The Documentary Format

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.

Anthony Artis is a 15-year veteran of the film and TV industry whose features and shows have been screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, the IFP Feature Market, Slamdance, and on MTV. He is the manager of the Film and TV Production Center at New York University's renowned film school.

Anthony Q. Artis has worked professionally in positions as diverse as producer, gaffer, cinematographer, and narrative projects and survived more low-budget shoots than he cares to admit. His feature films and TV shows have screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, the IFP Market, Slamdance, Cinequest, as well as on MTV, The Independent Film Channel and The special-FX make up, sound mixer, and location manager just to name a few. Anthony is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Since graduating, he has crewed and produced a variety of television, documentary Education Channel. Most notably, he produced the feature film, Shelter which won first prize for Emerging Narratives at the 2003 IFP Market along with many other awards on the festival circuit. Anthony can be seen in full guerrilla action as Associate Producer, Gaffer, and 2nd Unit DP in the feature documentary, Paper Chasers, which chronicles the hip-hop music industry and the down and dirty making of a low-budget guerrilla doc. Through the years Anthony has organized numerous student film festivals and trained hundreds of aspiring guerrilla filmmakers for major institutions, including New York University, New York City’s famed LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, and Baltimore County Public Schools. Anthony is presently the manager of the Film and TV Production Center at N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of the Arts where he coordinates the technical training and production equipment for all film and TV students. He most recently launched the Down and Dirty DV Podcast on iTunes and is currently producing an instructional series of guerrilla filmmaking books, DVD’s, and boot camps. He remains an active guerrilla filmmaker, educator and “artrepreneur”.

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.

Greg Strom is a multi-award winning director and producer. He has edited or directed hundreds of telecision commercials, music videos and film projects, including the ground-breaking series of Super Bowl ads featuring Fred Astaire dancing with a Hoover vacuum product.  His clients include Discovery HD, New Line Cinema, PBS, all broadcast networks, movie studios, and numerous corporate and web-based companies.

 

He has recently produced several documentary projects including "Unbeaten," named by Time Magazine as one of the top 10 films to watch for the Olympics, "Surfing with the Enemy," a film about surfing in Cuba, and "Resolve," a film about recovery from Post Tramautic Stress Disorder.

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.

Michael Rabiger has directed or edited over 35 films. He is the founder the Documentary Center at Columbia College, Chicago and served as chair of its Film/Video Department before being named Professor Emeritus in 2005. Rabiger has received the Preservation and Scholarship Award by the International Documentary Association in Los Angeles as well as the 2005 Genius Career Achievement Award by the Chicago International Documentary Festival. He is currently writing a biography of Thomas Hardy.

 

Michael's published works include "Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics," and "Directing the Documentary."

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.