On episode 172, I sit down with my friend Mark Harper — Air Force veteran, executive producer, and founder of GigLine Media — to unpack how a group of military storytellers pulled off one of the most ambitious PSA campaigns the VA has ever attempted. Mark’s journey runs from combat camera documenting the wars in Iraq and Africa to helping build We Are The Mighty into one of the most influential online media platforms for veterans before launching his own advertising agency.
In this conversation, we dig into the real mechanics of representation in media — why veteran stories should be written, produced, and directed by the people who actually lived them — and how that philosophy shaped the VA’s bold “Face Your Dragon” campaign.
Mark and I break down how he partnered with director Ryan Curtis, producer Chase Milsap, and star Rudy Reyes to build a piece of storytelling that’s unapologetically cinematic, deeply creative, and unmistakably direct. We talk about the risks of pitching a VFX dragon for a government campaign, the realities of producing high-end visual effects on a shoestring budget, and why veterans working as writers, producers, and creators matters more than ever.
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