Filmmakers

A native of the San Francisco bay area, David studied Computer Science at Harvard, then spent three years designing video games published by such companies as Activision and Acclaim before enrolling in the USC School of Cinema-Television, where he received an MFA in directing. His thesis film, Spin, was funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation under the mentorship of multiple Academy Award-winning director Mark Jonathan Harris. Spin played at nearly 50 film festivals worldwide, won numerous awards, and received television distribution on IFC in the U.S., and in Canada on the CBC. In addition to filmmaking, David is a member of the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum repertory company where this summer he is appearing in three productions.

Originally from New Jersey, Nathan has produced several short films, including Feelin’ Bad, Scene From a Feature, Turf War, Closing Up and Trapped. He has spent 10 years at DreamWorks Animation, where he was most recently a Character TD Supervisor on How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda. He has been involved, both in supervisory and hands-on roles, on films such as Academy Award winner Shrek, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Shark Tale, Over the Hedge, Shrek the Third and Bee Movie. He received a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and a MS in Computer and Information Science from The Ohio State University.

Born and raised in New York, James discovered a passion for photography while attending college in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2000, he moved to Los Angeles where he spent four years working as a gaffer, camera operator and second unit director of photography. In 2004 he enrolled in the prestigious graduate film program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where he shot numerous award-winning commercials, music videos and narrative projects. Since graduating, he has worked steadily as a cinematographer on features such as Blue and A Woman Called Job, as well as numerous short films, music videos, and cable television shows. He recently completed his first feature as director, Desert Son, which he shot and co-directed with Brandon Nicholas. He is also an accomplished still photographer whose work has appeared in galleries and art publications.

Jacqueline Cambas has been a film and television editor for more than thirty years. Her many feature credits include Now and Then, School Ties, and The Money Pit. Television credits include multiple episodes of “Men in Trees” for ABC and “Life” for NBC. She has also edited numerous Emmy-nominated made-for-television movies and an Academy Award-nominated documentary. She is a member of both the American Cinema Editors and the Motion Picture Academy.

Russell Scott has been working in TV and film casting since 2003. Currently, he is an associate casting director at Bialy/Thomas Casting where he works on the Fox series “Lie to Me,” AMC’s Emmy Award-winning “Breaking Bad,” and the forthcoming AMC adaptation of the popular graphic novel “The Walking Dead.” His previous experience includes short films, comedy and drama series for both network and cable television, TV movies and pilots, as well as feature films.

Originally from Chicago, Mike Venezia received his MFA in film production from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Since then he has directed numerous music videos and short film, including “1, 2, 3, 4” by Plain White T’s, which went on to make VH1’s list of the top 40 videos of 2009. His work has won Telly and Addy awards and has screened on E!, MTV, WGN and ABC.