Can-do creative agent.
For the better part of two decades, I have told visual stories, releasing them with the press of the shutter. From large corporations to local nonprofits I expose the truth of the message one image at a time. I focus on people, the shared life experience draped over every face.
The images I have created, have been used in national advertising campaigns, first responder education, and sometimes hung up on a wall in a comfortable home.
Imagery tells our story.
This is the way I see it.
Decades behind the camera, I revel in the challenge of directing actors and players into a preconceived campaign.
As a commercial producer for the local CBS and FOX affiliate, I had the luxury of working directly with clients that wanted to advertise in our local space. I would script, shoot and edit the spots that were put into our broadcast schedule.
Working with a notable company like MEMIC was a joy. A full marketing department worked on the script to realize a full campaign.
I hired local talent and worked within a budget to deliver an impactful commercial.
Working with a small agency, I directed the fall release of commercial spots for Aroma Joes. The approach of their drive-up windows is to be friendly and respectful and the baristas know their customers and engage with them every day. Real baristas and real talent.
New product launch in a crowded market place dominated by masculine tropes, we approached this launch with the intention of promoting women going on a road trip together.
Packing, organizing, and joining to jump in the Jeep and hit the road, the two friends may never return.
A shorter cut-down of the full spot, this quick interlude takes the viewer through the journey of the two women as they set out on the road. Bon voyage, ladies.
As a Commercial Director/Producer I worked directly with clients at the television station.
The Body Architect survived Covid and wanted to encourage more members to join. We launched their Re-Opening Campaign and met the numbers they needed ahead of schedule.
To create a dynamic approach the campaign, we shot several different spots to give some variety to the spots that would run in the ad buy.
Rogue Life Maine has a production warehouse in northern Maine. They make their bags in their production warehouse. One at a time. By hand. I think that’s wonderful. And the women that make them are fantastic. So I thought it was appropriate to make these commercials feature the women that make the bags.
Thanks, Bernie.
Thanks, Betty.
Big Country Built gave me free rein on the creative and on their job site. They even let me interview the homeowner of the project that I shot. The whole piece extended over four minutes, and it told the story of how the company began, where the name came from, how the young owner runs his business, personally, and how he forges relationships with his clients.
Eventually, I became one of his clients too.
The Mallett Brothers Band is a local Maine ensemble of raw music and songwriting talent. I was given the opportunity to create two rock and roll videos for them.
We conceived the ideas around the music and the lyrics. Letting the songs tell the story and the visuals support the music.
The Falling of the Pine was the first video production that I shot and directed for the The Mallett Brothers Band. It combines archival Maine footage of loggers and lumberjacks, which fit with the concept of the song. The lyrics of the song were found in a book of poetry written by old loggers and now public domain. These are the ballads they would sing as the went to work, the loggers and lumberjacks of the days of yore. My intent to make the songsters pair with the lumberjacks, the warriors of the weekend, the troubadours of song.
Xander Nelson band asked me to make their first video for the release of their first album. They needed it in a hurry so we shot it in six takes of the song. I used multiple cameras including an iPhone and stitched the footage together to make it look found, or damaged. I felt that gave more power to the song, it was titled ‘Problem.’ I took some liberties.
I love this video. It feels fun and raw, like the music that drives it. It reminds me of what I used to watch late at night in the nineties on Headbanger’s Ball with Riki Rachtman.
You gotta start somewhere…
As an Associate Creative Director for a small, nimble, and brilliant strategic ad agency, I was lead creative for a large outdoor lifestyle brand.
The mission for the agency was to bring this brand into the outdoor lifestyle space, as an affordable and approachable life happens outside brand.
Launching a new colorway for a line of products, we produced the content copy and directed the production for content creation.
In a market that is masculine dominant, we wanted to push access and inclusion of women in the outside space.
Fishing, hiking, camping, all things outside, it’s not just for men.
Creative Director - Director
The ‘life outside’ space is dominated by the masculine culture. Utilizing a different approach we put women in a road trip spot.
The launch of the new product, the Road Trip Back Pack, was an opportunity for the client to gain some traction in a different demographic.
The story begins with both women packing their backpacks independently, meeting and driving off to the great unknown. Attention to the details of the product show as snippets to the larger story.
When hired at a local ad agency as an Associate Creative Director, it was my responsibility to write all the copy for the client I oversaw. I also liked to splash in other puddles and they gave me the opportunity to do so.
