Tell the story
Films, music, branded work, and production stories that feel like they came from real people—not a content factory.
Leon Cuttem · Austin, Texas · RenegadeAbout CMD Media Group
CMD built this the long way.
CMD Media Group did not begin as a neat little company with one lane and a clean map. It grew every time founder Leon Cuttem followed the work farther—from music into visuals, cameras into post, and post into VFX, virtual production, corporate filmmaking, teaching, and technology.
We did not take the conventional route. We took the scenic route. Every city, set, conference, client, wrong turn, and late-night timeline added something useful to the company.
Book Leon to speakMission
Make the work. Leave the door open.
CMD exists to tell honest stories, solve difficult visual problems, and make creative knowledge more reachable. The point is not to make the process look easy. The point is to make the hard part understandable.
Client work matters. Original work matters. The experiment that becomes tomorrow's workflow matters too.
Solve the frame
Camera, edit, VFX, compositing, virtual production, and AI workflows used in service of the shot.
Leave the door open
Teach the process honestly so another creative can understand the decision, not just copy the button press.
Austin, Texas · Creativity in publicThe scenic-route biography
I kept following the work.
I'm Leon Cuttem—a filmmaker, recording artist, VFX artist, creative technologist, speaker, and founder of CMD Media Group. Music taught me timing. Cameras taught me attention. Editing taught me patience. VFX taught me that impossible usually means “not solved yet.”
The road took me to NAB Show in Las Vegas twice, B-Con in Los Angeles and Austin, ProFusion in Canada, Trilith Studios in Georgia, client sets, corporate campaigns, and rooms where I could learn directly from the people building the future of production.
Detroit · The home baseMusic · Charted in VietnamNAB Show · Las Vegas · TwiceB-Con · Los Angeles + AustinProFusion · CanadaTrilith Studios · Georgia
Along the way, my music charted in Vietnam. CMD produced commercials and executive stories, built documentary work with GJC, covered community revitalization with Life Remodeled, created original films and VFX led by Renegade, and launched Second Unit to build practical AI filmmaking tools and DaVinci Resolve workflows.
The route was never a staircase. I followed the work, took the long way, and brought the camera.
Now I want to teach the lesson behind the finished frame: creativity without gatekeeping, technology without the smoke, and filmmaking explained by somebody who has actually had to make the shot work.
What we are working on
Renegade. Short films. VFX. The next useful tool.
CMD is developing Renegade alongside a wider slate of short films and VFX work. Second Unit—the company's AI division—is building local filmmaking workflows and a DaVinci Resolve integration so the technology can live closer to the edit.
Speaking engagements
Book the lesson behind the work.
Creativity, filmmaking, virtual production, VFX, and building your own route into the work—delivered by somebody who has done the work and knows how to teach it.