1. Opening Positioning: You’re known for operating at the intersection of cinematic storytelling, taste, and structure. How do you personally define what you do—and just as importantly, what you don’t do?

 

I observe the human condition through a psycho-somatic lens, often putting myself in the shoes of my partners, teams, and audiences to deliver the most impactful, unified experience, while treating it as an opportunity for growth, development, and healing. I don’t treat my position as a way to claw and climb my way to the top. All boats rise with the tide.

 

2. Origin Story (Refined, Not Scrappy): Before the work became selective and intentional, there was a formative period. What early experience most shaped your standards—and what did it teach you about quality versus volume?

 

My background is in theatrical design and direction; I’ve sought out and worked on innumerable projects where my designs, directions, and executions were delivered with high impact to low-appreciation, fiscally or otherwise. I ultimately decided that the quality of my work could only improve when placed around the right audiences; this includes the companies I was designing, directing, and executing for. Founding my own production operation meant I could maintain my high level of standards, while being selective of my audiences. The work now finds me.

 

3. Career Through-line: Looking across your career so far, what’s the common thread connecting your past projects, even as the formats and collaborators have evolved?

 

The most common thread throughout my career seems to have been helping elevate the lives of my collaborators. When we all have the most impactful experience, and are all able to deliver our best work, the project benefits, in turn benefiting those that audience and bear witness.

 

4. Signature Projects: Is there a project—or type of project—that best represents your approach today? Not the loudest, but the most precise. Why does it stand out?

 

The most precise project that reflects my approach, to date, would have to be the most recent directorial project ‘There’s That Smile,’ for an independent writer by the name Aubrey Knutson. I approached Knutson for a co-directorial position, and after realizing my experience and expertise, she handed me sole responsibility. I was able to streamline our production process and deliver a high-caliber film, even with the nearly non-existent budget.

 

5. Expertise & Point of View: Many people can execute. Far fewer can direct taste. Where do you believe your strongest judgment lives—and how has that become your professional edge?

 

My taste lies in truth. I understand the human experience on a deeply profound level, and can get to truths, textually and sub-textually, through psychological and emotional approach. I have a wide array of skills in a multitude of industries which give me the directorial advantage of perspective. I often approach my projects (and my people) with an incredibly flexible perspective, able to adopt multiple mindsets and visions to distill a moment down to its very truth and essence of humanity.

 

6. Industry Lens: From your vantage point, what is the industry getting wrong right now about storytelling, production, or “scale”—and what do the best operators understand instead?

 

From my vantage point, production houses are focusing more on profits than they are on profitability. Reaching the widest audience with the most “scalable” content seems to have overridden the human experience. While our world descends into economic and political turmoil, these houses are seeking to absorb more and more of the profits people are so willing offer up in times of uncertainty, rather than finding (and allowing) ways for more equitable accessibility. Take the MET Opera for example: As they are renting out [cinema] theaters to stream broadcasts of their professional productions, they are signaling their trail-blazing in keeping their performances affordable, accessible, and ultimately able to reach wider audiences, without charging monthly subscriptions fees that still manage to stream ads, and require upgrades.

 

7. Selectivity & Power: As your work has matured, how have you become more selective—clients, collaborators, or projects—and how has that selectivity changed outcomes?

 

I alluded to this in an earlier question, I feel like my greatest pivot that has allowed the quality of my work to remain high and yet still improve, was becoming far more selective in each of those areas. Selecting higher quality projects allows me to work with higher quality clients and collaborators, which in turn allows me to focus on higher priority of my time, energy, and resources. The clients I work with now are quite white-glove, and offer budgets that allow me to produce high quality at scale, while still investing in future projects, ensuring the legacy of my work.

 

8. Current & Upcoming Work: What are you currently building or developing that feels like a step-change—not just a continuation—of your work so far?

 

I’m currently working on developing a production system and strategy (note: not a company, but bigger) that allows me to have high-touch process with fewer but more impactful projects that continue to drive the mission and vision of my platform forward; providing an artistic home to artists, creatives, designers, and humans that value their experience as a smaller part of the collective sum. Our tide is rising. Together.

 

9. Long-Term Vision: When you think five to ten years ahead, what kind of legacy or body of work are you intentionally shaping toward?

 

Building a 5-year or 10-year legacy is no easy feat, and yet, I’m looking 30, 40, 50 years down the line, and having built a production platform, community, facility, and empire that impacts not only via its production content, but housing and provision for its artists, its sustainability in generational production, and its continuation through high-level education and institutional knowledge. I’m building a Universe here.

 

10. Closing Signal: For people encountering your work for the first time through this interview, what do you hope they immediately understand about your standards and your intent?

 

For people encountering my work for the first time, I hope you glean that while I seek to keep my work fun, playful, and inspiring, I did not come here to this plane of existence to play around. My standards are high, my ambition even higher, and if you’d like to ride with me to the moon, I hope you join here on the ground floor. There’s no where else to go now, but up.