SEAN C. COVEL & CHRIS WYATT

Award-winning producers, Sean C. Covel and Chris Wyatt, have proved to be an unstoppable team since graduating from the elite Peter Stark Producing Program of the University of Southern California. The indie film, Napoleon Dynamite, which was their producing debut, took the industry by storm when it swept awards such as MTV Movie Awards, Teen Choice Awards, U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, and Satellite Awards. Later acknowledged as the most successful indie film of 2004, it also garnered numerous nominations, including the Sundance Film Festival. The dynamic duo was then nominated for the Producers Award at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Since then, major studios such as Paramount, have been seeking out the pair for more. Covel and Wyatt went on to produce The 12 Dogs of Christmas for Academy Award-winning director, Kieth Merrill; a comedy, Think Tank; and a supernatural thriller, Beneath.

LAWRENCE ESPINOSA

Lawrence Espinosa is formally trained in Theatre Arts and holds a degree from the University of the Philippines. He has appeared in prominent theatre companies such as Tanghalang Pilipino (Cultural Center of the Philippines), Bulwagang Gantimpala Theatre foundation (Metropolitan Theatre) and Dulaang UP and UP Repertory Company. Additionally, he has appeared in television commercials, telenovelas and film productions. Lawrence is also experienced and knowledgeable in all aspects of the business of acting, directing, stagecraft, sets and props, make-up and production. He regularly is invited to speak about the craft of theatre production both locally and internationally.

Lawrence’s belief in training a good actor is embodied in Donald Sinden’s words: “An actor who knows his business ought to be able to make the London telephone directory sound enthralling.” He is currently the Program Director for Acting and an acting mentor at IAFT.

MARTIN PITTS

Martin Pitts is a Director of documentary and live network television. His has been nominated for a National Sports Emmy and several other awards. Pitts is a member of both the Directors Guild of America, the Cinematographers Guild and the Writers and Directors Unit of the Actors studio. His teaching background includes courses at UCLA, the University of Miami (Florida) and workshops for USC and the American Film Institute. Pitts has also served as a judge for the Student Academy Awards and for the Cable Ace Awards.

ELIZABETH HANSEN

Ms. Hansen is an EMMY-nominated screenwriter and consultant who has had a varied writing career, that has taken her from the newsrooms of the Los Angeles Times where she had her own “Byline,” to the classrooms of Brigham Young University where she taught screenwriting from 1994-2000 as well as helped focus and define their Screenwriting Program.

An experienced writer, she has written for nearly every film and video venue in the business: feature film, short film, television (long and short form), corporate video, documentary, as well as musicals and straight plays for the legitimate theatre.

She has spent numerous years as a script consultant, first with the Pasadena Playhouse, where she reviewed new and established scripts which were under consideration, as well as with Entertainment Business Group, an entertainment consulting company where she worked on “Campaign Breakdowns” and “Comparative Picture Analyses,” and is well acquainted with the campaign elements that make a film “commercially viable.”

Ms. Hansen holds an MFA from the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies, has won the prestigious Writer’s Guild of America Award, was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize for excellence in children’s television programming, and has been awarded two Crystal Awards for excellence in corporate video writing, as well as a Telly Award for her work with the Foundation for a Better Life.

REGAN WYNNE

Regan is a producer with a wide variety of experience in commercial, theatrical, and television production. He has produced the feature HOLLYWOOD KILLS as well the television pilot FOXXY NEWS and has worked on projects for the Walt Disney Company, the Mindful Living Network, Nintendo, Lexus/Toyota, Live Nation, Hasbro, and a long list of others. From producing new media for Fortune 500 companies to ultra low budget independent features, Regan has in one way or another worked on them all.

ASHLEY JORDAN

An alumna of the University of Southern California's prestigious School of Cinema-Television, Ashley Jordan has succeeded in producing and developing award-winning films. Most notably, Ashley produced West Bank Story, a film that won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short during the 79th Annual Oscar Awards Ceremony. The film has screened at 112 festivals in 21 countries and has won 25 film festivals to date. She also produced My Lunch With Larry staring Lisa Edelstein and Greg Germann (San Diego Film Festival), Miracle Mile (Heartland Film Festival) and The Gamers (M.P.S.E. Golden Reel Awards). Ashley worked as production coordinator on The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing for Stars Encore, a documentary that features Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese.

She offers five years of development experience working for Red Wagon Entertainment under Lucy Fisher and Doug Wick, Live Planet under Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Tollin Robbins Productions under Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin, and most recently, as an executive at Varsity Pictures. During her film career she has contributed in the development and production of films such as Memoirs of a Geisha, Bewitched, Jarhead, Gone Baby Gone, Wild Hogs, Norbit, and the upcoming Meet Dave starring Eddie Murphy.

