Block, Alex Ben - Entertainment Industry Journalist, Show Business Historian, & Author
Block, Mitchell - Exec. Producer/Co-Creator of "Carrier" on PBS, Pres. at Direct Cinema
Clingman, Wayne - Tax Incentives Wisconsin
Cruz, Tim - Commercial Director & Writer
Elend, Adam - Partner at Bright Red Pixels
Frizzell, John - Composer
Gilmore, Craig - Concept Illustrator
Gipson, Darrien Michele - National Director of SAGIndie
Hinde, Gregory - Composer
Japka, David - Production Manager
Lessall, Matthew - Casting Director
Lozowski, Stanley - Filmmaker and "New Media" Expert
Lougee, Marc - Animation Director Lubaroff, Terri - Writer, Producer, Film & Television Development Executive
Maisel, David - Filmmaker
McGuigan, Paul - Director
Mendelsohn, Aaron - Screenwriter
Nielson, David James - Composer
Nobre, Marinho - Film, Concert, & Television Composer
Ostrow, Page - President of Ostrow and Company
Payne, Sandra - Filmmaker
Renwick, Brett - Founder of Renwick & Company
Ringelmann, Danae - C.F.A. & Co-Founder IndieGoGo
Rossmore, Terrence - Exec. Producer at HWR Productions
Savage, Steve Holland - Film and Television Director
Smiley, Donald - Entertainment Lawyer - Legal Consultant for 123 Film Easy.
Smolowitz, Marc G. - Executive Producer - Media & Technology
Stead, Tennyson - Screenwriter, Indie Exec., Director and Producer
Tat, Randy - Executive Vice President of CFP Productions (Housed At Paramount Pictures)
Thompson, Charles - Marketing Consultant for Universal Studios
Tucker, Betty Jo - Film Critic & Author
Verronne, Patric M. - President of The Writers Guild of America, West
Wilson, Dina - Mobile Media at Disney Entertainment
Winter, Alex - Filmmaker
Wolverton, Jeff - Visual Effects Artist
Daniel Alcheh – Film Composer
Daniel
Alcheh is a Hollywood-based film and television composer. In 2009, he scored
the thriller "Nowhere To Hide", starring Meredith Monroe, Brian Dietzen and Brian
Krause; the horror-comedy "The Man Who Collected Food" and the documentary
feature "Houston We Have A Problem". He's currently completing scoring Iris
Bahr's raunchy new comedy series, "Svetlana", with his frequent writing-partner,
composer Deddy Tzur. In the beginning of next year, he will be scoring director
Michael Knowles' East Fifth Bliss", starring Michael C. Hall. Daniel's music has
been widely licensed and can often be heard on The National Geographic Channel,
PBS, BET and The History Channel.
Born in
Israel, Daniel Alcheh began playing the piano at age six, and was seriously
pursuing the path of a composer by his teens. Fostered by the biggest names in
Israeli contemporary music, he studied composition, conducting and
orchestration. Alcheh became one of the youngest-ever members of the Israeli
Composers League (the Israeli chapter of the ISCM) where he served as a board
member and panel judge, and while still in his early 20s, was awarded the
league's Klon Prize for Composition. He completed both his Bachelor's and
Master's degrees in composition at the music academy at Tel-Aviv University.
His concert music is published by IMC (Israeli Music Center), and it continues
to be premiered and performed throughout the world.
While still
an undergraduate, Alcheh began scoring films and animation. In 2001, his
professor Yosef Bardanashvili, one of Israel’s most renowned and prolific
composers, would bring him aboard as a soundtrack producer for Dover
Kosashvili's feature film "Late Marriage": the highest-grossing Israeli film of
the decade, one of Entertainment Weekly's Ten Best Films of 2002 and Newsweek's
Top 15 Films of 2002.
He lives in
West Hollywood, California with his wife, writer-editor Jamie Kiffel Alcheh.
Liisa Allen - Talent Manager
Liisa Allen is determined to bring out the best in the talent she represents and carefully selects her clients. She helps bridge the gap between project development and the acquisition of high-caliber talent. Liisa Allen understands that it's vital to forge alliances and also foster and develop trusting relationships with key industry figures in order to visualize a project's successful completion.
Matt Biffa - Music Supervisor
Matt is a Music Supervisor, specializing in source music research and copyright clearance. Matt
Biffa’s Film Credits Include: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
Part I" (2010), "The Infidel" (2010-filming -Music Supervisor), "Snatch" (2000- Music Supervisor), "Chasing Liberty " (2004 - Music Supervisor):
"Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire", (2005- Creative Consultant and Coordinator: Yule Ball Rock Band), "Flyboys" (2006- Music Supervisor),
"Summer Love" (2006- Music Clearances).
These are just a few of the films
that Mtt has been involved in. He considers one of the high points of
his career to be “Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire”, for which he
put together a wizarding rock group consisting of Jarvis Cocker from
"Pulp", and Jonny Greenwood and Philip Selway from "Radiohead".
Alex Ben Block - Ent. Industry Journalist, Author, Show Business Historian
Entertainment industry journalist, author, broadcaster and
show business historian. Alex Ben Block is Contributing Editor for "The Hollywood Reporter".
He is also Co-Editor of “George Lucas's
Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold
Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success” for George Lucas Books and
Harper Collins, due to be published in January 2010.
Block returned to "The Hollywood Reporter" in
Spring 2009, where he had been Editor in the 1990s. He is also Show Business
Historian for "Hollywood Today", contributor to "The Advertising Show" on radio and
served as Director of Programming for "The American Pavilion" during the 2008
Cannes Film Festival.
He has been Associate Editor of Forbes Magazine, entertainment editor in Miami, columnist and critic in Detroit and an
editor at the L.A. Herald Examiner.
Block was Executive Director of the Los Angeles Press
Club, where among many accomplishments he produced and moderated "Who Can
Be Trusted? – A Seminar On Sourcing" at USC, sponsored by the New York Times and Discovery Networks.
He has written for many
publications and is author of the critically acclaimed books "Outfoxed:
The Inside Story of America's Fourth Television Network", and
international bestseller "The Legend of Bruce Lee".
Block was a regular on KPCC-FM's "Call
Sheet", John Rabe’s “Off Ramp” and is often heard on other TV and radio
shows. His insider commentaries on show business have aired on KNBC-TV, NBC’s
Today Show, CNBC, NPR, CBS News, KTLA, KNX, NBC News, O’Reilly on Fox, CNN and
elsewhere. Block is also a popular public speaker and master of ceremonies.
Block’s honors include L.A. Press Club Awards for
journalistic excellence, Hearst Awards, Crain Awards, a Detroit Press Club
Award, a Will Rogers Foundation Award, the (RIM) Angel Award and the Journalism
Award from the Caucus For Television Producers, Directors and Writers.
A native of Syracuse, New York and graduate of Ithaca
College, Block is married to actress and producer Jodi Taylor and is the father
of singer-songwriter and actress Hayley Taylor.
Mitchell Block –
Exec. Producer, President at Direct Cinema Ltd., and
Ent. Consultant
Mitchell Block is
a multi-award winning executive producer who specializes in conceiving,
developing, producing, marketing and distributing independent features, reality
programming and documentaries.
Currently, Block is producing "Poster Girl" for HBO a
documentary short directed by Sarah Nelson and he is producing a series for AMC
Television in partnership with Scott Free Productions.He is an executive producer and
co-creator of the Emmy Award winning "Carrier", PBS’ 10-hour series, and
companion feature documentary, "Another Day In Paradise", both of which he
conceived. "Carrier" is the first
film/video project to embed on a Navy war ship for an entire six-month
deployment and was financed by Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions.
