along with Nikki, our colleagues there, and their students and families, to celebrate the end of another school year.

Being part of the Monarch family – and it really is a family, by choice and emotion if not by genetics – has been an experience I’m still trying to put into words. As a writer and as a human being, you always live with a certain hope that what you do, what you say, can make a positive difference. But you don’t always get to see it happen right in front of you.

It’s a gift, a blessing, that in the last year, I have.

Continue reading →

The Magnolia Chronicles, Days 4-6: Wrap Stars

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Were I to put a lesson to the production of Magnolia, it would have to be that patience, persistence, and preparation ultimately pay off.  (Were I to put a lesson to my blogging, it might be that I rely a little too heavily on alliteration – but that’s a post for another day…)

Over six weeks, we’d had to make occasional adjustments for locations, actor availability, and especially the weather.  We’d faced drought one week, deluge the next.  But Nikki and Chadd had brought a great team together, so we were able to keep moving forward, knowing that as long as we kept doing our work, it would still come together.

And in our last weekend of principal photography, it really did come together. Continue reading →

The Magnolia Chronicles, Days 2 & 3: Our Time In The Adjustment Bureau

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It pretty effectively goes without saying that filmmaking, especially independent filmmaking, is a process of adjustments.  The unexpected will happen; there’s no way around that.  And while I’m not entirely convinced it’s possible to expect the unexpected – if you could, it wouldn’t really be unexpected, would it? – it’s still possible to prepare for it, to be ready to make the necessary adjustments to get the shot.

Over the last few days of production, Magnolia has been an object lesson in how to be ready. Continue reading →

The Magnolia Chronicles, Day 1: Matters Of Degrees

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My first experience as a PrimaDonna production assistant (a PDPA, if you will) was on Dating Danielle, almost exactly 5 years ago this weekend.  I have a lot of great memories of those 48 hours, but one of the greatest has to be the spirit that developed between cast and crew, as we all bonded while shooting on one of the hottest days of the year.

August is funny that way… Continue reading →

Re-Arranged

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While I’ve enjoyed my recent forays into performance (from Site 13 to Glamour in Glitter to my appearance at Texas Comicon), at heart I’m really a behind-the-scenes guy.  I love the process, the work of making movies that most moviegoers may never see.

So I’m thrilled to be getting back to the other side of that camera for PDP‘s next project.

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Hurtado In Wonderland

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It’s been something of an arc in this blog (if blogs can be said to have arcs) that I really haven’t seen as much of San Antonio as I should have by my age.  That’s pretty much all on me – in my younger years I wasn’t as interested in getting out and meeting people and experiencing the world.  It took a little time, and some much-valued inspiration from friends, but I did ultimately choose the path of engagement.  And I’d like to think I’m better off for it.

All of which should tag this post as #MakingUpForLostTime. Continue reading →