Sitting in front of his laptop, filmmaker Dan Lashley (http://www.myspace.com/KashFlagg) looks over one of his latest scripts. “Doing rewrites can be a blessing and a curse.” Dan says. “On one hand, it gives you a chance to fix the parts of the script that aren’t working. On the other hand, it gives you the opportunity to really screw the whole thing up. Finding the balance can be like walking on a tightrope wearing banana peel shoes.”

For the twenty-eight year old Bowling Green native, the road to becoming a filmmaker has been a long one. His first feature film “Communication Breakdown”, was recently completed two years after filming was wrapped. “Richard (Director Richard O’Sullivan) and I have gone through hell and back to get this film finished. From money problems to dealing with people who have hurt more than helped, I think I can safely say that we both came out of it with some battle scars. I like to show mine at parties.”

Even as a child, Dan knew he wanted to get involved in film. “ I remember in kindergarten they asked all of us what we wanted to be when we grew up. The other kids were saying the usual things like baseball player or astronaut. When I was called, I stood up and said that I wanted to be in show biz. I think that’s when I started to realize I was a tad bit different than the other kids.”

Things started to get a bit worse once Dan started high school. Moving to Simpson county, and away from his friends, proved to be tough on Lashley. “High school was tough, as it is for anyone who starts a new school. Here I was, this pudgy weird kid who had no interest in sports, infiltrating their little world. So for the entire time I there, it went like this…you had your popular kids, then your unpopular kids, and way below them you had me. There were days when I just wanted to die, it was that bad. I read about kids who kill themselves over the hazing they receive and it makes me sad that it continues and that most people do nothing to help prevent such things from happening.”

It was during this period in his life that Dan picked up a pen and started writing. “I would write poems, songs, ingredients to hot dogs…you name it I wrote it. And I’m sure most of it was terrible. But it gave me an outlet that I didn’t think was available to me, and I took advantage of it as often as I could. If it wasn’t for the writing, I honestly don’t know what would have happened to me. It’s still my favorite thing to do to this day…and I hope I’ve gotten better at it.”

It was only a matter of time before Lashley got his hands on a camera. “My parents, God bless em, have always supported my dreams. They knew I would just bug the hell out of them so they would sometimes borrow an old videocamera from friends and let me go film my little opuses on the weekend. I’d do these silly skits like “Stupidman” and make the few friends I did have act in them. In one of the “horror” films I did, I played the killer behind the camera while my best friend Paul played every other role. One of his roles involved him wearing a football helmet, and the killer cutting his head off and throwing it. So my big special effect was me throwing the football helmet, AND making the sound of it flying through the air, and Paul running away with his shirt over his head. Thank God footage of that no longer exists.”

Once high school ended, Lashley’s focus shifted. “I worked at a series of dead-end jobs. My creativity was nil at the time. I was becoming a cliched country song. Luckily I got my drive back, but I still kick myself over those wasted years I could have been writing.”

Lashley got back on track when he was hired to work on a film in North Carolina by Lost Colony Entertainment (http://www.lostcolonyentertainment.com) and director Richard O’Sullivan. “ I was originally going to just be a P.A. (production assistant), but I got moved up to sound mixer when everyone was more impressed with how fast I learned how to record sound than the ‘professional’ who ended up taping over half a day’s footage.”

“I met Danny in 2002” Says O’Sullivan. “He came in to work behind-the-scenes on this film I was directing, which got shut down after two weeks of production. Was a very traumatic time but he sorta became like my ‘little brother.’ From there on, there’s never been a moment where I doubted that he had my back when it counted.”

After the film was shut down, Dan began working with O’Sullivan and Lost Colony Entertainment on two short films, “Poor Sense of Direction” and “The Rejection Letters of Dan Lashley”, with Lashley writing the script and making his acting debut in the latter. They also began work on an idea that Dan had for a feature film. “I had always wanted to do a film set in a radio station, so Richard and I wrote like the first twenty pages of it, and then it was me alone for a while. It was just me, a notebook, a radio, and a bottle of vodka. Two weeks later a rough draft of Communication Breakdown (http://imdb.com/title/tt0389868/) was written, and I had a hangover.”

