Jun 24

Written by: ngreditor
6/24/2008 6:22 PM 

Lifeguard to film director: Koehler films the world

Kenneth Purscell

There it was, at the bottom of his email: a little signature, a tag line which included a web page address. Such things don’t get there by accident, so I clicked on it.

At Internet speed, I was introduced to the work of Bret Koehler, native of Newman Grove. By coincidence, he happened to be in town, visiting his parents Graham and Kaye Koehler. We met at the City Café for a moment.

“I was in the ad business for fourteen years after graduating from UNL,” he says. “I was writing copy for other people to shoot.

“In the last year, two partners and I started our own production company, Deviant Factory. We work on commercials and web videos”.

It was one of those videos that had caught my eye: “Mow-Town,” a 2 ½ minute story of a small town where residents race riding mowers to the motto “Go fast. Turn left.”

“That was a fun shoot,” says Bret. “It was a typical small town, and everyone was so helpful.

“One of the hardest guys there- -the one who chain-smoked cigars and had a bottle in his hand— turned out to be a minister. When I asked him if he expected people to follow his example, he said, ‘God’s not through with me yet.’”

The same attention to people shows in Bret’s other videos on the site. “One of my favorite projects was for Nature Valley, where we got to go to a lot of different places: kayaking off Maine, climbing in Utah, skiing near Salt Lake.”

The videos have a lot of great nature footage, but they also have something more spectacular: “People interacting with nature and then talking about what they love to do.”

The company has added three directors including Eli Richbourg, who has produced a video montage of footage he has shot with screen director Joel Schumacher. “We want to get into TV development,” Bret says, “producing new content and reality shows.”

He is currently preparing to work with ESPN’s Cindy Garrison on a show for the History Channel. The plan is to highlight four or five top explorers, and so Bret will have to travel to places such as Bolivia and Honduras.

Some of his work, particularly copy he wrote, has already been available to viewers back home in Newman Grove. “The Hamburger Helper waving glove was mine,” he says. “My first write was for a Depends commercial, so I’ve kind of done it all.”

This is not bad for a young man who started as a lifeguard at the city pool. Wherever he goes, Bret keeps in touch with folks back home. He is an online subscriber to the Reporter. “It’s great to get the paper in minutes rather than in weeks.”

We look forward to seeing more of Bret Koehler’s work on TV and the web. And if you are interested in seeing what he’s done, check out the website at www.shootdeviant. com.