Tuesday, March 30 Session Hosted by Digital Coast Roundtable 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM Session D: DV Production – The Indie Feature - The Vision, The Production and the Distribution With every passing month, the world of Digital Video production and the world of the Indie Feature producer take one step closer to evening the playing field in Hollywood. While there may never be a day when the Indie producer will feel fully appreciated by the system, the technologies which are effecting film and TV production and distribution are definitely opening up the system. The digital revolution is attacking and transforming the system from the two ends, production and distribution at the same time. In distribution, as digital cinema moves slowly along, digital distribution of content via TV, Satellite, broadband, DVD and wireless are now making possible a future a growing direct relationship between the indie producer and the consumer. In time, the home and mobile user may not have technology gatekeepers preventing direct sale and access. And on the production front, DV features are becoming a viable option. The session at Digital Hollywood may represent the future of our industry. Nancy Schreiber, ASC Meyer Gottlieb, President, Samuel Goldwyn Films Steve Schklair, President & CEO, Cobalt Entertainment Technology J.F. Lawton, Writer, Producer, Director John Manulis, CEO, Visionbox Media, Moderator Additional speakers to be announced J.F. Lawton, Writer, Producer, Director: Jonathan Frederick Lawton was born in Riverside, California. He attended California State University at Long Beach where he studied filmmaking. After school, Lawton worked as a film editor for eight years. During this time he wrote a feature film script called THREE THOUSAND which was selected by the prestigious Sundance Institute for its workshop and later purchased by Disney Studios. The title was changed to PRETTY WOMAN and starred Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. It became the largest grossing live action film in Disney history. Lawton was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award and a British Academy Award. Lawton’s next original screenplay became the hit action film UNDER SIEGE starring Steven Seagal and Tommy Lee Jones, which he executive produced for Warner Bros. It broke records for a fall theatrical release and spawned a successful sequel: UNDER SIEGE II: DARK TERRITORY. Lawton co-wrote MISTRESS, a comedy starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Martin Landau. He also wrote and directed THE HUNTED, which starred Christopher Lambert and John Lone, for Universal Pictures. He created and executive produced the Sony Television hit syndicated show "VIP" starring Pamela Anderson through four seasons and 88 episodes. Lawton is currently in post-production on JACKSON, a digital production which he wrote and directed, starring Barry Primus and Charlie Robinson. Nancy Schreiber, ASC: Nancy Schreiber, ASC grew up in Detroit and received her degrees in psychology as well as history of art from the University of Michigan. She worked her way up as a gaffer in New York, for such directors as Martha Coolidge, Richard Pearce, Claudia Weill and Shirley MacLaine. Schreiber’s director of photography credits include a range of features, television movies and pilots, music videos commercials and documentaries. Most recently Schreiber was awarded the SUNDANCE 2004 best cinematography award for the dramatic feature NOVEMBER . The film was directed by Greg Harrison and stars Courteney Cox, James LeGros and Anne Archer. Schreiber recently wrapped the film LOVERBOY, directed by Kevin Bacon, starring Kyra Sedgwick, Marissa Tomei, Matt Dillon and Sandra Bullock. Schreiber has been the DP on several projects for HBO including STRANGER INSIDE and LESSONS LEARNED and was second unit DP and additional first unit DP on John Frankenheimer’s PATH TO WAR. She also photographed YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS for director Neil La Bute, with Ben Stiller and Amy Brenneman, Other projects include Showtime’s LUSH LIFE, with Jeff Goldblum and Forest Whitaker, and award winning documentary VISIONS OF LIGHT. Schreiber was honored with the Kodak Vision Award at the 1997 Women In Film Crystal Awards. She was nominated for an Emmy, a Spirit Award, shared a best cinematography award at Sundance in 1997 and was voted one of Variety’s 10 Dps to watch in 2000. Schreiber is one of six women voted into membership in the American Society of Cinematographers. John Manulis, CEO of Visionbox Media: John Manulis is the CEO and lead producer of Visionbox Media Group, a digital production, services and solutions company dedicated to producing films, television, and broadband content faster, less expensively and with greater creative freedom through digital technology. The company's Visionbox Pictures division produces, acquires and represents feature films and episodic series that are driven by provocative concepts, distinctive voices and genre, franchise, or niche elements. The Visionbox Pictures team has produced films including Tortilla Soup starring Hector Elizondo, Raquel Welch, Elizabeth Peña, Tamara Mello and Paul Rodriguez; Eric Byler's