With rewrites from both Lashley and Sullivan polishing the script, about two late night DJ’s who try to maintain their friendship when the indie radio station they work for is sold to a conglomerate, the task was now to turn script into reality. “Selling point for filming this script was, we could do it with a small handful of actors and a couple of locations.” quipped O’Sullivan. “Of course, as is always the case with us, the idea kinda got out of hand. Turned into something like thirty characters and eight locations. We had no money, no equipment, no place to house everyone, no insurance, no nothing. But we managed to pull it off at the last minute with twigs and yarns.”

“We were lucky enough when (former adult star) Jasmin St. Claire and (Former ECW and WWE wrestler) The Blue Meanie agreed to be in the film,” Says Lashley. “But we still had a tough time casting the other roles. There were tons of tapes of people that were just plain bad, and it honestly pained me to hear them butcher my words. I’m just glad that amongst all those tapes we hired some really talented people.”

The filming of Communication Breakdown took place over a 30 day span in Asheville, North Carolina. Working on a feature film proved to be a grueling experience. “Filming Communication Breakdown was some of the hardest work I’ve ever done. Fun work, but work nonetheless. With such a small budget, a lot of us would do multiple jobs. It wouldn’t be surprising to see actors helping out on set. I know I lost at least fifteen pounds during filming.”

During the period after filming was wrapped and editing was completed, Lashley continued to write. In that two year span, he wrote four feature screenplays. “I had to keep writing,” Lashley states. “I knew as much as I loved the Communication Breakdown script, it wasn’t the only script I had in me. I’ve taken the lessons I’ve learned from every script I’ve written and built from there. I know it sounds cocky to say it, but I’ve gotten good at the written word.”

Comedy was the thing I naturally gravitated to. I grew up admiring the work of Mel Brooks, Bill Murray, Richard Pryor, and especially Andy Kaufman. I devoured everything they did. Their movements, the timing, everything. From slapstick to subtle comedy, I loved it all. They say that comedy is the toughest genre to write, because it’s not as hard to scare people, or invoke an emotion such as anger or crying. Making a person laugh, however, is very difficult because most people don’t share the same sense of humor. I like the challenge.”

Since his recent move back to Kentucky, Dan has set his sights on filming his next movie in Bowling Green. “I’ve always loved Bowling Green, and think it has so much potential. The city is growing by leaps and bounds. There’s several community theaters around like the Fountain Square Players, so the acting talent is there. If filming a movie here will help, then it’s the least I can do.”

Lashley is also a huge fan of the local music scene. “The great thing about this area is that you can go two hours in any direction and have the chance to listen to so many great bands.” Dan comments. “You’ve got such great bands like Perfect Confusion and Floord in Bowling Green, The Muckrackers in Louisville, The All American Werewolves in Lexington, Lance Whalen, The Bees (U.S.), and Laura A and the Bad Grades in Nashville…and I’m just hitting the tip of the iceberg as far as talent is concerned. Music and film go hand in hand. A perfectly placed song can make a good scene into a great one. I’m just giddy at the prospect of getting to use some of these bands in my next film.”

Asked about the new script, Lashley stays pretty mum.”I don’t want to give away too much of it yet, but it’s completely different from Communication Breakdown. The comedy is more subtle, like Lost in Translation. It’s about a former child star living in self imposed exile, and the way he views people and life in general. I’ve been so happy with how far I’ve come as a writer to create something as wonderful and touching as this….but I’m biased of course.”

Dan loves the script so much that he will be acting in AND directing it. “I know how huge a task that’s going to be, but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do both. That’s the greedy side of me. I’m confident I can do it.”

O’Sullivan agrees. “I’m anxious to see what he does as a director. He says he’s gonna shoot this thing and act in it too. I told him point blank, that’s gonna be a chore but he’s confident he can do it. He really brought it on the set of CB so I ain’t bettin’ against him.”

For now, Dan is concentrating on the Communication Breakdown comic book (which he co-wrote with John Michael Burgess) and the upcoming “Kashapalooza” tour, which gives people the opportunity to not only see Communication Breakdown, but to also enjoy some live music by both bands from the soundtrack and local bands.

“It’s going to be a wild few months ahead of us. I definitely look forward to traveling the country showing the film, and I also look forward to showing the film in my hometown.”

Dan has also toyed with the idea of starting a film festival in Bowling Green. “Why not? If a little town called Park City can have Sundance, why not Hilltopper country?”

His parting words gives advice to young men and women who share his unique view of the world. “ I’ve never claimed to know all the answers, and I screw up more times than I care to admit, but I’ve never given up on my dream. People can try to break you, but they can never take away your dreams.”