The written word is where storytelling began for me. I have always been a writer and have a devoted practice to it.
I believe language and the way we bend words has the ability to intoxicate, influence, and seduce. All at once, sometimes.
Copywriting for advertisement looking for a chef for a new restaurant being built on the mountain.
Copywriting for OKTOBERFEST event that featured a lot of fun activities otherwise not available. Sausage tossing anyone?
Daily communications via email, text, and social media would focus on new product launches and brand awareness. We pushed to make the brand message on gathering outdoors.
Hired as a change agent to nightly lifestyle show that followed the news, we covered the state of Maine looking for interesting stories of the way Maine life is lived. From farmers in the county to musical production in southern Maine, we delivered a nightly show five days a week to the New England broadcast region.
I oversaw a dedicated team of professional, talented journalists and videographers to build the thirty minutes of live to tape broadcast television five nights a week.
A local production company, p3 and I teamed up to produce an experiential performance event based on the concept of failure; professional, personal and otherwise.
Armed with the literary wit of internationally recognized author, Ron Currie JR, the event featured a scripted introduction written by me, and employing a local actor, Christ Holt, to play my ‘alter-nate’ and voice of abusive reason. The performance was twenty minutes of career review looking at the choices and failures made or otherwise avoided, to close on the welcome to the event and introduction to Ron Currie Jr. who wrote a piece specific for the evening. He wrote about failure.
Produced and designed by P3 and myself, we invited a cadre of crafts people, professionals, movers, shakers, and otherwise noted personalities in the community and filled a gallery space with Portlands proud.
During a moment of reflective silence built into the performance, someone broke a glass on the concrete. It appeared built in, and was the highlight moment of my evening. Embrace the happy accidents.
A look through the lens of the camera I always have with me, at the state I am most often in.
In commercial, advertising and editorial work people and faces occupy my frame. I tell the story of the human condition with humans on display.
With this project, I shot everything with the iPhone, starting with the iPhone 5. And I chose to look where and when people were not or not looking. A few figures stand out, there is only one face in the near decade project.
This is Maine is a study of where people are not, and what we see when we are not there, if we can see where we are not looking.
in 2018 this project was on display as a solo show at a The Press Hotel gallery in Portland, Maine. I am often asked to collaborate with entities on social media, I have yet to engage, it’s a personal project.
This is Maine.
There are moments when storms collide and structures stay defined by their lines on the horizon.
I've been looking for this since childhood. I think I've found it.
Local car dealership and largest in the state of Maine, Lee Automalls, commissioned me to photograph their mechanics for display in their waiting rooms. As you wait for your car to be serviced you can see the people that do the work. They are proud, capable, and good at what they do. I wish I had their skillset too.
A little video of the mechanics at Lee Automalls.
Music by Ministry.
When I was first running with a camera in hand I never thought I would someday recreate accident scenes in order to film and photograph them so that others could learn from the imagery in educational materials. But I did.
Working with Brady, Prentice Hall Health, I travelled all over the country working with different fire departments showing how to save lives. These images and videos were used in first responder educational materials to train the medics that arrive at the scene when you need the help the most. It was awe inspiring to work with first responders.
Across the board, when asked, “Do you like what you do?” all of them answered the same, without hesitation, “I love what I do.”
I would nod, I do too.
I’ve worked with a number of nonprofits during my career. When Portland Ballet was in need of a Marketing Director, I jumped at the opportunity.
I made the imagery, the promotional videos, the website, and the messaging to promote the business while they were transitioning from a founding Executive Director to an international hire.
Photographing extraordinary athletes flying through the air? Then create the story around it and push it to the masses, yes please.
It was beautiful and so much fun.
And they still use the website and marketing plans that I set up for them.
Expanding into performance and writing, I stand up and make people laugh. I hope you are one of them.
It’s a long way to the top…it’s good to laugh along the way.
About a year ago I started writing and performing stand-up comedy. It’s a curious phrase, ‘Stand Up’. A term with which I am coming to terms. When friends have asked if I am doing comedy the phrase used is “You’re doing stand-up now?”
Everyone can stand up, but those who comedy together, well, that’s another term.
I hope you enjoy it. And if you make it to the bit about my folks, thank you, and let me know, you may win a prize.
