Cultivating community and empathy through visual storytelling

Sam Ho is a Chinese-American filmmaker whose work explores an eclectic array of subjects, from young LARPers exploring their queer identities to the generational legacy of the Cultural Revolution. What unites his seemingly disparate projects is a focus on intimate stories and an empathetic, humanist sensibility. Passionate about storytelling, his goal is to create and collaborate on narratives that reveal, unite, and inspire. 

Who Sam Helps:

• Businesses & Organizations: Creating emotionally engaging content that provides an audience with a deeper, more personal understanding of your organization.
• Individuals: Collaborating with individuals to share their experiences, perspectives, and passions.
• Universities: Building a sense of community through student-focused testimonials and experiences.
• Cities and Towns: Portraying the character of a place and community through inviting visuals.

How Sam Helps: Sam begins by asking specific questions with the goal of discerning the client’s personal identity, target audience, and emotional sensibility. He then builds a series of audiovisual references to hone in on the client’s taste. Only after fully understanding the clients needs does the production process begin. Throughout production and post-production, he actively co-creates a captivating story with the client, allowing for as much feedback as needed to tell the story in a comprehensive and timely manner. 

Engagement Tools: 

• Personal Testimonials: Facilitating personal interviews that build a strong connection with the audience.
• Immersive Visuals: Composing a visually engaging story with unique perspectives and angles, from grand landscapes via drone to intimate, close-up portraits.
• Beautiful Lighting: Shaping light to support tone and further immerse viewers.
• Tonally Resonant Audio: Subtly building tone through curated music and sound effects.

Key Clients:

• NFL Films
• Johnson & Wales University
• Green River Music Festival
• Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange

Notable Achievements: Sam’s films have been selected to festivals across the country, from the Seattle Queer Film Festival to the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. He recently completed his first feature-length film called Hero Camp, which centers around three queer teens on their paths toward self-discovery at a LARP summer camp.

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