CREATIVE PRODUCTION / 02
STARZ: FROM PROMOTION TO PARTICIPATION
Transforming STARZ’s social presence from subscription-first marketing into a fan-first entertainment destination designed around how audiences actually engage with entertainment on social.
2024–2026 · LEAD PROJECT MANAGER / CREATIVE PRODUCER
THE BRIEF
BUILD FOR THE FEED.
STARZ had premium programming and an established audience, but its social channels had become heavily promotional—built around branding, subscription messaging, and selling the service rather than entertaining the people already following it.
The opportunity was to transform those channels into fan-first entertainment destinations: less overt marketing, more personality, more cultural relevance, and more reasons for audiences to engage with the shows, movies, talent, and moments they already cared about.
40–50
CREATIVE DELIVERABLES / MONTH
3
TIKTOK · INSTAGRAM · FACEBOOK
$40K
MONTHLY CREATIVE-PRODUCTION BUDGET
MY ROLE
TURNING SOCIAL STRATEGY INTO CREATIVE AT SCALE.
As Lead Project Manager / Creative Producer, I worked between the STARZ client, DMM’s Social Media team, and our multidisciplinary creative team to turn social strategy into executable creative.
I owned production planning, creative workbacks, budget management, briefing workflows, and creative-team execution while reviewing work before client presentation. For higher-lift creative, I stepped directly into Creative Producer responsibilities—shaping narratives, writing copy and VO, sourcing footage, music and SFX, developing creative treatments, and providing editorial direction.
PRODUCTION PLANNING · CREATIVE PRODUCING · EDITORIAL DIRECTION · ASSET + MUSIC SOURCING · DESIGN COLLABORATION · CREATIVE QC
CREATIVE APPROACH
MAKE THE BRAND DISAPPEAR. LET THE ENTERTAINMENT LEAD.
Make people want to engage with the content before they realize it’s coming from a brand.
We moved away from heavy branding, end cards, hard subscription messaging, and traditional promotional creative in favor of content designed to feel native to the feed.
That meant combining polished video, motion, and design with intentionally lo-fi social content—clips, memes, mixed-media carousels, trending audio, cultural moments, and platform-native formats.
Programming priorities helped determine WHAT we featured.
Social behavior helped determine HOW we featured it.
PRODUCTION SYSTEM
PLAN AHEAD SO THE CREATIVE CAN MOVE FAST.
At launch, the team was simultaneously ingesting dozens of film and television properties, developing a new content strategy, and producing against an immediate publishing calendar. In some cases, creative was being completed the same day it was scheduled to go live.
That left almost no room for spontaneity.
Build the planned content a month ahead so the team has room to react today.
01 — ALIGN
Next month’s programming priorities
02 — INGEST
Assets delivered and QC’d early
03 — APPROVE
Content plan locked by the 15th
04 — BRIEF
High-lift creative prioritized first
05 — BANK
Approved flexible content ahead of schedule
SAME-DAY DELIVERY → ONE MONTH AHEAD
By March 2024, the team was operating approximately one full month ahead—creating room to jump on trends and cultural moments without disrupting planned production.
THE WORK
ONE SOCIAL-FIRST PHILOSOPHY. DIFFERENT WAYS INTO THE FEED.
There wasn’t one formula for making STARZ social-first. Each title, audience, and cultural moment required finding its own way into the feed.
ENTERTAINMENT FIRST. MARKETING SECOND.
01 / STARZ ORIGINALS
BUILDING ON FANDOM.
Rather than forcing every STARZ Original through the same marketing formula, we looked for the social behavior, cultural conversation, fandom, or format that gave each property a natural reason to enter the feed.
TREND-LED STORYTELLING
BMF — SERIES EXPLAINER
A trending explainer format became a fast-moving recap of three seasons—re-engaging existing fans while giving new audiences an easy entry point ahead of Season 4.
