Overview: I’m always drawn to opportunities to create work on a grand scale—especially when the goal is simple: Make people feel something immediately.

For Coldwell Banker, I conceived, wrote, and directed The Takedown—an original animated short film created to open their global Generation Blue Experience conference.

The brief wasn’t to explain the brand. It was to set the tone. The goal was to create something original, bold, and memorable—something audiences wouldn’t expect from a real estate brand.

The Idea: Hook the 5,000+ people in the arena with a high-energy, animated story about competition, ambition, and what it takes to win. Less corporate video. More Family Guy!

My Role:

• Conceived the original idea and narrative

• Defined visual language, tone, character arcs, and storytelling approach

• Wrote and directed the film

Led cross-functional teams across:

• Character development + environmental design

• Animation + editorial

• Sound design + music + color

What I Built:

A Fully Original Creative Vision

• Designed story, pacing, and tone to land emotionally and comedically

• Built a visual language that could hold up on an IMAX-scale arena screen, requiring precision in: Composition. Motion. Timing. Every frame needed to read clearly and land with impact at scale

A Cast You Wouldn’t Expect

• Instead of professional voice actors, we cast: Coldwell Banker executives, C-suite leaders, and staff (none of whom had done voice acting before)

• I directed their performances—coaching tone, timing, and delivery to capture something that felt natural, funny, and fully realized

Execution: I was involved in every aspect of the film. It was a deeply collaborative process—my favorite kind of project—and the best moments in the film came from that collaboration. I led amazing teams of storyboard artists, technical directors, animators, editors, and executives through every step of the process from beginning to end—creating clarity around the vision while giving teams space to push ideas further.

Why It Worked:

• Entertainment → Engagement: Led with humor and story to capture hearts instantly—elevating brand perception and loyalty 

• Vision → Execution: Maintained a clear creative through-line across every discipline

• Trust → Performance: Helped non-actors deliver performances that elevated the film + inspired the brand to do something they’d never done before