do you have what it takes?
A Documentary Film About the U.S. Army Reserve's Best Squad Competition
Director’s note
About the Film
Best Squad is a military documentary chronicling the U.S. Army Reserve's Best Squad Competition at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. Over two weeks, soldiers were pushed through fitness tests, marksmanship events, ruck marches, and leadership challenges designed to test their limits.
This project was produced as officer in charge of the public affairs team and reflects my approach to documentary storytelling—finding the human moments inside demanding environments.
It's a film about endurance and the small, human moments inside something grueling — the ones that usually go unnoticed.
Director's Note
I walked into this assignment planning to shoot stills. Photography was my first visual language, and I assumed it's what I'd lean on. But the project needed me on motion and in the edit, so I handed the photography to people I trusted and committed fully to film — harder than I expected, and exactly where the growth was.
A week of constant shooting pushed me somewhere new. I worked almost entirely on two lenses, the Sigma 28–45mm and the 135mm f/1.4, and fell for the compression and fall-off of the longer glass — building sequences in a way I never had before.
My favorite frames aren't the action at all. After the gas chamber, soldiers rinsed their faces in cold water, and I shot it tight: hands, water, a face, the sound right up close. Something so simple it became cinema. That's the whole thing for me — seeing the moments most people overlook.
