ROLES: Mascot Consultant, 6 mascots characters:
Pink Bunny
Danny Donkey
Tammy Turtle
Sushi
The Matchstick
Sumo Wrestler
STORY:
While working as a mascot on Nike commercial, Director of Photography Kris Kachikas and I were talking sports and life in between takes. He took interest in my mascot background and wanted to know more about my methods and way of performing. He started talking about a project he was working on that involved mascots and I asked him ‘How can I help?”
Over a couple weeks, he was able to tell me he was working on Christopher Guest’s newest Mocumentary. Producer Karen Murphy called me one day to say Christopher Guest would like to speak with me. So I drove down to Los Angeles from San Francisco and met him the next day.
Mr. Guest and I spoke for a good 2 hours about my mascot career, what I thought makes a great mascot, and how I go about finding humor while in a 40 pound sweaty duck costume.
I went on my way, until I received a phone call on an October Monday morning. “Mikey, we’d like you to be a part of the the movie. We start filming Wednesday.”
I drove down to LA the next morning as the Mascot Consultant to ‘Mascots,’ where I’d work with actors wearing the mascot costumes, assist on the performance of mascots throughout the film, and assist choreographers Ryan Heffington and Denna Thomsen on the final Mascot performances. Working closely with the acrobats/dancers involved in the final mascot routines, making sure the full live performance kept true to the mascot world.
In addition to helping create this world, I was asked to play 6 mascot characters within this film:
Pink Bunny, Danny Donkey, Tammy Turtle, Sushi, The Matchstick, Sumo Wrestler
FEATURES:
ROLES: Writer, Actor
STORY: Monday, September 1st, I received a phone call at work while working at Yes To Carrots in San Francisco. ‘Mikey, ESPN wants you to guest pick on College Gameday. ‘ ‘Why the hell would they want me?’ I asked. “Oh sorry, not you, you as the Duck.”
I quickly went to work, writing my picks for the Saturday ahead, thinking of ways to visualize and animate my picks without holding up a sign for each one. I wanted to have a bit for each pick I did by using props or other forms of communication. I went to Target and Toys ‘R’ Us (RIP) and found props to work for my ideas.
I flew to Eugene, Oregon early Friday to meet Coach Corso for rehearsal. I pitched my set, we refined our script, and we were ready to go for Saturday Morning.
The College Gameday Cast and crew have dealt with my antics for years lol. They knew I wasn’t going to show up empty handed. But I didn’t full tell them exactly everything I’d be doing. Corso knew I was going to make breakfast on stage, Desmond Howard, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit didn’t.
I had two assistants to the sides of me, handing me props as I went through the selection. The key for me was watching the monitors and working against the cameras to prep my next prop or prank. Most everything went to plan, somethings didn’t, but at the end of it, I left feeling good to be the first Mascot to guestpick on College Gameday.
FEATURES:
STATS:
Trended #1 in the US on Twitter and #6 Worldwide.
I’ve always wanted to write a book, written by The Oregon Duck. This idea has been in the works since 2011. Many stories, version and iterations have been made of this but we felt this one was truly authentic and a quality fit for the Duck.
This story was co-developed and written with Teigh Bowen, another former Duck of the mascot program. We spent over a year setting up weekly writing sessions and brainstorms to develop a voice, and a story that would be marketable to fans of the Duck, but also outside the state of Oregon.
A Duck from Oregon proves that if at first you don’t succeed, try again. Sometimes ducks fly. Sometimes ducks don’t. This Duck from Oregon recounts the thrilling tale of the day he attempted to take to the skies. A story of triumph in the face of adversity, this tale is inspiring to all ages.
Book art was created by Dan Boyer, with special thanks to Head Cheer Coach Dana Lockett
Proceeds of this book will directly benefit scholarships, suit maintenance, and out-of-state travel for sporting events.
Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble
ROLE: Music Producer:
Art Direction Arman Walia
STORY: Kanye West just debuted his wild music video ‘Famous’ off his ‘The Life of Pablo’ album. Kevin Durant was also inching closer to who he thought he would sign with. We thought it’d be funny to recreate the imagery of the scene, but wanted to make it have a music video vibe. Knowing, we’re probably not going to get Kanye’s approval to use his track ‘Famous’, I recreated the instrumental using samples from Sister Nancy’s ‘Bam Bam.’
I was approached by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to compose music for their digital exhibit “Portraits of Radical Generosity.” I composed the theme that is thematically varied depending on the video and artist. I wrote numerous tracks for their series of 6 videos ranging from 4 to 8 minutes.
