How did you discover your passion for filmmaking and learn the necessary skills to enter the industry? I grew up in Oak Lawn, Dallas, with two artist parents in a diverse neighborhood full of LGBTQ+ and immigrant people. I took up photography because it felt like the medium to use to see people. I wasn’t thinking about film then; I was thinking about telling people’s stories through still photography.

I went to college in upstate New York at Colgate University and later got a job working for Gap in its merchandising program. I learned about marketing during the era of its khaki and jeans campaigns. Mickey Drexler, the chief executive officer at Gap, was a marketing and advertising genius who knew how to tell a story through advertising. He knew how to sell a brand and convey its story. Seeing those campaigns influenced my understanding of the power of advertising and storytelling. I loved it.

Later, I started taking screenwriting courses at San Francisco State University and discovered my passion for production. I moved to New York and found work as a production assistant in 2001, which led to working with Joshua Seftel on the set of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in 2002.

What do you do in your role as director at production company Smartypants, and what do you like about working there? I met Joshua when he was directing Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and I was a field producer. We started working together in 2002 and have known each other for more than 20 years. At Smartypants, I’m one of three directors, including Josh, and we’re fortunate to be busy and have amazing long-term clients. Sometimes I generate work, such as the Visit Fort Worth project, which we built together as a team.

What have been some of your favorite ad campaigns to shoot, and how did they change your perception of what is possible in advertising? Usually when you work on a project, an ad agency gives you the brief after many people become involved. Visit Fort Worth was different because I had a relationship with the Fort Worth Film Commission. The client came to us with an idea for what the tourist film had to be, using words like modern, country, cowboy and hopeful. However, the real turning point was when we found an older Jimmy Stewart documentary about Fort Worth that had his voiceover. After I visited the city for a creative scout and saw some amazing architecture and museums, we synthesized the elegance and westernness of Fort Worth using Stewart’s voice throughout the video, and it all came together. We were the agency and the production company then; we generated the idea and made the campaign, much as we would make a film. To this day, it was the best advertising experience I’ve ever had and the most successful campaign I’ve ever done.

How does your work in documentary filmmaking inform your approach to shooting ad campaigns? Probably the most influential film in my life was a documentary: The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris. You could see the impact on people that film had. But when it comes to shooting an ad campaign—to be honest, it’s hard to separate the two. Documentary came first, then advertising came next—as a product of more than 20 years of people not seeing documentaries as a viable business opportunity. Documentaries didn’t become popular until reality TV became popular. Now, they’re a huge part of streaming success; both inform each other. I think successful advertising and documentaries share the middle of a Venn diagram: they both tell a compelling story that connects with people. That’s where I start with my work on both.

Tell us about your 2022 documentary The 5th Man, which focuses on the life and 50-year career of high school track coach Paul Limmer. What intrigued you about the subject matter and inspired you to film it? Someone came to me in late 2019 to make a short film about Paul. We started doing the interviews in fall of 2019, but by early 2020—we know what happened. I spent the better part of 2020 editing the hours of interviews and building a story out of it. I don’t think the full-length documentary would have existed unless the pandemic happened. Otherwise, I’m not sure interviewees would have been as generous with sharing or available to share their stories.

When researching documentary subjects to film or developing concepts to portray in ads, how do you find the emotional nucleus that connects to your audience’s empathy? If you’re certain about the story and know where it’s going, then it’s often true your audience won’t be surprised. But if you’re discovering something new along the way—The 5th Man is a perfect example, as it was a short film that turned into a feature film—getting to the core of storytelling means finding the most surprising points in the story, the points that create a sense of discovery. If you find those, you can connect with your audience. Within my process, my first core belief is to connect. The second is to awaken creativity in myself and others. If I can do both, that’s great.

What tools do you find indispensable for your work? I’ve been cultivating my knowledge in neuroscience and psychology over the last few years. That interest led me down a coaching path. When I say “coaching”, I don't mean “life coach”—I mean I’m super passionate about helping people choose growth in their lives. Part of what’s indispensable is helping people I work with choose growth, be it through art or picking and choosing ideas that are bigger than what they thought they could be—that’s a great achievement in advertising. Often when working with an agency, your project is one of a dozen the creative team is working on, but they’re trying to do the best they can. A lot is being asked of them. My coaching helps with asking the right questions of creatives to get to the core of what a project is about.

What would be your dream filmmaking project? I think we need more connections in this world. Any work that I do is in service of creating connections between people. That would be the greatest project I could ever work on. It sounds cheesy, but it really drives me. Any project I work on is my dream project. If it isn’t, what am I doing?

Do you have any advice for creatives starting out in the field today? The most important thing is to know what you want. Most people have unspecific goals, like “I want to be a famous director”—but that won’t get you very far. Find something to give you contentment and happiness. Happiness isn’t reaching your goals; it’s aligning your goals with your values. If you know what you want and that aligns with your values, you’re going to win no matter what. Success for me is most rewarding when it serves people and principals that matter to me. ca