Michael N. Horwitz
Director · Editor · Creative Lead
Bend Studio | Sony PlayStation
The title was just the beginning.
The Challenge: Reintroduce the studio behind Days Gone to a new generation of players on social, in their feed. All while the team built a brand new unannounced AAA game, code name Mirrorpond.
The Strategy: Give the studio a human voice. Spotlight the artists. Tell the stories of how games actually get made.
Bend at Night was the headline deliverable, a six-episode video podcast on the secrets of game development. Built in partnership with community to feed Bend Studio's social channels with content players actually wanted to watch.
The Outcome: The podcast was just one channel. The role grew into a creative remit that touched capture, mo-cap, cinematics, and narrative across the studio.
Bend at Night: Social Cut
Days Gone Remastered
Women at Bend
PlayStation Spotlight
Bend at Night: Episode 5
Movies for America | WGN America
From greenlight to couch in twenty seconds.
The Opportunity: WGN America was running safe interstitial content between its pre-packaged movies. The premium drama originals were canceled. The network was up for sale. No campaign. No voice. Just connective tissue. I saw a brand waiting to be built.
The Strategy: Stop selling movies. Celebrate them. Lean into the fun, the spirit, the joy, and the films' place in American culture.
The Team: Creative direction on set and in post were mine. A creative services director managed sponsorship opportunities. A graphics team rendered the digital environments that brought the bare studio stage to life.
The Outcome: Four seasons of content. Sponsorships galore: Cheetos, Chevrolet, LG Electronics, and more. Not because the content sold spots, but because it had a point of view.
Movies for America · Sizzle Reel
Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary Edition
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Sponsored by Cheetos
The Mummy Returns
Sponsored by Chevrolet
Before Movies for America, the network had a flagship lineup of premium dramas: Outsiders, Salem, and Underground. Working within a collaborative team, the goal was to support the full 360 campaign of each series: season launches, behind-the-scenes featurettes, series finales, and episodic promos built for broadcast and social. The work that opened every door that followed.
Outsiders: Season 2 Premiere Trailer
Salem Season 3: Mind Over Matter
Underground Season 2: Review Spot
Outsiders: The Story of America
Salem: Set Secrets - Makeup Effects
Underground: John Legend as Frederick Douglass
The Elevate Prize Foundation
Make good famous.
The Elevate Prize Foundation finds, funds, and films people quietly solving the world's hardest problems, in health, education, climate, and human rights.
The Challenge: Three subjects on three continents working on three completely unrelated problems. Tell their stories. Make them feel like they belong to the same body of work.
The Strategy: Treat each story on its own terms. Different tone, different rhythm, different visual language. Then build a thread strong enough to hold them together as a single body of work.
The Role: Big Door Studios was the agency of record. I was brought on as Senior Creative Producer to lead the work from concept through delivery. Wrote the scripts. Vetted and hired the editors. Supervised cuts. Gave notes. Sat on agency-client calls. The title was Senior Creative Producer. The role was creative director.
Armman · India
Brilliant Detroit · USA
Clean Start Africa
Discovery+ | Storm Studios LA
Called in for the launch.
The Moment: Discovery+ arrived in 2021 as one of the most anticipated streaming launches of the COVID era. A massive rollout. Hundreds of promos. Dozens of production companies across the globe. The launch tagline: Stream What You Love.
The Work: Storm Studios LA was one of the agencies brought in. My contribution: three polished spots, high-profile and high-visibility, each one a distinct window into what Discovery+ was promising its audience. Three spots, three briefs, three tones.
The Outcome: Commercial craft at scale, delivered on deadline, as part of one of the largest streaming launches of the decade.
I Am Discovery+
Do the Math
Bobby & Giada in Italy
Alpaca By Design
Small business. Big story.
The Challenge: A small clothing label built on alpaca fiber, an ancient material with a story stretching from the highlands of Peru to small-town America. Communicate versatility, lifestyle, and comfort across social and web. Make a niche product feel essential.
The Strategy: Three videos, three points of entry. A brand film positioned as a discovery. A traditional marketing spot grounded in lifestyle. A mixed-media piece rooted in influencer culture. Each one a different door into the same story.
The Outcome: Marketing films that don't sell product. They make viewers feel something, then look up where to find it.
ABD · Lifestyle
ABD · Social · “The Influencer”
ABD · Brand Film
AAA Game Trailers
Two decades of editorial craft. Three AAA studios, all in-house: Naughty Dog on Uncharted 3 and The Last of Us, EA / Visceral on Battlefield Hardline, and now Sony Bend Studio.
Earlier still, the foundational years at Hammer Creative in Hollywood, cutting trailers for some of the most iconic franchises in PlayStation history.
Battlefield Hardline: Launch Trailer
EA / Visceral Games
The Last of Us · Multiplayer Factions Trailer
Naughty Dog
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception · Launch Trailer
Naughty Dog
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception · E3 Announce Trailer
Naughty Dog
God of War: Launch Trailer
Hammer Creative
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2: Reveal Trailer
Hammer Creative
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Hammer Creative
TV Trailers · Network Promos
A freelance year between Naughty Dog assignments. Television promo work for ABC Entertainment Marketing. Cuts for Once Upon a Time, Revenge, and other primetime hits.
The standout: a TV spot for Pixar's first television special, Toy Story of Terror, which won the ProMax Award for Best Family Trailer.
Once Upon a Time
ABC Entertainment Marketing
Revenge
ABC Entertainment Marketing
Toy Story of Terror
ProMax Award · Best Family Trailer