Morgan Dusatko Producer, Storyteller, Project Manager, Leader, Friend This is a somewhat comprehensive portfolio of my work. Thanks for coming by. Let me know if you need anything.
These videos are from a series I created for a “virtual exerience” of campus. In recruiting college, it’s important that the prosepctive students can relate to the current students. Most often, in recruitment, we focus on numbers and stats, but the data is clear… Students are much more likely to attend a school where they have a made a personal connection.
You know who's not obsessed with production value? Teens. They don't care if it's landscape or portrait, or if it's shot "right."
This is a recruiting video specifically for students in southern California. The students in this video were shooting themselves and I was just off camera, recording professional audio.
I like to think this innovate approach with gain popularity and lead people in higher ed marketing toward lower production value, highly relevant content. I also created another video targeting NorCal students. You can find that here.
A woman trapped in a loveless marriage to an art professor discovers a path to happiness that’s been right in front of her the whole time. My improv team - Half Sister - and I made for the 48 Hour Film Project 2015 Seattle. We won the audience award! There are tons of things I would change but I am very proud that we made this in 48 hours! Warning! Slightly NSFW and stupid! Password: Dobie
When I first started at the UW I was very nervous that I had work with students. I was worried that they would be insufferable: privileged, short sighted, rude. Basically I was expecting to walk into the nerd version of the Jersey Shore.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. It is really nice working with these young people. Almost to a person they are hard working, charismatic, fun, and very smart. Spending time with them is a pleasure, and I hope that comes through in these photos.
When capturing portraits I walk around with the students and try to get them to do stupid things (please refer to the photos). As we walk around we talk, and I take photos of them. Most of these photos are junk because the student has their mouth open or is looking away. But when I do get a good photo, you can see the connection that we are attempting to make in their eyes.
My hope is that the people who see these photos see a little bit of what I do and see the vigor, good-heartedness, and excitment that UW students radiate.
Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes of Hey Half Sister - Long Form Improv by Morgan Dusatko for free.
Hey Half Sister Podcast
Did I tell you I'm also an improviser? Cool huh?
Well, I produce this podcast that is SUPER FUNNY and has INCREDIBLE sound design. I record and edit these, and sometimes perform in them.
Slightly NSFW and VERY stupid.
Sometimes my girlfriend makes muffins and we have some leftover, and when I leave a note in the breakroom encouraging people to take one, I make sure it’s branded.
Seattle cult icon Goddess Kring wrestles with her public access fame as she transitions into a new cycle in her life. A finalist in the 2012 International Documentary Challenge, "Typecast Dragon" premiered Internationally at the Hot Docs Film Festival and premiered in the US at the Seattle International Film Festival.
This might be the best movie I ever made. The story is strong and has a very good balance between character development and plot. We edited the film and then shot the archival footage off of a CRT to give it the analog banding and giant pixels. Then we edited that footage back in. I think it adds a lot to the visual story.
I also made this video with Cassidy Dimon, Katie Killeen and Shauna Hargrove. We made this move with no set roles up front and tried to be fully collobrative. This was a really nice experience because it demanded that everyone give their all.
In 2001, I went to PS1 while visiting New York, and experienced an amazing piece by Janet Cardiff. Park walking tour, part conversation, part adventure, it affected me greatly. It always stuck in the back of my mind and an excitingly new and strange form of art. I always wanted to make one.
Morgan giving the tour in 2014. Photo by Joel Walters.
When I saw that 4Culture was accepting proposals for its program that commissioned site specific works in historical locations, it clicked. I was going to do a walking tour of Inscape, a building built in 1931 to detain immigrants for processing and deportation. It was used for 73 years as a detention and processing center for immigrants, and was converted into spaces for artists and small businesses. I was familiar with the space because I worked there at the time. I sent my proposal in and it was accepted.
The main creative problem left:behind addressed for me was how to combine the literal truth, and the emotional truth.
