Crew
Writer/Director
Laurie Weltz co-wrote and directed the award winning feature film, Wrestling With Alligators, which starred Joely Richardson, Aleksa Palladino, Claire Bloom, and Adrienne Shelly. Wrestling With Alligators premiered in competition at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize. Since then, Laurie has worked as a freelance director and editor for hundreds of television shows including HBO documentary Shock Video, A&E’s documentary series Heroes, a six part TV series for Channel 4 in the U.K. called Made in the USA, and the documentary Nelson Sullivan’s World of Wonder. Her television work has twice been nominated for an ACE Award.
Laurie is currently in development of a new feature, The Night Swimmer. She has previously written two other optioned feature scripts including Watermoon, which was optioned by Elevation Pictures, and Monkey River, which won the Grand Prize in the PAGE Screenwriting Competition and was optioned by Rolmade Films. She is the Programming Director of the Film Fatales, and her projects have been recipients of numerous screenwriting and filmmaking awards, as well as participants in IFP Emerging Filmmakers, IFP No Borders, a finalist for NYWIFT’s Ravenal Grant, and this year’s Stowe Story Labs PAGE Screenwriting Fellowship.
Producer
Beverley Gordon is an award-winning producer who is the owner of the independent production company BrownBag Pictures. Her producing credits include independent feature films Chutney Popcorn directed by Nisha Ganatra and The Other Brother directed by Mandel Holland. Beverley’s short film Wednesday Afternoon directed by Alonso Mayo was a winner of a Student Academy Award, as well as was honored by the Imagen Awards and multiple film festivals nationally and internationally.
Currently, Beverley is in development on a slate of projects that include romantic-comedies Singletini and Pink, White and Blue, coming-of-age tale Late Bloomer, multi-cultural animated series The Magic Poof, heart-warming Christmas story The Ornament, young adult TV mystery series The Secret of Starlight Landing, musical drama Forgive This Town, and several TV & Web series. Beverley is a graduate of the American Film Institute, receiving an MFA in the discipline of producing. She is a graduate of Harvard University and received a JD from Tulane Law School where she studied entertainment and sports law.
Producer
Dwjuan studied Film and Video Production for undergrad at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1998 at the start of the Bosnian / Kosovo Conflict Dwjuan left a successful career as a freelance Producer and Lighting Director of the Emmy Award winning GPTV show Irasshai, to join the US Army. Dwjuan then went on to obtain his Masters degree in Producing from the prestigious American Film Institute in Los Angeles California. In consequent years Dwjuan has become the recipient of the Multicultural Motion Picture Association, Bank of America and Producer's Guild of America Diversity Awards.
Dwjuan was nominated for a 2012 Image Award for his feature documentary, The Rescuers, which reflects his desire to understand and affect the human condition. Dwjuan currently has a feature in theaters, We the Party! a teen dramedy written and directed by Mario Van Peebles. He also has two other features slated to premier later this year.
Producer
Nicolas, a graduate of the American Film Institute and the co-founder of Decipher Entertainment, has produced over 50 music videos, viral spots, films and TV commercials. Due to his Spanish and Italian decent, Nicolas understands the importance of diversity in the projects he works on and actively demonstrates a creative eye for spotting new talent.
Nicolas has produced several award winning short films over the years including Bakeshop Ghost which won multiple Best Short Film and Audience Awards worldwide, Homefront which won Best Short Film at the Chinese American Festival of Film & Culture, and Mayday Mayday which won the Kodak Emerging Filmmaker's Award. Early industry experience includes his job as a VIP travel coordinator with Quincy Jones' We Are The Future.
Nicolas recently had his latest feature Ask Me Anything premiere at the Nashville Film Festival, a film he produced under Decipher Entertainment. A voting member of the Recording Academy for the Music Video Producers Wing, Nicolas is currently developing several features and documentaries.
Cinematographer
Austin F. Schmidt studied cinematography at the Tisch Film School in New York University. He continued his education at FAMU in Prague and later at AFI in Los Angeles. Through the years he has shot over 50 features, shorts, music videos and commercials, spanning a multitude of genres and styles. He has been privileged to work with many award winning directors and actors including Ellen Burstyn, Ben Stiller, Danny Glover, Jesse Eisenberg, Jane Seymour, Brittany Snow, Thora Birch, Nikki Reed, Michael Urie and Ash Christian to name a few.
Schmidt stays active in educating the younger cinematography community by teaching lighting and camera workshops at the Universal Stages in Los Angeles. He has recently published a book on cinematography which is now distributed amongst film schools across the country.
Production Designer
Megan developed her love for cinema while studying Design and Media at UCLA. She later attended the American Film Institute as a Production Design fellow. After graduating she went on to art direct and production design numerous features, music videos and commercials. Focusing on independent film, she has had the fortune of working on features that have premiered at Sundance, Toronto International Film Festival, SXSW, Tribeca and opened the Newport Beach Film Fest. When not working on set, she is diligently working on her numerous illustration projects, graphic novels and coming up with new ways to make the world a better looking place.
Editor
Jim graduated from NYU film school to work with director Abel Ferrara on films such as The Funeral, The Blackout, and New Rose Hotel. He later edited Asia Argento's The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, based on the controversial novel by J.T. Leroy. Jim continued his editing work on a range of genres with the comedy/farce He's Way More Famous Than You, and the horror/thriller Darkroom. Jim's editing range also extends to documentaries. In 2002 he edited Shot In The Dark, which follows actor Adrian Grenier (pre-Entourage) on his search for his biological father. Jim continued his work at HBO documentary films on Le Cirque: A Table In Heaven an intimate portrait of Sirio Maccioni and his world famous elegant Le Cirque Manhattan restaurant. Jim's most acclaimed documentary is Teenage Paparazzo, a 2010 Sundance favorite that examines the relation between celebrity and society, distributed by HBO.
