Keith Rivers
"I went to Mount Si High School in North Bend; a small mountain town about 45 minutes east of Seattle. Even before high school I started making films. I love the quote, “In order to create, you must first imitate”, so I reenacted sketches from Monty Python. My next-door neighbor had a VHS camera that we shot on for 15-20 minutes at a time until the battery died. Then we’d wait for the battery to charge again. I’d do these film races and started winning. They challenged me to make films quickly, which often meant being very resourceful."
"After high school I went to Western Washington University, then transferred to the Art Institute of Seattle where I got a Video Production degree. I didn’t really know what I was doing; I just thought you were supposed to have a degree. Despite my rejection to USC’s prestigious film program, I decided to move down to California and just sort of sneak into classes during the summer with some friends I knew that were going there. I knew that Spielberg did that so I thought it would be cool to do the same thing. They all had ID badges so the access was a little tricky."
"In 2007 I was living in Hollywood working as an assistant at Magnolia Entertainment. They represented Rachel McAdams and a bunch of other stars. After a few months, it wasn’t getting me any closer to being a director."
"After I quit, I had an epiphany to move back to Seattle and make films there. I wanted to be close to my girlfriend (now wife) and just be happy. I found a job working for Microsoft working at XBOX, as a video compression engineer. While I was there I made a lot of films, built my reel and just said yes to everything that was asked of me; making stupid music videos and promos just to gain experience. Looking back, it didn’t feel like it was a rough start, it was just what I was doing, paycheck to paycheck, bit by bit."
"After about 2 years of making independent content while still working my full time job, basically pulling double shifts, pretending to run my own company, an internal marketing group at Microsoft asked if I would produce some college videos for Windows 7. It was $60,000 for 5 videos. I had 1 month to write, direct, shoot, edit and complete the videos, which in 2008 was crazy, now it’s the normal. I thought, wow, $60,000, how am I ever going to spend that much money? So I went about it, collaborated with a bunch of talented people, and the videos went viral upon their release. It was a success, and I figured I was on my way after that."
"Following that project, I struggled for 6 months. I started applying for restaurant jobs, because I’d quit my job at XBOX to take this big leap of faith; starting my own company. I knew I had to do it if I was ever going to pursue my dreams of being a filmmaker but it became very real when no one else hired me."
"I was running out of money, I had a little in savings, but after 6 months I was completely broke. As a last-ditch effort, I reached out to my only contact at Microsoft and said ‘Hey, I’d love to do another video for you guys. If you have anything at all, let me know’. I ended up winning a much bigger campaign this time. I completed the commercials with all my resources, spending practically every penny on the production."
"During that time, I participated in commercial competitions like Mofilm, winning a contest for Pepsi that flew me out to Barcelona to attend the screening and awards. At the event, I met Jon Landau, the producer of Avatar. Coincidentally, I was trying to parody Avatar in my latest Microsoft commercial so I asked Jon if he could help me get the music rights for an Avatar score. He had me pitch it to him and loved it, so he put me in touch with the right people and in no time we had a license. We made the commercial, and Microsoft released the video. In the first week it had a million views and was featured on motionographer. It was a huge success for Microsoft."
"Afterwards, I was able to establish some really good relationships with different clients because people started to hear that I was doing these fresh pieces and thinking about their creative briefs in unconventional ways. I was making comedy, stop motion and musically driven stuff, I wasn’t really tied to a single style or aesthetic. The next year, I did about 30 Microsoft commercials, followed by 40 the year after, and so on. Last year I did 56+ Microsoft commercials. My company, Workhouse Creative, Inc. ended up taking shape largely due to Microsoft."
"Currently I am working on big sci-fi short film with Scott and Skyler Mednick. Scott Mednick is most recently known for producing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 300, and Where The Wild Things Are, but has also had an enormous impact on Hollywood as it is today through graphic design and other major commercial contributions. Scott has been a great mentor and friend; I love learning from him and his son Skyler who’s a very intelligent offspring."
"My film is like the style of Oblivion meets the big premise of Avatar with visual effects inspiration from Prometheus. I’m also putting the finishing touches on a music video for PNW native Allen Stone and a documentary called Impact, A Boxer’s Story as well as several commercial projects for directors we now represent at Workhouse Creative, Inc."
"Outside filmmaking, I’ve always been composing music and singing. It’s a great creative exercise, and I don’t take it too seriously. I’m sort of old-fashioned; weaving the songs together in albums rather than singles. I’d describe it as a really rough-around-the-edges version of the Beatles White Album. It is very experimental recording on digital, then running through tape, then back from analog to digital. For example, I work with a drummer named Sean Lane who built a bicycle frame with all kinds of weird pickups and effects on it that he plays. It’s hooked up by a quarter inch plug and the sounds that come out of that thing are scary and creative."
"Directing feature films has always been my childhood dream, but I think it has changed so much over the years now that technology has overtaken film, advertising, and television. I’m still attracted to the idea of a feature but there are so many more things I want to do. I’m focused on becoming a better storyteller, period. I always enjoy building lots of great relationships with brands, writers, directors, cinematographers, editors, musicians, etc. My philosophical view when I approach a film is always team-driven and collaborative. I love making stories with a lot of moving parts. I enjoy working with talented people that want to tell stories on a large scale, because that ultimately makes me happy." I recognize that what got me to where I am now won’t get me onto the next, but I’m enjoying the journey and along for the ride."