THE ARCHIVE
From my earliest personal projects, collaborations, commercials, and first television shows: this is where I began. Select a category below to filter.
From my earliest personal projects, collaborations, commercials, and first television shows: this is where I began. Select a category below to filter.
Episode 3 | Furry Fury | 2012
“Tiny Commando” is web series I made with Ed Helms, using the full range of my DIY visual effects skills. I also edited and composited most of the series. It’s the last time I’ve been completely hands-on with a project’s construction. I love it. But I do not miss locking myself away in a dark room for six months.
Episode 4 | Red Rover | 2012
“Tiny Commando” is web series I made with Ed Helms, using the full range of my DIY visual effects skills. I also edited and composited most of the series. It’s the last time I’ve been completely hands-on with a project’s construction. I love it. But I do not miss locking myself away in a dark room for six months.
Sesame Workshop hired me in 2008 for this reboot of their classic "The Electric Company." I quickly learned how to shoot efficiently with two cameras and build sequences I could execute in the short days of young actors. They kept me around for the whole run and I directed 23 episodes. The show won many Emmys, and I especially love the musical sequences we created, with music by the geniuses that later created "Hamilton."
Sesame Workshop hired me in 2008 for this reboot of their classic "The Electric Company." I quickly learned how to shoot efficiently with two cameras and build sequences I could execute in the short days of young actors. They kept me around for the whole run and I directed 23 episodes. The show won many Emmys, and I especially love the musical sequences we created, with music by the geniuses that later created "Hamilton."
Sesame Workshop hired me in 2008 for this reboot of their classic "The Electric Company." I quickly learned how to shoot efficiently with two cameras and build sequences I could execute in the short days of young actors. They kept me around for the whole run and I directed 23 episodes. The show won many Emmys, and I especially love the musical sequences we created, with music by the geniuses that later created "Hamilton."
Adult Swim | 2008
"Fat Guy Stuck In Internet" was my first TV show and remains one of my favorite productions. We worked nearly a year shooting green screen, partial sets and miniatures out of a Brooklyn warehouse to bring John Gemberling and Curtis Gwinn's show to life. I still adore every frame we built.
I used the crafty team from “Fat Guy Stuck in Internet” to create this political ad in 2010. Watch the behind-the-scenes, too.
Another wild Russian commercial from 2011, this one shot in an olympic sized pool in Moscow. There’s nothing quite like shooting underwater scenes when you don’t speak the same language as your actor or safety divers. I told the production we’d need two days to shoot this. They asked “can we get it done if we shoot 24 hours straight?” Turns out, you can!
A technicolor musical shot in Portugal in 2009 for a Russian juice drink. Sometimes I pinch myself for the wild places work brought me. Check out the behind-the-scenes video.
A look into the shooting of “Tonus” in Portugal over two days in 2009.
I made this trailer with the folks at Rooftop Films in 2006 featuring the work of sculptor Lothar Ostenburg.
In 2006, I read an agency treatment that wanted to recreate a NASCAR race using cakes for Sony's HD TVs. I knew I was just the guy for the job. I conceived of this wild rig through which we could puppet cake cars and play mash-up derby! Check out the behind the scenes clip.
A behind-the-scenes look into the making of the Sony "Lo-Def" cake race.
I traveled to Milan in 2006 to shoot this absolutely bonkers Italian soda commercial.
This was the first commercial I ever made. In 2003, ad agency SpotCo saw the Gay Boyfriend video and reached out to me to make something similar for the Broadway Musical “Wonderful Town.” I convinced them to use a motion control camera, pretending I had experience with that. I did not.
This is a side-by-side comparison with an animatic I made to plan the “Wonderful Town” commercial, and the final product. It was a big break for me and I planned every last detail in After Effects. I am still amazed how close they are, although you can also see that I missed the Busby Berkeley shot! Great lessons for a young filmmaker: plan like crazy, and then be okay with whatever happens on the day.
This short was made for the Iron Mule film festival in 2003. At the end of each month's screening, an audience member was randomly chosen and a film title was suggested by the crowd. Then, a too-eager young filmmaker was enlisted to shoot a film using that person and that title, to be screened at the next month’s show! So with title and star in hand, I created this charming, lo-fi gem in under a month.
Back in 2003, my NYU buddy Fred Northup convinced his bosses at Xbox Games to let him shoot a short film to promote one of their new titles. He’s an improvisor and we brought in all the talented people from Seattle’s “Unexpected Productions.”
The Hazzard's "Gay Boyfriend" video was a pre-youtube viral hit in 2003, with over two million views from Ryantown. It began as a modest collaboration between myself and ukulele duo “The Hazzard’s.” But somehow between the band's zeitgeist-catching lyrics and my fanatical visual effects work, we raised this two thousand dollar video into something sublime. I released it with a behind-the-scenes video which created additional buzz . (January 2002)
A look into the thrifty shooting and post production of the $2000 budget music video shot in 2002.
I made this loveletter of a title sequence when I transferred my family’s super-8 collection to digital in 2001. These early years were a period of reflection while I worked as an editor and VFX artist, wondering where my love of film might take me.
In 2000, I found myself archiving all of the ridiculous videos I made with my friends when I was a kid. We called ourselves “Pig Pat Productions” and must have made 20 videos of questionable quality over our high school years. I made this title sequence to kick off the archive.