Panel 2A- Pitching? You Need This
Tony Stopperan- (Tony is now TBD (10/7) He may be unavailable due to filming)Tony Stopperan is an Emmy® Award-Winning producer, writer and director. He made his directorial debut on the feature Draupadi Unleashed (2019) - a coming of age drama centering on a 16-year-old girl in 1935 India for which he also wrote the screenplay. He was a producer on Kevin Smith's horror anthology Killroy Was Here (2019), Tim Sutton's 2016 Sundance Selection Dark Night, and was the writer and producer of Paradise, FL (2015). He produced, wrote and co-directed two episodes the streaming series Sugar with Dylan McDermott, and produced Justin Long's Amazon/Funny-Or-Die series The Real Stephen Blatt. He serves on the Executive Board of Film Florida, was an IFP 2018 Industry Representative, and is the founding President of The Skyway Film Institute. He holds an MFA in Theatre from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training and a BA in Drama from Trinity Western University.
Karen Hall- Karen has been a trailblazer from the very beginning of her career as the only female writer for the highly acclaimed program, M*A*S*H. She has a career as a screenwriter, producer, and showrunner on numerous productions including Hill Street Blues, Northern Exposure, Roseanne, and The Good Wife. Over the course of her career, she has received 6 Emmy nominations and 7 Writer’s Guild Awards nominations. She won the Writers Guild Award for her work on Hill Street Blues. She was recently named a juror for The Peabody awards.
Jason Murphy- In his entertainment career, Jason has been given some amazing opportunities in the worlds of Puppetry, Photography, Design, Marketing, and Live Event Production. "Without a doubt, my time in each of these fields has been essential in shaping my skills as a filmmaker", says Jason.
Jason has produced and directed several feature films, as well as a variety of other projects. He is constantly looking for new opportunities for creative expression
Panel 2B- Legal, Contracts, and Clearances
Davey Jay, Esq.- Ms. Jay is shareholder at Meehle & Jay P.A. in Orlando, FL and served as the 2017-2018 Chair of the Florida Bar Entertainment, Arts, & Sports Law Section. She dedicates her practice to the areas of Entertainment and Intellectual Property law. This includes negotiating and drafting various agreements and licenses; assisting with copyright and trademark registration and management; and evaluating and assisting clients with claims of trade secret, trademark, and copyright infringement. Davey is licensed to practice law in Florida and admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Davey’s clients work in many areas of the entertainment industry, including filmmakers, musicians, actors, agents, managers, promoters, writers, journalists, game designers, and production companies. She has worked on deals with major enterprises such as HBO, Warner/Chappell, Discovery, Telemundo, Sony/Columbia, and Sub Pop, as well as with indies and startups, and has represented Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy winners along with artists and creatives who are just beginning to embark on their careers.
Davey is an adjunct professor at Barry University School of Law where she teaches Entertainment Law. In recognition of her professional achievements and community service, Davey has received an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, 10.0 Superb from Avvo, a Legal Elite designation from Florida Trend, and the Service Excellence Award from Barry University School of Law.
Greg Galloway- A sole entertainment law practitioner since 1997, Galloway began his legal career with the Orlando office of Maguire, Voorhis & Wells. He has continued to represent domestic and international clients in the music, film and digital industries. Since 1992, Galloway has also produced many entertainment projects including music, films, digital media, tv programs, and documentaries. His creative and business experiences in the entertainment industry add a helpful and unique prospective to his private client representation.
Lori Turchin- Ms. Turchin led a successful 20+ years career in film, TV, video and still productions. Lori worked in just about every aspect of pre- production, production and post production collaborating on everything from still shoots to feature films with most of her work in high end TV commercials. .
Ms. Turchin started at Full Sail University in 2004 teaching in the Film Bachelors Program first as a lab specialist for Screenwriting and has been the Associate Course Director of History of Motion Picture Arts since 2006 to the present day. Lori has also taught as an adjunct professor at UCF in the Nicholson School of Communication & Media in their Film Bachelors Program, Spring 2019.
Additionally, Lori works with the Global Peace Film Festival as the Festival Manager and curates the FusionFest MYgration Short Film Contest on behalf of both GPFF and FusionFest.
Panel 2C- The Business of Acting
Kim Skyrme- Kimberly is a Casting Director, Producer, Writer, and Director, in short, A STORY TELLER! Her work includes Independent and Hollywood Feature Films, Television Series, Government Agency Videos and Commercials. Her casting collaborations include: the Emmy Award winning Netflix original series House of Cards- Seasons 1-3, Unsolved Mysteries; Deep Impact; Hearts in Atlantis; Beloved; The Pelican Brief; True Lies, and numerous Independent Feature and Short Film Projects. Her 27 year dedication to the art of non-traditional casting has earned her a stellar reputation in the industry. Her acting and directing skills enhance her ability to communicate the specific language used between actors and directors that create exceptional auditions that showcase the talent of the actors she auditions.