Most
recently consulting on the feature documentary, "Russell Brand Happiness"
(Oliver Stone, Executive Producer). He is producing a special series, "Ladies Sing The Blues" ( in
association with Susan Lacy’s PBS strand, American Masters. The 10-hour history of women and the
blues will include a two-hour companion feature-length theatrical documentary
(and series pilot) to be filmed at the Kennedy Center and directed by John Singleton. He executive produced the 2008, Broadcast
Film Critic’s award winning film, "Stealing America", a feature documentary about
the 2000, 2004 and 2006 elections.
Block has extensive experience working with and pitching networks,
studios and producers including: A&E, History, HBO, Discovery, PBS, MTV, Showtime, CNN as well as
numerous production entities globally.
Acquisitions, Sales,
Distribution & Marketing: For
seven years, Block worked as an acquisitions consultant for Sheila Nevins,
president, HBO Original Pictures (documentaries). His company, Direct Cinema Limited, has handled the
marketing and distribution of over 60 Oscar nominated and winning
documentaries, short and animated films. He has extensive experience in creative development, re-purposing
individual and series works and formats, acquisitions, finance, marketing and
negotiating transactions for sales, rights and copyright.
Consulting – New
Technology: Block has extensive experience working in and
consulting on new media projects. He worked as an acquisitions consultant for Vast Video in New York as
part of a team that acquired rights to over 30,000 non-fiction titles for
streaming. He consulted Interop on
growing its educational programs and has worked on numerous Internet outreach
campaigns for programs shown on PBS and other channels.
Special Awards: Block was an executive producer of the Academy
Award-winning documentary "Big Mama" for HBO. With Ken Burns, he executive produced "Alone Across
Australia". His short film "No Lies"
(produced and directed in 1973) was selected by the Librarian of Congress in
2008 to be preserved for all time and is one of the 500 American films so
designated to date. Some of the
other seven films from 1973 selected include "Mean Streets" "Badlands", "American
Grafitti" and "The Sting".
Teaching: Block has been teaching independent producing at
USC’s School of Cinematic Arts since 1978 as an adjunct professor and currently
teaches a required class in the Peter Stark Producing Program. He has lectured at over 50 colleges and
universities worldwide.
Global Activities: Block has served as a sales agent, programmer and
marketing consultant for clients in Australia (AIDC, FFC, Film Australia),
Iceland, England, France, Korea, Canada (NFB) as well as the Sundance Film
Festival and the Canadian, Philippine and British Academies. He has lectured globally on
film/television production and distribution.
Education: Block
received a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in film production from NYU, Tisch School of the Arts,
an M.B.A. from Columbia University and he was a producing fellow at the American
Film Institute. He did doctoral
work in film and business at UCLA.
Wayne Clingman - Tax Incentives Wisconsin
Mr. Wayne Clingman was in the forefront of intiating tax incentives for the state of Wisconsin. Wayne called the first meeting of what would become Film Wisconsin. Mr. Cingman also founded the, "It Came From Lake Michigan Film Festival", the Mid-West's Largest Horror/Sci-Fi Film Festival, as well as also starting the only "walk-in" film workshops in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Tim has a wide base of experience in the film industry starting in development at Miramax and eventually the Weinstein Co. He's also been privileged to work as a Segment Producer for "The Apprentice 5" and "The Amazing Race".
Mr. Cruz has also freelanced in Commercial form from music videos, producing for 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Nas, Jessica Simpson, P Diddy, Bjork, My Chemical Romance and other pop stars. Tim also has an M.F.A. degree from New York University.
Currently in Development, "The Jet Set", "Kick Flip", "Lush", "Puberty and Snowfall". Project financing is raised through private equity groups as well as studio financed development.
Adam Elend - Partner at Bright Red Pixels
After 9 years in the video
and television production business, I founded a digital studio in 2005 because
I saw a growing demand for original web video content, and the need for a
professional production company. BrightRED became a leader in the industry,
producing the hit daily web show "Wallstrip" and working with clients in the
entertainment and web industries.
In May of 2007, "Wallstrip" was acquired by CBS Corporation. As part of the
purchase, I was signed as Executive Producer for CBS Interactive. At CBS, I ran
the CBSi Web Originals production studio with partner Jeff Marks. After
two years with CBS, Jeff and I left to start Bright Red Pixels: a social
entertainment studio focusing on web video. Bright Red Pixels has a
development deal with CBSi. Other clients include "Funny or Die", "The
Business Insider" and "The Paley Center for Media".
Notable accomplishments at CBS include bringing "Wallstrip" to peak viewership at
1.3MM viewers per month, successfully launching a critically acclaimed new
daily magazine format web show MobLogic.tv, creating an East Coast development
and production unit for CBSi Entertainment, successfully integrating the "Wallstrip" brand into the BNET property acquired by CBS as part of our CNET
acquisition, and the creation of studio production infrastructure that handled
3MM of revenue producing projects in Q4 '08.
Prior to the establishment of BrightRED Pictures, I worked in the New York
documentary industry as a Freelance Field Producer. Working with Jeff Marks, I
produced and directed the 2005 documentary feature "Fighting For Life In The
Death-Belt".
In 1998, while still in college, I became an Operations Manager for Bob
Knight Photo, and in 1999, I was promoted to Director of West Coast Operations - managing operations and client relations in California. After leaving in 2002,
I returned in Spring 2005 to develop operations and client relations in
Northern California after the acquisition of a competitor.
I received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the School of Motion Picture,
Television and Recording Arts at Florida State University in December of 1998.
While in school I interned with Academy Award®™-winning sound mixer Richard
Portman.
John Frizzell (Composer) is currently creating the score for Scott Stewart’s directorial debut
“Legion” for Screen Gems®™. He has recently scored the supernatural thriller “Shelter” (releasing 2010) and “The Lodger” in addition to the Luke Wilson comedy drama “Henry Poole is Here” and the comedy “Tenure”. He also scored the pilot episode for Diablo Cody’s Showtime®™ series “The United States of Tara”. Frizzell recently went to Washington D.C. to premiere the viral internet clip “He’s Barack Obama” from Jibjab®™ for the Commander in Chief.
Frizzell’s work includes scores for films as varied as “Alien: Resurrection”, “Office Space”, “Gods and Generals”, and “The Prize Winner Of Defiance, Ohio”. He collaborated with rap star DMX’s producing team on the score for the
action film “Cradle 2 The Grave” and composed the score for the Looney Tunes®™ characters in the short “The Wizard of Ow”. His other film credits include “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer”, “Beautiful” and “Thir13en Ghosts”. For television, he created the score for the award-winning biopic “James Dean” and the acclaimed telefilm “Crime Of The Century”, to name only a few.
Frizzell began his musical career singing in the chorus of the Paris Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera Company as a child. He studied at the U.S.C. School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, during which time he met one of his mentors, jazz-guitar legend Joe Pass. After college, he worked for acclaimed producer/vibraphonist Michael Mainieri, where Frizzell mastered the Synclavier, the first digital music workstation. Frizzell became a very proficient synthesist, which led to work with Oscar®™-winning composer
Ryuichi Sakamoto, for whom he provided orchestrations to Oliver Stone’s landmark miniseries “Wild Palms”.
Upon relocating to Los Angeles, Frizzell met and subsequently collaborated with composer James Newton Howard on “The Rich Man’s Wife” and “Dante’s Peak” before scoring his first feature film on his own “Beavis And Butt-Head Do America”. An advocate for film music issues, Frizzell has served on the Executive Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®™ and has instructed graduate students at U.S.C. Thornton School of Music, and was the Honorary President of the 2007 International Film Music Conference®™ in Ubeda, Spain.
