Production Design
SEIZE THE NIGHT ( CARPE NOCTUM)
Feature Film - Seraph Films
"Over the course of one night, a whirlwind romance between a drug dealer and a mysterious singer takes them on a collision course with a dangerous mind-control drug through the Los Angeles underground scene."
HOW TO LIVE YOUR BEST DEATH
Feature Film - Lifetime Films A&E Network
"Kristin feels like she’s going nowhere in life and knows she’d be happier if she could just find a way to stand up for herself and go after her dreams. She hires Ashley, a life coach who promises to help Kristin reach her full potential by eliminating toxic people from her life. A shocking discovery reveals that Ashley isn’t who she says she is and when her unconventional methods start wreaking havoc, Kristin realizes the only toxic person she needs out of her life is Ashley."
Give Up the Ghost
Immersive Theatre Experience - Spectacular Disaster Factory
""Give Up the Ghost" is an interactive and immersive haunting play where YOU, the audience, play your dead self called back from the shore of Eternity to bear witness to the sorrows and terrors of the living. You will interact with characters at the edge of life and death in scenes that can be violent, tragic, and occasionally darkly humorous. The choices you make will haunt you, will change your own story, and just might change the entire narrative. What choices will you make, as your light grows dim?"
"Other than one area in the hub dressed to be a roadside memorial, the set décor of Give Up the Ghost is minimalistic but effective, ensuring the focus of the audience is on the stories and choices rather than complex sets and intricate designs. Each segment within the experience contains just enough props and set pieces to allude to a given location. The lighting and sound effects, or sometimes lack thereof, enhance the mood of a scene, but do not interfere or overpower the actors.... With each room come a fresh story and a new opportunity for audiences to make a difference." - Haunting.net
'Give Up The Ghost' was an immersive play where the audience start off as ghosts in a central waiting area in the afterlife and were led of in small groups by guides to witness morality scenes they could interact with. We were very careful not to make the scenes "right vs wrong" or "good vs evil" they were more "compassion vs discipline" or "truth vs kindness" things that are much more grey. There were also rooms where they could roam freely and even a couple of riddles with hidden clues that could be solved.
All the "ghosts" were given tickets that were punched by the guides after every scene they participated in and based on how they were punched saw one of three different endings as their final afterlife. We weren't sending them to any kind of traditional "heaven" or "hell", they were based more on general personality types than any sense of good or evil.
One of my favorite scenes to create for Give Up The Ghost was a weighing a heart against a feather scene. The audience member would come up an grab a foam heart out of a basket, get asked three "yes or no" questions by our Judget then hand them the heart. The Judge who would then place it on a scale with a feather and based on their answers the heart would either be lighter or heavier. To create the effect I got two feathers as close to identical as possible and wrapped the bottom of one in black string and the bottom of the other in black wire. We hid the two feathers behind the podium on stage and with some simple switching from the judges no one ever caught on.
The Black Rose
Short Film - Alezzandra
A "Video EP" for to Swedish/ Serbian music artist Alezzandra. The short film was reviewed as "...a Dark, Lynch-ian Look at Femininity and Control. The LA artist's sludy slow-burners soundtrack a surreal night through the city's strip clubs and seedy underbelly" by Vice.com
This is another one in the "less is more" and "simple but effective" category. We combined simple backgrounds with stark lighting to create a gritty noir feel. I'm particularly proud of the milky bathtub shot as it was both tricky to set up and truly unpleasant to clean, but looked awesome on screen; so totally worth it.
The Orpheus Protocol
Web Series - Seraph Films
"THE ORPHEUS PROTOCOL, based on the hit sci-fi/espionage podcast by the same name. Thousands have been enthralled by the podcast’s two years on the air, and we’re thrilled to bring the same universe to the screen. Often described as “The X-Files meets the X-Men,” The Orpheus Protocol series will build on the success of Seraph’s previous projects and deliver a gripping story that further develops the podcast’s unique and mind-bending setting."
A cool supernatural thriller web series I did with my friends at Seraph Films. We did this one in between other work and it was a fun side project. There were discussions about doing a second season before the Covid19 pandemic, so hopefully this series can be started again in the future.
Escape the Scorch
Social Media Campaign - FOX
"This scavenger hunt style social media mini-campaign supported the home release of Fox's second film in the Maze Runner series. Executed as an interactive man-hunt for a kidnapped influencer that spanned instagram, twitter, soundcloud and snapchat, it garnered 26k views on the same day DJ Khaled crashed Snapchat." - Graznia, Creative Director
This was a scavenger hunt that aired next to live on Snapchat to promote the home video release of Maze Runner:The Scorch Trials. Basically what we were doing was shooting and posting a ten second video with a clue then waiting for a viewer to solve it and write back so we could have our influencer thank the viewer in the next video and post the next clue.
It was of course an extreme amount of work and an extreme amount of fun. We shot this in the old Firestone Tire factory in Compton which was one of the coolest creepy old locations I've shot at and I think is completely gone now.
The Lees of Los Angeles
Television Series - Dragon Mom Productions
"An Asian American family of Chinese and Vietnamese descent grapples with challenging and often amusing cultural and generational clashes in the frantically laid-back city of Los Angeles."
This was a short promo spec for a dramedy series about an upper middle class Asian-American family in Los Angeles. It was an interesting challenge to decorate sets for a different background than I'm used to but you learn the most when you are outside your comfort zone.
I also got to do a fun Chinatown shopping trip for it which is always a good time!
Bang Bang ( My Baby Shot Me Down)
Music Video - Time & The Dragon
This one is simple but to this day it's still one of my favorite projects both for the fun making it and the end results captured on screen. My personal highlight was creating grave markers for my friends; slightly creepy, even of of course, they were fake. I believe the end result is remarkably charming, fun and perfect first music video for the group.
Free
PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
TRIGGER WARNING!
This clip contains footage of experimentation on animals which some may find distressing.
"'Godfather of Punk' Iggy Pop Wants to End Cruel Experiments on Monkeys" : This project was noteworthy due to two notable names being involved; PETA and Iggy Pop, but it also has some animal experimentation footage which is admittedly difficult to watch. Obviously I didn't have any part in that, being undercover footage that PETA obtained as part of it's US investigations into a National Institutes of Health (NIH).
My role was in the recreation of the empty lab for the "free" shots.
This was one of the only projects I worked on during the 2020 pandemic.
