About Us
PRESS & AWARDS
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‘Better This World’ wins the best documentary award from the Writers Guild of America.
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‘Better This World’ collects the best documentary award at the 2011 IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards.
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Brian Stelter profiles ‘Better This World’ in the New York Times in anticipation of it’s broadcast television premiere on PBS.
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The Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday reviews ‘Better This World‘ prior to it’s screening at the 2011 Silverdocs Film Fest.
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‘Better This World‘ wins big at the 2011 San Francisco International Film Festival.
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‘Better This World’ wins Best Documentary at the 2011 Sarasota Film Festival.
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Great review from our SXSW premiere by Robert Koehler in Variety
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The Austin American-Statesman profiles “Better This World” prior to it’s SXSW World Premiere.
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Picturebox-produced short film wins Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival.
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Markee Magazine profiles Picturebox in a feature about the thriving Texas production scene.
Soup to nuts, beginning to end, fade in to fade out. The team at Picturebox works with you to take the raw materials of every project and mold them into engaging and entertaining content. Offering skill and craftsmanship honed from years of experience, we’ll bring our award-winning flexibility, creativity, and dependability to your production.David Layton
David is an Austin-based filmmaker with a passion for cinematography and documentary film. He began his career as a newspaper reporter, but honed his technical skills working as a camera operator, focus puller and gaffer on notable documentary features such as The Unforeseen, Be Here to Love Me, The Devil and Daniel Johnson, You’re Gonna Miss Me, Nuclear Family, Troop 1500, and Letter From Waco, to name just a few. David produced and directed his first documentary feature, The Hot Shoe, in 2004. That film, about professional blackjack card counters, was broadcast in the U.S. and Europe. Since then, David has shot for several high-profile documentary TV series and was Director of Photography for the third season of the award-winning PBS documentary program, Downtown. He has photographed numerous political ads, including an award-winning national spot for the Democratic National Committee and several ads for Presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008. In 2010, David traveled to Haiti to photograph the acclaimed short film, Espwa, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2011, David was Co-Producer and Director of Photography on the award-winning feature Better This World. He is currently working on several feature and short documentary projects as director, producer and/or cinematographer.
Mike Nicholson
Mike is an award-winning filmmaker and graphic artist whose works have screened at festivals around the world and have been broadcast nationally on PBS. In 2011, he produced the critically acclaimed feature documentary Better This World (POV, 2011) which premiered at SXSW and was named “Best Documentary” at the Gotham Independent FIlm Awards, the San Francisco International Film Fest, and the Sarasota FIlm Festival. It also received the Creative Recognition Award by the International Documentary Association and was awarded “Best Documentary Screenplay” by the Writer’s Guild of America. It had its nationwide broadcast premiere on POV and was nominated for three Emmy Awards, including Best Documentary. In 2009, Mike co-produced and served as director of photography on the feature doc Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah (Abraxas, 2009), a revealing look at the life of a Texas songwriter and folk hero. The film has screened throughout Europe and America.
At Picturebox, Mike has spent over a decade producing short films and advocacy pieces. Highlights include campaign ads for Obama for America in both 2008 and 2012, short docs for The Nature Conservancy and Planned Parenthood, and the feature documentary Teaching Austin (AFF, 2007) which he also directed. As a graphic designer, Mike has created titles and graphics for numerous films, including the feature documentaries After Tiller (Oscilliscope, 2013), A Fragile Trust (ITVS, 2013) and Say Hello to Mr. Go: An Elegy for South Louisiana (ITVS, 2013).
At Picturebox, Mike has spent over a decade producing short films and advocacy pieces. Highlights include campaign ads for Obama for America in both 2008 and 2012, short docs for The Nature Conservancy and Planned Parenthood, and the feature documentary Teaching Austin (AFF, 2007) which he also directed. As a graphic designer, Mike has created titles and graphics for numerous films, including the feature documentaries After Tiller (Oscilliscope, 2013), A Fragile Trust (ITVS, 2013) and Say Hello to Mr. Go: An Elegy for South Louisiana (ITVS, 2013).
J. Kevin Smith
A producer, director, and editor with 14 years experience in the film and video industry, J. Kevin Smith has been a partner at Picturebox for over 10 years. He has produced projects for clients that include Dell Computer, Apple, Obama for America, Advanced Micro Devices, GSD&M, Seton Hospitals, Alcon, and the Office of the Attorney General’s Office of Texas. Kevin has also co-produced and edited the feature films In Flagrante and One Eye Peeled, and was an associate producer on the award winning 2011 documentary Better This World. With partner Mike Nicholson, Kevin produced, wrote, and directed Teaching Austin, a feature documentary about the history of public education in Austin.
