CREDIT HIGHLIGHTS

Music Composition (2020-2021)

After many years away from music composition, I came back to my first love during the COVID lockdown. I’m currently loading cinematic instrumental music onto SoundCloud, and actively working on an album for release later this year.

A top priority for the album will to make the process for you to license it for your films, television, and other media as simple and straightforward as possible. Stay tuned for more details, and check out Ad Astra Per Aspera and other demos in-progress below as they develop!

Making waves: the art of cinematic sound (2019)

Editor/Sound Mixer

Documentary on the history, art, and power of film sound. Premiered in 2019 at the Cannes Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. Nominated for Best Edited Documentary Feature by the American Cinema Editors (ACE), and won the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing.

I was involved in the film from conception to completion. I helped with fund-raising, story writing, production sound mixing on set, editing, partaking in the color correction and final sound mix at Skywalker Sound, and working in close creative partnership with director Midge Costin for 6 years throughout principle photography, editorial, and final finishing. It was an epic journey, and I learned so much that I can bring to your projects as well.

- Directed by Midge Costin - Edited by David J. Turner - Supervising Editor Thomas G. Miller - Consulting Editor Kate Amend -

FRUITVALE STATION (2013)

SOUND EDITOR/FOLEY MIXER

Tells the true story of Oscar Grant's life and tragic death on the last day of 2008. Directed by Ryan Coogler, and winner of the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

I recorded and edited Foley and sound effects throughout the film, with a particular concentration on the climactic standoff at Fruitvale Station - laying in police key jangling throughout the scene to unconsciously evoke an impending fear of imprisonment.

Watch the trailer here. Available on iTunes, Amazon, and Vudu.

USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS (2012-2014)

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR

For four semesters, I taught advanced sound re-recording mixing to students in 546 & 480 who have gone on to do notable work on films like A Quiet Place, Bumblebee, Frozen II, and Moonlight (2017 Academy Award winner for Best Picture).

I also taught Peter Stark Producing students how to sound edit in 541, led first semester USC students through an introduction to film sound in 295, and taught picture editing and color timing to college students from across the country at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center.

Frankie’s Dream (2011)

Director/Editor/Cinematographer/Composer

Documentary film about a Chinese American family's love that overcomes the obstacles of autism.

I directed the film for interactingwithautism.com in collaboration with Chinese filmmaker Tingting Yao, and under the mentorship of Oscar-winning director Mark Jonathan Harris.

Winner of the Best Documentary award at China's FIRST International Film Festival.

Watch the film here.

Master of fine arts - FILM PRODUCTION (2008-2011)

director/editor/sound designer/composer

I studied film production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, with a focus in Editing, Sound Design, and Documentary Directing. For three years, I directed and crewed on many projects, while serving as a TA for Midge Costin, Doug Vaughan, Tom Holman, and Bruce Botnick.

In my final year, I mentored under sound designer Gary Rydstrom after winning the Outstanding Sound Faculty Award at USC First Look in 2011 for the film Efrain.

INTERNATIONAL VIDEOGRAPHER (2004-2008)

Director/Editor/Cinematographer/Composer

I directed documentaries in 20 countries across 5 continents, fund-raising for relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters and armed conflicts.

This helped raise over $3 million, and garnered 23 Telly Awards for pieces I did on the Sudanese civil war, the 2004 Tsunami in Southeast Asia, Hurricane Katrina crisis response, and an educational fund in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In 2007, I directed a film called Resurrected Hope, which won more Tellys than any other film in competition that year.

A bit about me…

In some ways, I feel like I was always headed down the path of becoming a filmmaker. Growing up in a family of television broadcasters three generations-running in Bismarck, ND, media was always around me as a kid.

I obsessed over Star Wars and Jurassic Park in grade school, I made camcorder movies for fun in junior high, had my mind blown open the first time I saw Dead Poet’s Society in high school.

But the first time I got a chance to edit a movie on a computer when I was 17, it literally clicked in an instant that filmmaking was what I wanted to do with my life. The blending of image, sound, music, cinematography, performance, and story that I was able to dance with in the cut - it connected with me in a way that nothing had before, and I’ve never looked back.

I have so many interests across so many disciplines - before filmmaking, I started out as a composer, I studied philosophy in college, I’ve been a globe-trotting videographer, I taught sound re-recording mixing at USC, I’ve been nominated by both the Cinema Audio Society and American Cinema Editors for my work on the same film (going on to win the CAS award) - I have a general intrigue in the inter-relatedness of all things…

But when it comes down to it, I find the most satisfaction when I get to take all the passions and experiences life has offered me, and simply parse them down into picture and sound through editing.

Something amazing happens when images are contrasted with other images & sounds in the service of story. Film editing truly is a form of poetry.

I take joy in understanding cinematic language from every vantage point possible, and bringing all of that to bear when I cut a film:

- I’ve sound edited on Sundance award-winning films, and feel right at home on the mix stage.

- I’ve been composing music for 20 years, and I love the inherent rhythm of a cut.

- I’ve won numerous awards for directing and cinematography, and that always informs not only my shot selection when I edit, but also the way I work with photos, graphics, and visual effects. Directors have told me they appreciate not only how sensitive I am to story and emotion, but how knowledgeable I am with technology, and how versatile it can make me on a filmmaking team.

I love how each member of a team can enrich the final product through collaboration.

- Brainstorming in pre-production before shoots.

- Watching dailies together, and dreaming of the themes and emotions that hit us in the material.

- Moving around index cards on a cork board with a director, and honing the narrative thread together.

- Responding to a director's notes on a cut, and elevating the material more and more with each passing iteration (while also offering my honest opinion if I feel things could be headed in a better direction)…

In all of this, I truly believe that two heads are better than one. Directors and editors can each bring our own angle to the material, can enrich it with each of our perspective, can spur one another on, and can ultimately yield great films from great collaborations.

Sound interesting? Give me a holler!