Bryan Wizemann is an award winning writer and director of film. His short film work includes Button Soup (Johnson Museum, Cinema Village NY), The Morning Sun (Rooftop Films, IFC), the television pilot Cooklyn, and Film Makes Us Happy, which documents the last fight he will ever have with his wife about making films (Hamptons, IFF Boston, Rooftop Films).

His feature film Losing Ground (Cinequest, CineVegas, Santa Fe) was adapted from his critically acclaimed New York stage play and features the original cast. It was called “fascinating filmmaking that gets to the core of humanity” by Film Threat and is available from Netflix. His screenplay An Entire Body was recently selected as one of the top three winners of the 2007 Slamdance Feature Screenplay Competition. It is being produced by Michael Ryan (Junebug, Choke), and will feature Denis O’Hare (Michael Clayton) and Jayne Atkinson (The Village). Humor Me, a romantic comedy (written with Andrew Semans), was recently optioned out of the IFP Independent Film Week by producer Amy Slotnick (Frida, Serendipity) and is currently in development. Bryan is currently the director of Ballast Films, an independent film production company in Brooklyn, New York.

Mike S. Ryan is an Independent Spirit “Producer of the Year Award” Nominee and one of Variety’s 2007 “10 Producers to Watch.” His films have garnered nominations and prizes from the Academy Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards and many more. JUNEBUG, starring Amy Adams, made its international premiere at Cannes in 2005 and went on to be the lowest-budgeted feature film ever nominated for an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress, 2005.) His credits include Todd Solondz’s PALINDROMES, Kelly Reichardt’s OLD JOY (winner, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2006) and Ira Sach’s 40 SHADES OF BLUE (winner, Sundance Film Festival 06), Hal Hartley’s FAY GRIM, starring Parker Posey and Jeff Goldblum; LAKE CITY, starring Sissy Spacek, and Ilya Chaiken’s LIBERTY KID (in competition at the upcoming Los Angeles Film Festival.) Future projects include new work by Nick Gomez and Todd Solondz’s recently completed follow-up to 1998’s HAPPINESS.

Mike is a New York City native and NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate with a background as a location manager on films like FAR FROM HEAVEN, THE ICE STORM, MEET JOE BLACK, THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES and RIDE WITH THE DEVIL.

Peter Selig is a longtime angel investor in the bioscience and restaurant industries and is active in real estate investments in San Antonio and Austin. Sourcing start up capital and organizing the initial team are his core competencies. He is also an active community leader in visual arts and conservation organizations in Texas.

Blythe Robertson is an independent producer based in Boston, MA. Most recently, she line-produced two segments of the upcoming PBS series, GOD IN AMERICA, an American Experience/Frontline co-production. Prior to that, she was production manager for the historical documentary, THE PEOPLE V LEO FRANK, winner of the Special Jury Award at History Makers 2010. Blythe started out in the business as a production coordinator, involved in feature films and documentaries, such as Lionsgates’ MY BEST FRIEND’S GIRL, starring Kate Hudson, THE GOLDEN BOYS, with Bruce Dern, Rip Torn and David Carradine, and The History Channel’s Emmy-nominated, DESPERATE CROSSING: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE MAYFLOWER. She is a member of Women in Film/Video and the Massachusetts Production Coalition.

Mark Schwartzbard studied film at Ithaca College, where his junior year film was a Regional Finalist in the 23rd Student Academy Awards. His cinematography credits include six narrative feature films (most recently Wonderwall, a drama shot on the streets of the Bronx, and Sex and Breakfast starring Macaulay Culkin) three documentary features, and a healthy pile of shorts (most recently the internet phenomenon FCU with Bill Murray). 

His documentary work has taken him to Israel, England, Holland, Italy, Romania, Mexico, and Hungary, as well as up down and back and forth across America. He’s worked with every film format from Super-8 to VistaVision, and nearly every video and HD format from Pixelvision to the Arri D20. And he loves them all equally.

Several films he’s shot for himself have played and won awards at film festivals around the country, and his experimental films have been screened at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC and the Walters Gallery in Baltimore. In 2004 he was honored for Artistic Achievement in Cinematography by the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600. 

When not shooting, Mark has worked extensively as a camera assistant, where he’s gotten the chance to learn from some of the giants. Highlights include Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending, and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, as well as Little Children, Rent, Hitch, Pollock, and, the most fun of all, Borat, which led to work as a camera operator on director Larry Charles’ next two projects, notably the increasingly anticipated Religulous with Bill Maher. He also went through a period of working, at one time or another, on many of the episodic TV shows filmed on the East Coast, including Ed, Sex In the City, Third Watch, The $treet, Hack, The Wire, Philly, and just about all of the Law & Order franchises. He also has a vague memory of working on a pile of music videos for artists he can’t remember, except for Bon Jovi, and on dozens and dozens and dozens of commercials he’d mostly
rather forget.

Ellen Novack is a producer, casting director, director, coach and teacher, Ellen has been in the entertainment business for over 25 years. Working for five years with Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival, she cast over 25 major projects. She has been Casting Director for the daytime drama Another World and, more recently, One Life to Live for which she won two Artios Awards for Best Soap Casting. She cast the show for four years, became its Coordinating Producer and then Producer.

Ellen ran her own casting office where she cast TV pilots, independent films and worked for most of the larger regional theatres in the country. She was also the Managing Director of the Classic Stage Company in New York City. She continues to cast (most recently, the future CBS series, Redemption), produces films independently, and is a Lecturer at the Yale School of Drama, where she teaches Film Acting Technique and Professional Preparation to third year graduate acting students. She also teaches at The Juilliard School, American Conservatory Theatre, and The New School. She is a member of NY Women in Film & Television and the Independent Feature Project.