Faux tiger hide rugs. Crocodile skin vinyl chairs. Zebra striped walls. These were just some of the many design flourishes I found at a recent assignment in Denver. My client, Image Studios, houses several independent stylists under one roof. In this co-working model, they work hard to set their spaces apart with their use of luxurious design. I was hired to create photos and videos to help attract new tenants with high-end clients. An appeal for tenants is the freedom to personalize their spaces. I chose…

"You did it again, Doug! Gave us the chills and the feels." That was the response from my client at the Short Years Partnership when I sent her the first draft of this video last week. She is a client I have worked with for several years in Colorado. Two years ago she took a position at a nonprofit in Iowa. “Give me two years,” she said. In June, exactly two years later, I got an email from her asking…

Over the summer I was contacted by a creative director at an agency in Florida who liked the emotionally driven strength of my portfolio and thought I'd be a good fit to create a broadcast commercial for a client of theirs in Denver. That client is Divorce Matters, a Denver law firm specializing in divorce, a sensitive subject to be sure. I agreed to take on the project and created (serving as director, cinematographer, and editor) the 30-second broadcast commercial…

Back in July I got a phone call from a producer in New York at Jigsaw Productions, Alex Gibney's production company. Alex Gibney gained notoriety 20 years ago with his documentary, "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room." He has made several documentary films and series since, often on high profile subjects. His latest project was a film about the government's response to covid-19. They wanted to include an interview from Max Kennedy Jr. (grandson of RFK), who happened to…

Many nonprofit organizations hold an annual in-person fundraising event where they raise the bulk of their funding for the year. Videos are often shown at these events with the goal of engaging prospective donors on an emotional level. Over the years I've created several such videos to great success. I focus on the stories of people who have benefited from my client's services. And I use a documentary and observational style to tell those stories in an authentic and humanistic…

I've been making films in one form or another for 20 years. You would think I have seen it all. But every project I take on has something unique about it that requires thinking of a new solution or approach. I suppose that's one of the reasons I still love doing what I do so many years in. Such was the case with the latest video I created for The Action Center, a nonprofit in Lakewood, Colorado, that provides immediate…

Jerry Caruso had a very successful business remodeling kitchens. It allowed him to have a nice house. Cars. Pay for his children's education. But it wasn't enough. Something was missing. I need to find a way to give back, he thought. One afternoon he met with with a doctor at Children's Hospital. Jerry asked him if he knew of something that needed help but is often overlooked. The doctor told him that there was a lot of assistance out there…