Brad Feeser
I’m Brad Feeser, an Austin-based director, filmmaker, and creative focused on character-driven storytelling, documentary work, branded content, music, and emerging creative tools.
My work has taken me from intimate documentary environments and live music performances to national brands, agencies, cultural organizations, artists, and experimental AI-assisted projects.
At the center of all of it is the same thing: finding the most interesting way to tell the story.
Director / Filmmaker / Creative
Austin, Texas
Specialties: Documentary • Branded Content • Music • Creative Development • Editing • AI-Assisted Production • Visual Storytelling
On location with ProjectSchoolhouse.org
Project: A long walk — Short film
Location: Nicaragua
Photo by: J. Barton Mitchell
A Hearty letter for you
To anyone who has gone deep in their world and started wondering what's just outside it...
I don’t have the answers. After more than fifteen years, I’m still more excited by the questions.
I keep coming back to this: finding new ways to tell a story is the most interesting creative problem I know. The platform, the medium, the canvas. What happens when you take the same human truth and put it somewhere unexpected?
Over the years, I’ve chased it into some unexpected places.
Documentary film, Branded campaigns, A backpack, A handle, A puppet, Podcasting, Photography, Gaussian Splats, Generative AI, & Illustration
Not because I couldn’t commit to one thing, but because the question kept leading me somewhere new.
Video remains at the core of my work. It’s how I’ve built a business, earned the trust of clients, and spent most of my creative life. But it’s only one container, and I’ve never been able to convince myself it’s the only one worth exploring.
Sometimes the story is obvious and fed to audiences. Other times, story is found in a product that exudes ideas only those who use it will ever understand.
That second kind of story is the one that keeps me up at night. The one that lives quietly in an object, a space, or the texture of an experience, revealing itself only to those who pay attention. I believe it’s some of the most powerful and underexplored storytelling happening today.
As a freelancer, though, you often experiment in a vacuum. You make something, learn from the response, then return to your desk alone, without anyone exploring the same questions from another direction.
That’s what this is about. I’ve been asking where storytelling is not only interesting, but genuinely consequential. I keep coming back to six worlds:
THE WORLDS I KEEP THINKING ABOUT
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Documentary & long-form narrative
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Branded & commercial storytelling
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Nonprofit & social impact
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AI & emerging media
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Civic & public affairs
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Immersive & IRL experience
What strikes me is how rarely these worlds talk to one another. Documentary filmmakers, brand strategists, civic communicators, and experience designers are often solving similar problems in isolation.
I want to join those conversations, not as an expert with answers, but as someone with instincts across several worlds and a genuine desire to learn from those who have gone deeper in their own.
If your storytelling has hit a ceiling because you’re missing a perspective from outside your field, this letter is for you. For documentary projects, branded films, creative direction, or collaborations, tell me what you’re working on.
With genuine curiosity,
Brad
Founder, Hearty Films