travis.

The Angle Engine

Same product.Sharper angle.Proven winner.

Most brands are trapped in the Content Treadmill. You shoot 10 videos, 9 bomb, 1 breaks even, and next week you guess all over again. Stop starting with a camera.
Start with a tension.

Anyone can generate 50 variants. Knowing which 3 are worth testing is the part nobody automates.

If you're just looking for an editor to slap captions on raw footage, this isn't for you. But for DTC brands spending at least $1k+/day who need a proven angle, I build the concepts myself, then read the test and tell you why it won.

Book a Creative Audit View work
15-min Zoom. No pitch. Just angle teardowns.

A buyer problem is the opening scene.

Product filmConcept teasers, 16:9
  • Wipeout
  • Deeptime
  • Monarc Bike

Every angle
ships with its read.

A high-converting ad isn't just a video. It's a hypothesis. You need a sharp angle to hook them, a flawless cut to hold them, and the hard data to prove it worked.

  1. The angle

    The buyer tension worth testing, from their own words.

  2. The cut

    Product film, UGC or hook. Made by me, end to end.

  3. The read

    Which angle won, why, and what to make next.

Physical product

Direct response video ads

The brief is a conversion number, not a mood. Structure and offer carry the cut; a UGC-style hook earns the first second, then price, proof and close do the rest.

Uvola / supplements

The pitch livesin the cabinet.

Not in the product. A shelf already crowded with bottles nobody finished, so the hook isn't "try this." It's recognition: you own this exact cabinet. Shipped as a set, because a market this crowded needs more than one cut to test against: the same angle in English and Spanish, plus a written note on which line is doing the work and why, so the next version isn't guesswork.

01Recognition hook, UGC-style: no presenter selling
02Two languages off one angle, not a translation job
03A creative note, so the test can be repeated
Cut
30s / English
Open PDF ↗
Creative note / page 1
On demand

Avatar-led DR cut / Uvola

The case above is mine end to end: angle, script, output. This is the other way to work with me. The brand supplied script and footage; the avatar lip-sync, the motion, the transitions and the cut are mine. Avatar-led cuts are also where volume comes from, cheap enough to carry a test so twelve hooks a month is possible, and the winner gets re-shot with a real founder.

2:16 / six problem-solution beats, price anchor, full offer close

Bloom & Bond / DTC hair supplements

One offer.Two visual engines.

A pure format test to isolate what drives the click. When the core offer is locked, you don't guess, you split the production constraints. Hook 1 strips away video entirely, relying on rapid-fire image overlays to force comprehension. Hook 3 swings the opposite way: pure B-roll and motion, letting the product do the talking. Two opposing visual engines, built to find the cheapest CPA.

01Hook 1: Image overlays only, rapid information pacing
02Hook 3: B-roll only, visual desire and ambient motion
Hook 1
Hook 3

Brand film

The brief is a feeling the category hasn't claimed yet. Product appears, but a character or a world carries the piece, and the cut earns its ending instead of announcing it.

Deeptime / cold plunge chiller

Recognition,then the reversal.

The Unicorn Chiller already rolls on rear casters with a thick orange arch handle, the same posture as luggage crossing an airport concourse. The concept leans into that resemblance instead of avoiding it: golden-hour backlight sells the reveal as a neighbor back from a trip, right up until his own deadpan line turns the joke back onto the product. What follows earns the laugh: the same orange arch hooks straight over a bathtub rim, no plumber, no hose kit, cold water circulating inside a minute.

01The misdirection built from the product's real geometry, not a stand-in
02Locked reference plates carry the product through every cut, no mid-scene morph
Demo
18 seconds / Short product film, preview cut in production
View full storyboard, 6 panels ↗

Wipeout / tea that moves you

The crack,before the wave.

Wipeout's brand world is waves, wheels and slopes, with the can as the thing that connects all three, not a beverage being pushed at the viewer. This is that device on its own: a thumb on the tab, the stillness breaking, the liquid becoming the transition into the first world. Proof of concept for a 45-second hero; the full convergence of all three worlds, and all three cans, is still in production.

01A macro liquid transition carries the cut, not an edit
02Can and label locked to the real product art, nothing redesigned
Demo
9 seconds / Opening beat, pilot cut in production
View full 45s hero storyboard, 10 panels ↗

Monarc Bikes / the roads, the seasons

The loophe finally left.

