The Road to Realscreen 2018
For the last several months I have had the honor of working with my longtime colleague Terry Garcia, former National Geographic Society EVP, on our production shingle startup Mission Programs. These are still very early days for this exploratory venture for both of us but we are planning to take the next important step by attending the 2018 Realscreen Summit in Washington DC for two of our cornerstone proposals.
The road to Realscreen has been a busy one and I would like to take a moment to thank the small army of people that helped us get here. First up is Matthew and Lori Rosen. Matthew lent two decades of high level filmmaking experience to the production of an important pitch trailer and Lori stepped in as a producer to negotiate / extend to me ultra competitive rates for services and rentals. Next up is Matt Trevithick and Carsten Stormer. They both separately helped to provide me an important endorsement to a renowned film producer and we have now entered early discussions on a series effort.
My longtime friend Wesley Villarica opened up his Parallax Studio to my team and I at what can only be described as a once in a lifetime rate for an old friend. Thank you for that Wesley. I was also very pleased to work with his production designer Cez Jarlyn Young and her talented team of craftsmen to fabricate some original items needed for Matthew’s pitch trailer concept. I would also like to thank Matthew’s talented son Dean Daniel Rosen for helping out greatly on set and our Location Manager Val Torres for quickly and ably troubleshooting for us on the day of the production.
Moving past the production, I am very grateful for Leoby Marquez, Neil Aldrine B. Saynol and the rest of the excellent team at eo+ when it came to posting the pitch trailer. My thanks to Anglea Pereyra for her fine work mixing our sound. It is a shame that it is under lock and key for now but I am hoping to have a chance to share it publicly one day and crow about the exemplary work of Leoby and his team. Separately, I would like to thank Javier Abola for helping me with another important element of the pitches I am taking with me to Realscreen. Thank you Javi, I feel fortunate to count you and your team Overmind among my friends and work collaborators.
The brochures I am taking with me to Realscreen have all been designed by the very talented Graphic Artist Geia de la Peña. Again, most of this stuff is under lock and key but for the past year she has been knocking stuff like this out of the park for me and I sincerely hope I can provide her increasingly rewarding opportunities as a fellow artist. I would also like to thank Producer / Agent Louise Rosen for strongly urging me to broaden my network and my understanding of the current documentary / factual landscape by attending events like these.
I am blessed to have great friends and allies, none of this would have been possible without the people mentioned here and many others that contributed in ways both large and small.
And lastly and most importantly, I would like to thank my girlfriend Marie Ricafort and my family Khalida Maiwand-Azimi, Ali Azimi and Sara Lailee for supporting me every step of the way. The climb has been difficult and steep but they have always been there for me. <3