ROLES: Director, Producer, Actor
Co-Produced with John Horstmann and Connor Eggerman
STORY: Assistant Athletic Director of Oregon Craig Pintens called me into his office and said ‘have you seen this?’ It was Psy’s Gangnam Style. ‘Can we do this?’ he asked. I was already out the door calling my friends so we can start filming. Psy’s video was at 72,000 when we first saw it, and is now the most viewed video on Youtube. 3 days later I first saw Psy’s video, I released the Duck’s version, reaching over 8 million views on Youtube in 2 days, countless re-shares and many television appearances. Shot exclusively on the iPhone 4.
PSY reacts to Oregon Duck Parody
NACMA’s silver award for ‘Video Board Segment’
STATS: 7M+ Youtube
ROLES: Producer
Co-Producer Starr Nathan.
STORY: LeBron was headed to the Lakers, and there was nothing Cleveland could do about it. But what if there was something they could do about it…
I thought it’d be funny to welcome LeBron in LA, by sending his former coach and teammate, to sit right behind the bench and plea with him to come back to Cleveland.
Starr and I found the lookalikes, purchased 3rd row seats behind the bench, and the rest was history.
FEATURES:
ROLES: Producer
Visuals Max Frishberg and Brian Konnick
Written by CJ Toledano
Voice Acting by Chris Davies
STORY: The Cavs and Warriors are facing eachother….again….for the 3rd year in a row. WE GET IT. We’d thought it’d be funny to preview what the next 30 years would look like.
STATS: Over 10.7M video views and 908K engagements in a week.
Lofi music channels on Youtube have gotten me through tests and intense work. Chilled Cow is a channel that inspired to create a flip of the genre video, and create 1:08:24 of original lofi music that was themed towards the game of basketball.
Utilizing samples from older basketball games, WNBA, NBA, foley, I worked with Arbour, Last Memories, Fletcher Reed, and .Aebleo on creating over a full hour of original music.
https://youtu.be/QzYk-sNiVMo
Co-Produced with David Garcia
Animation by Mason London
I personally produced:
ROLES: Mikey Navarro: Director, Sound Designer, Music Producer
Visuals: Juliet Zulu
Co-Producer: Bobby Bourhis
STORY: The NBA Off-Season is as entertaining as the regular season. We all know what happened in the season. The Warriors Win, they win again, they win the championship. Same ship, different toilet.
I wanted to tell the story of what happened after they won, to the day the regular season starts.
ROLES: Director, Music Producer
Co-Directed with Vince Chang
Video Produced by Frishberg Bros.
Video Assets from Deep Sky Studios, PJ Selzer, Jerry Wang, Luis Domingo
Photo Assets from Ryan Hurst, Matt Sanoan, Brain Konnick, Elijah Wall, Hyper Three
Mixing and Mastering Ryan Sanchez
Story elements Ishaan Mira, Bobby Bourhis, Parker Baruh
STORY: Steph Curry was overlooked for talent that was much bigger and a ‘safer bet'.’ But what if he wasn’t overlooked and drafted 1st? What would the domino effect be for him, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the entire NBA?
Over 2 months, Vince and I worked under a short deadline to create something that we feel revolutionizes the way people think and create.. To create a compelling and truthful story, we researched the draft and brainstormed all the consequences 1 decision could make.
Knowing we had to create an ultimate alternate reality, we sought all different visuals to tell the story since we have literally no assets to build off of, except what already was there. We photoshopped, illustrated, altered sound/audio/video swapped, doctored video, whatever we could do, we did. We made as much as we could, and carved this Frankenstien into what it was.
Knowing this piece had to feel cohesive and not just a mash of different assets, we needed a strong spine. Vince and I wanted the music to carry the weight of the overall theme and emotion, which I felt was a role that I had to take on, knowing the script was changing and the emotion we were trying to evoke was something we had to get done right.
At the end, we ended up scrapping numerous scripts, high end visual assets, and complex sound splices in order to get the story correct.
ROLE: Actor
STORY: My Assistant Athletic Director at the time Joe Giansante called me while I was on Winter Break. He said, Mikey… Jimmy Fallon just called and would like for you to be on the show. ‘Say no more!’ I said.
I flew to New York for the first time, and walked into 30 Rockerfeller Plaza. Went up to the Studio 6B where I’d have a dressing room next to DJ Pauly D and Kevin Spacey. I watched a live show (we were taping after), the show wrapped, and I was waiting in my green room for Jimmy. He came in, head to toe in Oregon Ducks gear ‘Mikey! Thank you so much for making it it means so much you’re here right now.’ ‘Um Absolutely Jimmy Fallon.’
