Description: Futureland 2 is an enhanced version of Futureland 1. It focuses on balancing both qualitative and quantitative tracking approach. It is a fast and beautiful native iOS app that allows users to track their own progress across habits, projects, and interests, share that with a close group of friends or create challenges to increase accountability.
Status: On-Going
Description: New Systems is an experimental project aimed at improving Toronto’s systems related to creativity, innovation, and culture. The project attempts to form a fundamental understanding of needs, and then attempt to address those needs through the creation of new systems, communities, and infrastructure. Learnings and insights from projects are shared broadly.
Status: On-Going
Description: A unique hackathon in Toronto that combines intensive project development with a sports-style draft night for team formation. Participants engage in a 48-hour hackathon to create new technology projects, fostering collaboration and innovation.
Outcome:Strengthened Toronto’s technocreative communities by facilitating new collaborations and realizing unique ideas. The event’s novel approach to team formation ended up being highly effective, it lead to immediate side effects that should continue over the long term.
Status: Complete
Description: A new event series in Toronto that blends art, technology, games, (and soon food) into a single experience. The project aims to create a unique celebration of work that is distinctly Toronto-centric, avoiding derivative cultural influences.
Outcome:We’ve hosted two successful New Demos, with New Demos 2 being bigger than New Demos 1. Each New Demos aspires to contribute the Toronto’s culture and storytelling in its own way. This series has resonated locally and beyond.
Status: Complete
Description: An improved version of Futureland that grew from a Slack community into a full daily tracking platform. It started as a place for people to learn new skills by practicing for 365 days straight and evolved into a tool where users could track their habits, projects, and experiments using a mix of habit tracking and visual journaling.
Key Contributions:Product Management, UI/UX Design, Community Building, Feature Conceptualization, Iterative Development Process
Status: Complete
Description: A year-long experiment in music creation, where I created some kind of music every day for 365 consecutive days. This project resulted in 21 hours of continuous music and prior to this experiment I had not made any music before.
Key Technologies: GarageBand for iOS, GarageBand on Mac, LogicPro X, Sound Design
Genres: Electronic, Ambient, Hip Hop, Techno, Acid, Soundscapes
Status: Complete
Description: After making music for 365 days, I realized this could be a very effective way of learning new things, so I decided to learn programming by writing code for 365 consecutive days.
Key Technologies:HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Swift
Outcome:This experiment, along with the music project and my prior experience with filmmaking made me start to believe that I could explore any medium, and I should.. It solidfied that the most important things to me is continuous learning, rapid creation, and breaking self-imposed creative limits.
Status: Complete
Description: A global community of technocreatives focused on 365-day learning challenges across various disciplines. Before midnight individuals would publish daily creations through a SlackBot named Otis, which uploaded content to a web interface for tracking their progress. Disciplines explored included coding, visual art, music production, game development, hardware projects, and a lot more.
Outcome:Futureland Zero had a transformative effect on those that completed their 365 day projects leading to new opportunities, relationships, and ideas. This project also became the foundation for Futureland as a startup, leading to multiple iterations and versions since its inception.
Status: Complete
Description: Established and led an internal studio for Shopify’s storytelling, focusing on developing diverse narrative capabilities. The studio produced documentary films, animated content, and original productions to enhance Shopify’s storytelling on all levels.
Status: Complete
Description: FURTHER is an original animated series exploring the intersection of science and humanity. The project involved working with experts from SETI, NASA, CRISPR, and other cutting-edge scientific fields.
Status: Complete
Description: Led the creative direction for Shopify’s IPO, creating a documentary about the company’s origins and growth. This was a high-stakes project, completed on a short timeline, had to find a way to make it feel like a film while seamlessly integrated key business details.
Key Contributions: Creative Direction, Documentary Filmmaking, Storytelling, Business Communication
Outcome: The documentary was highly successful, effectively communicating Shopify’s story and contributing to a successful IPO. This marked the first time a Canadian company used video in their IPO process. As the first project worked on at Shopify, it set a high standard for future storytelling efforts, paving the way for expanded narrative capabilities within the company.
Status: Complete
Description: A documentary film exploring the hip hop scene in Alaska. The film delves into the lives and music of Alaskan rappers, including Josh Boots, and examines the past, current, and future state of the Alaskan hip hop scene.
Outcome: The project provided a unique look into a little-known subculture, showcasing the intersection of hip hop and Alaskan culture. It offered valuable insights into documenting niche scenes in new environments.
Status: Complete
Description: A 25-minute documentary short film following educators-turned-entrepreneurs at 54-hour events in New York and Silicon Valley. The film showcases how teachers tackle real-world education problems through technology, highlighting the journey of Kevin Tame and Rob Schwartz as they develop new solutions for students and schools.
Outcome: This project was a milestone for us with its longer 25-minute runtime, and heightened focus on present-time storytelling, meant we were growing in documentary filmmaking.
Status: Complete
Description: A documentary short film following the early beginnings of the band BADBADNOTGOOD. This project aimed to capture the unique sound, energy, and vision of the emerging jazz group in Toronto.
Status: Incomplete
Description: A documentary short film about two of the first female taxi drivers in New Delhi, facing personal challenges and societal norms in an often dangerous environment.
Location: New Delhi, India
Status: Incomplete
Description:A film exploring the origins, design philosophies, and inspirations behind Staple Design, a New York City-based design studio founded in 1997. The documentary also covers Reed Space, their innovative boutique in the Lower East Side.
Note:First time making a video outside of Toronto, felt crazy bringing the footage back.
Status: Complete
Watch on VimeoDescription:A film about Bryan Espiritu, the creator of The Legends League, a Toronto-born brand. It explores the ups and downs of his life experiences, artwork, and clothing line “IDEALL”.
Status: Incomplete
Watch TrailerDescription:A commissioned piece to capture Toronto’s thriving technology landscape, featuring conversations with local entrepreneurs, developers, and visionaries.
Status: Complete
Watch on Vimeo