As a boy growing up in a small town, Haven Lamoureux had a romanticized image of a larger-than-life California that promised excitement and glamorous success.

“I grew up in a town that had 2,000 people and a blinking stoplight, so California sounded almost like a nirvana,” he said. “Even when I was a young kid I really wanted to drop out and go to San Francisco and try to make it on my own.”

He resisted the urge, graduating from the Dublin School in 1998, and went on to Emerson College to pursue a film degree. As a student he started filming skateboarders in Boston. He even made money producing the short videos, but not enough to make a living. So, after he graduated in 2002, he took the leap and moved to Los Angeles - without a place to live and no job prospects.

“It was a rocky start. I was staying on my friends’ couches and floors until I found a place to live. For work I did odd jobs for a while. I worked as a mover, and did a lot of random work to get by,” Lamoureux said.

He continued to shoot skateboarding videos to expand his portfolio, but it wasn’t until he was hired as a full-time videographer for a skateboard company that he could say filming was his day job.

“I remember the day. I was actually sitting on Hollywood Boulevard. I was working as a mover and was waiting for a ride to work,” he said. “I got the call saying I had got the job and thought, ‘are you serious? I don’t have to carry another piano.’”

Fast forward almost eight years later and Lamoureux can attribute his latest project, and the first film he can truly call his own, to his years of work shooting skateboarding videos. Lamoureux began work on “The Blinkumentary,” a documentary about the pop-punk band Blink 182, more than a year ago. Lamoureux was introduced to the band’s drummer, Travis Barker, through his work creating skateboarding videos. Later, he filmed skateboarding videos for Barker’s company, Famous Stars and Straps. When he heard the band was getting back together he told the band members that he was interested in telling the story of their breakup and reunion.

“I wanted to create something of substance by myself, and I felt like I was ready. It happened that Blink 182 was getting back together. They had a tumultuous break up, so I saw this interesting story, and they have a very large fan base, who I thought would love to know what was happening and what the reformation was like,” Lamoureux said.

“I had been part of large projects, but I was always a staff cinematographer, never the director or producer. So this is my first stab at putting my neck out there on my own. So the failure or success of this film is resting completely on my shoulders.”

Lamoureux traveled with the band last summer, filming its reunion tour, and only recently finished recording interviews with band members. He said the project has been a great learning experience and it has been fun working with the high-energy, high-profile band.

“We actually just finished cutting together a segment of Travis Barker doing one of his drum solos. It was remarkable. He’s definitely a machine and a talent on the drums. He was on a revolving drum riser that went 30 feet in the air and would go completely upside down. I never saw him drop a beat on it, it was amazing,” he said.

Lamoureux said California has been everything he had imagined, and has even found time to record his own blues/rock album with his fiancée, Jill Boxberger. Lamoureux has been playing guitar since he was a teenager, and said he is excited to finally see his work recorded. The couple’s second CD will be released by the end of the summer.

“Growing up my dad always had guitars all around the house. So it’s always been with me,” he said. “Artistically music came first for me, and everything else came after.”