Santa!

There was a celebrity sighting at the Children’s Hospital, and just in time for Christmas!

Here’s a quick video that I threw together about a visit from the big S.C.

"Searching For a Cure" Documentary Wins Regional Emmy

After receiving a Northern California Regional Emmy for 2021’s short documentary “Separating Conjoined Twins,” I wasn’t sure where to go next. How would we top a story that has 18 million views on YouTube? Well, we probably couldn’t, but we could still take a shot at telling another great story.

Over the next year and a half, I worked on documenting another incredible medical feat: A surgery that would be the first ever in utero stem cell treatment for Spina Bifida. While it might not sound as clickable as “separating conjoined twins,” I think it turned out to be a much better story. Or rather, I think I was able to take what I learned during the production of the first story and push this one up to the next level of storytelling. I’m proud of the way it turned out, and if it gets even a fraction of 18 million views, it would be a huge success.

And once again, I’m pleased to announce that this short documentary won us a second Northern California Regional Emmy!

We are now 2 for 2 on Emmy wins with these short documentaries. Now it’s time to find the next story worthy of a year and a half of effort. Fingers crossed for a three-peat!

Sharecare Emmy Awards

Big news on the Emmy front - two of my projects brought home national Sharecare Emmys this week. The Sharecare Emmys honor health and science news stories from around the country.

The first award is for Beads of Courage in the Health/Science News category. This is a video that I wrote, shot and edited, and features a family friend who took part in the program while her daughter was in the NICU. It was presented by CNN’s Sanjay Gupta and accepted by our CEO.

The second win was for a video called Healthier Food, Stronger Economy in the Healthy Living category. This is another news story that I wrote, shot and edited. It focuses on UC Davis Health’s innovative farm-to-fork food and nutrition program. The award was presented by Misty Copeland and accepted by our Director of News and Media Relations.

Celebrating a Champion

A tragic accident almost took the life of a 2-year-old girl. But thanks to the good people at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, she’s now a happy 5-year-old ready to start kindergarten. This is a video that I put together for Children’s Miracle Network, celebrating her as the 2022 CMN Champion.

Six-Way Kidney Transplant

Getting back to my TV news roots with this press conference video. A great story with a quick day-of turn. I sure don’t miss having to set up a live truck after finishing a story to feed it back!

Med School in 3 Years!

Medical school in just three years? It can be done! Here’s a video I just finished for UC Davis School of Medicine on ACE-PC, an accelerated track that aims to get primary care doctors into communities where they’re needed at a faster rate.

The Home that Love Built

This is a great example of a story that just came together on its own. I was asked to shoot a tour video of the local Rotary House, a home that families can stay at for free while their child is in the hospital. After shooting two surprisingly powerful interviews, a new family just happened to be moving in that same day. It all came together into a really nice story that’s now one of my personal favorites.

Getting Back to Wacky Promos

For several years, I worked in the promo department for Good Day Sacramento, which means I got to do some pretty wacky stuff. Sharks, super heroes and monsters made plenty of appearances in promos that I produced (and I was usually the one wearing the costume), so when my talents were needed to create a 30 second commercial to air at UC Davis football games, I was ready for action! (Fortunately I didn’t have to wear the costume).

And because I had enough b-roll for something extra, here’s a bonus spot that’ll also play at the games!

Beads of Courage

Beads of Courage is an amazing program that a friend told me about while her daughter was in the hospital. It’s a program that helps kids and their families get through some very difficult times. It also sounded like it could be a powerful story to tell, so I lined up some interviews, picked up some beads, and this was the result -

UPDATE - This story won a national Sharecare Emmy award! Read about it here.

Tarantula Venom and Pain Relief

Could tarantula venom hold the key to a powerful non-opioid pain reliever? Scientists think so! Here’s a video I made on the amazing research going on right now at UC Davis.

"Separating Conjoined Twins" Documentary Wins an Emmy!

After 2 1/2 years of being removed from working in television, I’m proud to say that my name was read again during the Northern California Emmy Awards! Our documentary “Separating Conjoined Twins” won in the Health/Medical (Long Form) category.