Craig Gilmore is a Storyboard
and Concept IIlustrator for the Motion Picture, Television, Advertising, Animation and Video Game Industries and a member of
I.A.T.S.E.. He has also worked as a Professional Comic Book Illustrator
for the world’s largest comic book publishers as well as illustration
for many books. Craig attended both high school and college in North Carolina
and attained an A.A.S. Degree in Commercial Art and Audio Video Technology. He returned years later to his Alma Mater to teach a course in Comic Book Illustration.
Craig started his illustration career in 1989
and never looked back. Mr. Gilmore is featured artist in the recent book,
“Storyboards: Motion In Art Vol. 3” written by Mark Simon. He's a sought-after guest at some of the world’s largest comic book conventions
including San Diego Comic Con and his work is regularly noted in top newspapers, on the web, and
in magazine articles.
Some of Craig’s "A"-List" repeat clients include(but
are not limited to): ABC Television, Fox Pictures, Universal Pictures,
CW Network Television, TheCartoon Network, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Blur
Studio, THQ Games, Ubisoft and Sony Computer Entertainment.
Craig’s
project list includes the feature films, “The Strangers”, “The Secret Life of Bees”, “Main Street”, and the T.V. shows, “One Tree Hill”, “Surface”,
and “Army Wives”. He has also illustrated the Marvel comic, “Morbius, The Living Vampire”, and Marvel and DC Comics’ “Aquaman” and “Justice
League International”. His video game work can be seen in, “The Mark of
Kri” for PS2, as well as the “Ghost Recon” game series for PS2,
Xbox and Xbox 360.
Darrien Michele Gipson - National Director of SAGIndie
An
M.F.A. recipient from the Peter Stark Producer’s Program at USC, as
well as a USC President Samples Fellows, a university honors program
for Community Service, Darrien was formerly the Vice President of
Production for DEF Pictures, where she shepherded such films as
"Gridlock’d" and "How to be a Player".
Darrien began her career at SAGIndie
as the Event Coordinator, where she traveled throughout the country to
festivals, educating filmmakers on SAG’s low budget contracts and all
ensuing budgetary and distribution concerns. She visited more than 25
states, 3 countries, and over 55 film festivals to consult with independent
filmmakers. Yes, she has a lot of frequent flyer miles. No, she isn’t
sharing them.
As the new National Director of SAGIndie, Darrien
is responsible for just about everything – global warming, demoting
Pluto, lowering cancer rates. She is also responsible for the strategic
planning and oversight of SAGIndie, including administration,
sponsorship negotiations, national advertising campaigns, and
SAGIndie.org – the organization’s online resource for independent
filmmakers. Darrien is the engine behind SAGIndie, pushing it into
being the best independent filmmaking resource EVER.
Gregory
Hinde began playing piano at the age of four in his hometown of
Atlanta, Georgia. With a natural affinity for music he mastered
various instruments, choosing keyboards and guitar in dance bands;
snare drum and flute in marching bands. Invited to join Young American
Showcase, he entertained audiences throughout the United States and
Canada.
Gregory believes the musical score of a production plays
an important role in the storytelling by capturing emotion with music.
He recently completed composing for the highly rated and very popular "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" series for Cartoon Network. It is the longest running series to air on Cartoon Network and he was nominated for a 2007 Annie
Award for Music in an Animated Television Production for "Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure.”
He recently scored an independent live action film called "Witt's Daughter". It has been featured at numerous film festivals around the country, winning awards at nearly all of them. It was recently featured at the G.I. Film Festival
in Washington, D.C., a festival set aside specifically for films
honoring our country's military. It was a featured selection at that
festival and also won an award. The film also was awarded the Rogue
Cinema's Cinematic Excellence Award. A review from Rogue Cinema
specifically commented on the score saying: "One last note I'd like to
make is about the music. It's not often that you hear such incredible
original music in an independent film, but this film...my god. The
music suited the story so perfectly."
He also scored the music for Cartoon Network's "Evil Con
Carne" series, for which he received a nomination in 2005 for a Golden Reel Award by The Motion Picture Sound Editors. He composed the music for the final season of Nickelodeon's "The Wild Thornberrys" television series.
Gregory recently began writing songs with Grace Bawden, an incredibly talented young singer from Australia who was a finalist in the popular series "Australia's Got Talent". She has the voice of an angel and the writing style of someone well beyond her years.
Upcoming
productions include “Sabine K in Hollywood” scoring begins in September
of 2009 and “Sportlets” music begins in February of 2010.
Every film production is a
combination of creative talent and savvy business acumen. David Japka
has been delivering outstanding production management services for 20
years. From legal and marketing insight, to scheduling and production
execution, David has continuously worked to provide back-office
excellence for established and emerging filmmakers.
Well-versed in all elements of film production, David
provides script breakdowns and budgeting for business plans and then
follows through in building integrated and motivated production teams.
If you need a project to run smoothly from the start to delivery...
talk to David.
Before relocating to Los Angeles in the year 2000, David
worked for more than 15 years in the New York and Philadelphia
metropolitan areas. A graduate of Temple University, David initially
entered the field in post-production. He soon expanded to producing
and project managing of interactive media, corporate/industrial films,
commercials, and informercials. After a successful and satisfying
mid-career, he relocated to Hollywood to pursue his love and life
goal...feature films.
David has over 80 total credits and has produced or production managed 5 feature films and numerous shorts.
Matthew
Lessall is a freelance Casting Director. His body of work includes the
award-winning independent feature films, “Rocket Science” and “Mean
Creek”. Nominated for three Artios®™ Awards, Matthew's work from shorts to
feature-length film has been in competition at several prestigious film
festivals worldwide, including: Sundance, Toronto, and Cannes. Matthew recently completed casting “After Life” starring the Oscar®™ and BAFTA®™-nominated actor Liam Neeson, Christina
Ricci, Justin Long , and Josh Charles, “Labor Pains” starring Lindsay
Lohan, and “Polish Bar” starring Judd Hirsch, Vincent Piazza, and veteran rocker and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" cult star Meat
Loaf. He is currently casting "Vinyl" for Duly Noted, Inc. and Executive Producer Timbaland.
Stanley Lozowski is a veteran of the film industry. He co-owned Northeast Video and Sound, Inc., the first privately-owned Color TV production studio in New England. Stanley is an expert in "New Media". He writes screenplays and books, and blogs every day about digital cinema and digital animation on various web portals.
Marc
Lougee's Award-winning short film, "The Pit And The Pendulum" was Executive Produced by Animation Legend Ray Harryhausen ("20 Million Miles To Earth", "Clash Of The Titans") and Fred
Fuchs (Francis Ford Coppolla's "Dracula", "Frankenstein"). Visual Effects
for the film were produced by Switch VFX, Toronto ("Saw III", "Dawn Of The
Dead", "Seventh Voyage
of Sinbad").
Marc Lougee has over 20-years experience directing animation and visual effects on television
series, pilots, music videos and commercials. Recent work includes
MTV's "Celebrity Deathmatch" (Original Animated Series Broadcast, 52
episodes x 22 minutes), CBC's "What It's Like Being Alone" (Episodic
Director & Series Creative Producer), and the BBC's "Ace Lightning"
television series (Director Of Animation).
Currently, Lougee is
Director of Animation on the Live Action/CGI Series co-production
“Dinosapien' for BBC /Discovery. "Dinosapien" is slated to air in May/
June, 2007.
Not wasting any time with sleeping, Marc continues
to develop new projects with producer Susan Ma, including an Animated Series Pilot for Mobile Technologies with writer John May. Several
short-format projects are in development, as well as a feature-length
stop-motion animation film.
