May 2022 – Massive Logo Reel
August 2020 – A Day in the Life of Stock Footage
What can you do in a day?
May 2020 – Total Solar DG: High Standards for Technical Safety and Quality
Total Solar is one of the largest Solar power providers and I was happy to edit this video for them. Filmed in Singapore, edited in Sweden. It was fun being in a conference call with people on 3 continents. Timing was an issue.
May 2020 – Solars Quarantine Jam! – Ton Up
The Covid 19 quarantine has some people on edge, check out this music video to help unwind. Filmed from home, edited in Sweden!
December 2019 – Stock Footage End Year Results
It’s been another year doing some amazing work with producing Stock Footage. Here is a small number of the clients who regularly purchased my content in 2019.
October 2018 – Top Stock Footage Contributor
After being a Stock Footage contributor for three years now I have risen to top contributor status on every single platform that ranks it’s contributors. These ranks include many benefits; a higher percentage of sales profits, my work has priority in searches, I receive the Adobe Suite for free, and I continue earning a living from stock footage content.
CHEERS!
June 2018 – New Stock Collections
Hey Derek, haven’t heard from you what have you been doing? I spent my summer traveling all over Europe filming pretty much everything and getting paid for it. Berlin, Warsaw, Vilnius, Oslo, Stockholm, Athens, Örebro, Malmö, Karlstad, FlÅm, and Bergen It took a long time, but I’ve got a summer’s worth of footage mastered and online for sale. Check out my short preview clips on my Stock Footage Page!
June 2018 – Website Launch!
Behold my new website!
May 2018 – Goodland
Last year I helped produce Josh Doke’s film, Goodland. Now it has received a short theatrical run in hopes that soon it will spread to a theater near you.
April 2, 2018 – Travel Videography Blog
Can you make money doing Travel Photography? I’m leaning towards no. Check out this video detailing my trip to Athens Greece.
May 11, 2017 – Bathtub Naval History
Hey Everyone! Great News! The long wait is over; here is the premiere of Bathtub Naval History! Written by and starring TV’s Rev. Dr. Mike Anderson, Bathtub Naval History tackles the issues that no other man will. Issues like, what are the greatest Naval battles of world history and how can they best be represented in a bathtub?! This show was produced by Alex Backus and both shot and edited by yours truly! Be a part of the majesty, lite some candles, draw a bath, pump up the Whitney Houston, and click play!
March 31, 2017 – Console to Screen
Hey everyone, here is the first episode for a new show I’ve created called Console to Screen!
Console to Screen, a retrospective review series that explores the unique and bizarre relationship between Video Games and Film. Watch as we dissect the absurdity as it unfolds, while filmmakers struggle to attempt to adapt stories from an interactive medium to the world of cinema. And it all starts here with the first live action feature film adaptation of a video game. The Super Mario Bros. Film.
This was really fun to put together and I am very happy about how it turned out! Take a look!
January 4, 2016 · DVD and Blu-ray Collection
I often do a lot of graphic design and I’ve created a lot of DVD and Blu-ray artwork. I was looking for a cool way to show it off so I created this short demo, check it out!
May 19, 2015 Judging the International Film and Video Film Festival
Hey everyone! You might ask “what have you been up to?”, and the answer is, a lot! I’ve been asked to judge not only the student Tensies at The University of Kansas, but I’ve also been invited to judge the International Film and Video Film Festival. The event has been around since 1967 and hosts both films and judges from around the world. I’ve signed up to judge multiple categories; music videos, student films and title sequences.
This isn’t my first time judging a film competition, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. It’s been a lot of fun watching these films and it’s been an honor judging them.
May 16, 2015 – Alumni Honor Citation
Over the last 6 years I’ve been a volunteer administrator for the Wild West Film Festival, an event that challenges teams of filmmakers to create a short film in a given period of time. Running an event like this taught me a lot and forced me to learn things quickly. I learned a lot about administration, marketing, selling products, banking, working with businesses, and working with difficult people. Without a mentor to guide me through it, I also learned about being resourceful and responsible.
Through the festival I saw our filmmakers grow, not just in skill or talent, but grow as friends and a community. Instead of being combative with each other, they look forward to seeing their rivals do better work and are excited to challenge one another. I’ve met some amazing, energetic, and talented people and have had a great time working with them.
However it has always made me feel isolated as if I am somehow an authority, always the one telling everyone what to do and how to do it, I’ve spent so much time writing rules and facilitating others in filmmaking that I have halted my own creative proliferation.
So I decided to move on from administrating the festival to work on more projects of my own. I look forward to working on more artistic endeavors and I will look back at my tenure with the Wild West Film Festival with pride. As a non-profit organization, we raised over $10,000 for various local charities.
The University of Kansas awarded Alex Backus and myself with the Alumni Honor Citation to recognize our work with the festival and the Kansas Film community.
January 6, 2015 – Wild West Film Flix
Hit a pretty amazing milestone today. Today the first episode of Wild West Film Flix aired successfully on television. This is my second TV series but the first to officially hit the air waves. I really want to thank everyone who has ever made a film for Wild West. I firmly believe that when people put themselves out there to create something, amazing things can happen. People learn new skills, find new interests, develop close friendships, and can create something truly exceptional.
