Directing Reel (2017)

I love my job. In my second year at Notre Dame, I was blessed to work with special athletes and rich storylines in a variety of formats.

In "Home," the first selection of my reel above, I led the creative execution of a military reunion with our starting point guard, Matt Farrell. It was important to me to make this surprise a live event, and to let the crowd in on a secret our athletes did not know. Directing the sequence of the live moment, and also the feature of that moment, was a great honor. The story became a national headline within hours, became the most watched video on Twitter that day, worldwide, and was later featured on NBC Nightly News. I spoke about this moment at the Sports Fan Engagement Conference in Atlanta.

My next selection “Jess Harris: Into Focus” follows the difficult journey of a track star whose mother passed away only a week into college. We first cut audio from her hour long interview, and then imagined the visuals of her story in a dream-like state. We chose a 2-strip color process, match-frame cuts, and character point-of-view imagery to demonstrate Jess’s discovery. This piece became more of a real-life short-film rather than a documentary, and it came together with Jess’s trust and an inspired crew. Next in my composite, “Earn Everything” was a digital promotion for our football team leading into our first fall practice of 2016. The visual path to the Notre Dame tunnel was the guiding framework in this upbeat production. The final selection is Act 1 in a half-hour special on Notre Dame’s deep rivalry with Stanford. It was a fun year to direct 30 second moments, 3 minute features, and 30 minute shows on this special place. This composite earned one of my three Emmy Awards in Directing.

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