"The Pit And The Pendulum" premiered at Harry Knowles', "Ain't It Cool" "BNAT Film Festival", as a special presentation with the
North American Premier of Peter Jackson's, "King Kong" and "V For Vendetta"
in Austin, TX. The premiere was followed by a special screening for
Industrial Light and Magic's & Pixar's crew members in San Rafael, CA
with Ray Harryhausen hosting the event.
Since it's premiere, "The Pit And The Pendulum" has been chosen as an Official Selection at over
30 film festivals worldwide, including the CFC's "World Wide Shorts Film
Festival", "Rhode Island International Film Festival", "Borges En Curt"
(Spain), "Swansea Bay Film Festival" (Wales, U.K.), "Festival Du Cinema De
Paris" (France), "Los Angeles International Film Festival", "Tromadance
Film Festival" (Park City, Utah), and "AFI Dallas International Film
Festival" in March/ April, 2007.
"The Pit And The Pendulum" has
garnered several awards and nominations in 2006, including Best
Animated Film at "Miami Shorts Film Festival", Best Adaptation at the
"International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival", and Best Animated Short
Film at the "Dragon Con Film Festival".
Terri Lubaroff – Writer, Producer, Film & Television Development Executive
Terri Lubaroff grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio and attended The University of Florida, graduating with a B.A. in Theatre: Performance
(Acting and Directing) and a J.D. from the University of Florida School
of Law.
At the University of Florida, Lubaroff was an active campus leader and
produced "Gator Growl", “The World’s Largest Student-Run Pep Rally”,
which allowed her to work with comedians such as Dennis Miller, Garry
Shandling, Sinbad and Bobby Slayton, in addition to filming cameos for
the show as varied as President Clinton and Adam Sandler. A trained
actor, Terri performed on stage and appeared in the ABC movie of the
week "Summertime Switch" and the independent film "THhe Love Shack".
In 1997, Terri moved to Los Angeles to work at International Creative
Management (ICM) on a Motion Picture Literary desk, where she worked
with clients such as John Frankenheimer, Francis Ford Coppola and James
Woods. After ICM, Terri ran production company Dilonra Films, which
financed and produced the feature film "Chapter Zero". Lubaroff also
packaged an anthology television series with actor Chris O’Donnell that
CAA’s Idea Lab helped shape into a multi-media Internet content company
called Dark Coast Studios, which she co-founded and ran for 2 years.
When the tech bubble burst, Lubaroff decided to learn more about
television, so she joined boutique television literary agency
Kaplan-Stahler-Gumer. That move allowed her to intimately learn every
aspect of the television business.
Two years later, Eriq La Salle (“Dr. Benton” on “E.R.”) hired Lubaroff as Senior Vice President of Humble Journey Films, a television and film
development and production company. She worked there for over 5
years. During the course of her tenure, Lubaroff sold 9 pilots in
the drama, comedy and reality genres to networks such as NBC, CBS, VH1
and BET, working with CBS/Paramount Studios, Sony Television Studios
and 20th Century Fox Television, including creating and selling the
procedural action series "ICE" in the room to CBS. She did multiple
rewrites on pilots, developed countless feature films, co-wrote and
produced a short film, and sold comic book based on the pilot "25 To
Life", which will be published by 12 Gauge through Image in June of
2010.
Terri is a member of HRTS and AWRT and was quoted in the book Small
Screen, Big Picture. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her
husband and daughter. If you catch her with some spare time, Terri will
either be writing, mediating a case for the L.A. Superior Court or
reading guilty pleasures on her Kindle®™ while eating ice cream.
Chocolate peanut butter is her favorite.
Jeff Maguire - Screenwriter
Jeff Maguire (born in 1952) is an American Screenwriter. Regarded for his talent for writing sports films, Jeff Maguire got his first screenwriting break with his script "Escape To Victory", a film about soccer directed by John Huston in 1981. His most recent contribution is "Gridiron Gang", released in 2006. Maguire's most famous film is "In The Line Of Fire" starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, for which he received a Best Original Screenplay Oscar®™ nomination for in 1993.
In 1990, Maguire was approached by producer Jeff Apple to develop his
Secret Service agent concept into a film treatment. Maguire was in debt
to his relatives and about to have his utilities turned off when his
script based on Apple's concept, "In the Line of Fire," went into a
bidding war between Tom Cruise, Sean Connery, and Clint Eastwood.
When he received a call from Eastwood congratulating him on the
completed deal (over $1,000,000.00). Jeff's wife reportedly had to
return a dress so they could afford to go out to dinner to celebrate.
Prior to this, various moguls had rejected and almost destroyed the
story. Dustin Hoffman
cleverly added the hero's guilt over failing to save J.F.K., then exited. Tom Cruise's people demanded this be deleted, because a 28-year-old
hero wouldn't have been around for J.F.K. The dead-broke writer spurned
about $100,000 from Cruise, but wound up with Clint Eastwood and about
$1,000,000.
Jeff Maguire is a graduate of Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts. Raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, Maguire was once a railroad worker, a waiter, and a volunteer counselor with Mother Teresa's group, "Missionaries Of Charity", in the Pico-Union section of downtown Los Angeles, working primarily with Hispanic gangs.
In the 1980's and 90's, he also frequented the famous Manhattan Beach, California video store "Video Archives" where future filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary were clerks. Today, Jeff Maguire is a follower of Meher Baba and has contributed to the Meher Baba journal, "Glow International".
David A. Maisel is
an alumnus of the University of Colorado, Denver’s College of Arts
& Media, and the Colorado Film School. He has produced, filmed and
edited numerous shorts, music videos, documentaries and is currently developing and in pre-production on several feature-length motion pictures intended for theatrical release. Mr. Maisel has previous extensive experience managing and owning businesses in diverse fields. David has combined this business acumen with his production expertise to form the solid basis of Dancing Cat Productions, LLC.
U.K. native Paul McGuigan established himself as one of the
more unique directors to make his presence known in Britain and Hollywood during
the 2000's. He unveiled a particularly strong knack for handling crime material
and thrillers with a gritty intensity that became a personal trademark and that
prompted more than one comparison to Martin Scorsese.
McGuigan grew up in England as the son of a Bellshill-based publican and began
his occupational life as a still photographer, then worked his way into the
documentary field, helming non-fiction assignments for Channel 4.
McGuigan's
foray into fiction work commenced with his short, "The Granton Star Cause", about
a man who morphs into a fly as a divine curse. The critical acclaim netted by
that effort inspired him to helm two additional self-contained episodes, also
adapted from the work of Irvine Welsh ("Trainspotting") and stitched together as
a well-received omnibus.
That laid the groundwork necessary for McGuigan to
move into features on a full-time basis, which he did with the inventive crime
sagas "Gangster No. 1" (2000) and "Lucky Number Slevin"
(2006); in-between, McGuigan exhibited diversity by helming the compelling,
IRA-themed non-fiction opus, "Facing The Enemy" (2001) and the eerie, atmospheric romantic mystery "Wicker Park" (2004),
and the same year's period whodunit, "The Reckoning".
In 2008,
McGuigan directed the supernatural thriller, "Push", starring Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning;
it told of a bunch of psychics who banned together to rebel against the vile
government agency controlling them.
Aaron has been a working screenwriter for fifteen years. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Writers Guild of America West. During the recent Writers Strike, Aaron brought together a group of top writers from Hollywood
to launch Virtual Artists, Inc., a writer-owned studio that produces
sponsor-supported, "water cooler" entertainment for the Web. They have
just completed their “A” round of financing and are in development on
their first slate of web shows.
Previously,
Aaron co-created the "Air Bud" movie franchise and co-wrote the first two
films. Among his other writing credits are the Lifetime movie "Change
Of Heart", the Fox series “Kindred: The Embraced” and the independent
feature "Chapter Zero", which he also directed.
