GOOGLE

Real people.
Real moments.
Shot close.

A curated group of directors selected for a documentary instinct that sits comfortably next to UGC: lo-fi where it should feel lived-in, crafted where it counts, and built to cut alongside what real people shoot on their own phones.

ABOUT VERT

A director-led, vertical-native production studio.

VERT helps brands stay relevant, turn followers into fans, and feel human. Our bench of directors and creator-directors makes work built for the feed first: real people, real stories, produced at the speed and scale social demands.

We start with the audience a brand wants to reach and what that audience actually thinks, then build the strategy, the story and the concept, and produce content that can grow into a series. VERT was founded by Executive Producer Hope Dotson Farley, who has spent 25+ years producing for brands including Google, Meta, Nike, LG, Tinder and Target.

WHY VERT

This assignment sits squarely in the space VERT was built for.

The best version of this doesn't look like an ad. It requires finding people with a real story, earning their trust, capturing them without over-directing, and making crew footage and creator footage feel like one piece.

VERT combines documentary storytelling, social-native creative and a production system built to move between a small docu crew and the phones in people's pockets.

REAL PEOPLEDOCU + UGCSOCIAL-NATIVE SYSTEMS

THE STORY SYSTEM

01FINDReal people with a story

02EQUIPPhone-first capture + coaching

03FOLLOWSmall, light docu crew

04BLENDDocu + UGC in one edit

05BUILDCutdowns for every feed

DIRECTOR CONSIDERATIONS

MICHAEL KORTLANDER

DOCUMENTARY / REAL PEOPLE

Michael Kortlander is a Los Angeles documentary director with more than a decade of real-people storytelling, testimonials and mission-driven films. His work is built around everyday people, not performers, and he knows how to earn trust fast and stay close as a story unfolds.

He took NFL players Myles Garrett, Ben Garland and Whitney Mercilus to Tanzania for Waterboys, has documented clean water work across Uganda and Zambia, and helped lead Tinder's Put Yourself Out There around real users. For LG he guided eight creators across multiple markets as they filmed themselves, shaping individual voices into one cohesive campaign whose anthem passed five million views. He makes crew-shot and self-shot footage feel like the same film.

4 SPOTS

SEE MORE MICHAEL WORK ↗

SHEA GLOVER

ACTOR / DIRECTOR / CREATOR

Shea understands this work from every side of the camera. As an actor, director and creator, she brings empathy, performance instinct and creator fluency to the delicate job of helping people reveal something real without making them feel directed.

She also worked with our team on Meta’s We the Culture, so we know firsthand how she operates inside a creator-led, social-native storytelling system.

4 SPOTS

MARTIN SEIPEL

MUSIC / SPORT / CULTURE

Martin Seipel is a director and creative born in Buenos Aires and based in Miami. As longtime creative director for Rauw Alejandro, including the Saturno and Cosa Nuestra eras, he has shaped one of the most visually distinctive artists in Latin music.

His work lives where music, sport, brand and culture meet, with campaigns for ESPN Deportes, Red Bull, Crocs, Honda, Buchanan's and Disney. He is fluent in phone-shot capture that still feels cinematic, having shot Rauw's "Besito en la Frente" entirely on a phone as a visual poem to Puerto Rico. That is the texture this brief asks for: footage that feels found, not produced.

12 SPOTS

ESPN Deportes · El Deporte Tiene Nombre y Apellido

Rauw Alejandro · Besito en la Frente · Shot on Phone

ALEX O'BRIEN

DIRECTOR / DP

Alex O'Brien is a bilingual Mexican-American director and cinematographer, Mexico City born and SVA trained, who often shoots his own work for a look that's cinematic but agile. That is how lo-fi documentary actually gets made: a small footprint and a director behind the lens.

He moves easily across commercial, fashion, documentary and vertical scripted, and his recent vertical series have reached tens of millions of viewers. His range runs from Disney and L'Oreal Paris to Microsoft, DoorDash and Walmart, with a Gold American Advertising Award and international directing honors for his San Antonio film Corazon City. He directs and shoots in both English and Spanish, working nationally and across Latin America.

6 SPOTS

EDY RECENDEZ

SOCIAL-FIRST / CREATOR STORYTELLING

Edy Recendez is a commercial director who works where creativity meets practicality, originally from Mexico and now based in East Tennessee. From tortilla maker to filmmaker, as he puts it, he's been creating for as long as he can remember.

He comes at the work social first. His TikTok Go series puts real creators at the center and understands the rhythm, intimacy and visual language of content people choose to watch on their phones. His partners include TikTok, Bush's Beans, Regal, IndyCar, Subway, Gucci, Venmo, Arby's, House of Atlas and General Shale.

3 SPOTS

THE VERT ADVANTAGE

The footage people shoot themselves isn't the B-roll.
It's the story.

We set the visual guardrails from day one, coach real people to capture what matters, and send a small crew in only where the story deserves to go deeper, so every piece feels found rather than produced.

Real people.Real moments.Shot close.