Jason Rundell

Cohort 12, Master of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM)
Director of New Media and Documentary Story, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
LinkedIn Profile: Jason Rundell on LinkedIn
DWT Studios Reel: Jason Rundell DWT Studios Reel on Vimeo

To start, if I approached you at a picnic and asked what you were up and enjoying these days, how would you answer?

I run a production studio inside the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT), which sounds strange until you learn the firm is an American Law 100 media law firm with a deep First Amendment practice. Then it makes complete sense. Right now I’m finishing a feature documentary called “Badge of Honor,” about the disappearance of investigative journalism in the USA told through a specific story of police accountability reporting in Vallejo, California. We’re in late post-production and we’re targeting the festival circuit for 2027. By day I run DWT Studios, which entails managing an Enterprise Communications Network, an Over-the-Top (OTT) platform, a learning management system, and studio infrastructure we’re building out nationally across the firm’s offices. It’s a lot, but it’s the exact intersection of media, law, and storytelling I’ve been chasing throughout my career.

The theme of this newsletter is “A Day in the Life,” so we’re asking both faculty and alumni to step us through a day in their life—any day of the week you choose—starting with their morning and taking us through the sweep of the day. (Think of it as similar to the NYT “Routine” column.)

How do you start your day? What are your routines, especially ones that might fall under the big tent of communication, digital media, communities and networks?

“Morning” routine is a generous term. I live in the suburbs of Minneapolis with my wife and our three daughters, ages six, eight, and eleven. Our mornings are controlled chaos with backpacks. Once the kids are out the door, I try to carve out some stillness before the day gets loud. Coffee, an article or two, something I’m watching for research or just pleasure. The MCDM degree trained me to be a close reader of media and I’ve never shaken that habit. By the time I’m at a keyboard, I usually have a few things rattling around that will show up somewhere in the day’s work.

What does the middle of the day include? Are you at home? Out and about? How do you get around? What is the tempo like and what do you enjoy about your routine?

I have two very different kinds of days depending on where I am in the production cycle. On a home day, I might be in back-to-back calls with partners across DWT’s nine offices, reviewing edit cuts, developing production strategy, or deep in the communication ecosystem I’ve built for the firm. These are the days where I wear every hat at once and the work is largely invisible to the outside world. 

Then there are production days when I’m on location somewhere. I work most frequently out of the DWT offices in Seattle, San Francisco, LA, New York, and DC, but I’ve also filmed offsite in Chicago, Miami, Houston, Charlotte, and even in the Alaskan wilderness. On those days everything shifts; I’m on set, managing crew, directing talent, and making real-time decisions that end up on screen. The tempo is completely different, and I love both modes for different reasons. 

Filming in Alaska

What makes my situation particularly full-circle is that one of my closest collaborators at DWT,  partner Kraig Baker, was one of my instructors for my MCDM degree. We now work together regularly on productions for the DWT Studios platform. I’m also collaborating with Comm Lead instructor Rob Salkowitz now on my current documentary feature. These continued relationships say something real about the caliber of people the program attracts.

Filming with Beto ORourke and Victor Kovner

Filming with Comm Lead faculty member and DWT partner Kraig Baker

How about the latter part of the day? Out on the town? At home? What are some aspects of your day-to-day that alumni from Comm Lead might find interesting?

Because I travel so much during the week throughout the year, weekends are family time. No exceptions. We do a weekly family movie night on Saturdays, and you can often find me outside grilling or working in the yard.

On weeknights at home, once the homework is done and the house quiets down, the line between work and life blurs in the best way. I might screen a cut, catch up on news, or watch a documentary. I’ve learned (mostly the hard way) that you have to protect some hours just for watching things without taking notes.

Finally, we always ask: what’s a favorite piece of content—anything goes!—you’ve been hooked on lately you think Comm Lead alumni might enjoy? 

The series Severance on Apple TV+. I have enormous professional respect for what that show does with storytelling structure, production design, and the way it uses the mundane to build existential dread. It’s operating on multiple levels in a way that I find genuinely instructive as a filmmaker. I randomly met Adam Scott this year at SXSW while I was just walking down a hallway and I told him exactly that (Ed Note: Adam Scott stars in the show). He was gracious about it. Highly recommend the show to any Comm Lead alum who hasn’t already gone down that rabbit hole.