He brought me to the stage of the show, where we the crew was setting up for their shot. Jimmy sat on his guest’s couches with me, and him and I talked for 2 hours about life, pursuit of happiness, and how to get to SNL. It was a bit surreal, but in the same light, it wasn’t Jimmy was everything I thought he’d be, and he gave me some life advice I still carry with me to this day.
FEATURES:
ROLES: Director, Sound Designer, Music Producer (Recreated Migos’ ‘Stirfry’)
Produced by Deep Sky Animation
STORY: I wanted to create a 3D animation that centered around Atlanta’s Julio Jones and the Migos. I wrote a script that would feature the Migos at the end, celebrating with Julio, and when Julio finally scored his first touchdown in the middle of the season, we let this rip. Not only did the animation over perform across social, Julio Jones, the entire wide receiver team of the Falcons, and Quavo commented.
Game: SHOOT YOUR SHOT!
ROLES: Game Designer
Co-Game Designer Marcus Brown
Produced by Push Start Games
Music by Brandt Cooley
STORY: Marcus Brown and I wanted to create a pop-a-shot style game that included 0 IP. We had to creatively figure out, how to create a game that is addictive, and progresses enough to keep people engaged. Marcus and I wanted to have pop culture be at the center of the game, and had to figure out creatively, how to just make this game GOOD.
Not only did create an addictive game featuring tons of references and easter eggs, we received our longest average player time of 4:07 seconds.
We’re really proud of creating a fun experience, and even got to insert ourselves as opponents. Marcus is launching T-Shirts from the cannon while I’m holding up a ‘Get Loud’ sign like I actually used to do at Golden State Warrior Home Games.
ROLES: Director, Producer, Music Producer
Co-Produced with Jerry Wang
STORY: One of my favorite mashups I’ve ever done.
Using sounds, ONLY heard at the respective stadiums, I made a song that features fan’s chants, yells, screams, and fight songs. Everything you see visually, there is audio being played from that teams’ home stadium.
ROLES: Director, Music Producer
Producer Ryan Hurst, Visual Effects Ray Rodriguez, Audio Mastering Nate Frary
STORY: During NBA All-Star weekend, I walked around Spectrum Center and recorded sounds I was hearing.
I made a beat using only sounds recorded at All-Star 2019
ROLES: Music Producer
Produced by Ryan Hurst, Visual Effects by Ray Rodriguez
STORY: The Thunder and Warriors matchup was looked forward to in 2018. We created a preview piece for FX’s Legion with the idea of incorporating mutant/unnatural super powers as our visual. The only way I heard a track sounding, was something eerie and scary. Using choirs and a vintage organ as my lead instruments, I created a piece that felt both like a beat, but a soundtrack to something bigger.
ROLES: Music Producer
Visuals produced by Ishaan Mira
STORY: Ishaan showed me this piece in anticipation for Kevin Durants return from being injured. When I saw it, I heard the soundtrack in my head, and started to write. Wanted to create a 2 act piece that contrasted eachother for the visual, but still felt the hellish/underworld vibe.
ROLES: Art Director
Co-Produced with C.J. Toledano, Illustration by John Lee
STORY: LeBron was entering in free agency… but how do enter LeBron’s perspective in all this. We all want LeBron on our team. I mean… he is greatest (Love MJ…..but).
I wanted to show the world of free agency of LeBron James from his eyes. Every team is represented somehow, and there are a few other known characters trying to pull LeBron from the Cavs… including Waldo.
ROLES: Art Director, Sound Design, Music Producer
Produced: Deep Sky Animation
STORY: When it comes to creating content for the NFL, using assets the NFL owns is a no go. How do we create, a preview piece, without using any footage, or assets that the NFL owns? We create it ourselves.
Using 3D, CGI, and Rotoscope, I was able to tell the story of how the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams got to Super Bowl LIII.
ROLES: Groot
STORY: I made a baby Groot mascot head out of cardboard for Halloween. I also play drums. I wore a baby Groot Head while playing drums.
ROLES: Director, Sound Designer, Music Producer
Visuals by Deep Sky Animation
STORY: Created a panning scene featuring all players that played on Christmas Day 2018, we wanted to hit all the main narratives of the season so far, within the theme of Christmas Morning. The more you watch, the more you’ll realize more and more easter eggs.
ROLES: Art Director
Co-Produced with Arman Walia, Illustration byRob Dobi
STORY: Were the Warriors the best team ever? Always will be a debate, but there isn’t a debate of how dominate they were against the entire league. The competition couldn’t matchup, the Warriors were too good, it was pure dominance.
