I have always been fascinated by telling the stories of others and hearing how they got to where they are in life. This is my take at my own journey. An ever evolving process I am grateful to be a part of.
Working with my friends at Implement Productions, I edited national commercials for Montana's tourism account. Looking back at the last 25 years, it's been a journey, but I'm excited to see where the next 25 goes.
Meanwhile I continue to work as an assistant editor on some of the same work I did DIT for, episodic television and marketing.
And I learned the difference between a lollipop, a stinger, and a 5 by.
I continued to help as an Assistant Camera and DIT with some of my old colleagues and clients.
It wasn't always pretty but I found a way to get 4 RED cameras and a bunch of drones and other footage backed up several times a day.
And episodic television series for Discovery Channel.
When COVID hit I got laid off and started freelancing as a DIT and AE on larger productions for commercials....
It cannot be understated how much of a growth the companies video department experienced during my four year tenure.
Brining along video villages and hiring additional talent like boom operators for the larger agency shoots.
As our production's scope expanded we started to tap into larger lighting and grip equipment.
The live music division of the company continued to evolve and I found myself in the office one day talking with Mike McCready of Pearl Jam. He mentioned how much he enjoyed the content we were producing for the festival he was helping us to put on where this photo was taken.
Our production value continued to expand as we worked with traditional ad agencies that allowed for budgets to play with the big toys. As an Assistant Camera and a DIT I occasionally had to step in for talent in dire situations.
But we traveled out of state to film many marketing videos including this trip to San Francisco to help Zynga with their advertising division.
And Big Sky was a beautiful playground to create content in.
Overnight shoots were the best.
We explored the area and filmed many stories including this one with a North Face sponsored climber as part of a series we made with the Big Sky Film Grant from the Montana Film Office.
And eventually expanded it to a multicamera live stream.
We ran a TEDx event for several years, starting with just two cameras.
Making marketing videos for Jet companies or whatever else we could sell to the wealthy demographic of Big Sky.
Putting on events featuring live musician's like Willie Nelson's son Lukas.
Recording narrative stories for the companies Magazine.
I tagged along with my cinematographer counterpart on many projects.
I was hired as an editor and tasked with organizing their footage and creating a NAS / backup solution.
I moved to Montana in 2016 and quickly found myself filming at my first Rodeo for an events, marketing, and real estate company in Big Sky.
I worked with some of the producers there and some old film buddies to put together a crew for the 48 hour film festival.
I helped the team to update from FCP to Premiere and from old cheese grater macs to trash cans, and focused on maximizing throughput to our shared server.
We supported the Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Denver markets. I worked with a lot of producers remotely and truly honed After Effects and post production processes by being part of a team of 5 other editors.
In 2013 I started full time working on car commercials and other local spots. Finally had my name on an editing bay, big moment for me.
After I graduated with my Bachelors in video production and editing I started working as a freelancer and starting editing RED footage in 2012
I spent some time learning from the audio guys at Coupe Studios
Livestreaming took a lot more effort back then.
We also experimented with Livestreaming applications in studios.
Livestreaming was just starting to take off and I ran camera's and streamed the companies Innovation Conference.
I also built more computers, learned After Effects and helped in IT support.
I started interning at an advertising agency called Sterling Rice Group in Boulder in 2010. I helped with a lot of internal projects for brands like Pepsi and Wendy's as both an editor and videographer..
My schooling predominantly taught me ENG with 3 point lighting.
I went to school myself in 2010 and spent time in the television studio learning technical direction.
Shallow DOF, interchangeable lenses, and reference monitors, we started to cook. My friends and I started creating all sort of silly short films.
The DSLR video revolution hit around 2009 and I was there for it. Sneaking into Sundance and competing in Canon's 'The Story Beyond The Still' contest.
I bought the Canon 20D in 2005 to learn more about lenses and still photography.
I found some buddies who were in film school and helped them with their projects and got to borrow the schools lights.
I bought the Panasonic DVX 100A in 2004. With a true progressive 24 fps and an anamorphic lens to achieve a 16x9 ratio, I started creating content for the web before there was a YouTube.. I distributed in DivX on forums and sites like slashdot.org
I built my first computers and started editing in Premiere 6.0 in the early 2000s.
In 1999, I saved up my paychecks all summer from my first job making hiking trails, and bought my first video camera. It utilized Firewire and MiniDV tapes which allowed me to edit digitally.
Like any kid from that era, I had a huge collection of Legos and Jurassic Park toys, a perfect sandbox for creating stop motion action films.