Through my work with MOHAI, I had become attuned to the way that historians think about story and fact, and felt that sometimes they sacrificed impact for accuracy. But I also didn’t want to “fictionalize” the stories of the people that were detained in the building.
A hallway at Inscape.
So I started by doing research on the building itself. I found that the Wing Luke museum had done a great deal of work recording the oral histories of people that had been there for processing, detention, and people that were naturalized. I reached out to Cassie Chin, and she graciously helped by providing me with access to the audio files and transcripts of these oral histories.
I poured over them, grabbing the clips that I liked, and marking other clips that were specifically about particular places in the building. They also had various information about the building. A structural audit of the building done in 1984 was particularly helpful, and included a short history and the original blueprints of the building.
From there I began exploring the medium. I found more work by Janet Cardiff, and others in the creative walking tour space. I discovered binaural recording. I found a huge diversity in concept and content. I found some generic elements in the medium: A host character, ambient sound, footsteps to keep the tour-taker generally on pace. I opened myself up to being inspired.
Someone taking the tour. Photo by Joel Walters.
I reached out to Sam Farrazaino, the site manager and genius that began Inscape. We talked and I learned what his take was on Inscape and the history. I met with him, 4Culture, and Cassie Chin, my stakeholders and learned what they wanted and needed from the tour, and told them where my interest was, and where my head was.
So after I had done the research phase, becoming familiar with the content, and the medium, and the stakeholders, I went to what is most exciting for me, visioning.
Visioning is where structure becomes so important. Structure is what bring the facts, feelings, and disparate parts together. It’s a funnel and sieve that gives guidance on what to keep, what to let go of, and what goes where. The structure for left:behind was Story, with the listener as the protagonist, and the building itself, or more literally the spirits inhabiting the building, as the antagonist.
Someone taking the tour. Photo by Joel Walters.
As soon as those important decisions were made, it was easy to play and try different things out. I worked on the middle, then the end, then the beginning, indulging my intuition, squeezing and pulling sounds and words.
For media work, I generally have a closed drafting process that goes swiftly from idea, to test, to solution, back to test and then to idea again. I do this until I run out of self critique, and then I bring in friends, stakeholders, and people I trust to give me feedback. left:behind was no different and I iterated the work more than 11 times before the unveiling.
I launched left:behind at the Inscape open house on December 8th 2013.
We had more than 60 people take the tour that day, and over 350 to date. left:behind is one of my proudest pieces of work and I hope you are able to experience it. Here it is in full below. Feel free to skip around, especially since you aren't there.
Like podcasts? Me too. I got one. This was the business card I made for my cohost and I to pass out when bragging about it. We haven't upadted this podcast in more than a year, but the episodes are still funny and relevant, especailly because we never talked about the news. You can check it out at Morgan's Martini Hour or here.
At the UW, we really wanted to relate to our audience, prospective undergraduate students. My task was to connect with our prospective students through a video series that explores the everyday life of a first year student, and answers the common questions, and addresses common fears and concerns.
I was able to cultivate a relationship with a wonderful group of first year students that gave me a glimpse into their lives. As I worked on the project, I was stuck by their bravery, and positive attitude. I really like all the students that I worked with on this project and I hope it shows.
The First Year Experience was an important avenue to communicate and create lasting relationships with our audience and now it’s an ongoing project of the Office of Admissions at the University of Washington.
You can find the rest of the videos in the series here.
Tom Tamale's Beard and Hair Oil was my pet project in the winter of 2013. These were oils that you could use to condition and lightly scent your beard and / or hair. I made six different varieties, each for the season. Summer was light and smelled like lime and basil, winter was heavy and smelled like pine and Earl Grey Tea. Making the labels was one of my favorite parts. I'm proud of how they look. You should be too.
janainaart
origamiaround
germansingergirl
2087
blakekathryn
jacobvanloon
jbbartram-illu