David was born in Calgary, AB, Canada and entered the musical world playing piano starting at age six. He began composing at age 15 and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree in music from the University of Calgary.
From 1997 to
2003, David served as Composer-In-Residence for Pleiades Theatre/Vertigo Mystery Theatre, and composed the musical scores for approximately twenty-eight theatrical plays.
In 2003, David earned a certificate in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television from the University of Southern California, where he was honored with the Harry Warren Scholarship Award. His teachers there included Academy Award®™-nominee, David
Raksin, Golden Globe®™-nominee, Christopher Young, Jack Smalley and Grammy Award®™-winner, Joe Harnell.
David lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife Nilupa, and has scored or provided music for several film and television productions including, "Reclaimimg The Blade", "Tales From Beyond", "Haunting Villisca", "The Big Table", "Man Vs. Woman", "The Little Documentary That Couldn't", and the television series "Animal
Exploration With Jarod Miller". David is currently scoring the pilot for the HD television series "Tall Ships".
In 2008, David won the Gold Medal of Artistic Excellence Award for his score to the film "Man Vs. Woman", and the Bronze Medal for Excellence Award for his score to the film "Tales From Beyond" at the "Park City Film Music Festival". David also has worked in various roles as an additional music composer, orchestrator, and synth programmer for the popular TV series "Star Trek: Enterprise", the National Geographic Special "Eden At The End Of The World," and the
television movies, "The Tenth Circle", "Flight 93", and "Faith Of My Fathers".
In August of 2006, David organized and composed for a concert in Los Angeles which utilized a 60-piece orchestra performing original music to benefit Red Cross Disaster Relief Operations. The concert was a tribute to the survivors of the 2004 Southeast Asia Tsunami Disaster, and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. David was one of the conductors for this concert which featured his music along with the music of 6 other composers.
Marinho Nobre - Film, Concert, & Television Composer
Film composer, music producer, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist Marinho Nobre, has scored a number of independent feature and
short films, along with concert work as well as being a producer and performer. He
has received two awards and one nomination for his music under the best film
score category. (2007Park
City Film Music Festival – "Best score on a
short film" – “The Angel” from
Tripod Pictures / 2008 Park City Film Music Festival - "Best score on a feature film" – “Al
Qarem” from Boskashi Films / Nominated for
"best score on a short film" at the 2007 Hollywood Film and TV Music
Awards - “The Angel”) Marinho’s music can also be heard nationwide on
four documentary series chapters for PBS Television and The National Geographic Channel.
Some of Marinho’s recent film scores include the feature slasher “Left For Dead” (featuring actors Steve Byers and Danielle Harris) by director Christopher Harrison and Canadian studio Mindscape Films and “Sacred
Game” (winner "best feature thriller" at
2009’s New York Independent Film and Video Festival) by writer and director Bernardo
Chillindron and indie studio OtherAmerica
Pictures. Marinho has also been commissioned in 2010 to score the upcoming
feature sci-fi horror film by award-winning writer and director Paul
Hough ("The Angel", "The Backyard") entitled “The
Human Race” as well as director
Christopher Harrison’s upcoming film “The Man Who Loved Flowers” based on a short novel by writer Stephen
King.
Marinho’s concert
work includes a suite of string quartets performed in 2007 in New York by the Julliard String Quartet, and a big band score for
the musical "Troubles of Women”
by producer Kimla Beasley that
will be debuting on Broadway in the spring of 2010.
As a producer and
performer, Marinho came from a pop/techno/rock/Ethnic background working on a
multitude of projects including collaborations from ethnic music artists and
groups all the way to heavy metal bands such as Sepultura and Biohazard. In 1990, Marinho produced and composed tracks for “Brutal”, the second CD for Brazilian pop rock icons Dr.
Sin, to date the band’s best selling
album. Marinho also worked as the main writer and guitarist for the techno
industrial group Kx.
Marinho is currently
writing, producing and recording his debut instrumental World Music entitled “World
Citizen” which is due for release in
January 2010.
He has studied
composition at the FAAM University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, film scoring at The U.K.-based Music for the Media film scoring school and composition and conducting at The Julliard School in New York.
Marinho Nobre
currently works out of his private recording studio in Long Island City, N.Y.
where along with his small staff he gathers a myriad of ethnic and common
instruments, percussion objects, self-made sound libraries and anything that
can bring the music and sounds out of his mind into reality.
Page Ostrow - President of Ostrow and Company
Ostrow and Company was founded by veteran entertainment industry executive Page B.
Ostrow. Page has arranged financing and/or negotiated distribution for
over 150 feature films and numerous documentaries working initially on
behalf of many international distributors. In 2000, she was inspired
by a vision to protect the interests of independent filmmakers, Page
shifted her company's focus to representing films and projects on
behalf of filmmakers and producers requiring distribution and
financing. Some of the films Page has represented are "Stolen Childhoods", starring BAFTA®™-winner, 2-time Oscar®™-winner and screen legend Meryl Streep, H.B.O.'s, "Juvies", starring Mark Wahlberg, Lions Gate's, "The Bros", "Drugging of Our Children" with Academy Award®™-winner Michael Moore, and Sony Pictures', "Make It Funky", to name a few.
Ostrow’s background includes working under contract for Initial Entertainment's Graham King distributor/producer of Oscar®™-winning films such as, "The Departed", "The Aviator" and "Blood Diamond".
These days, in order to find, negotiate, track, and collect on deals
for independent filmmakers and producers, Ostrow relies on her
extensive relationships, and her previous distribution expertise
developed over the ten years she spent providing distributors with
global sales support, licensing, pre-sales for their film projects and
libraries to international buyers at all the film markets.
To this day, Page Ostrow maintains close contact with key executives
who have shared her vision towards launching quality films into the
marketplace.
"Life with Kat & McKay" is an original comedy series she created, writes, directs, and produces. It was picked up for distribution on www.KoldCast.Tv, relaunching on that platform in early September.
"The Web.Files" is a web series about web series. It has an interview/talk show format and stars the show's creator, entertainment reporter, Kristyn Burtt, who gets the inside scoop on "Web Celebs". The first show has an interview with "YouTube®™" sensation, Tay Zonday of "Chocolate Rain" fame, and received more than 12,000 hits in two months.
Sandra began her writing career
creating ancillary products for the PBS children’s television series "Wishbone". From there, she became a staff
writer for two seasons on the global hit children’s show, "Barney &
Friends".
She also wrote puzzle books and a baby board book, “Barney, I Did It Myself!".
Her other writing credits include
humor etiquette columns for "Celeb Staff" magazine and "Celeb Life" magazine, a coffee table book of
photographs called "Cultural Portraits of Indonesia", and a story in several "Chicken
Soup for the Soul"
books. And she has two optioned feature scripts, a period drama, and a romantic
comedy.
She has received multiple awards
for her short film work:
In her personal life, Sandra has a
love for travel that began as a child growing up in her home state of Alaska.
When she was in middle school, her family moved to Indonesia for two years, and
then she went to boarding school in Austria for a year before returning to the
Seattle area for high school and college.
Brett Renwick
is a branded entertainment professional who has his own company Renwick
& Co., but has previously worked for Digitas®™, The Weinstein Company®™
(Movie Studio), Nielsen Media Research, Inc.®™, a pure-play dotcom, Great
Brands of Europe,®™ Inc. (Evian,®™ Dannon®™, Volvic®™ and LU Biscuits North
America®™), and Sony Theatres®™ (A Division of Sony®™ Corp. of America). His
first novel Wired For Chaos (a science fiction thriller) was sold
earlier this year to Creation Books, Inc. His second novel, Requiem For
A Loser † Mesdames Et Messieurs, Un Vampire Extraordinaire, Madame
Tracy, is contemporary-mainstream that will resonate with urbane
readers everywhere.
