Title: DMNS "Exhibition Health" (1:00)
Client: Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Concept, Script, Producer, Director
DMNS needed an engaging, hi-tech, multi-use video to introduce their incoming permanent exhibit "Exhibition Health". The video needed a futuristic yet human feel to convey the many processes going on in your body at every moment.
Shooting on HD, we used green screen to capture the actors in various activities, then built their virtual environments and composited in AfterEffects. The result was a smooth, flowing spot that also matched the feel of the title sponsor's branding.
Title: Crocs "Anthem" (:30)
Client: Crocs Footwear
Agency: Red Robot
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Producer
Crocs likes to think out of the box. They also realize their product is polarizing - to say the least. They wanted to show both sides of the love �em or hate �em argument through an amusing repartee between "real" people.
After extensive casting and a long day of improvisation on HD, we put together a spot that disarms the haters and embraces the lovers. The spot ran nationally, most notably during the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Title: Nemours "Mighty Timoneers" (:30)
Client: Nemours Healthcare
Agency: Worldways Social Marketing
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Producer
The Timoneers are Nemours and their agency Worldways' clever creation to teach the benefits of child healthcare and prevention. They wanted to bring the gang to the real world a-la Tony The Tiger in a live action spot.
Shooting on HD and using a number of masking / compositing techniques, we paired with Toronto animation house Trace to produce a surprisingly realistic home environment for the gang to make their pitch.
Title: TV One: "DNC After Party" (4x60 min)
Client: TV One Network
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Line Producer
The Democratic National Convention provided many in Denver with a chance to shine. African-American network TV One decided to air a live talk show for 1 hour after every night of the Convention and chose Citizen Pictures to handle production.
I worked as Line Producer for the entire production. From budgeting, to set design, to live uplink, to crewing, to coordination with the DNC, I was point man for every detail on the show. It was a trying, taxing, career highlight to be sure.
Title: NSA "Hot Dog" (:30)
Client: National Stroke Association
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Concept, Script, Producer, Director
The National Stroke Association wanted to depart from the scare tactics of most PSAs and make a spot that addressed the dangers of cholesterol through humor. I pitched a number of ideas and they chose the wackiest one, to my disbelief.
Shooting on HD, choreographing on set, and bringing in the most realistic hot dog costume in LA, we managed to produce a decidedly out-of-the-box PSA. This one was truly a labor of love for me.
Title: NSA "Stars" (:30)
Client: National Stroke Association
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Concept, Script, Producer, Director
NSA wanted to conduct a series of interviews with stroke survivors to illustrate what you can do to avoid having another stroke. We headed to California to capture some of the most difficult and heartwarming discussions of my career.
Shooting on HD over 3 days, we talked to 4 groups of people and uncovered the daily courage needed to live a healthy post-stroke lifestyle. We cut this :30 PSA from the footage, which ran nationally.
Title: USA Boxing "Going For Gold" (:30)
Client: USA Olympic Team
Agency: Greg Lewis Productions
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Script, Producer, Director
The USA Boxing Team has a storied history - Louis, Foreman, Ali, Frazier, Leonard, and the list goes on. The team was stacked with talent going into the 2008 Olympics and they wanted to celebrate with a national ad.
Using HD footage shot at the Olympic Training Center and some powerful, tribal audio mixing, we built a spot that captures the energy of the world's best boxing club. The spot aired during numerous NBC events leading up to the Olympics.
Title: PC "Key To a Happy Household" (6:30)
Client: Precious Cat Kitty Litter
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Concept, Script, Producer, Director, Actor
Precious Cat is a local kitty litter company. They had a chance to get an "instructional video" on the PetSmart website; they had very little money to produce but were open to just about anything - the type of mission I love.
There's not much to "demonstrate" about cat litter, so I decided to do a period piece in the style of 50�s instructional movies. The result was quite amusing and caught much attention. Nobody asks why the white cat is named Patches, which upsets me.
Title: XM "NavTraffic" (2:05?)
Client: XM Satellite Radio
Production Company: Direct
Role: Concept, Script, Producer, Director
Over the 5 years I worked with XM Satellite Radio I produced all types of media - sales videos, commercials, trade show movies, concerts. This spot was to announce a partnership between XM and Navteq to bring real-time traffic info to your car.
Completed in AfterEffects and on a very tight deadline (2 days), we created what we thought the interface would look like, even though it hadn't been created yet. We got excellent feedback and the launch of the service was a success.
Title: XM "CNBC / ESPN / NASCAR" (3x:30)
Client: XM Satellite Radio
Production Company: Direct
Role: Script, Producer
XM was the first satellite radio network to broadcast popular cable tv channels through coast-to-coast radio. They wanted to announce the first 3 channels through national commercials, which needed a high-tech composited feel.
We worked for 2 weeks in New York with an Inferno editor to create these rich, layered spots. This was the beginning of the next phase of advertising from XM, departing from their famous Falling Stars campaign to a more direct approach.
Title: XM "Channel ID Logos" (100x:05)
Client: XM Satellite Radio
Production Company: Direct
Role: Concept, Producer, Director
In every piece of XM marketing materials we needed to represent the vast array of programming somehow. We quickly realized each channel needed an animated logo to express itself.
It was great fun bringing the feel of 100 radio channels to life. Not all channels lent themselves to visual representation well, but the resulting animations were used successfully in almost every XM marketing communications piece.
Title: ColoradoDads "Better Father" (:30)
Client: State of Colo / Fatherhood Initiative
Agency: The Bawmann Group
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Producer, Director
The most important role for a father these days is to BE THERE. That's the message the Colorado Department of Human Services wanted to convey in this statewide PSA. They needed a sensitive spot people could relate to.
Shooting on HD, we got great performances from kids who were not professional actors. Their real-life fathers played their dads, and the chemistry came through in the spot. Sometimes working with nonprofessionals is a plus!
Title: CHP+ "When I Grow Up" (:30)
Client: State of Colo / Child Health Plan +
Agency: The Bawmann Group
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Producer, Director
Governor Ritter agreed on very short notice to appear in a commercial promoting a new child healthcare insurance plan. We didn't know that meant for only one hour, at his office, during a snowstorm, with a rally going on outside his window.
Nonetheless, the kids were cute, the Gov was a champ, and the rally quieted down at all the correct moments. The spot ended up being a hit, and Governor Ritter confessed to our agency exec it was one of the most painless spots he'd been a part of.
Title: Groople "Dear Fans" (:30)
Client: Groople
Production Company: Citizen Pictures
Role: Concept, Script, Producer, Director
Groople is a small startup in Denver that books travel packages for groups, focusing on universities and sports teams. They wanted an ad that spoke to the rabid college fan and enticed them to travel to away games.
On a shoestring budget we cut this clever spot together. The footage was stock acquired from athletic conferences, from there we just ran with the fan craziness. Groople's sales jumped in regional cable markets where these spots ran.
Title: National Movie Promos (4x:30)
Client: Fox / Paramount / Universal Studios
Production Company: Gary Hahn Productions
Role: Concept, Script, Producer, Editor
My first producing job was a promo for Universal's "Dante's Peak". Pierce Brosnan famously utters the line "this thing is gonna blow" to camera; we thought long and hard whether we'd amuse the studio by including it in the spot - wisely we didn't.
Over a 3-year span I produced many promos for the pay per view releases of blockbuster movies. The creative freedom was minimal but the buzz was quite good for a young buck coming out of film school.