I am originally from the West Coast—South Pasadena, CA. I moved to the Chicago area in 1996 and went to college in the deep south of Savannah, GA. I was deeply attached to that haunted and rustic city, where I majored in Film and Television at the Savannah College of Art and Design. In a city filled with images that fired the imagination, I became heavily involved in learning the craft of making movies—lighting techniques and the art of composing shots.

I came back to Chicago to further my pursuit and found fig media. The rest is history. I am now the head production manager of our up-and-coming photography department; a film editor, sports photographer, music composer, cinematographer, and camera operator. I have worked on two short films and am now developing and pre-producing my first short film and feature documentary since graduation. With fig films, I plan to create films that reflect my own artistic statements as a director and tell stories with beautiful cinematography and will entertain and inspire like the films I’ve grown up adorning.

I am heavily influenced by visual directors such as: David Fincher, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Alfred Hitchcock, Darren Aronofsky, and Sam Mendes. I also love cinematographers like Conrad L. Hall, Vittorio Storaro, Michael Chapman, and Gregg Toland. I got into this game because of two films: “Psycho” and “Fight Club.” Those are probably the best films of all time, no question about it. I also love film noirs such as “Touch of Evil,” “M,” “This Gun for Hire,” “The Killers,” and “The Night of the Hunter.”

I enjoy listening to music and making it. My influences are Radiohead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin, Tool, Muse, Deftones, Johnny Cash, The Beach Boys, Interpol, Sigur Ros, Prodigy, Massive Attack, Girls Against Boys, Blur, Bob Dylan and Three Dog Night. I also played lead guitar in my band, One Point Closer (recently broke up), and I am now looking for a new band and am also pre-producing and directing music videos for bands such as Archeology and Chicago hip-hop artist LinC.

At fig, I have gained valuable leadership experience and have found my passion in photography—encouraged to be fully creative in cinematography and lighting. I also have a lot of fun and love to create events and shoots that are entertaining and challenging.

Some of my favorite experiences in the past year have been:
1. Lead editor for Underground spots for Rockit Ranch productions and director David Schwimmer.
2. Cinematographer for the first independent short film for fig films, “The Byrd's Fear.”
3. Composing original music for clients such as, The Underground, Dom Perignon, the PRSA Award Show, Robinette Demolition, and the Museum of Science and Industry.
4. Lead photographer for Prep Sports Online and official photographer for the Chicago Storm.
5. Lighting and Editing POS videos for Dyson Vacuums.
6. Producing two fig east networking events, “Persona,” and “the fig show.”
7. Editing films for the International Truck & Engine Company.
8. More to come…