In 1993, he joined the Dark Body Writer’s
Collective started by Bridgette M. Davis (director of "Naked Acts",
author of Shifting Through Neutral) and began work on his first novel.
As a private, not-for-profit, writer’s workshop they meet monthly for
readings and critiques. The members consist of a reporter for the "Wall
Street Journal" (Leon E. Wynter, author American Skin), another
journalist for "The New York Times", novelists, playwrights, etc.
He
is the also the author of: four feature length screenplays; spec
sit-com scripts for "Seinfeld", "A Different World" and "Cheers"; an
adaptation of Rashomon titled "Trespasses"; an article, Screenwriter, No
Chaser; and a "Twilight Zone" script titled, "Satan Says". On September 13,
1989, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a screenwriting career in
Hollywood. While there he was hired by an independent producer to write
a treatment for a movie-of-the-week based on the Melendez brothers. He
held a variety of jobs from suit salesman at "Polo" on Rodeo Drive,
stand-in on "A Different World" to producer’s assistant on "L.A. Law". On
December 1992, he moved back to Manhattan to develop New York based
projects.
His production experience includes: Production coordinator on
"The Cosby Show" in the fall of 1987, where he assisted the cast,
production staff, public relations and transportation offices.
Production Assistant on "F/X", a feature film and boom on and a Black
United Fund commercial directed by Greg Freelon. He wrote, directed and
produced a music video for rock band "The Absolute".
During
the spring of 1988, he participated in Robert McKee’s screenwriting
seminar-workshop. He is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch
School of the Arts Film- T.V. School where his concentration focused on
writing and directing. In the fall of 1986, as assistant to producer
Dean Silvers, ("Spanking the Monkey", "Wigstock", "Flirting With Disaster")
he wrote script coverage, treatments for magazine format TV shows and
features. In 1985, he served as director of photography on a 16mm music
video for the “Pedantics”.
A graduate of The Fiorello LaGuardia School of Music & Art with a degree in fine art. Mr. Renwick was born in Port of Spain,
Trinidad, West Indies.
Affiliations: BFF, IFP, NYU’s TSOA in LA, SAG, AFTRA and the Dark Body Writer’s Collective
Danae Ringelmann - CFA & Co-Founder
IndieGoGo
Danae Ringelmann is a Co-Founder of IndieGoGo - a platform that provides tools for
fundraising, promotion, and discovery to the film and media industry.
IndieGoGo enables people to showcase their work, mobilize their fans,
DIWO (Do-It-With-Others!)
Danae co-founded IndieGoGo to
democratize the film funding process. Passionate about helping
filmmakers embrace new opportunities online, Danae often speaks at
conferences and in classrooms on DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) Filmmaking.
Recent speaking engagements include Los Angeles Film Festival®™, PGA®™ Produced By Conference, Digital Hollywood,®™ Slamdance®™, International
Documentary Association®™, Women In Film®™ & TV, TieCon®™, UGCX®™, >play
Conference®™, Mill Valley Film Festival®™ and Hollywood Black Film
Festival®™. She also serves as an Advisor to The Conversation®™.
Danae
brings entertainment industry and film finance expertise. Prior to
IndieGoGo, Danae was a Securities Analyst at Cowen & Co. where she
covered entertainment companies including Pixar®™, Lions Gate®™, Disney®™,
and Electronic Arts®™. Danae also focused on Cable Network®™, NFL®™,
newspaper and hedge fund clientele while at JPMorgan's Investment Bank
and Private Bank®™. In the wake of 9/11, Danae co-produced a concert
reading of "Incident At Vichy", an Arthur Miller play addressing the
politically charged topic of racial profiling.
Danae
is a C.F.A. charter holder and holds an M.B.A. from the Haas School of
Business at U.C. Berkeley. Danae graduated with a B.A. in Humanities from
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a
Morehead Scholar and varsity rower.
Steve Holland Savage - Film and Television Director
Steve Holland Savage, born in 1960, graduated from California Institute of the Arts in 1981 with a BFA in Film/Graphics. His first job was drawing cartoons of celebrities for the fledgling new show “Entertainment Tonight®™”. He went on to create and animate the sinister "Whammy" for the CBS®™ game show “Press Your Luck”. In 1984, Savage wrote and directed his first studio feature film “Better Off Dead” starring John Cusack.
Savage and Cusack teamed up again for the Warner Bros. film “One Crazy Summer”, this time with Demi Moore. Savage then directed “How I Got Into College” starring Anthony Edwards and Lara Flynn Boylefor 20th Century Fox®™.
At the brand new FOX Television Network Savage Wrote, Directed and Executive Produced the TV series “The New Adventures of Beans Baxter”
Starring Kurtwood Smith. Then it was over to HBO®™ for the series “Encyclopedia Brown, One-Minute Mysteries.”
Savage
created the twisted cartoon “Eek! The Cat” for 3 seasons on the Fox
Kids Network,®™ The success of "Eek!" spun off the animated shows “The
Terrible Thunderlizards” and “Klutter” . "Eek! The Cat" was nominated for a Daytime Emmy®™ for Outstanding Children’s Programming. Savage directed the Daytime Emmy®™ Award-Winning“City Kids” (for Outstanding Children’s Programming) for Jim Henson/ ABC Saturday Morning.
Next Savage created and produced “Sabrina the Animated Series” for Disney’s®™ ABC®™ Saturday Morning! Savage wrote and directed the “Wonderful World of Disney” Sunday Night movie, “Safety Patrol” starring Leslie Neilsen and Weird Al Yankovic. Savage also directed the Pamela Anderson action series V.I.P. for two seasons!
He then directed episodes of "Lizzie McGuire", "Honey I Shrunk The
Kids", "Even Stevens", "Phil of the Future" and the Disney®™ Channel's T.V. movie “Stuck In The Suburbs”. Somewhere in here Savage wrote a draft of the script for “Howard Stern Presents PORKY’S!”
At Nickelodeon®™ Savage directs episodes of "Zoey 101", "Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide", and the "Emma Robert’s" starring Unfabulous! Steven created the animated “El Chupacabra Show” For Nickelodeon®™.
Mr. Savage directed the Sea World®™ Theme Park
attraction, “Believe” starring SHAMU! Savage has completed Nick’s first
TV feature film…“Shredderman Rules!” In 2007 he finished National Lampoon’s®™ "Ratko, The Dictator’s Son” starring Efren Ramirez (Pedro from "Napoleon Dynamite") and Katrina Bowden from "30 Rock". Then he directed the Reese Witherspoon produced tri-quel “Legally Blondes” for MGM®™. Currently Savage’s pilot “Big Time Rush” has gone to series for Nickelodeon.®™ Savage is currently
alternating between directing episodes of "Big Time Rush" and "Zeke and Luther and “Jonas” (The Jonas Brothers show) for Disney Channel®™!
Mr. Smiley is a member of the Beverly Hills Bar Association and the Los Angeles County Bar Association (Entertainment Section), Film Independent, and the A.F.I. In 2008 he was named by "The Hollywood Reporter®™" as one of it's 100 Power Lawyers, the most influential and powerful entertainment attorneys nationwide.
Mr. Smiley’s clients currently include entertainment companies from around the globe, with an emphasis on independent film production. He has advised his clients in matters ranging from corporate issues, film financing,
domestic and foreign independent distribution arrangements digital
licensing as well as service deals and as production counsel. He
continues to handle litigation for his clients as needed.
