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Guest speakers from the recent May 30 & 31 2009 Class being held in LA.
PETER BRODERICK is President of Paradigm Consulting, which provides strategic consulting services to filmmakers
and media companies. In addition to advising on financing, sales, and marketing, Paradigm Consulting specializes in state-of-the-art
distribution techniques -- including innovative theatrical service deals, cutting edge video strategies (mixing retail and
direct sales online), and new approaches to global distribution. It helps filmmakers reach target markets effectively and
build core personal audiences.
Broderick was founder and President of Next Wave Films, which helped launch the careers
of exceptionally talented filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad. A company of the Independent Film Channel, Next Wave supplied
finishing funds and other vital support to filmmakers, and financed digital features through its production arm--Agenda 2000.
Next Wave's features included Christopher Nolan's Following, Joe Carnahan's Blood Guts Bullets & Octane,
Jordan Melamed's Manic, Kate Davis's Southern Comfort, Josh Aronson's Sound and Fury, and Amir Bar-Lev's
Fighter. Broderick played a key role in the growth of the ultra-low budget feature movement and has been a leading
advocate of digital moviemaking, giving presentations on digital production at Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Berlin and many
other festivals. He has lectured at Harvard, taught courses at UCLA, and written articles for Scientific American, The New
York Times, The Economist, The Los Angeles Times, and Filmmaker magazine. A graduate of Brown University, Cambridge
University, and Yale Law School, he practiced law in Washington, DC.
Most recently, Broderick has focused on the coming
revolution in independent distribution. In addition to giving keynote speeches on the subject internationally, he published
a groundbreaking article, "Maximizing Distribution," in the Directors Guild of America magazine (Jan. 2004, http://dga.org/news/v28_5/craft_maxdist.php3). In 2004 he launched a website, http://www.filmstoseebeforeyouvote.org, designed to harness the power of film to impact elections utilizing new distribution techniques. For more information
on his sought-after consulting services, visit his website: http://www.peterbroderick.com
JAY DUPLASS is one half
of the filmmaking duo The Duplass Brothers, along with his brother Mark. The Duplasses have been busy since the 2005 premiere
of their debut feature, the $15,000 "The Puffy Chair." That film, which started off at Sundance, became a cult hit--winning
the Audience Award at SXSW and "Best of Fest" at Edinburgh--and led to a production deal at Universal Studios. But with empowered
no-budget filmmaking still in their blood, they followed "Chair" with the hilarious no-budgeter, "Baghead," a kind of verite
horror comedy--Mumblecore meets "Friday The 13th." "Baghead," which also premiered at Sundance (in 2008) was picked up for
distribution by Sony Pictures Classics. Shot in their trademark, fly-on-the-wall improvisational style, "Baghead" proved
again that films don't have to be expensive or fancy to get distribution deals from mini-majors.
Jay was born and raised in New Orleans and studied film at the University of Texas in Austin. Two student films "Seen"
and "Connect 5" fared well, with the later acquired for distribution by Troma Films in 1997. His thesis screenplay "South
Lafouche" was a semi-finalist in the 1998 Nichols Fellowship screenplay contest. From 1996 until 2003, Jay edited several
independent films in Austin, Texas, most notably "Comrades," a documentary about friends in former Yugoslavia. In 2002 Jay
collaborated with brother Mark on "This is John," a short film shot digitally for $3 dollars. It was accepted into the 2003
Sundance, and earned the brothers a representation deal with William Morris. They returned to Sundance in 2004 with another
no-budget short, "Scrabble." And the following year, they premiered their third short, "The Intervention," at the Berlin Film
Festival, where it won the Silver Bear and the Teddy Award.
The Duplasses are in post on a new film, "The Do-Deca-Pentatheon" shot in a similar style to "Chair" and "Baghead,"
and are just finishing photography on a larger $10 million film for Fox Searchlight, starring Marisa Tomei, John C. Reilly,
Jonah Hill, and Catherine Keener.
