Choosing the Gear

Adam Preskill is a writer, filmmaker and digital media entrepreneur based in Venice Beach, California. He currently serves as the President and CEO of Venice the Menace, Inc., a film and video production company and Website that he co-founded in 2007, and is also a regular contributor to LA Confidential magazine.

Originally from San Diego, California, Adam graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1999 with a B.A. in English and American Literature and Language. In 2000, he moved to Aspen, Colorado, where he spent three years as a staff writer at the Aspen Daily News writing hard news, arts and entertainment, sports and features. Adam worked as a freelance journalist from 2004 to 2006, traveling extensively through Central and South America, and writing stories for publications including Aspen magazine, The Miami Herald and Gotham magazine.

After returning to California in 2006, Adam’s experience as a journalist, passion for travel, and love for film lead him to the documentary field, and to the founding of Venice the Menace with partners Scott Braman and Aaron Miller. Beginning as a local video network featuring over 100 web videos about life in Venice Beach (www.venicethemenace.com), the company soon expanded into commercial work with major companies like Ford and Skechers, and then into feature-length productions, beginning with the historical documentary Taking The Oath, made in association with the National Veterans Foundation. In 2010, Adam served as the co-director, producer, editor, writer and composer of Venice the Menace’s second feature, Surfing With The Enemy, a documentary about surfers in Cuba distributed by Polaris Global Media.

Dana M. Kupper as been an active member of the independent film making community in Chicago for over 25 years. She began her career at Columbia College where she majored in cinematography and photographed the regional Academy Award winning “Peas with Mom”. Shooting documentaries is her true passion. Dana has shot many Kartemquin projects over the years, starting with 5 Girls, and traveling to Mexico and Nigeria for the documentary series The New Americans. Dana was one of the Directors of Photography on Stevie, which won the Documentary Cinematography Award at The 2003 Sundance Film Festival. She has also traveled to Kenya for On Beauty, and recently shot for the The Trials of Muhammad Ali and In the Game, all Kartemquin projects.

When not helping people tell their stories, Dana is the proud mother of a 9 year daughter, and also teaches a digital cinematography class at Columbia College.

Jason J.Tomaric is a multiple Emmy, Telly and CINE Award-winning director and cinematographer. With four feature films, sixty commercials, music videos and an educational DVD series on the market, Jason's approach to filmmaking has made for a successful, fulfilling career. Jason has worked in over 20 countries as a director and has taught at some of the nation's most prestigious film schools including UCLA and the New York Film Academy. Jason's book, "Filmmaking"(Focal Press) is available in bookstores worldwide.

 

Jason is also the creator of FilmSkills.

Peabody award-winning and Emmy nominated filmmaker, Paul Freedman, began his career as an editorial assistant for television commercials. As an editor and director, his commercial credits include spots for Nike, Diet Coke, Southwest Airlines, Nissan, Lexus and Budweiser and many more. Paul's first documentary role came as editor on a film about minor league baseball.  Since then, his love of the documentary form has led him to win numerous awards covering a vast array of subjects.

More recently, he has directed and edited episodes for the History Channel Series, "Food Tech".  He is also creator of the America's Army Real Heroes program "mini-films" profiling men and women of the US Army and Army National Guard who have been awarded medals for valor in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.