The city of Santa Clarita will present a panel discussion on the “ABC’s of Filmmaking” as the next installment of  the New Heights series – designed to assist artists, performers and arts organization representatives – on Wednesday, July 29, at 7 p.m. in the Century Room at Santa Clarita City Hall, 23920 Valencia Blvd.

PANELISTS:

Mark Stolaroff

Mark Stolaroff is an independent producer and a founding partner of Antic Pictures, an LA-based production company producing a slate of low budget, high quality digital features. He recently completed work on Meera Menon’s Farah Goes Bang, which premiered in April at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, winning the Nora Ephron Award; and on award-winning writer/director Henry Barrial’s fifth feature, The House That Jack Built, which premiered in June at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival. Stolaroff produced Barrial’s fourth feature, the micro-budget film Pig, which was an official selection at over 35 film festivals worldwide, winning 10 awards, including 7 Best Feature award. Pig is being distributed by Kino Lorber later in the year. With Ron Judkins, Stolaroff produced Barrial’s third feature, True Love, which was developed in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and was a hit on the festival circuit. Other projects include: The Trouble With Men And Women, (2006, Associate Producer); the feature documentary Paper Chasers, (2005, Co-Producer); Some Body (2002, Associate Producer); Manic, (starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, Don Cheadle, and Zooey Deschanel) (2001, Associate Producer); Keep The River On Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale (2000, Associate Producer), and others.

Stolaroff was formerly a principal of Next Wave Films, a company of The Independent Film Channel that provided finishing funds to exceptional, low budget films; and through its production arm Agenda 2000, financed and executive produced digital features. Included in Next Wave’s 13 films are Christopher Nolan’s (Inception, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Memento,) first feature, Following; Joe Carnahan’s (The A-Team, Narc) first feature, Blood, Guts, Bullets, & Octane; Amir Bar Lev’s (The Tillman Story, My Kid Could Paint That) first feature Fighter; the Academy Award-nominated documentary Sound And Fury; and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning documentary Southern Comfort.

Stolaroff has extensive production experience on several low budget features and shorts, including production managing the Academy Award winning short film My Mother Dreams The Satan’s Disciples in New York. His background also includes two years in Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch Capital.

Sean Hood

Sean is a screenwriter, filmmaker, and teacher best known for horror films but more recently for action/thrillers.

After graduating from Brown University with a double major pure mathematics and studio art, Sean spent several years working in Hollywood as a set dresser, prop assistant and art director working with filmmakers as diverse as James Cameron, David Fincher and David Lynch.

He began writing and directing his own films in 1992 as a founding member of Filmmaker’s Alliance. He continued his studies at USC’s school of Cinema/Television, graduating in 1997 with an MFA in production. His student film, The Shy and the Naked (1998), won a grant from the Sloan Foundation as well as a CINE Golden Eagle award.

After finishing film school, Sean got his “break” when his first major spec script, The Dorm, was purchased by MTV/Paramount in 2000. Since then, while working on genre features such as Conan and television series such as NBC’s Fear Itself, his involvement with Filmmaker’s Alliance has continued. He was recently awarded Los Angeles Short Filmmaking Grant, presented to him by Eastman Kodak at the Directors Guild of America, for his short film Melancholy Baby.

Hood sold his first spec screenplay to MTV Films in 2000, and went on to sign a deal with Dimension Films, which included rewrites on Halloween: Resurrection and Cursed. He went on to work on Conan the Barbarian for producer Avi Lerner. He recently birthed Hercules: The Legend Begins. He’s currently working on a science fiction film, Subterranean, with director Marcus Nispel.

He wrote the episode Echoes for the NBC horror anthology series Fear Itself. Similarly, he contributed to the Showtime horror anthology series Masters of Horror by penning the episode Sick Girl.

Jacques Thelemaque

In 1993, Jacques and co-founded Filmmakers Alliance, and as President, he built the grassroots collective from a loose-knit group of filmmakers into an important independent filmmaking resource organization with films screening at every major festival in the world. He has overseen the production of hundreds of films and developed a wide range of innovative and impactive filmmaking support programs.

In 2004, Jacques and partner Liam Finn formed FA Productions, of which they are Co-Presidents. FA Productions has produced several feature films including “Within,” “Midnight Movie” and “The Revenant” and is a co-producer on Brooklyn Reptyle’s “Audie and the Wolf.” Jacques previously produced Whitney Ransick’s “Shock Television” and his own film, “The Dogwalker” (along with several other producers). In 2005, he was named Chief Community Officer of the festival submission/filmmaker support site, Withoutabox.com (a position he no longer holds).

His writer-director filmography includes the feature film “The Dogwalker” (Los Angeles Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Best First Feature – Cinequest Film Festival), as well as the shorts “My Last Day On Earth” (Seattle International Film Festival, Ashland Independent Film Festival), “Transaction” (Sundance Film Festival, winner of the Grand Prix du Jury Award in the Labo Competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival), “Infidelity In Equal Parts” (Sundance Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival), “Egg” (Mill Valley Film Festival, Best Comedy Short – Cinequest Film Festival, Jury Award for Best Short – Methodfest) and “Love Without Socks” (AFI International Film Festival).

Jacques completed a new feature film script, “Rust,” as well as the script for “Red White And Blue” as one of ten filmmakers involved in the feature-length omnibus project. He’s finishing the script for his next feature film, “Hurricane Jane.”

About the New Heights Series

The New Heights series is designed to assist artists, performers and arts organization representatives to expand their knowledge and to learn valuable tools to increase success. The series comprises workshops, panel discussions, and art trips that are designed to engage creative individuals, no matter what level of experience. Panelists will share their experiences with filmmaking and provide you with insight and tools to create your own film.