Marc G. Smolowitz - Executive Producer - Media & Technology
Marc G. Smolowitz is an Academy Award®™-nominated documentary film, television & new media producer, ("The Weather Underground '03" and "Trembling Before G-d
'01"), published writer, and media/marketing professional with 18+
years of diverse professional experience across all aspects of the
entertainment business. Currently, Marc works as an Executive Producer and Consultant to a dynamic slate of San Francisco Bay area-based media and technology companies.
Most
recently, he was the Producer at TellyTopia, a Silicon Valley company
that provides IP-TV solutions to cable operators, satellite companies
and online media channels. Prior to that, he was Development Director
& Senior Staff Producer at Access SF, the non-profit that manages
community access cable television for the City & County of San Francisco.
Notably,
Marc was President & Founder of Turbulent Arts, Inc., a successful
San Francisco film company that was ranked the 26th largest in North America
at its peak in 1998. On the volunteer side, he serves as Chair of the
Technology Impact Circle at Full Circle Fund, an engaged philanthropy
organization cultivating the next generation of community leaders and driving lasting social change in the S.F. Bay Area.
Mr.
Smolowitz is also on the board of The Public Press, a journalism
startup, the Community Technology Network (C.T.N.) of the Bay Area, and
the L.G.B.T. Alliance of the Jewish Community Federation in San Francisco.
Finally, Marc is an Instructor in the Digital Filmmaking program at the
Art Institute of San Francisco, California.
Tennyson E. Stead is a produced screenwriter, a seasoned executive in
independent film, a veteran of the stage, and an emerging director and
producer. Currently he has two feature films in development: "Heartsgaard" with Second Front Films, and "Sam Bailey" with his own 8-Sided Films.
Randy Tat - Executive Vice President at CFP Productions (Housed at Paramount Pictures)
Randy
Tat, currently Executive Vice President at CFP Productions, housed at
Paramount Pictures, has carved out a career as one of the industry’s
most versatile executives. He boasts experience in both television and
film, from his start as an NBC®™ page to his current post, where he
helped develop the hit film "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days", which grossed
more than $177 million worldwide.
Tat’s
career path began at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he
specialized in Film and Television. He landed a job as a production and
casting coordinator for a Seattle-based production company where he
worked on a variety of projects. Among these were the motion pictures
"Black Widow" for Columbia Pictures®™ and "An Officer And A Gentleman" for
Paramount®™, as well as several movies of the week, series and
mini-series for network television, including "Jacqueline Bouvier
Kennedy", "The Rape of Richard Beck" and "Divorce Wars" for ABC®™, and
"Innocent Love" and 12 episodes of the series "Hot Pursuit" for NBC®™.
Taking
a staff position at NBC®™ in On-Air Promotions, Randy produced and
coordinated promos, trailers and image campaigns for "Family Ties", "The
Cosby Show", "Matlock", "The Golden Girls", "The Tonight Show", "Night Court",
"Bob Hope Specials", "Crime Story" and "NBC Sports"®™.
Tat
joined the fledgling Fox Broadcasting Company®™ in 1987 as Producer and
Acquisitions Manager for On-Air Promotion, working directly under Barry
Diller. He was one of the first 12 people hired at the network, helping
launch the networks’ on-air promotions department. While there, Randy
did all the licensing for music on-air, directed voice-over talent for
trailers and promos as well as produced and developed innovative
program launches, marketing strategies and image campaigns for such
groundbreaking programs as "Beverly Hills 90210", "Melrose Place", "The
Simpsons", "The Outsiders", the "Emmy Awards,®™", "Married With Children",
"America’s Most Wanted" and "Cops".
Tat’s responsibilities quickly
expanded to include Manager, Room Producer and Creator of the Music
Licensing and Legal Clearance Department, where his duties included
supervising, negotiating legal contracts and compiling network feeds.
“I was an integral part of building these divisions from the ground
up”, says Tat. “We established the template that helped sell Fox®™ as an
innovative company willing to take programming risks.”
He
segued to the Disney®™ Channel, where he produced affiliate and sales
presentations for the Creative Development Group, supervising on-line
editing sessions and audio post-production. He also coordinated
production on commercials for Propaganda Films®™, Ridley Scott’s
commercial agency, RSA/USA®™ and GMS®™.
As a segment producer, he
supervised and coordinated several TV pilots for Columbia Pictures®™, as
well as "A Current Affair" for Fox®™ and "Hard Copy" for Paramount®™.
Meanwhile, moonlighting as a cartoonist, he created the cult comic
strip, “Hollywood Moguls,” a popular feature for Movieline®™ magazine.
Looking to move from television to motion
picture features, Tat joined the Paramount Motion Pictures Group®™, where
he worked in creative production under Sherry Lansing and John Goldwyn
for four years, developing and coordinating such projects as
"Braveheart", "The Brady Bunch 1 and 2", "Eye For An Eye", "Face Off", "Event
Horizon", "Double Jeopardy", "Evening Star", "Phantom" and "Mission: Impossible
1".
“At Paramount, I learned every facet of development and
production”, says Randy. “It was a crash course in the movie business
and I soaked it all in.” An organized team player, Randy is not afraid
to be creative and pro-active in making things happen, showing his
versatility in various areas of both Film and Television. “I've worked
in every aspect of the studio, from marketing and publicity (both
domestic and international), interactive to home video, product
placement and network television.”
In 1997, he joined Christine
Peters at the Robert Evans Company,®™ where he became an integral part of
her CFP Productions unit, helping turn "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days"
into an international box office hit, spending much of that time on
location. Tat also had a crucial role in the coordination, research and
development of such films as "Out-Of-Towners", as well as upcoming
projects like "How To Tell He’s Not The One In 10 Days", "Bullrider",
"Fashionistas " (with Lindsay Lohan), "Confessions Of A Master Jewel Thief" and two videogame-turned-film projects: "Area 51" and John Singleton’s
"Fear And Respect". He was also instrumental in marketing and promoting
"Entertainment Express", a credit card company started by Peters with
MBNA, marketed to theater owners.
Showing
his wide-ranging skills, Tat produced more than 250 episodes (five
shows a week) of the daily half-hour syndicated comedy/relationship
reality series, "Rendez-View", for Paramount®™, directing talent on-set,
writing guest intros and overseeing every creative aspect of the show,
including writers, talent and editors.
Tat’s
influence extends to every area of CFP Productions, including finance,
business affairs, development and production. Married with two kids,
Randy continues to utilize his vast industry contacts and knowledge,
built over a two-decade career, to make it one of Hollywood’s
cutting-edge companies, developing, producing and marketing quality commercial entertainment for the young adult market, both male and
female.
Charles Thompson – Feature Film Marketing Consultantfor Universal Studios
Charles is a marketing consultant specializing in awards campaigns for Hollywood studios.
He has spent the past 12 years advising Universal Pictures on how to
market their feature films to voting members of such awards groups as
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences®™, the British Academy®™, the Hollywood Foreign Press®™, the Screen Actors Guild®™,
the Directors Guild®™ and the Writers Guild®™. Due to his efforts the
studio has been awarded numerous nominations and awards including Best
Picture for "A Beautiful Mind" at the 2002 Academy Awards®™. As an awards consultant he interacts with top Hollywood directors, producers, writers, actors and actresses as well as studio executives. A career highlight was when his awards campaign efforts paid off and Julia Roberts won her first Academy
Award®™ as Best Actress for "Erin Brockovich".
Charles graduated with honors from the New York University film program in 1988. Later that year his student film "Elysian Fields" won 4 awards at the N.Y.U. Student Film Festival. Before graduation he interned in the Walt Disney Pictures publicity
department in New York City. After graduating he worked as an
assistant to an executive in the Tri-Star Pictures publicity department
in New York. This job took him to Los Angeles where he began working
on the awards campaigns at Tri-Star and Columbia Pictures.