FREDERICK BAILEY

Frederick Bailey made his debut as a feature director in 1999 with a story about a sword-wielding superhero in ‘Shogun Cop' (Bushido Pictures). He also wrote "Quick", the highly successful action thriller which premiered worldwide on HBO in 1993. He co-wrote "Terminal Justice" a science-fiction thriller for Spectacor/Promark starring Lorenzo Lamas, Peter Coyote and Chris Sarandon premiering on HBO in 1996. He also collaborated on the film "Goodbye America" for Quantum Entertainment in 1997 starring James Brolin and Michael York. Frederick has a long list of credits to his name and his experience as a director, screenwriter and actor allows him to share his real-world Hollywood experience with students at IAFT.

VASILIOS BLIOUMIS

Blioumis boasts of experience that goes beyond his specializations of directing and producing. Having worked in most of Europe, he has been actively involved in all areas of filmmaking, acting included.

His experimental feature film 13th God received several awards in the 5th Thessaloniki Independent Festival, while Omega won the Best Greek Feature Film Award in the 8th International Panorama of Independent Film and Videomakers in December 2006. He is currently pursuing further studies in film directing and producing.

NICK AQUILINO

Nick has accumulated over 20 years of exprience in production. He was accepted into AFI in the Producing Program, and has garnered a wealth of experience in many jobs including Script Analyst, Assistant Production Coordinator, Cinematographer, TV News Editor, guerrilla feature producer, documentary director and cameraman. Nick also has expertise in New Media and the Internet.

Nick has worked closely with some of the legendary figures of Hollywood including Arnold Kopelson (Producer, "Platoon"), Alexandra Rose (Producer, "Norma Rae"), Garry Marshall (Director, "Pretty Woman"), Simon Wincer Director, "Lonesome Dove"), Michael Rymer (Director, "Battlestar Galactica") Actor Tom Selleck, and a long list of other players.

AXEL MELZENER

Axel was born in Solingen, North Rhine Westphalia, Germany and studied screenwriting at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg under some of the country’s most successful producers and writers. In 2001, he accepted his first position as a screenwriting teacher at the Stuttgart Screenwriting School. In 2004, Axel received his first credit on a major motion picture, “Abgefahren.” In the same year he was invited to teach screenwriting at the Mallorca Film Academy in Palma de Mallorca, Spain where he remained for the following three years. His next move took him to the University of Zurich in Switzerland to continue his teaching career. In total, Axel has written fifteen feature length screenplays, many of which have been optioned, subsidized or sold.

ZACHARY KAPLAN

Zachary Kaplan graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts from The George Washington University, where he focused in directing and received a cash grant for playwriting. Fueled by an ongoing interest in film, he attended a one-year advanced directing program at the New York Film Academy, where he directed a 30-minute short film. After working in the entertainment industry as a certified assistant editor, voice-over talent agent's assistant, literary agent's assistant, a script reader, as well as three development internships, he attended UCLA's professional screenwriting program. He continued to USC, where he received a Master's degree in Screenwriting.

Since then, Kaplan has been signed by the Barry Perelman Agency, and shopped his two screenplays, Eclipse and The Hills, to some of the biggest production companies in Hollywood. Eclipse is currently being packaged by CAA. Zack began his teaching career at LA's inner city Manual Arts High School, where he taught film production and writing.

DIEGO ROMERO

From Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Diego Romero has had considerable experience as Director of Photography in several countries, counting his home country, Belgium, London and Los Angeles. Containing film and television, to music videos and documentaries, he holds a long catalog of credits that include many short and feature length films that have made the rounds in renowned film festivals.

Romero was Director of Photography of the 2005 short film Africains Poids Moyens, which was recognized by the 2005 Sithengi Cape Town World Cinema in South Africa with the Best Short Film Award. As, As In (2003), of which he was also Director of Photography, won the Ken Russell Short Film Award at the 2004 Clerkenwell Film and Video Festival.

DECHEN RODER

Dechen Roder started at Lovett Productions in New York as an assistant editor. After producing, directing, filming and editing a documentary for SNV-Bhutan, she then worked with UNICEF-Bhutan and the Youth Development Fund of Bhutan, producing, editing and doing more documentary and video work. She edited the behind-scenes footage of the feature film Love, and also became part of the teaching staff of New School University focusing on Final Cut Pro Video Editing.

Roder also shot, produced and edited several specialized video reports for Die Zeit, the online version of a national German newspaper, and was an editor for Elan Artists in New York.

TAD ERMITANO

A video artist who incorporates sound design, algorithmic editing and computer technology in his works, Tad Ermitano has participated in such international film festivals and conferences as the Image Forum and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center Videogramme Single Screen Video Art from Asia, Antimatter Festival of Short Film and Video, Asian Videoart Conference and at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Ermitano has also participated in such group exhibitions as Dime A Dozen (Lopez Museum), Cinema Purgatorio (NCCA), Katawan (National Institute of Education, Singapore) and Interruption (Big Sky Mind Gallery). He is also a Gawad CCP winner and has received the Award for Excellence at the Southeast Asian Festival, Tokyo, Japan.