Dermalactives
I worked as line producer, photographer, and video editor for Dermalactive’s 2024 social content and business-to-business videos. I shot on the Nikon Z6 with Kipon Baveyes focal reducer and Pentax 67 lenses, while camera operator Maty Young shot on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6k and Ronin RS3.
I edited the 7-in-1 LED video and Instagram Reels in Adobe Premiere Pro. I hired the narrators and models through backstage casting.
Camera Operator/Gaffer Maty Young
Producer Ashley Vasquez
1st Assistant Director Devin Weakland
Propmaster Keith Roedl
Model Emma Ward
TBD Coffee Co.
In March of 2020, the night before the world shut down from the COVID-19 pandemic, I met Ashley Vasquez at a mutual friend’s birthday party. The connection was instant. Five months later; we were crazy about each other and crazy enough to start a coffee company together.
Ashley had a background in social media management and my background was in cinematography, photography, and animation. We created TBD Coffee Co. I drew the characters on each coffee bag label, took product photos of each coffee bag, and filmed videos showcasing the bags. Ashley took those and created a TBD Coffee Co Instagram page, ran social ads, and ran PR campaigns with various news outlets.
We started with our Per My Last Email Dark Roast and then kept creating from there. Fast forward to the present and the company is much larger with 12 signature coffee labels. We bought a new home together at the start of 2022.
In an interview with Canvas Rebel about TBD Coffee Co, I was asked to share a story that illustrates an important or relevant lesson you learned in school. I answered that I’m a director of photography and producer now, but I started off in film school.
I had a film professor who told us that when crafting a story, it’s best if we take from our own personal lives as inspiration.
If we imitate other films then we’re creating a duplicate of something that already exists.
We regularly film ads for TBD Coffee Co for use on social media. Here is an ad that we shot for Hulu. It ran for 3 months. The ad was shot on the Nikon Z6 with Pentax 67 lenses and a Kipon Baveyes medium format focal reducer flying on the Ronin RS2 gimbal.
Super Art Power Hour
I had a wide breadth of involvement in this series. My role on Super Art Power Hour as a content producer included the tasks of casting talent, building the soundstage set, designing the lighting, setting up cameras, filming, and then editing and color grading each 1-hour episode with the addition of 90-second cutdowns for social media.
The Riot Games Super Art Power Hour is a long-form educational segment spotlighting artists at Riot. Each episode features a Riot employee demonstrating their artistic ability and talking through their work. Each episode guests will share advice to other prospective artists on how to get into the industry, demonstrate top-level industry workflows, and inspire others by creating new and fun art. Some of the past episodes have included roles such as illustrator artists, 3d model animators, and character texture artists.
Riot Games Seattle Office Video Series
The Riot Games Seattle Office Video Series was a collection of 3 videos showcasing the employees working at the local office and the video gaming culture of the Seattle area. The videos were relased on Life@Riot LinkedIn and Twitter.
I took on many tasks in the creation of this video series, including renting camera gear to bring while traveling, location scouting, production development, camera operation (gimbal stabilizer operator, tripod), gaffer/grip, editor, and colorist.
Riot Games’s primary goal is to be the most player-focused video game company. “Player experience first” was a goal for every video I worked on. For this video series to be as engaging as possible to players and accurately depict Seattle, I cold-called multiple Seattle venues (barcades, museums, restaurants, parks) asking if we could film at their locations. I was able to secure 3 locations with owners excited to have Riot Games filming at their venues: the MoPOP Museum, Gameworks Barcade, and Mox Boarding House.
Vulture (A Milgrim Experiment)
Made for a 2019 LA-based 24-hour film challenge short. Two naive men, the morning after a house party, an unplanned encounter in a kitchen, and an unexpected twist of fate propel them into a perplexing predicament. Enter a cunning manipulator, a Vulture, a story that delves into the influence of authority and how a single commanding voice can lead us to accept almost anything unquestioningly. Written and Directed by Mathew Young. Cinematography by Zachary Dripps & Mathew Young. Starring Alec Ebert, Sanjay Nambiar, and Dalia Rooni.
Shot on my Panasonic AG-LA7200 anamorphic lens and Maty Young’s Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k.
Fun Wine
I originally connected with Fun Wine through Ashley Vasquez. She was contracted as their social media strategist and asked for help creating new content for Fun Wine’s social and online presence.
Since then, I have produced and filmed a number of social campaigns for Fun Wine. For most projects, I take on the roles of line producer, casting agent, photographer, and videographer. Between Ashley Vasquez, Devin Weakland, and myself, we produce photo shoots with a 10 to 20-person crew and multiple locations in order to create organic social content for Fun Wine’s next few months. This included reels and photography.
Fun Wine is Christina Aguilerra’s alcoholic cocktail company. The brand is inspired by music, art, fashion, and the vibrant culture and vibe of Miami. They collaborated with Miguel Paredes, a New York City-raised graffiti artist to create their labels.
Arcane
My first project while at Riot Games was to DP this dev diary for Netflix’s Arcane. We lit the shoot with 3 Arri L5-C LED fresnels which gave us e played around with color palette on both the subjects and the background. I chose colors that matched the city of Piltover in the show. We shot on 2 Panasonic EVA-1s and a Panasonic AG-CX350.
As an editor on the Arcane global ad campaign, I coordinated marketing posts for the Arcane ad campaign. There were a multitude of ads for Arcane around the world including out of home billboards, pop-up activations, Undercity Nights, and a European travelling train ad series. I assisted with editing support and aggregating clips from the show. A playlist of all the video form campaign pieces can be found here: Arcane Ad Campaign Playlist. I edited using Adobe Premiere Pro.
Breakdown
I received my Master's Fine Arts degree in cinematography from Boston University’s Cinema and Media Production program. My thesis film was Breakdown. BU’s program was structured so that each student applied with a specific discipline: directing, producing, or cinematography. In the first semester, the students were paired into groups of three, one for each role.
The first two semesters, the majority of our work was prepping for the thesis film. We went through all the stages of production. In addition, each discipline had classes specific to their program. The cinematographers had extra camera and lighting classes with adjunct professors who taught them steadicam operating and advanced cinematography techniques.
We filmed in the Blue Hills Reservation south of Boston, MA. Every 11 years, caterpillars hatch in the woods at remarkable numbers. They crawled on the green screen, into the vents of the Alexa Mini, into everyone’s clothes, on the actors, and dangled down into shots on their silk webs. The crew handled surprises with ease and respected the wildlife.
We chose the Angenieux Optimo A2S Anamorphic lens on the Alexa Mini because as the characters in the film became separated emotionally, we wanted physical space between them in the frame. A 2:40:1 aspect ratio enhanced this composition. We chose a zoom anamorphic lens for the Vertigo shot at the film's climax.
Bentley
This is my FILM 3400 final at the University of Colorado, Boulder. A cartoon monkey Monk Monk comes into the lives of a young man named Mitch and his friends. Monk Monk's chaotic-neutral attitude helps shake things up and teach Mitch and his friends more about themselves.
I composited in Adobe After Effects and hand-drew assets with a Bamboo tablet in Toon Boom Studio. The film was an official selection at the Grillo Film Festival