Embedded Files
Over the course of thirteen years, Starz Entertainment in Denver, Colorado became my creative home. What began as an internship in 2004 — a young person's leap of faith into the world of television — evolved into a full-fledged career that would shape my entire professional identity. After a brief but formative stint at a fledgling channel in Colorado Springs, I returned to the Starz family as a Production Assistant, hungry and ready to prove myself.
From there, I threw myself into the work wholeheartedly. Project after project, I honed my craft and climbed the ranks until I had earned the title of Senior Producer — a journey that was as rewarding as it was exhilarating. The role itself was something of a dream for any film lover: a unique alchemy of cinema and music, weaving together carefully chosen footage into promotional pieces that captured the soul of whatever Starz or Encore channel, show, or film I was tasked with championing. In many ways, it was like crafting a music video — only the raw material was the magic of Hollywood itself.
My time there came to a close in the fall of 2016, but the thirteen years I spent telling those stories left an indelible mark on everything I do.
Unearthing the perfect song from a seemingly boundless library is no small feat — yet this time, fortune smiled on us early. For image-driven pieces like this, we typically turn to the airwaves, licensing a familiar melody that had caught our ear in passing. But this gem had been quietly waiting in our own collection all along.
Once the music chose itself, the rest became instinct — sifting through the footage, letting the best frames rise to the surface, and weaving them together until the visuals and the melody found their rhythm as one.
I had the honor of lending my craft to the acclaimed Starz Original series, POWER — a show that, against all odds, rewrote its own destiny. When the series found itself struggling to capture its audience, I stepped in to breathe new life into its episode promotions. What followed was nothing short of remarkable: POWER ascended to become the crown jewel of Starz originals, reigning as the network's highest-rated series.
There came a tipping point in the industry when licensing a marquee track — and wringing every last drop of its potential — became the gold standard for high-profile productions. For this campaign, we turned to Fall Out Boy's anthemic My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up), a choice that carried as much creative intention as it did commercial weight.
Of course, anchoring a spot to a premium track comes with its own gravitational pull. Every stakeholder has a vision, and when the music carries that kind of presence, the edit becomes a living document — revised, reshaped, and revisited as creative leads push to make the final cut worthy of the song carrying it.
Promoting a blockbuster might seem like a straightforward formula — pulse-pounding music, a charismatic lead, a glimpse of the villain, a flash of explosive action, and you're done. If only it were that simple.
This project was anything but easy. The sheer magnitude of the film meant every creative decision was scrutinized under a microscope, with countless eyes dissecting each cut, each frame, each choice. Compounding the pressure was an unforgiving constraint unique to television: the entire story had to be told in just thirty seconds. Every moment had to earn its place. Nothing could breathe. Everything had to land.
Thirty seconds to sell a phenomenon. No small feat.
Bridging the boundaries between cinematic universes has never been a task for the faint of heart. Yet the brilliant minds we brought together for this project rose to the occasion with an inspired stroke of genius — a dispatch department that would send the heroes themselves out into the world, bringing the magic directly to the people. The campaign that emerged from this bold vision earned me my first industry award, a moment I'll not soon forget.
Movie promotions were my natural habitat — and what a thrill it was to pour that passion into films I genuinely loved, which, as luck would have it, was nearly all of them.
Before its cast members became household names and long before devoted fans would claim it as one of television's most criminally overlooked gems, Party Down quietly graced the Starz network — a diamond in the rough that the world simply wasn't ready for. Brimming with sharp wit, an ensemble of rising stars destined for greatness, and a parade of delightful guest appearances, the show flickered briefly before the winds of obscurity threatened to snuff it out — only to be resurrected by the fervent devotion of the audience that eventually found it.
Not every film commands the same reverence within the network. Broken Embraces, despite the allure of its star power, never quite captured the collective imagination of a mainstream audience — and that quiet obscurity extended to the resources allocated for its spot. Left largely to my own devices, I found unexpected freedom in the constraints. It was within that creative solitude that the broken shard effect was born, fragmenting the imagery into something that set this piece apart from the rest. Time, however, was an unforgiving collaborator — and its scarcity left the final product with a few rough edges I'd have otherwise smoothed away.
A lifelong devotion to the art of horror made Starz Fear Fest the perfect canvas — a rare chance to craft promotional content that could do justice to films designed to genuinely unsettle the soul.
Spartacus: Blood & Sand marked a watershed moment for Starz — the network's first true triumph in original programming. I was brought on to craft long-form character pieces that breathed life into the show's iconic figures, as well as the premiere POC (promo over credits) that would set the stage for audiences moments before the action began. Drawing from raw interviews and series footage, I shaped each script from the ground up, then collaborated closely with video, graphics, and audio editors to forge these vignettes into something worthy of the arena.
Horror has always been my native tongue, and this film speaks it fluently. I was captivated upon its release, blissfully unaware it was born from the shadow of the Spanish masterpiece REC. What strikes you first — and never quite lets go — is the score: a relentless, pulsing heartbeat of sound that coils around the tension like smoke, never rushing, never relenting.
It doesn't scream at you; it seeps into you. As the dread mounts, you find yourself consumed by the fates of a doomed reporter and the unsuspecting souls trapped within those suffocating apartment walls. Those hypnotic, repeating tones also stirred something deeper in my memory — an echo of another horror I hold dear, Carpenter's The Thing, where dread is not shown but felt, building note by note into something almost unbearable.
San Francisco served as the backdrop for this lively Encore top-titles production — a concept as entertaining to film as it was to watch unfold. The premise was delightfully simple: find passionate movie lovers on the street and invite them to channel their inner actor, breathing life into iconic lines from beloved films. Think of it as Karaoke, but for cinema — where the stage is a sidewalk and the script is already etched into pop culture history.
What followed was pure, unscripted magic. As each participant stepped up to deliver their best impression, the air buzzed with laughter, creativity, and an infectious enthusiasm that only true film fanatics can conjure. The result was a celebration of storytelling — not from the screen, but from the hearts of the people who love it most.
Looking for Starz represented one of Starz's earliest ventures into original programming — an ambitious undertaking that drew inspiration from the American Idol phenomenon, transplanting its spirit of discovery onto a nationwide talent search. Rather than hunting for pop stars, the show sought undiscovered performers worthy of a coveted role in a Revolution Studios film, bringing the glamour of Hollywood to doorsteps across America.
From the very beginning, I was embedded with the production, traveling alongside the crew to every stop on the tour — every city, every audition hall, every hopeful face — save for the final leg in Los Angeles. My role was multifaceted and demanding: I orchestrated the physical setup of each set, kept the ever-rotating cast of contestants organized and on track, and served as the custodian of every moment captured on tape. That last responsibility carried its own weight — after each shoot, I personally transported the footage to Starz headquarters, where I took on the painstaking task of logging every reel in meticulous detail, racing against a ruthless post-production timeline that left only a matter of weeks between the final take and a finished, air-ready episode.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse