The Field
"North Yuke" is the documentary film company Lou developed to produce his own work. It's his way of seeing the world as defined by the stories in it. He has traveled extensively to film the people and places that create lasting meaning. "We are made more of stories than we are of flesh and blood," he is fond of saying.
Most often, his client-based and North Yuke itineraries have included developing countries.. "The most amazing stories are found where people are eager to share them. Sadly, that all too often is when people have struggled for their lives," says Lou. He's unafraid of rugged travel and knows how to capture the visual nouns, verbs and adverbs of any location shoot. His own brush with death has given him a boldness with peoples in crisis.
Lou has directed shoots in the safety of an urban office building as well as the remote challenges of commercial halibut boats and the Alaskan outback, 100mi north of the Arctic Circle.
If you get a message when you call that says he's out, just leave a voicemail, or text, and he'll reply as soon as he turns his phone back on.
Home Studio
When he's not on location, Lou shares his home office in Grass Valley, CA with his stick-obsessed dog, Kula. It's not very flashy, really, but he does have a private deck with a seasonal hammock. He is often visited by one or more of the family's free-ranging chickens. Lou's been known to apologize for the sound of a crowing rooster during a conference call. Oh, sure it was charming... once.
Lou handles all post-production on Adobe Creative Cloud. That means his RAID array and Mac-based edit system is semi-portable and moves, as needed.
Zoomster
When COVID reared its ugly head, Lou recalibrated and began reinventing himself, like most people in this industry. He was almost immediately tapped to help local non-profits manage their newfound outreach tool, Zoom. The entire ecosystem changed nearly overnight and "video" producers. Lou included, were quickly considered experts in teleconferencing. This opened opportunities that remain in force today.
Lou works as a consultant with several clients who want to take their meetings to the next step. One of his clients (a former employer), Fresh Air Media, includes Lou in their traveling team that provides meeting support for California Water Commission, and the Department of Water Resources. Lou also serves Fresh Air Media in their international conferences. He's worked as the international stage manager for World Vision's Triennial conferences in Tanzania, Colombia, Philippines, and Ghana.