Not gonna lie, filmmaking has been a huge part of my life. I’ve been making videos for as long as I can remember. I mean, I have a pretty shitty memory, but you get my point.
I made my first short back in the 3rd grade. It was a Star Wars parody called Paper Wars featuring – wait for it – paper airplanes. If you told me back then that one day I’d make a living doing this stuff, I would’ve slapped you in the face with my Pizza Lunchables.
But here I am nearly two decades later and that’s exactly what I’m doing. Here’s a look at some of my projects over the years.
Client Work
Planned Parenthood – Reform Explained (feat. Julianne Moore)
She was a lot nicer to work with than Kathleen Turner, I’ll tell you that. One day I’ll share that story. I promise.
Los Angeles Parents Union – The Parent Trigger
One of my favorite and oldest clients. Been making videos for them since they started and now they’re doing huge things in LA. It’s been amazing to see how far they’ve come.
Commercials
Doritos – The Red
I teamed up with my creative partner, Jesse Epstein (music link), and we made a few commercials for a Doritos contest. This was hands-down the best one and it was thiiiiis close to not being made.
We had canned the script and accidentally showed it to our producer on the last day of auditions. She convinced us we had to make it. Jenny, you are a wise one.
76 – Cleaner is Better
This commercial won first place in a 76 Contest, netting me a $10,000 scholarship and airtime on ESPN and in movie theaters! I was getting texts for a straight year every time someone caught it on TV. But the best part? It featured my future-roomie Liam with short hair.
College Shorts
Korean Days of Our Lives
My most infamous video, bar none. I’ll never live this down. We made this for a Korean class final and it was my first time acting in one of my own shorts.
I’ve never had a reaction like this before. It was on its way to becoming a minor Youtube hit when the plug got pulled (damn music rights). People started recognizing me from the video. Random girls from other schools were poking me on Facebook. There was even 6 pages dedicated to it on a forum [link]. The comments on there are priceless.
What they don’t know is that I actually wrote a script for the sequel. Who knows, maybe one day Christina will return…
After the Tone
Man, I still can’t believe no one called the cops when we were filming Jenny’s screams. Even though we were just getting audio, she forced me to drag her around the room. Silly method actors. It also won “Best Undergraduate Entry” at the UCLA Shorttakes Film Festival.
No Need for Alarm
My first short in college with my good buddy Alan. So much fun making this one. We got the CEC Choice Award at the UCLA Shorttakes festival, but we really can’t take the credit. It was all abacus.
High School
What Friends Are For
We made this for a contest where the video had to be filmed entirely on a cell phone and could only be 30 seconds long. The entry was never accepted. I still wonder if it was cause of what we called Stacy…or if it was Nick’s pale ass. Probably both.
Drunk Driving PSA
The first video contest I ever won. Laura and I filmed this in a real cemetery and she actually cried for real. I was proud of this one.
Medea: A High School Tragedy
Forget flipping through a yearbook. If I want to remember high school, I’ll just fire up this classic. Way too many awesome memories from the making of this one. Good friends. Spontaneous creativity. Effortless collaboration. And all in just two days of filming. To this day, this is still one of my favorite filmmaking experiences.