Charlotte Sometimes, recent Audience Award winner at SXSW; Harry Shearer's Teddy Bears' Picnic; Dani Minnick's multi-festival award winning Falling Like This,; and Noah Stern's The Invisibles (Sundance '99, Laemmle's Independent Series '01) starring Portia de Rossi and Michael Goorjian. Prior to founding Visionbox Media, Manulis served as the Head of Filmed Entertainment for Samuel Goldwyn Films, supervising the production and acquisition of films for one of the most prestigious specialized financier/distributors in the country. Films released under Manulis' tenure include The Madness of King George, Lolita, The Chambermaid, American Buffalo, Angels and Insects, I Shot Andy Warhol, Bent, The Preacher's Wife, Big Night, Kissed, and The King of Masks. Mr. Manulis' credits as a producer include Tortilla Soup; The Basketball Diaries starring Leonardo di Caprio and Mark Wahlberg, Swing Kids starring Christian Bale, Robert Sean Leonard, Noah Wyle and Kenneth Branagh; Daybreak starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Moira Kelly and Omar Epps, and the off-Broadway sensation The Umbilical Brothers' THWAK. As senior production executive with Chestnut Hill Productions, Edgar J. Scherick Associates and Nederlander Television and Film Productions, Manulis produced or executive produced projects including the acclaimed CBS series Comedy Zone (which he also created), Joyce Carol Oates' Foxfire starring Angelina Jolie, Blind Side starring Rutger Hauer and Rebecca De Mornay, V.I. Warshawski starring Kathleen Turner and the 38-share CBS MOW Intimate Strangers. Mr. Manulis began his career as a director and casting director for off-Broadway's Circle Repertory Theater. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard University, is a member of the AMPAS, the Writers Guild of America, East and serves on the Board of Directors of The Liberty Hill Foundation. Steve Schklair, CEO of Cobalt Entertainment, LLC., has had a love affair with 3D for most of his eclectic career. Emerging from the Masters program at USC Cinema, he is a confirmed techie who enjoys working on the front edge of new technologies and has made his mark in movies, special effects, and interactive media. His current company, Cobalt Entertainment, is a market-leading provider of 3D digital production services and proprietary technology to the film, computer, and broadcast television industries. Working entirely in the digital domain, Schklair believes that 3D is now completely achievable as an ancillary release for most entertainment content, and that it is inevitable that sports and music will be broadcast live to digital television in both 2D and 3D. Previously, Schklair served as vice president and general manager of new media for Digital Domain, the studio responsible for the effects on such films as Titanic, Apollo 13, The Fifth Element, and True Lies. While at Digital Domain and in partnership with Mattel, he developed the award-winning CD-ROM Barbie Fashion Designer, which ranks among the best-selling software titles ever produced for the childrenâs market. Among his other accomplishments in the multimedia industry is the acclaimed Columbus: Encounter, Discovery and Beyond produced for Robert Abel and IBM. It is a project honored with numerous awards, including selection by the Library of Congress as the centerpiece of their multimedia exhibit. As one of the first users of HDTV technology, Schklair photographed and co-produced, with Doug Trumbull, To Dream Of Roses for release at the 1990 World Expo in Osaka, Japan. Directed by Keith Melton, the movie was the first ever project to originate in HD, utilize live real-time composite effects, and then transferred from HD to 65mm film for release. Meyer Gottlieb co-founded Samuel Goldwyn Films in 1998 and is its President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Gottlieb became the C.O.O. of The Samuel Goldwyn Company in 1979 and its President in 1987 and assisted Mr. Goldwyn in the founding of the Company. Prior to its sale to Metromedia International Group, Inc. in 1996 and its subsequent sale to MGM in 1997, The Samuel Goldwyn Company was an independent, diversified entertainment company engaged in the production and worldwide distribution of motion pictures and television programming and in theatrical exhibition. Goldwyn's 140 screen theatre group was the largest exhibitor of specialized motion pictures and art films in the U.S. From 1976 to 1978, Mr. Gottlieb was associated with Mr. Goldwyn in various executive positions in the motion picture production and distribution organization that was the predecessor to the Company. Prior to this, Mr. Gottlieb was a senior manager with Price Waterhouse and had extensive experience with companies in the entertainment industry. Mr. Gottlieb is also President of his wholly-owned feature film and television production services company, Night Life, Inc. Mr. Gottlieb is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a certified public accountant and attended UCLA where he received Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees. Mr. Gottlieb is a member of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging, and Sound Art, a not-for-profit arts education organization.