Creative Editor
2017-2019
ABC 7 Amarillo was where I learned to be most efficient with my editing time. It’s also where I got the most hands-on training at the time with equipment in the field. Utilizing a LUMIX GH4 DSLR camera for all of our commercial shoots, we brought our own lighting setup complete with a gimbal, jib and pocket dolly that we could employ for any of our shoots. This also meant that I got quite fast and effective at setting up and tearing down all of this equipment. As Creative Editor, I was the go-to for all our post needs, and in a local new station, this varied wildly. Sometimes a client would simply want their shots cut to music. Sometimes it was a simple testimonial, and other times, they wanted to take off like Superman.
ABC 7 was also where I learned how effective teamwork beat an effective individual. The department was supposed to be four people in total, however due to various reason for most of my employment it was just my boss and I, so knowing where I was strongest and could take on more work was key. Once we brought on a Producer to help alleviate copy writing, scheduling and organizing, I was able to really dig deep into editing and beginning my After Effects journey at the time. In my two years, we got to produce dozens of commercials for clients such as Chik-Fil-A and Rosas as well as our own station images. Below is some of my favorite pieces from when I was there.
2018 Station Image
The image promo for the news station was a big project for us. Months of planning and getting the messaging right to convey to viewers why they should want to watch us, while also being artsy and metaphorical in shots was a fun and unique challenge at the time. This was also a milestone project for me as this is one that I got to really dive into color correction and grading, and choosing a color-theme for the project.
It may be the most dramatic piece I have, but I pride myself of being able to edit all kinds of tone pieces. This Station Image was filmed using a Lumix GH4 DSLR.
“CAN you make me fly?”
This is the promo I reference ALL THE TIME. The client had a previous production house in town that had established a “Super Dean” theme and they wanted us to continue the trend. I’m always down to attack challenges head on, but this one was another level. Telling the story and including everything they wanted in it was the first step, and we kept finding more surprises as the project progressed. . The flying itself was actually super straight forward and fun, we filmed the blank slates and went with a cheesier style for the solo shots and everything worked out well.
This was one of those projects I look back on fondly for how silly everything went and now we have a “Super Dean” promo to look back on! This commercial was filmed using a Lumix GH4 DSLR.
Here’s a super short behind the scenes video I posted at the time. The day of the shoot we found out that the silk cape being used couldn’t have a logo ironed on, so I ended up teaching myself Mocha Ae in post to planar track the cape and animate the logo onto it and track it appropriately.
This video also showcases our process to shoot on green with the client saying his lines, the dog doing his reactionary shots, and then the blank slate. If I could go back, I would personally want to film it another time without the green just so I could’ve had a reference for the shadows. Looking back now to make this portfolio, the shadowing work (if you can call it that!) is the weakest part of the video. But overall, it was a crazy and hectic experience that taught me a lot in the end.
Rosa’s Coffee Crew
This was another brand-sponsored commercial for one of our shows. My boss had the idea to pull an “El Mariachi” with the crew and I ran with it. This process was a normal occurrence for us where he or I would riff off of each other creatively, and this commercial is a great example of that. To showcase it, the opening “tilt down” into the shot is all done by me in post as a “let’s see if this works” type experiment, taking a static shot and repurposing it to duplicate the sky (which was already a dirty brown that day, just a little finessing by me to really make it pretty much a solid"), and tracking it upwards to look like a tilt down. This one was a super fun one for music too, as the basic layout was given to me and I had full freedom to find whatever music I felt fit the theme the best. The windy day was awful at the time, but made for a better shot, and in the end, isn’t that what matters!
This commercial was filmed using a Lumix GH4 DSLR.