DAMIAN’S MADE A LOT OF STUFF

(Including mistakes)

WHAT’S HIS DEAL?

Look at that cocky guy, acting like he knows something. Yeah, his life hasn’t traveled in a straight line, but that’s left him with scars and stories, lots of stories. From herding cattle on the Wyoming frontier, working as an apprentice for an Italian Chef, to working in a lab trying to find a cure for Cancer.

But why cure cancer when you can make movies, and TV shows and silly commercials with puppets?

Whatever I do, I have to accomplish three things:

  • Make the world better.

  • Make beautiful stuff.

  • Feed my family.

My initials are D.R. DAYTOn

His pretension knows no bounds.

Both my father and Uncles were Doctors (the Medical kind, not the “write papers”kind. They loved what they did, and I wanted to love what I did too. Plus school was easy for me. BYU didn’t offer a Pre-Med major so that allowed me to take whatever classes I wanted. Plus I had a full-ride scholarship, so I rode that thing into the ground. A BA in Humanities captured most of the classes that I took, so I took that degree, along with a minor in Zoology. I was also one class away from a Chemistry Minor, and two classes away from a Genetics minor (but they were hard classes). I also took art classes. I took every film class in the Humanities department (Film as Art from Dr. Marshall). I took Philosophy of Aesthetics from Dr. Anderson, and I took every film class I could that didn’t require me to apply to the program. I watched International Cinema, Classic cinema, and started a movie watching club (Thursday night movie night).

On the weekends, I made stuff. I wrote scripts, did art-direction, I worked on my brother’s film, my cousin’s films then, their friends and their friends friends. We started a screenwriting group with Tim Skousen, Brandon Dayton and Jared hess. I and even made my own Documentary “Derby Americana”, about the demolition derbies in small town Utah. I have over 60 hours of footage over 4 years and another 3 years in post production. I worked with Jared Hess to shoot our slow motion 16 mm sequences and countless others with handheld super 8 cameras to capture the “textures” from the stand.

I shot the rest of the documentary following 2 drivers (A Mailman “Going Postal” and “Gumby” a crowd favorite. I then abandoned the project halfway completed to follow my “career”. Yet I couldn’t seen to send in my applications. I worked at a Hospital in the Operating room, and then the Huntsman Cancer Institute when I did solidly mediocre work.

Without prep, I killed the MCAT (32), and was invited to apply at some of the top Medical Schools. But I couldn’t get past the essay. When asked, “Why do I want to go to THIS medical school.” I couldn’t get to a good hones answer, because the truth is, I didn’t. So I didn’t follow my initials and I didn’t follow my father either.

So I quit to write the Great American Novel. And if you’ve watched Sullivan’s Travels you know how that turned out.

Reality is for KIDS

My friend Travis Babcock got me a “temporary” job as an assistant associate producer at LENZworks where I was supposed to help on two nationally syndicated TV shows. One was HOME TEAM and the other was ENDLESS VACATIONS. I agreed if I could also help write episodes. During the wrap to our first episode of HOME TEAM I learned that the producer for ENDLESS VACATIONS had quit, and I suddenly had a battlefield promotion to PRODUCER.

After a few episodes, I brought in clients and thought, I am stressed out enough, why don’t I do it for myself. Travis and I started Kineto Pictures. Our first client was Signing Time! with Alex and Leah. I had done some writing for them in the past, but together we were able to turn their existing 6 VHS tapes into a full season on PBS where I helped write, manage animation, and directed and produced second unit B-roll. We refined their teaching system into a production machine, and when we were renewed. I directed season 2, consisting of 13 episodes.

At Kineto Pictures we created hundreds of hours of contents for Corporations and Non-Profits alike, and it’s where I had a chance to complete my first major documentaries for BYUTV, and few documentary-style commercials.

Travis Babcock, Out standing in his field.

TECHTONIC SHIFTS

In 2008 I began to realize that video production for anyone and anything was going to become a commodity. The new iPhones has better cameras and editing software than what I was trained on in High School. I sold my stake in Kineto and moved on to Marketing Consulting. Originally helping with marketing anything to focusing on using video and social media to market films. Including:

  • The Cokeville Miracle.

  • Just Let Go.

  • The Last Descent.

Creative + Profitability

Early to Social Media marketing, I discovered that unlike TV, Social Media platform charge you less per ad the more entertaining your ad is. The more you engage viewers, the longer they stay on site, the more your CPMs go down.

So for the past 10 years I’ve been exploring massive growth for digital brands through engaging video content. Joining Jay Davis at Creatably as a founding partner, We’ve played with the form with everything from slapstick comedy to dry founders stories with a twist. We’ve done homages to great films, and silly inside jokes, with one purpose: To help brands grow fast.

We build a fantastic team of wonderful creators, We’ve launched over 200 campaigns with BILLIONS in views and We’ve made a lot of millionaires in the last decade. Let’s see what happens next…