SAY SO PICTURES
Home of director Shane C. Drake
I help companies find the human story only they can tell—and turn it into a visual campaign people can feel.
For more than two decades, I have developed and directed visual concepts for major artists, entertainment properties and brands including Ford, Google, Snickers, American Idol and The Voice. That work has received 13 MTV VMA nominations and an MTV Video of the Year win, along with two CMA Video of the Year awards, two CMT awards and an ACM award—and has been viewed billions of times.
Now, through Say So Pictures, I’m bringing that creative process directly to companies: finding the emotional idea, developing the story and visual world, and guiding it from its earliest stages through execution.
This is not social-media management or content made simply to fill a calendar. I create the story that gives those channels something worth saying.
THE STORY COMES FIRST
Most companies can explain what they do. Far fewer can make people feel why it matters.
I work with leadership and marketing teams to uncover the human story at the center of their company and translate it into a distinctive creative campaign. Depending on the opportunity, that might become a brand film, founder story, customer campaign, recruitment film, product launch or a larger creative platform that can guide future work.
The projects below are not connected by one visual style. They are connected by one process: understand the objective, find the emotional truth, build a memorable creative idea around it and carry that idea through production.
FINDING THE DEEPER HUMAN STORY
JOHN FOGERTY
“LONG AS I CAN SEE THE LIGHT”
For the release of John Fogerty’s newly recorded Legacy album, the opportunity was larger than creating another performance video. The song already carried more than fifty years of history. The challenge was to find a visual idea that made that history feel personal and immediate.
The resulting film follows a mysterious traveler who leaves ordinary people with objects connected to someone they have loved and lost. Each object unlocks a memory, transforming the song’s “light” into the emotional connection that continues guiding us home.
The concept allowed Legacy to live naturally inside the story rather than functioning as conventional product placement. Shane Drake developed the visual narrative, directed the production and edited the finished film.
THE MODEL
Uncover the deeper human meaning, build a memorable creative idea around it and carry that idea through production.
DEEPENING AN EXISTING AUDIENCE CONNECTION
PARMALEE
“TAKE MY NAME”
Fans had already begun embracing “Take My Name” as a song for proposals, weddings and first dances. The creative opportunity was to build upon that emotional connection—not merely illustrate the lyrics.
Directed by Shane Drake, the resulting film follows two people from their first meeting in middle school through adolescence, adulthood and marriage. By compressing an entire relationship into one emotional arc, the video transforms the song’s central promise into something the audience can see themselves living.
THE MODEL
Understand how an audience already connects with something, identify the larger human story inside that connection and create a film that deepens its meaning.
STORY OVER TIME
RISING STAR
Rising Star follows singer-songwriter Griffin House as he navigates the uncertain space between fame and reality—and wrestles with family, sobriety, life on the road and the question of whether he can continue making music.
The feature documentary demonstrates a different kind of creative direction: earning trust, recognizing the story inside unscripted life and sustaining an emotional narrative over time.
Directed by Shane Drake. Currently streaming on Tubi.
SHANE DRAKE PRESENTS: BEFORE THE WORLD PAUSED
In 2019, Shane followed five artists across five very different musical worlds: The Midnight, Tessa Violet, Charley Crockett, Jez Dior and Greg Laswell.
Filmed entirely on an iPhone as the artists traveled through Amsterdam, London, New York, Mexico, Switzerland and the American West, the series captures the unfiltered humanity of touring life immediately before the world changed.
The project demonstrates that powerful storytelling does not begin with the size of the camera or production. It begins with access, curiosity and the ability to recognize the human moment while it is happening.
HOW I WORK
STORY & CAMPAIGN DIRECTION
The work begins upstream, before anyone schedules a shoot or fills a content calendar.
Together, we identify the objective, audience and human story; develop the central campaign idea; establish the emotional and visual language; and create the treatments, scripts and creative direction needed to bring it to life.
This can begin with a focused Campaign Story Intensive or continue through an ongoing Consulting Creative Director engagement.
SAY SO PICTURES PRODUCTION
Creative direction determines what should be made and why.
When the resulting campaign requires physical production, Say So Pictures can prepare a separate production scope and budget. Depending on the project, that may include directing, producing, crew, equipment, casting, locations, photography, editing and post-production.
Production is proposed and approved separately.
YOUR MARKETING PARTNERS
I work alongside a company’s leadership, marketing team, agency and existing creative partners.
Social-media management, posting calendars, media buying, SEO, community management and channel analytics remain with the company or its marketing partners. My role is to give those teams a clearer story, stronger creative idea and more meaningful material to carry.