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This short documentary was shot over the course of a year and tracked a pair of rare conjoined twins from their birth to separation and beyond. I shot and edited the story (with some additional footage from videographer Hal Sloane). It was written and voiced by Pamela Wu. We originally released it as a 6-part series, then cut it together as a full story. Collectively, these videos have over 6.5 million views on YouTube.

This was by far the most challenging project of my career. Just sorting through hours and hours of footage to make a coherent story was tough, but the real challenge came with shooting a 24-hour marathon surgery. I shot for 18 hours straight, then got a few hours of sleep while Hal took over, then came back in the morning to catch the end and aftermath. It was an honor to be able to shoot something so rare and complex, and I’m grateful to the whole medical team, as well as the parents of these twins, for allowing me to document it!

I’m the camera-toting guy on the far right.

I’m the camera-toting guy on the far right.

This is my fifth Emmy win and seventh nomination (see a full list of awards and nominations here). Check out this EMMY WINNING DOCUMENTARY below!

Two New Awards!

I’m excited to announce that my short documentary Art of Healing: The Art Collection of UC Davis Health brought home two awards this year! It won first place in the Shoestring Video (Under $300) category for Ragan’s Video, Visual & Virtual Awards, a national competition, and a Merit Award in the Audiovisual Tactics category for PRSA’s California Capital Chapter, a regional competition.

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This project focuses on the health system’s massive art collection and what it does for patients and staff at the hospital. It was a fun idea for a story that I had when I first started working here, and I slowly pieced it together during downtime here and there, with no budget beyond my time on the clock. It was also an official selection at the local Ag & Art Film Festival last September.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out below! Come on, it’s only 5 minutes long…

Adventures with Patient Stories

A big part of being a videographer for a hospital has been telling the incredible stories of patients. They’re typically shot like a news story - one stop with only an hour or two to shoot everything you need. It’s been fun getting back to my news photographer roots, but without the assignment desk trying to pull me away to shoot a car crash instead.

Here’s the two most recent patient stories that I shot and edited, both of which are about heart surgery patients.

3 Million Views!

Part 4 of our Separating Conjoined Twins video series is about to hit a big milestone - 3 million views on YouTube!

This is the first time one of my videos has crossed the million, and it only took a few months to get there. The next two million came pretty quickly after that! One other video of mine, the Emmy-winning Seabreacher news story, is getting close to reaching the 1 million mark as well, but that’s after 9 years.

Check it out below and maybe you can be the 3 millionth viewer! (No prizes available.)

Separating Conjoined Twins - The Series

Nearly a year ago, conjoined twins Abigail and Micaela were born at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. From there, an amazing medical team planned a complicated separation surgery that finally occurred last moth. It took 24 hours, but the girls are now able to live separate lives for the first time! I got the opportunity to chronicle this journey and can now show it off as a five part video series. Check it out at the playlist below!

Wide Open Walls

“Wide Open Walls” brings art to the city of Sacramento, transforming alleys, buildings and open spaces with amazing work from local artists. This year, they brought two murals to the hospital parking structures. Here’s a quick news story I threw together on the project.

And while you’re here, be sure to check out my previous story on the art collection of UC Davis Health, which was recently featured at the Ag & Art Film Festival!

Taco Time

Here’s something I’ve never had to shoot before - an instructional cooking video! I set up a 3 camera shoot with the executive chef to demonstrate how to make “flavor bombed” tofu tacos. It was a lot of work to cut it together without losing any steps along the way, but overall it was kinda fun to make! Plus the tacos were fantastic.


Cultivating Health, Part 2

Earlier this year, we kicked off a blog that highlights the amazing minds at UC Davis Health and what motivates them to do their groundbreaking work. The first two videos in the series focused on COVID-19 testing and NICU webcams. Since then, I’ve produced three more, with a fourth about to be released. Check it out:

Part 3: Dr. Bauer and the GMP Facility

Part 4: Dr. Bold and 3D Printing in Surgery

Part 5: Dr. Dugger and Machine Learning Used in Dementia Research

You can see the full series on the Cultivating Health YouTube Playlist. More coming soon!

Virtual Oath

COVID-19 has changed graduations across the country, including at the UC Davis School of Medicine. Each year, the graduates recite a physician’s oath at the commencement. This year, they recorded themselves stating the oath and sent it to me, and I organized nearly 100 videos into something that resembles a traditional oath. Check it out: