Digital Craftsmen: Chad Schoonmaker

This series started from a pretty simple instinct. Go find interesting local makers and film them with respect.

That sounds small, but it is not. Spec documentary work can say a lot about your taste, especially when there is no giant marketing machine behind it. You are left with instinct. Who is worth following. What details deserve attention. What kind of pace the film should have.

This episode focused on Chad Schoonmaker, a Baton Rouge artist whose work carries a lot of color, motion, and personality. The strongest version of the film was never going to be a biography. It had to feel like being dropped into somebody’s real creative rhythm.

That is where I aimed it.

I directed and cut the piece while working with the production company then known as Tommy’s TV. What I still like about the project is that it shows a different muscle than software launches. Less explanation. More observation. More patience with texture, place, and process.

For a recruiter or founder, I think this kind of work matters because it proves range without announcing it. You can tell a lot about someone’s eye by how they handle a quiet documentary. This one is local, human, and unforced. It is not trying to look important. It just is.