He eventually moved on to consult for MGM/United Artists ultimately
landing at Universal Pictures where he has been since 1999.
Betty Jo Tucker - Film Critic & Author
Because of a passion
for film, Betty Jo Tucker watches almost 200 movies a year. A retired
college dean, she currently serves as editor/lead critic for ReelTalk
Movie Reviews and writes film commentary for other outlets, including
the Colorado Senior Beacon and The Romance Club.
Betty Jo hosts
“Movie Addict Headquarters,” a weekly film-related talk show on
BlogTalkRadio®™. Her online course, “The Reel Deal: Writing About
Movies,” is offered through the Long Story Short School of Writing and
also can be purchased as an E-Book.
During her career as an
entertainment journalist, Betty Jo has interviewed such stars and
filmmakers as Susan Sarandon, Ian McKellen, Angelina Jolie, Aidan
Quinn, Barry Bostwick, Tony Shalhoub, Cloris Leachman, Tony Curtis,
Fred Willard, Aaron Eckhart, M. Night Shyamalan, Oliver Parker, Chen
Kaige, Douglas McGrath, Hector Elizondo, and Annette Bening.
Betty
Jo, who belongs to the Online Film Critics Society and is a founding
member of the San Diego Film Critics’ Society, is a published author.
Her two movie related books, CONFESSIONS OF A MOVIE ADDICT and SUSAN
SARANDON: A TRUE MAVERICK, have received rave reviews from film fans
and critics alike.
The Romance Club E-Book version of IT HAD TO
BE US, a romantic memoir Betty Jo co-authored with her husband (under
the pseudonyms of Harry & Elizabeth Lawrence) was honored at the
2006 Hollywood Book Festival®™ as the winner in the E-Book category, andSUSAN SARANDON: A TRUE MAVERICK received Honorable Mention in the Wild
Card section of the 2007 New York Book Festival®™.
Dina Wilson - Mobile Media
Dina Wilson is the Assistant Producer of Connected Mobile Media at Walt Disney Entertainment
where she develops and produces mobile products for multiple platforms
such as iPhone, Blackberry and PSP. Prior to that Dina worked as a
Televison and Live Event producer for HBO working on the "U.S. Comedy
Arts Festival, Aspen" and "The Comedy Festival, Las Vegas". As a Television Producer,
Dina has also worked on several Home Renovation shows, including the
Fox Show "Renovate My Family".
Dina has done turns in feature
development and production at Paramount Pictures and with several big name producers such as Lucy Fisher ("Memoirs Of A Geisha") and John Jacobs ("Anger Management").
From 2000-2002, Dina was a Network Exective for HBO
in Original Programming and New Media where she was the Creative Producer for Programming on multiple platforms including "On-Air", "Live Shows", "Online", "DVD" and "Video-On-Demand" for stand-up comedy, Series and
Film Programming, working with productions such as "The Sopranos" and
"Sex And The City".
Dina's work also encompasses the "ten percentary",
where she got her start. At CAA, Dina held a new media associate
position where she helped agents pitch their clients and she helped
develop new media projects.
Alex Winter – Filmmaker
Winter began his career as an actor, co-starring in the
Broadway productions of "The King & I", "Peter Pan", and the
American premiere of
Simon Gray's "Close Of Play" at the Manhattan Theater
Club.
After attending NYU film school, Winter went on to have
starring roles in
several feature films, including Orion's huge hit "Bill
And Ted's
Excellent Adventure" and it's sequel "Bill And Ted's Bogus
Journey",
the Warner Brothers cult favorite "The Lost Boys" and Percy
Adlon's "Rosalie Goes Shopping", among others.
Winter co-created many influential comedy projects with
partner Tom
Stern, which they wrote, directed and starred in. Among
them is the MTV
series, "The Idiot Box", and their theatrical directing
debut, "Freaked",
released by Twentieth Century Fox. "Freaked" has been
acclaimed by critics,
including The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly,
who heralded the
film on their list of "Top Ten Greatest Comedies Of The Nineties." The film
also stars Randy Quaid, Keanu Reeves, Brooke Shields,
Bobcat Goldthwait
as a human sock puppet and Mr. T as The Bearded Lady.
Winter next wrote and directed "Fever", a psychological
thriller starring
Henry Thomas, Teri Hatcher, Bill Duke and The Departed's
David O' Hara.
Released by Lionsgate Films, "Fever" was an entry in film
festivals
worldwide, including an Official Selection in the
Director's Fortnight at
Cannes. In The New York Times, A.O. Scott praised the
film as "Pure
Hitchcockian panic...Mr. Winter's control of the picture's
mood is so
assured that doubt is as irrelevant as it would be in
your most intimate
nightmare".
Alongside his feature projects, Winter continues to
enjoy a successful
career directing commercials and music videos, both in
America and in the
U.K. Highlights of his work include campaigns for
Peugeot, Pringles and
Ford in the U.K., and award-winning spots for Supercuts
and Google in the
U.S. His music videos include: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Helmet,
Bootsy Collins,
and Ice Cube. As an actor, Winter recently appeared in a guest-star role on
the Fox TV Series, "Bones", and performed a recurring
vocal role on the
Adult Swim series, "Saul Of The Mole Men".
Most recently, Winter produced and directed Cartoon
Network’s live-action movie event, "Ben 10: Race Against Time". The
television premiere garnered the highest ratings in Cartoon Network history,
and the DVD has
become the network’s biggest seller.
Just completed is the "Ben 10" sequel, "BEN 10: Alien
Swarm", which Winter
also produced and directed. The Cartoon Network Original
Movie is due for
release in November of ’09.
Winter is currently writing the remake of the 70’s
classic "Rock And Roll
High School" for producer Howard Stern and is in
pre-production to
direct
the 3-D horror movie "The Gate".
Jeff Wolverton grew up in
Columbus, Ohio, getting expelled from such prestigious High Schools as
Upper Arlington. He then obtained various degrees at The Ohio State
University where he also created animations for stadium scoreboards
across the country during a desperate and vain attempt to stay in
college until the end of time.
Once the beer ran out, Jeff moved to Los
Angeles to work at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he was a
digital artist on "Hercules", "Tarzan", and, oddly, a scratch voice
actor for Disney's "Dinosaur". After accidentally driving to the wrong
studio, Jeff started work at Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he served
as a lighting artist on "Stuart Little" and an effects animator on
"Hollow Man" and "SpiderMan 1 and 3".
Jeff got lost once again and
landing at other studios, where he was an effects animator on
"Daredevil", "X-Men 2", "Fantastic Four", "Ghost Rider", and any other
comic book movie he could before returning to Sony for "I Am Legend"
and "Hancock". Suddenly and inexplicably deciding he could write
movies, Jeff wrote the screenplay for "Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of
Mists", an animated film with voices by Brendan Fraser, Leonard Nimoy
and Mark Hamill, that is still today widely regarded as the best film
ever written starring those three particular actors in an animated
movie beginning with the letter "S".
Now known as a screenwriter with
the uncanny talent of knowing not only where, but when, to capitalize
words, Jeff quickly sold several other
as-yet-unproduced-and-probably-never-will-be screenplays. Jeff feels
one of his greatest accomplishments was pitching, writing and rewriting
the Academy Award®™-winning (and B.A.F.T.A.®™-nominated) short film "The
ChubbChubbs!", where he was also allowed to be the voice of the titular
(don't laugh, it's a real word, look it up) characters, a role he later
reprised for the sequel "The ChubbChubbs Save Xmas". He then (again
inexplicably) decided he could perform improv and stand-up comedy and
began performing at comedy clubs all around Los Angeles. Jeff continues
to create visual effects, write screenplays, tell jokes and truly loves
referring to himself in the third person.