ALEX HOLDRIDGE is the writer/director of the $15,000 feature "In Search Of A Midnight Kiss," which recently
won the prestigious Cassevetes Award at the 2009 Spirit Awards, given to the best feature made for under $500,000. "Kiss"
premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival and went on to win awards at several other film festivals before being picked
up for domestic distribution by IFC Films. And unlike many American indie comedies, the film has been distributed in several
international territories, and was especially a hit in Greece and the UK. Holdridge is a graduate of The University of Texas
where instead of majoring in film, he got a business degree, mainly because the Business School had the only non-linear editing
machines on campus. His first feature, won the audience award at the Austin Film Festival and attracted attention from multiple
studios in Hollywood. Working with his good friend, Jessica Bendinger ("Bring it On," "Stick It"), he developed it as a re-make
with Red Wagon ("Gladiator"). When the opportunity came to direct another script he had written, "Sexless," he took it. "Sexless"
won both the Jury and the Audience Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival and is the only movie to have done so since
its inception. "In Search of a Midnight Kiss" is inspired by his transition to fulltime life as a writer, director and human
in L.A.
Gregg Bishop grew up in a small town in Georgia and started making
movies when he was 7 years old with his father's film cameras. In high-school, he ambitiously wrote, directed and produced
a low-budget feature film at 17 years of age.
He is a graduate of the University of Southern California
(USC) School of Cinematic Arts Film Production Program. His short film "Voodoo" has won over 10 film festivals world wide
including the Slamdance Film Festival and is now screened for incoming USC film students, along with the short films "Electronic
Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB" by George Lucas and "The Lift" by Robert Zemeckis.
When he couldn't get a green light
for "Dance of the Dead" because he was an unproven feature director, he took $15k (profits from his short "Voodoo") and funded
his own movie to prove he had the chops. That movie was "The Other Side" which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in
Park City, Utah and was picked up for a theatrical release. Variety called "The Other Side" "a lean, propulsively paced supernatural
thriller, packed with pulse pounding excitement," and it was hailed as "one of the best films of the year" by Hollywood Gothique.
The movie is currently being developed as a TV series at Fox Studios. After producer Ehud Bleiberg saw his film at the festival,
"Dance of the Dead" finally came to life. "Dance of the Dead" had its World Premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film
Festival and was hand-picked by director Sam Raimi for distribution in Cannes through his company Ghost House Pictures and
Lionsgate. For more information go to: http://www.danceofthedeadmovie.com.
Gregg's next
two feature film projects include an action/comedy written by Joe Ballarini and a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat thriller
he is currently writing himself.
MATT RADECKI is a Los Angeles-based producer, director, editor and cinematographer, and
the co-founder of Different by Design, a high-definition production and post-production company. Included in Matt's credits
are "TV Junkie," a feature-length documentary he co-directed and edited which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance
Film
Festival and is currently screening on HBO. "Chasing 3000," which he co-produced with his Different By Design co-founder
Greg Lanesey (who directs), premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Festival and stars Ray Liotta, Rory Culkin, Lauren Holly,
Seymour Cassell, Keith David and M. Emmet Walsh. He also produced and is co-cinematographer of "Red White Black & Blue,"
which will air on PBS’ Independent Lens in November 2007. He recently edited "Who’s Back" (shot by DA Pennebaker),
which will appear on the definitive Who DVD collection “Incredible Journey.”
Different By Design www.dxdproductions.com was founded in 2004 to produce interesting and entertaining films and provide high definition production and post-production
services to their clients. Since its inception, Different By Design has produced six feature length films and has provided
HD services on over 100 films, documentaries and music videos, including "Me & You & Everyone We Know," "The Aristocrats"
and music videos for Keith Urban and Switchfoot. Different By Design can provide high definition camera packages through
its partnership with HD Cinema, high definition and standard definition online and color correction as well as dubs, down
converts and deck rentals.
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