Directing/editing reel

Film and video work directed and edited by me.

Excerpted works:

Talkin to My Monstaz

4 minutes
HD video
B&W
My role: Director/Editor

I directed this music video for Sioux City rapper Mojo Mayne. In collaboration with the artist, I developed the concept of Mojo facing off against a shadowy “monster” that brings out the worst in people—each a manifestation of the seven deadly sins.

We shot on a Canon 5D III and Sony FS700, and edited in Premiere Pro and After Effects. The cinematographer was Brett Funke, my student at Western Iowa Tech Community college.

Building Connections with Students

5 minutes
HD video
Color
My role: Director/Cinematographer/Editor

Steve Aronson of Teach Authentic discusses his philosophy of classroom management and genuine interaction with students.

I was a one-man-band responsible for camera, sound, and lighting on this shoot, which involved a mixture of documentary-style shooting and sit-down testimonials. I shot on my trusty Canon T3i, recorded sound with a lavalier body pack, and edited in Premiere Pro.

Coffee with John

Series of 5 web videos
HD video
Color
My role: Director/Cinematographer/Editor

I helped plan and produce this series of videos for John Kefalas’s 2010 reelection campaign for Colorado State House Representative. While in the midst of a much more ambitious production, we got the news that we would have significantly less time with the candidate than we expected, so we rethought our concept and decided on a much simpler approach: we had John sit down a coffee shop for an hour and have a conversation with a voter about the issues important to him.

That conversation provided ample footage to cut together minute-long videos on four topics, and a longer flagship video that covered John’s candidacy more generally. The videos were published on the campaign’s YouTube page and shared across social media and on the campaign’s website.

I directed, shot, and recorded sound for this project, which I edited in Final Cut Pro.

Branches

113 minutes
HD video
Color
My role: Writer/Director/Editor

This scene from my narrative feature film Branches features Tim Russell and Britt Slater as a father and daughter. Collaborating with these two and the other talented actors on this low-budget film remains one of the most creatively fulfilling experiences of my life.

I wrote and directed the film, which shot in rural Minnesota in 2012. I edited in Premiere Pro, did some minor visual effects in After Effects and graded in DaVinci Resolve. The director of photography was Matt Kane, and the sound recordist was Owen Brafford.

Ghost to Ghost

16 minutes
HD video/16mm/Super 8
Color/B&W
My role: Director/Cinematographer/Editor

I made this experimental documentary as a collaboration with my grandmother Gladys, who I interviewed extensively for the film, and her mother Trasie, whose amusing and macabre voice recordings are used throughout the piece. The film is an excavation of family history, an interrogation of morbid humor, and an attempt to “shake hands with the dead.”