Choctaw Casinos & Resorts
'All In'
Film and editorial director
This campaign began with a simple brief—and a throwaway line that changed everything.
Client: Choctaw Casinos and Resorts
Agency: TRG, Dallas
Role: Film and Editorial Director
Medium: TVC, Online
Challenge: Choctaw Pocola needed a new brand film—but with major renovations underway, we couldn’t rely on wide shots or extended on-location filming. The solution: shoot primarily in a studio using a LED Volume Wall and focus the story through macro and close-up cinematography. Insight: A passing client remark—“You never know what might happen at the casino”—became the creative spark. I pivoted from a graphics-led brief to a visual storytelling approach built on motion and unexpected transitions that mirrored the casino’s unpredictability. Execution: I pre-visualized the entire film with an iPhone-shot animatic, which served as the blueprint for agency sign-off and production. That upfront planning allowed us to choreograph bold transitions and deliver a final spot that stayed remarkably true to the original vision—tight, cinematic, and full of energy.
The Production Process
On the first day of production, we captured background plates inside the casino using a minimal crew. These environmental shots were later projected onto a state-of-the-art LED Volume Wall during our studio shoot—allowing us to recreate authentic casino settings while minimizing disruption to live operations on the gaming floor.
The film was designed to be carefully choreographed with camera moves helping transition from one secene to the next. In pre-production, I created an animatic to help determine how these transitions would work. Conversations with agency creatives and production crew would constantly refer back to this test film as production got under way.
The Roulette Wheel camera rig