I also want to thank Mike Anderson, Jay Wachs, Hayley Richardson, Alex Backus, and Through A Glass Productions.
We have a 28 episode run, so tune in WOW 6 and The Lawrence Television Network and maybe you’ll find someone enjoying you and your hard work!
September 22, 2014 – Paradigm Prestige
Check out this epic look at the new line of Paradigm Speakers called the Prestige Series! Over 30 years of development expertise went into designing this product line. Jeremy Osbern filmed this dramatic look at the product, Nathan Towns created the sensational musical score, “Chases Irae”, while I intensely edited the video on the edge of my seat. Take a look at the trailer, but don’t expect the full length feature to hit theaters, no matter how badly you want it to.
May 22, 2014 – The Donald Gordon Story
Donald Gordon loses his job and then his mind as he sees a camera following his every movement.
We won: best film, audience choice, best directing, and best use of character for the 48 Hour Film Project!
Donald Gordon Story was selected as one of the top films worldwide from the 48 Hour Film Project. As a result the film was accepted and played in the Cannes film festival in France. This small town film held its own against the films with large budgets, celebrities, and vast resources.
May 21, 2014 – Jayhawkers DVD & Blu-ray Release
Nothing makes your film more polished than a clean and stylized deliverable. I love designing graphics, making menus, and tying the whole film together with a professional DVD and Blu-ray. It gives the film a strong sense of completion and professionalism. I had a great time doing all of this and all of the print media for Jayhawkers check it out! DVD and Blu-ray available now!
February 14, 2013 – Jayhawkers VFX demo
Through Summer 2013, I had the pleasure of doing all of the visual effects and intro title sequence for Jayhawkers. Kevin Willmott’s film Jayhawkers features the 1950’s rise of Basketball featuring Kip Niven as Coach Phog Allen and Justin Wesley as Wilt Chamberlain.
As a period piece, the film has a lot of special requirements, the art department did an amazing job recreating the times. It was really fun creating the animated intro title sequence. Kevin really wanted a sequence to set the stage for segregation in Lawrence in the 50’s, taking the audience through a quick Kansas history lesson. I ended up visiting museums, libraries and doing a lot of independent research finding all of the history and images to tell the story without words. It was great having so much creative control and flexibility on the film, I look forward to working with Kevin again soon.
July 2013 – Honor Vodka
Honor Vodka is a spot created by Jeremy Osbern and Through A Glass Productions. For this Honor Vodka ad I created the Bottle graphic as well as appeared as a frantic crew member. This was very fun to shoot and animate for.
February 2013 – Destination Planet Negro
Destination Planet Negro, written and directed by Kevin Willmott, is the story of three African American scientists from 1930’s segregated America who built a rocket ship intending to relocate all African American’s to the planet Mars in order to escape Jim Crowe racism and find a new home. The three astronauts end up in modern day America, a future that none of them expected.
I worked on this film directly out of college. The film had an extremely low budget and was created by film professors Kevin Willmott and Matthew Jacobson with an army of film students. With Matthew’s rocket model and photography work I was able to create some neat visual effects with little time and no resources. http://www.planetnegro.com/
August 03, 2012 – Editfest LA
In an effort to learn more about the post production industry Through A Glass Productions sent Steve Deaver and myself to Los Angeles to attend Editfest LA, a summit and Q&A with the most influential editors in the industry. We were able to meet several editors including; Lisa Lassek (Avengers), Stephen Rivkin A.C.E. (Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy) and Nicholas C. Smith A.C.E. (Brave) who gave an incredibly detailed account of the editing process that goes into a fully animated film.
There, we were able to learn about the techniques and the tools that editors use of extremely large budget films. We were very happy to learn that we were on the right track in all regards and are even ahead of the curve in technology. A lot of editors only learn one software on one system and do not upgrade until absolutely necessary. It was a very comforting trip, knowing that I am on my way to becoming a great editor.
Wild West Film Fest Administrator 2007 – 2016
The Wild West Film Festival is a 48 hour film festival that challenges teams of film makers to create a five minute film in two days from concept to completion. The festival was founded in 2005 and has grown to become one of the largest film making events in the Midwest. As a charitable organization Wild West has given over $10,000 to various charities benefiting local community organizations.
As the festival administrators, Derek Sellens and Alex Backus have successfully held 11 successful events run from 2007 – 2016.
December 2010 – Graduated from KU Film
KU was a great place for education, mostly due to the flexibility and resources of the University. I spent the majority of my time there on student leadership. I was the President of KUTV and an officer of KU Filmworks, both KU student run organizations focusing of video production. After a quick count I learned that I produced and completed over 650 productions, from short films, music videos, web series, features, commercials, and corporate video. Doing this, I felt very comfortable running productions and had a working knowledge and experience in all film departments.
I began freelancing before graduating, my personal business was fairly successful I paid off my student loans after only two years out of college. After a short stint freelancing, I took an editing and visual effects job at Through A Glass Productions.
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