With a strong passion for visual storytelling, Marcus Ubungen is a resourceful and versatile director, cinematographer, and photographer, at home in both commercial and documentary worlds. His docu-style ad work celebrates unique characters with a sophisticated cinematic aesthetic in spots for Google, FitBit, Gatorade, LinkedIn, First Republic Bank, Samsung, Porsche and more, bringing his blend of high polish real life with honesty and refinement from sports to cars to kids with stylish authenticity.

In addition to ongoing projects for brands, Marcus is in production on his documentary Beyond the Fields, following children in Thailand who fight Muay Thai, stepping into the ring at great risk in order to move their families out of poverty. The nonfiction feature has been honored with the support of the San Francisco Film Society. Marcus’ docu short, Halloween Meets Gasoline, about guys hell-bent on having fun resurrecting junkyard cars for racing glory, went to SXSW and was a Vimeo Staff Pick.

When Marcus isn’t directing, he can be found in engaged in his passion project, Street Portraiture. Rarely spotted without a medium format film camera in hand, Marcus captures the unique characters he happens upon in locations evocative of the city. Art directed in the moment, the aesthetic of the format captures Marcus’ hic et nunc journal of stylish people he meets. His still work for advertising includes AncestryDNA, Chevrolet, and Sutter Health.

A graduate of the Academy of Art University, where he studied cinematography, Marcus is also an alum of agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, where he directed branded films for clients like Chevrolet, Motorola, and Google.