2013

Phillip Montgomery

Phillip Montgomery

How did you get into directing?Began in high school. I would often ask my teachers to let me make a short film in place of projects like book reports and labs. More often than not, they would let me, but they didn’t have a clue how to grade the films. Thank god, or my GPA…

Stephanie Martin

Stephanie Martin

How did you get into directing?After 10 years of working as a cinematographer I came to the realization that I wasn’t making the sort of films I aspired to make. I decided to move towards writing and directing projects I had a passion for. With this in mind, I sat down with a friend and…

Mark and Amanda

Mark and Amanda

How did you get into directing?Mark grew up in his Dad’s camera shop and Amanda has been filming avant-garde films since age 7. Both midwestern born and bred, we met at Optimus and became fast friends and filmmaking partners. We honed our craft making spec spots and branded content together in our free time because…

James Mann

James Mann

How did you get into directing?I grew up playing bass and drums, and in high school I discovered funk music and, by extension, Blaxploitation cinema. In my senior year, after a semester long study of the genre and its cultural and historical significance, I decided to make my own Blaxploitation film—which was a ridiculous idea…

Adam Makarenko

Adam Makarenko

How did you get into directing?I started making miniatures for photography – which eventually led to stop motion animation.  I went to school at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, ON Canada for film production. What is your most recent project?My most recent project is a music video for Royal Wood.  I created the video in…

Los Pérez

Los Pérez

How did you get into directing?We met at film school and have been working together ever since. We started making shorts and then co-directing music videos together. From there, the idea of becoming a creative duo on other audiovisual projects was born, such as advertising, branded content, and film. Because we’re two directors, we like…

Olivier Agostini

Olivier Agostini

How did you get into directing?I fell in love with a girl.  She was in love with photography, I was in love with writing.  I’ve since lost the girl and found directing. What is your most recent project?I just finished shooting a music video that was commissioned by an artist in Paris who stumbled upon…

Kyle Lavore

Kyle Lavore

How did you get into directing?I think I was a freshman in high school and our English teacher had movie week.  We watched Rear Window and North By Northwest.  I remember watching them and thinking, “This is brilliant, I want to do that.”  That’s when I really started to get into movies.  I was always…

Jamie Kingham

How did you get into directing?I started directing through my career as a fashion and portrait photographer. I was always interested in the moving aspect of story telling and for me the migration into directing was a very natural progression. I spent years volunteering for any position I could in order to get on the…

Ian Kammer

Ian Kammer

How did you get into directing?I have been making little films since I was a kid, but I didn’t start taking it seriously until high school. After some drama classes I found it more to fun to be behind the scenes, so I started using lunch money to rent films and eventually got my hands…