I’ve been fortunate to be around production my entire creative career, whether it’s writing scripts or working directly with directors, or making the million little decisions in the edit bay, I’ve come to love production the most out of the creative process.
I got my first chance to direct while in-house at Lyft and have been chasing that high ever since.
Below are some of the stories (and sillies) I’ve been able to direct – with the help of some pretty seasoned, talented, wonderfully collaborative people along the way.
Strange Mode
Before Netflix became the arm candy it is now, Lyft was one of the first brands they partnered with. And it was to help announce Stranger Things Season 2, just in time for the Halloween season.
With about two weeks to production, I was brought in to direct. I overhauled the script, tinkered with the gags, and brought this amazing idea to life with some special folks at Lyft. We filmed on a Thursday evening and delivered on Monday morning. Scary, right?
We partnered with Deeplocal on the fabrication and execution of the in-car gags.
Undercover Lyft w/ Olivia Wilde
If you're ever going to direct a director, make sure it’s Olivia Wilde (while directing Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte). We partnered with Olivia and co. to support her directorial debut, Booksmart, as we brought some of her characters to life in a Lyft ride.
Undercover Lyft s01e01
This is the one that paved the way for Undercover Lyft to become one of Lyft’s most successful episodic content series to date. The opportunity started as, “we have two hours with Chicago Cubs rookie phenom, Kris Bryant… What are we gonna do?”
Putting him behind the wheel of a Lyft and driving unsuspecting passengers around Chicago asking about “that new rookie” was the obvious answer.
A dash in every state
Only a few weeks into my gig at DoorDash, I got an email from the founder, Tony Xu. And that email was basically just a forwarded email from Mike, a Dasher who wanted to complete a Dash in every state and asked if we could support. So I threw together a production crew and hit the road*.
Lyft Halloween Scaries
When you’re an in-house scrappy creative team, you get to make a bunch of stuff. And this is some of the stuff we made, to celebrate one of Lyft’s biggest ride occasions - Halloween.