A man loses his own time circling the same block for parking, until he notices kids gliding past on e-bikes, unhurried, then a storefront he's never clocked before. This is that first act on its own: the loop, the notice, the walk out with the bike. The full piece carries that same bike through four years and two riders, keyed to Monarc's 5-year warranty; still in production.

01Bespoke AI environments built for the scene, not generic stock b-roll
02No dialogue, no score: the cut does the telling
Demo
29 seconds / First-act preview, full branding film in production
View full storyboard, page 1 ↗ page 2 ↗

Visual / studio

The brief is the object itself: material, light and texture doing the selling, with no story or character to carry it.

Studio

Theillon

The applicator is shaped like a syringe, and the brand's own instructions spend real effort making sure you don't mistake it for one. The whole film's job is disambiguation before persuasion: massage, wait, seal. A topical routine, not an injection. You can't sell a system nobody understands.

18s / skincare, studio

Product film

JF Fantasy Jewelry

JF's Spring Night Garden Stroll has too much story for a catalogue spin. The film starts close enough to read the twin serpents, flowers and Rainbow Moonstone, then lets those details open into a rain-dark garden. It returns to the ring in clean light at the end. The atmosphere earns attention; the final product view keeps the fantasy tied to the piece.

24s / jewelry, cinematic product film

Ancaria

A skincare brand built in partnership, not a spec concept and not a client brief. Packaging, material and light get decided the same way an angle does: pick the one true thing, then remove everything that competes with it.

Ancaria acne treatment serum in dark blue glass with a brushed silver lid, lit on a stone plinth
Ancaria cream jar with a concentric machined silver lid on clear glass
Ancaria bottle material study in glass, brass and black gloss

Packaging & product direction / brand partnership

App / Software

App consumer

The buyer and the user are the same person, scrolling on their own time. No procurement process, just a reason to stop and a reason to trust. Consideration collapses into seconds, and the whole job is the first three.

HAVIT / metabolic health app

The constraintbecame the concept.

HAVIT replied to a cold pitch and confirmed the angle: day 1 vs. day 30, tracked with real in-app data. Then set a boundary: no exaggerated before/after on the body. Their team came out of JUVIS and Noom, so the caution was clinical instinct, not fear of a rule. Two treatments off that same line: TikTok-native for the feed, then a slower ritual cut once there was a real brief to build from.

01TikTok organic: recognition over demonstration
02The Ritual: same morning routine, day 1 vs. day 30, zero body claims
33 seconds / TikTok organic
18 seconds / The Ritual

Software

The person who watches rarely signs. Each cut does one job: make the problem legible, or make the mechanism believable. Never both.

Cranston / accounting AI

One product.Two useful truths.

The explainer sells capacity, not a new hire. Henderson's 2025 return: 14 source documents, 12 minutes 40 seconds, signed off before the reviewer's coffee goes cold. Every figure links back to its source document, so the demonstration is the ad. For the feed, the hook opens on the week's most expensive hour: the one spent retyping what the software could have read.

01Capacity angle for a decision-maker
02Cost angle for a scrolling peer
38 seconds / Explainer
12 seconds / Social hook

Wassist / inbound commerce

The sales associatethat waits to be invited.

Every inbound DM is a lead someone still answers by hand. The reframe: not a chatbot bolted onto checkout, but the associate that was always supposed to be there, the one who never chases and only waits to be let in.

01Assistant framing, not automation framing
02Customer-initiated, not an outbound push
24 seconds / Landscape explainer
ABM concept

Filed

The bet isn't "AI does your taxes." It's that the review process shouldn't live in two people's heads. Every figure traces to its source, and the card ends on Filed's own published number: 94% still needs professional review. Not hiding the limit. Using it as the trust signal.

20s / personalized B2B

Explainer

Structured AI

Construction QA, sold on the cost of finding the defect after the concrete has set. The software arrives as relief, not as the subject.

36s / high-stakes B2B

Proof.

Result

Scale Agency / founder-led Instagram system

The account was stuck in a flop loop. The reels before this one were generic, and most stalled under 10K views.

This was the first reel built on a deliberate angle: a raw personal piece anchored in a tension expat founders rarely hear said honestly, peace of mind over luxury flexing. I wrote the idea and the script. No paid boost, no sales pitch.