Costume Designer
Meghan is a Costume Designer living and working in Los Angeles. A graduate of FIDM, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, her experience ranges from television to feature films and everything in between. As a designer she strives to find costumes that define and expand the characters they represent.
Growing up and watching films, she was always struck by the beautiful costumes that light up the screen. Knowing how completely they define a character and seeing the audience’s first reaction to them shows how truly important they are. In her career she has worked toward creating interesting costumes that support the emotion and tone of the film as a whole, while maintaining a visual continuity amongst the varying characters of a piece.
Music Composer
John Dragonetti is a composer, songwriter, music producer and co-founder of the band The Submarines, whose songs have been featured in two Apple iPhone TV spots and numerous films and television shows: Weeds, Nip/Tuck, Grey’s Anatomy, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, to name a few. In addition, Dragonetti recently produced 17 year-old Dylan Gardner’s debut album, set for release later in 2014. Past production credits include Chadwick Stokes’ Simmerkane II and remixes for Ra Ra Riot, Josh Ritter, and Avril Lavigne.
On the small screen, Dragonetti has scored music for AMC’s Small Town Security and Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas For A Small Planet. His compositions have been featured in TV spots for brands such as Volkswagen, Apple, Coca-Cola, Volvo and EA Games. On the big screen, he composed the music for Doug Pray’s documentary feature Surfwise, The Broken Lizard comedy Freeloaders, Brian Knappenberger’s We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists and The Internet’s Own Boy.
Music Supervisor
Since the 1990’s Cathi Black has been involved in various aspects of the music industry, including concert promotion and merchandising with Brokum Entertainment for Lollapalooza, NIN, Sisters of Mercy, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, and Metallica to name a few. Her marketing and promotion experiences led to her to work with the MusicWest and VIFF Music Festivals at the height of the ‘grunge’ movement, alongside with the music executives responsible for acts like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden.
In early 2001, Black started working in the film and music division at Sony Pictures. She was soon thereafter offered a job at EMI as associate Music Supervisor to internationally renowned Music Supervisor Budd Carr, where she worked on such films as Enemy at the Gates, Rock Star, The Score, Life or Something Like It and Beyond Borders. Since, she has music supervised feature film campaigns for some of the top trailer houses, become the founder of Beautiful Oblivion Entertainment, and the VP of Business Development/Music Supervision of proTunes.
Music Editor
Jerry is a multi-Emmy Award-winning Music Producer, Supervisor and Music Editor with 20+ years of experience producing a variety of music and audio projects for recording artists, labels, television networks and independent studios. Past clients include The Weinstein Company, Paramount Studios, Gurney Productions, Authentic Entertainment, and Fremantle Media.
Jerry started his career as a recording engineer/producer working with the best session musicians in NYC. He has worked on 1000s of ad campaigns, records and films. Jerry made the leap to TV as a music supervisor with the ABC show, The City. Since then, he has supervised or produced music for many shows including Cosby, All My Children, Fox Files, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, the Olympics, and many more.
Associate Producer & Post Production Supervisor
Michael Quinn Martin is the third generation of his family in show business. His grandfather Martin Goodman Cohn produced films, some of them in Yiddish. His father Quinn Martin produced numerous televisions shows like The Fugitive, and his mother Madelyn Pugh Davis, was one of the creators and writers of I Love Lucy. After graduating from UCLA Film School, Michael has had a long career as a Post Production Supervisor in sitcoms, features, and Blu-Ray/DVD bonus footage. He has also been a Post Production Executive at the Lucasfilm/THX/Theatre Alignment Program (TAP), Spelling Films, and Artisan Entertainment.
He was the Post Production Supervisor on the sitcoms Love, Sidney, Gimme A Break, Life With Lucy, the Associate Producer on Temporarily Yours, the Post Production Supervisor on Stephen King’s Thinner, The House Of Yes, Novocaine, the Co-Producer on Dark Ride, the Associate Producer on Kings Highway, and Standing In The Shadows of Motown. He was also the Production Laboratory Supervisor on Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet. Michael is also a screenwriter specializing in the family comedy genre, and is a photographer who has shot eleven covers for “Produced By,” the magazine of the Producers Guild of America, of which he is a proud member.
Supervising Sound Editor & Rerecording Mixer
Matthew Polis, founder of boutique sound house, SoundSpace in New York City, has been sound designing and mixing films for nearly 20 years. His combined story driven approach to sound design and technical mastery in the mix room has earned him respect amongst his peers in the indie film world with over 150 credits. Matthew’s works include Appropriate Behaivor (Sundance, BAM), Broken Heart Land (ITVS), I Believe in Unicorns (SXSW), Peter and Vendy (Sundance), David Blaine: Beautiful Struggle & What is Magic, Evolution of a Criminal (SXSW, Full Frame, ITVS), The System with Joe Berlinger, Food Chains (Berlin), Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon, Seymour: An Introduction (Telluride, Toronto, NYFF). Matthew is also an adjunct professor at his alma mater, NYU Tisch School of the Arts for post audio and mixing.
Visual Effects Supervisor
Dimitri Loginowski is an award winning Visual Effects supervisor and owner of Handsome, LLC, a visual effects and design boutique. He has over 12 years of experience in the field and 10 movies under his belt, ranging from full CG to 'invisible' effects. He is currently developing a hard science fiction script and is an avid reader of books by Peter. F. Hamilton. Dimitri is always looking to partner with directors and producers early in production to maximize efficiency and visual impact.