How to B-Indie, Direct, and Make a Living in Atlanta

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011Sponsored by Xfinity and IFC Panelists: Jim Issa, David Bruckner, Bret Wood, Dan Bush, David E. Moore Moderator: Linda Burns

Join us the 3rd Tuesday of every month from 7:30pm – 9:30pm at Manuel's Tavern (602 N Highland Avenue Northeast) for networking, panel discussions, guest speakers, and new equipment demos over a cash bar. FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Sponsored by Xfinity and IFC

To B-Indie in Atlanta and pay the bills, you often have to wear multiple hats. It's not uncommon for most indie productions to be helmed by directors who also produce and edit. Our March event spoke to Producing, and to continue the conversation, we're inviting Directors in April and Editors in May to discuss short form (commercials, industrials, micro-series, and shorts) and long form (series and features) story telling. Learn to navigate different waters, to hopefully pay the rent while remaining creatively challenged.

Jim Issa co-founded The Whole World Theater as an improv actor, developed and produced TV improv-based shows for Turner and Fox, co produced and acted in the feature Made Up, directed by Tony Shalhoub, then shifted his career to directing and quickly landed several national commercials. In 2004 his short film Moved won the 48 hour Int'l Film Fest, beating out over 650 entries. 2010 brought the release of Issa's feature film directorial debut, Good Intentions starring Luke Perry, LeAnn Rhimes, Elaine Hendrix and Jon Gries. Currently Jim is putting together his next feature Bolio: The Spirit of the Mustang, which shoots this summer in GA, and he continues to direct commercials.

David Bruckner is best known for writing and directing the first Transmission of The Signal, which premiered at Sundance, and was released theatrically by Magnolia Pictures. Produced for under $50,000, the film was nominated for the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for achievements in Independent Film under $500,000. David was a co-founder of "Dailies", an experimental filmmaking workshop, and created many notable shorts, including Interiors at Night and Dave VS Jeremiah. He was awarded the Goethe Institute's Artist Exchange for co-directing an experimental film/theater adaptation of Friedrich Schiller's The Robbers, which premiered live at Push Push Theater. David is developing several new film projects, while managing his commercial production company, Wasteland Pictures.

Bret Wood is the writer and director of the 2011 ATL Film Fest feature The Little Death, as well as the 2006 feature Psychopathia Sexualis. Filmmaker Magazine called his 2003 documentary Hell's Highway, "a Lynchian view of the nightmarish underbelly of middle America." He is currently developing a film adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu's `Carmilla'. Bret was a regular member of `Dailies' creating numerous short films, and currently creates and edits trailers and webisodes for film distributor Kino International. He is a sporadic blogger and a frequent contributor to the Turner Classic Movies website.

Dan Bush has written and directed 11 short films, including Reunion, for which he won an Individual Artist grant by the South Carolina Arts Commission, and Goodbye Day, which won Best Narrative Short, Best Drama and Best Actor at the 2003 Dahlonega Film Festival. In 2004, Dan co-founded Psychopia Pictures, directing two new experimental works, A Day in the Life, which premiered at the 2006 Atlanta Film Festival, and E-Motion Studies, which premiered at the 2007 Atlanta Film Festival. In 2007, collaborating with David Bruckner and Jacob Gentry, Dan wrote and directed the third transmission of The Signal. Dan recently wrapped principle photography on The Proxy, his latest feature, a sci-fi thriller about cloning staring Conal Byrne, Amy Seimetz, AJ Bowen, Adam Fristoe, and Melissa McBride.

David Edmond Moore directs, writes and edits commercials, short docs and narratives, and many other facets of film and video. Another `Dailies' regular, David's films Clive Coopecheski is Dead, Golden Egg, The Agrifolk Art Movement, and the music-video parody Poison stand-out in their uniqueness and comedic-timing. Currently David's focus is on his production company, Eyekiss Films, directing spots for Honda, Georgia Pacific, HP, Miller Brewing Co., Barclay's, The Women's Tennis Association, among others.