Mitchel Dumlao
Founder and Director, Creative Haven
Mitchel Dumlao is a creator, educator and the founder of Creative Haven, a video studio that makes social content, brand films, product videos, paid ads and commercials for consumer brands and the agencies behind them. He has spent 20 years in video production and 10 years running his own studio, and his work spans award-winning spots, Super Bowl post-production, national brand campaigns and the day-to-day social content that keeps food and consumer brands in the feed.
Who is Mitchel Dumlao?
Mitchel is a traditionally trained filmmaker who also builds and grows social channels. That combination is the reason Creative Haven exists. Most production companies know how to make something look like a commercial, and most creators know how to make something perform in the feed. Mitchel set out to build a team that does both, so the work holds up to a brand's standards and still earns attention on social.
He leads Creative Haven as founder and director, working alongside a bench of directors of photography, editors, a food stylist and an art director. The studio is built for capacity: agencies bring Creative Haven in to run shoot days, editing overflow and month-of-content volume under their own name, and brands bring the team in when they need more content than their marketing department can produce.
A career in production
Over two decades, Mitchel has worked on campaigns and content for HBO, Sony, Google, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Web Services, BMW and Colgate. He handled post-production on two Super Bowl commercials for Amazon Ring and has produced content for more than 40 food, beverage and consumer brands, including Stella Rosa, Tapatío, Amy's and Sumo Citrus. His team's work for Stella Rosa has passed 15 million views on the brand's YouTube channel.
That food and consumer-brand work is where the studio is strongest. Recipe and product content Creative Haven produced for a produce brand, working behind the marketing agency The Missing Ingredient, earned more than 6 million impressions on Pinterest at less than half the cost per visit of the brand's earlier ads. Food stylists, product shooters and editors who understand ecommerce are part of every food and CPG shoot.
Building Creative Haven
Mitchel founded Creative Haven to give brands and agencies a production team that delivers client-ready work without the overhead of building one in-house. Today the studio works across the United States from its base in Austin, with crews in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, New York and Miami, and it can put a local crew together almost anywhere in the country.
For marketing agencies, Creative Haven works as white-label production. The agency's name goes on the work, the studio never contacts the agency's client unless invited, and the agency keeps every frame and project file. For brands, the studio plans and produces social content, paid-ad and product video, Amazon and ecommerce content, and commercials.
Creative Haven is a City of Austin certified Minority Business Enterprise and a Texas HUB vendor, operated by Dumlao Enterprises Inc.
Teacher and educator
Teaching runs through everything Mitchel does. He has led creative and content workshops for teams at Google, Pokémon International and Jack in the Box, and his LinkedIn Learning courses have reached thousands of students. He is a YouTube Certified instructor and regularly publishes tutorials and behind-the-scenes breakdowns that show how professional content is planned, shot and edited.
His teaching style shapes how Creative Haven works with clients. Every project starts with a clear plan, and clients see how the content will be used, not just what it will look like.
Recognition and credentials
Telly Award winner
20 years in video production, 10 years in business
Post-production on two Super Bowl commercials for Amazon Ring
Credits with HBO, Sony, Google, YouTube, Spotify, AWS, BMW and Colgate
Stella Rosa content with 15M+ views on YouTube
Workshops for Google, Pokémon International and Jack in the Box
LinkedIn Learning instructor and YouTube Certified
City of Austin certified MBE and Texas HUB vendor
Work with Mitchel and Creative Haven
Agencies looking for a production team they can put their name on can start at Agency Partners. Brands can see the work on the Portfolio or schedule a call.
