Grant Burgess
Selected Works
“Meet Midschool”
This video showcases Midschool (now Gresham Sound Labs), a non-profit music production school I co-founded in 2019 in Gresham, Oregon, an underserved suburb of Portland. For over seven years, we have donated our time and money to offer affordable music production education to Gresham and East Portland residents. This is a documentary/fundraising video for Midschool I produced, which went on to power and a successful crowdfunding campaign. I also produce all of the social media content for the nonprofit. For more information about the school, visit midschoolgresham.com.
“Dior X Nowness - Saddle Bag”
This international collaboration between luxury fashion house Dior and digital video company NOWNESS showcases Dior’s saddle bag. Working with producers and editors in the United States and China, I scored this ad according to their specifications.
“Pop 66”
Portland photographer and educator Wes Pope commissioned this documentary about his years-long photography project. Using pinhole cameras made from soda cans, Pope photographed thousands of miles of Route 66. I directed, edited, and scored this piece. Using footage of Pope’s photography and development process, recording voiceover, and scoring the film with original music, I was able to provide Pope with a video he used to promote a book of his work.
“Midschool Grand Reopening”
To celebrate Midschool’s move to an upgraded facility, which includes access to a television studio and a wealth of multimedia equipment, I shot and edited this clip reel. Because I was also running the event, I chose to film the entire video on a smartphone camera and edit in Premiere Pro. Featuring the musical artists who performed at the event, this video celebrates a return to form for Midschool after months of restructuring.
“Food for the Buddha”
I directed, edited, and did sound design for this short documentary. The piece follows Buddhists in Portland as they prepare a sacred, weekly meal. They cook this vegetarian food to feed the temple’s worshippers, preparing much more than is necessary. The rest is given to Portland residents in need. In order to preserve the authenticity of the space and rituals, the film’s DP conducted the interviews in Mandarin. I used diegetic sound from the temple ceremony and the kitchen to compose the music and ambient sound heard throughout the piece. This piece was featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s 2017 “Oregon Lens” series.
“Access Events” (AUDIO PIECE)
In this audio piece, I explore the ways that changes to music production equipment have spurred artistic innovation and included voices and ideas from previously marginalized artists and communities. Using the equipment and techniques I discuss myself, I show that, as turntables, samplers, and digital audio workstations became more affordable, genres like hip hop and house flourished.
“At the Corner”
“At the Corner” is a short one-producer documentary that follows a homeless mother and father and their three-year-old, Gabriel. In the film, the Moser family struggles to find enough money for a motel room, and they explain the difficulties of raising a toddler on the streets while battling addiction, hunger, and a failing social welfare program. In editing, I decided to only show Gabriel speaking to camera; this drew attention away from the potentially deceptive accounts that the parents gave and focused primarily on the human experience of a homeless child. I directed, shot, and edited this piece for my Master’s program.
“An Open Tomb…an Empty Casket”
Produced in 2019, “An Open Tomb…an Empty Casket” is a collaborative instrumental hip hop album with Big Ghost LTD and my own production duo, Widowmaker. We collaborated with the anonymous Big Ghost LTD for a year to create this album. It is based on and often samples music from Italian horror/thriller movies, often dubbed “Giallo” films. I co-produced the B Side of the record and played guitar, percussion, and keys. I mixed the B Side and provided the final digital master for the entire record. It was released on 180g vinyl in 2020, cassette in 2021, and minidisc in 2022.