A place to reflect on the work I’m doing, the projects I’m developing, and what I’m learning as I go.
Science fiction has a specific job: to take something real, push it past its logical limits, and show you what breaks. Jurassic Park (1993) does that job better than almost any film I can think of. Thirty years later, it feels less like a dinosaur movie and more like a memo someone should have read…
Keep readingIn my professional life, I am obsessed with audiences. I think about them before a campaign brief is written. I think about what they need, what they believe, what they’re afraid of. I’ve spent eight years at Kaiser Permanente helping translate complex healthcare concepts into messages that actually reach people. Audience awareness isn’t a skill…
Keep readingLast month marked 8 years at Kaiser Permanente. At our all-hands meeting, they celebrate work anniversaries with a slide. A photo. Your name. A number. I was asked ahead of time to send something. I have a professional headshot. It’s right there on my computer. Clean, appropriate, mostly resembles me on a good day. I…
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Most horror films give you a monster and ask you to be scared of it. Shadow of the Vampire gives you a monster and asks you to be scared of the person who hired it. The 2000 film, starring Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich, is built around a premise that sounds like a late-night comedy…
Keep readingGood ideas can ruin a project. Not because they’re bad, but because they pull in the wrong direction. In advertising, a campaign can have strong individual executions across TV, digital, and social, and still feel like it was made by three different teams. When it works, the campaign just feels intentional. When it doesn’t, something…
Keep readingCinema and cultural history are inseparable. The films that dominate the box office in any given decade aren’t always the ones that define it. What film historians tend to remember, and what audiences often needed most, were the films that gave shape to the fears, hopes, and uncertainties of their time. The examples below were…
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Jim Carrey has been back in the news after an appearance at a French awards show triggered online speculation that it wasn’t even him. A clone. A stand-in. A double. Absurd. And strangely on-brand. Carrey has always felt larger than his own frame. His face stretches past plausibility. His body folds into itself. He commits…
Keep readingI once wrote what I thought was a brilliant ending to a psychological horror/thriller film I’ve been developing called What Lingers. It tied everything together. It left lingering doubt that the story was over. I could already see the final shot. The feedback I received was simple: “Meh.” No long explanation. No detailed notes. Just…
Keep reading“Bryce, you were being a total d*ck to everyone.” The feedback surfaced during a promotion conversation. I was informed our advertising agency lead had hesitations… not about my performance, but about how I treated people when things got tense. A year earlier I had been asked to step up while someone on my team was…
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In previous Field Notes, I’ve explored how thrillers sustain tension through control and how romance earns belief through emotional alignment. Across genres, I keep returning to the same question: What makes an audience believe? Action answers it differently. It runs on rules. John Wick (2014) is a clear example. On paper, it borders on absurd:…
Keep readingThe hardest part of creative work isn’t coming up with ideas. It’s deciding which ones deserve to stay. When we talk about creativity, we often focus on output, making more, shipping faster, generating ideas. But at a certain point, producing isn’t the hardest part. Choosing is. In The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick…
Keep readingI was 17 the first time I stepped onto the backlot of a major movie studio. It wasn’t through the tram tour. In fact, one rolled past us while my parents and I walked quietly down the street with an assistant film editor who had invited us to visit. Tourists leaned out hoping to catch…
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Creative Practice: Studying Creativity and Leadership · Week 2 Last week, I wrote that I never thought I was creative. That belief began to shift when I redefined what creativity actually is. In The Creative Act: A Way of Being, a book on creativity by prolific music producer Rick Rubin, he suggests that creativity isn’t…
Keep readingValentine’s Day tends to bring out the grand gestures. The sweeping declarations. The airport chases. The perfectly timed kiss. I’ve always enjoyed those moments. But the older I get (and the more I study genre), the more I find myself drawn to quieter versions of romance – the kind that feel less like conquest and…
Keep readingWhile watching yesterday’s Super Bowl halftime show with Bad Bunny commanding the stage and cameras sweeping and spinning with precision, I couldn’t help but think back to another Super Bowl entirely. Ten years ago, I was at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara for Super Bowl 50. Same venue. Different version of me. I honestly don’t…
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One thread I plan to return to here is genre: how it works, why it endures, and what it reveals about us. Thrillers, in particular, have always held a strange pull for me. Not because of spectacle or shock, but because of the way they make you feel slightly off-balance. It’s the sense that something…
Keep readingI grew up around creativity. I performed, I rehearsed, I showed up. From the outside, it probably looked like creativity was already part of my life. Despite all that, I never felt like I could call myself creative. Creativity seemed almost magical. It was something other people with very different lives than mine experienced -…
Keep readingSince I was a kid escaping into movies, I’ve wanted to walk the red carpet at a Hollywood premiere. I idolized the people I saw responsible for making movie magic happen. My favorite shows were behind-the-scenes looks at how movies were made. It’s no wonder I jumped at the chance to attend the world premiere…
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This blog is a work in progress and will be used to explore storytelling, creativity, and brand advertising as part of my ongoing development. More writing coming soon.
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