10K in 24 hours. 63.1K to date.

The first intentional reel to break the loop. One data point, but the right kind: a real tension, with no paid push behind it.

Instagram reel: Why Expats Love Living in the UAE showing 63.1K views
63.1Kviews (earlier reels mostly under 10K)
View raw script ↗ Watch live reel ↗
"Very good points. Very well thought of. I like some of the ideas you shared… it provides more clarity."
Nido / Founder, Scale Agency Voice note, edited for length
Client

Scale Agency / lead-magnet VSL and funnel

The part worth reading is the no branch: what happens to a lead who does not book is designed, not left to decay. Any client results quoted inside the script are Scale Agency's own claims, not mine.

Funnel flow diagram
Three content sources into one lead magnet. Every exit routes somewhere.
Read script ↗
Spec

The Clarity Game

One avatar, researched properly. Then three cold-traffic Meta ads and a three-email sequence built from that research. Built on a simulated startup-coaching business.

Research sheet ↗ Meta ads ↗ Email sequence ↗
Spec

1MD Nutrition / advertorial

Direct-response advertorial for a brain-health supplement, including headline test sets, body copy and cited research support.

Read work ↗

How we work together.

Audit and research snapshot

#1. The Angle

We don't guess. I audit your existing ads and read what your buyers actually say to isolate the exact tension that stops the scroll. We lock a proven angle before anyone touches a camera.

Creative brief and script snapshot

#2. The Brief

No naked hooks. I write the full treatment and build the 9:16 or 16:9 architecture. Every frame, sound design, and text overlay is mapped out to earn the next second of attention.

Video production and editing timeline

#3. The Cut

End-to-end production. I build the cut and pass it through my own strict "Too AI" quality gate and a blind taste check. You get a final asset built natively for the feed, ready to run.

Performance read and metrics snapshot

#4. The Read

Making the video is just the start. Once your test has run in your ad account, I read the metrics and tell you which angle won, why, and what we build next.

What I need: Clear photos of the product (packshots from your site are fine) and your logo and label files, plus read access to your ad account once a test is live.

What I don't do: Run your bidding, budgets or targeting.

Book a Creative Audit Delivered in 5–7 working days. Product-accurate or it's free.

Clear doubts.

No shipping and no raw footage. I need clear photos of the product (packshots from your site are fine) and your logo and label files, and I lock them as the reference before I build anything. Everything around the product, the scenes, b-roll and hooks, I build. If you already have UGC or footage, I can cut from that too.

DTC is my primary lane, but I also build for consumer apps. The mechanics of human attention are the same. For apps, physical b-roll gives way to UI animation and pacing, but the method stays identical: start with a tension, then build a tight narrative.

Enough for each angle to show a clear difference against your current ads. That depends on your account's usual cost per result, so we set the number together before you launch. You run the budget and the campaign in your own ad account; I read what it produces and tell you what won.

Portrait of Le Dinh Tai, known as Travis

Le Dinh Tai.
Travis, in most rooms.

I came to creative from the revenue side, not from film. Every job before this one was some version of the same question: why did that person buy, and why did the next one walk.

2023–24

Selling in the DMs

B2B furniture sales, run through Facebook groups and direct messages. Objections arrive in writing, in real time, with no landing page to hide behind. This is where the instinct for what a buyer actually resists came from.

2 years

Direct-response copywriting

Self-taught, deliberately: awareness stages, market sophistication, offer structure. Long-form advertorial and VSL work, the discipline of earning the next line, then the next.

2025–26

Messaging & conversion lead

Retained by Scale Agency as messaging & conversion lead: VSL, landing page, email ecosystem. Behind those, the content system that fed them: five pillars mapped to funnel stage, a target pace of five to six reels and two story sequences a week, winners re-tested one variable at a time.

Now

Creative strategist

The production stack changed. The questions didn't. Testing six angles now costs what polishing one used to, which only matters if you know which six are worth testing. Strategy and production sit in one pair of hands, so a good angle never waits on an editor.

Working

Based in Vietnam, on your clock

Remote, with hours that overlap the US and UK working day. Async by default, on a call when a decision needs one.

Bring me a product
and a real constraint.

If it needs to be understood, remembered or bought, we can find the creative angle worth putting in front of people.

Book a Creative Audit Email Travis
I personally write and cut every test.