MY CONTRIBUTION:
VO + ON-SCREEN COPY · VOICEOVER PRODUCTION · MUSIC SOURCING · NARRATIVE + EDITORIAL DIRECTION
CULTURAL MOMENT
RAISING KANAN / POWER / P-VALLEY — BLACK FASHION
Connecting STARZ’s Black talent and 90s-inspired fashion to the Met Gala conversation through trending fashion-fancam audio.
MY CONTRIBUTION:
FOOTAGE + TIMECODES · TRENDING AUDIO SOURCING
TREND AS STORYTELLING
THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR — SUBTLE FORESHADOWING
Turning a social trend into a spoiler-free launch teaser—calm character introductions interrupted by flashes of the chaos ahead.
MY CONTRIBUTION:
FOOTAGE SOURCING · TREND TRANSLATION · EDITOR BRIEFING
PREMIUM REIMAGINATION
OUTLANDER — HORROR MOVIE
What if one of STARZ’s most beloved dramas were a horror movie? Dark, tense, and atmospheric moments sourced across eight seasons were reshaped into an entirely new genre narrative—with a social-first hook inviting fans into the idea.
MY CONTRIBUTION:
FOOTAGE + TIMECODES · MUSIC + SFX SOURCING · NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT · EDITORIAL DIRECTION
SEASONAL DISRUPTION
POWER — HO HO HOLY SHI*
Turning a brutal Power sequence into an intentionally absurd Christmas post through rotoscoping, compositing, and motion design.
MY CONTRIBUTION:
PRODUCTION PLANNING · ASSET SOURCING · MUSIC SOURCING
CULTURAL OPPORTUNISM
PARTY DOWN — YOUR OUTIE
Using Adam Scott to give STARZ an authentic entry point into the Severance “Your Outie” phenomenon—and turn a current cultural moment into Party Down discovery.
MY CONTRIBUTION:
VOICEOVER PRODUCTION · TREND TRANSLATION · EDITOR BRIEFING
02 / PREMIUM FILMS
FIND A NEW WAY INTO A MOVIE PEOPLE ALREADY KNOW.
Audiences already knew the titles, talent, characters, and iconic moments. Our job was to find a fresh social entry point—and give people another reason to engage with familiar entertainment on STARZ.
FAST X VIDEO
TALENT AS ENTERTAINMENT
FAST X — JASON MOMOA TOP 10
MY CONTRIBUTION:
EDITORIAL SEQUENCING · GRAPHIC-TREATMENT DEVELOPMENT
BILL SKARSGÅRD FAN CAM VIDEO
TALENT AS CONNECTION
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 + THE CROW
MY CONTRIBUTION:
NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT · EDITORIAL / AUDIO DIRECTION
MICHAEL SING-ALONG VIDEO
DESIGN AS PARTICIPATION
MICHAEL — SING-ALONG
MY CONTRIBUTION:
CREATIVE TREATMENT DEVELOPMENT · DESIGN COLLABORATION
SAM WILSON SUPERCUT VIDEO
CHARACTER AS FANDOM
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
MY CONTRIBUTION:
FOOTAGE + TIMECODES · MUSIC SOURCING
CLIENT RESPONSE
FROM FRICTION TO TRUST.
Early in the engagement, compressed timelines and multiple rounds of review created friction on both sides. As the production system stabilized and the creative began landing, the relationship changed.
First-round approvals became more common. The team gained greater freedom to experiment. STARZ trusted us to move faster and bring proactive creative opportunities forward.
6 MONTHS → +18 MONTHS → THROUGH 2027
Initial engagement → First extension → Second extension approved September 2026
The production model I developed remains in place today, supporting the team that inherited the account after my departure.
TAKEAWAY
STRUCTURE CREATES ROOM FOR SPONTANEITY.
Great creative production isn’t only about making great individual pieces. It’s about creating the conditions that allow creative teams to consistently make great work.
Planning a month ahead didn’t make the work less spontaneous. It created the freedom to respond to trends, experiment with formats, and focus creative energy where it mattered.
Give talented people the clarity and structure they need—then create enough space for them to surprise you.
DEVIN DEARTH
Creative Operations & Production Leader