Nancy McBride- Nancy McBride has a natural gift for recognizing talent. It was no surprise years ago when from her own experience as a parent of gifted child actors she founded the largest parent network of child talent. She soon became an authority, serving as an advocate for parents with kids in the industry. That lead her to the role she loves today, as a Casting Directing to both children and adults. Nancy is now the go-to Casting Director for everything from Film, Commercials, Infomercials, and Industry videos. Her clients have included the likes of Campus Crusades, MTV, CMT, Bass Pro Shop, Super Nanny, NASA, ESPN, C Media/HBO Casting, Atlas Films/Dr. G Medical Examiner, Jordan Direct, and many more.
Nancy has served on numerous panels, and held workshops in the film industry. Nancy is highly respected among her peers for her ability to meet their needs above and beyond expectation. Nancy also brings to any production a solid knowledge of actors; unions, and the legal requirements for production. Nancy also serves as the Director of WIFT- US President's Support Group.
Lauren O’Quinn- Lauren owns ClassAct Studios and is an award-winning actress, director, and teacher. She majored in Theatre at The University of Georgia before moving to Orlando in 1997. Since that time, she has appeared in over 200 national and regional commercials, and numerous films and television shows. Lauren spent several years in the advertising business helping to create and cast commercials (for clients like Subway and Universal Studios). She moved on from advertising to the talent agency business, where she spent several years as a successful local talent agent. She continues to work as a freelance casting director for commercials and films (like Dolphin Tale 2, Sydney White, Tooth Fairy 2, Frank vs. God, and The Florida Project). Lauren is also an on-demand acting coach and her studio, ClassAct Studios, is known throughout the southeast for creating working actors. Her focus is on training professional actors in both the craft and the business of acting.
Kelly Paige- Since 1979 Kelly Paige has been an influential part of the Film & TV, Commercial, and Print industries. Having built her professional foundation in the metropolitan markets of Detroit, New York, and Los Angeles, Kelly followed her entrepreneurial spirit to Tampa, FL and opened Level Talent Group in 2004, now one of the leading talent agencies in the state.
Under Kelly's leadership Level Talent Group develops and represents outstanding talent for Film & TV, Commercial, and Print clients. Being one of the top agencies in the Southeast, Level's talent can be seen in various commercials and advertisements locally as well as internationally. The agency's success has led to further expansion, seen in Kelly Paige Management whose success stories include the Netflix hits "House of Cards", "Bloodline", and "13 Reasons Why", along with several other Film and TV projects such as "Halt and Catch Fire", "The Hunger Games", "Ravenswood", and "Empire". Currently, Kelly manages several talents in Los Angeles who can been seen as series regulars on the A&E , Fox ,Freeform and Netflix.
Aside from her businesses, Kelly also participates in the legislation for the state of Florida, taking a special interest in production and the regulation of talent agencies within the state. From 2016 - 2017 Kelly was acting president of Film Florida, a statewide not-for–profit entertainment production trade association that works hard to represent and bring opportunities to Florida’s film, TV, and digital media production industry. Her newest endeavor is the Political Action Committee (PAC) FLORIDIANS FOR FILM AND TECH PRODUCTIONS, where she is the acting chairman.
Panel 2D- The Changing Landscape of Film Festivals
Dr. Lisa Mills- Lisa Mills is an Associate Professor of Film at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She holds a doctoral degree in political communication from the University of Florida, and teaches documentary production, documentary history, screenwriting, and story theory. Before entering academia in 1999, Dr. Mills was a broadcast journalist for 25 years. Her documentary films have won national and international awards and screened in film festivals all over the world.
The Committee, a short historical documentary about Florida’s purge of gay and lesbian teachers and students from public universities in the 1960s, won a Suncoast Emmy Award. It continues to air on local public television stations through national distribution with American Public Television (3-year contract renewed May 2019 to extend through 2022)
In April of 2018 her short documentary Beneath the Crown screened at the Ethnografilm Festival in Paris and won a Silver Telly award. In 2016, a short documentary she directed with students, Filthy Dreamers, won the national College Emmy Award from the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2015 her experimental documentary Hymns of Three Cities screened in Chicago with a number of Kartemquin films at the (In)Justice for All Film Festival, where it received a special recognition award.
Dr. Mills released a feature length historical documentary in late Fall 2018 entitled Marching Forward, centering on the civil rights era in Central Florida. Since its release, Marching Forward has screened at many film festivals and garnered several awards.
Dr. Terry Cronin- TERRY CRONIN is the co-founder and program chairman for the Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival held annually in Melbourne, Florida. A comic book writer and author, he is best known for his critically acclaimed dermatologist detective series, The Skinvestigator. Based on his film festival experiences, he collaborated with Florida filmmaker Steven Shea to write an irreverent horror novel entitled Film FestEvil. He recently produced the award-winning short Christmas film O Holy Knight. Readers can visit his website 3boysproductions.comor follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Chris Eaton- Chris has been the Programming & Festival Director of Sunscreen Film Festival for the past 2 years. He is a long time resident of St Petersburg and has served as a neighborhood leader as well as a candidate for public office on two occasions. He has lived and worked in Latin America. For some thirty years, he coordinated more than 500 service learning trips for educational institutions to both urban and rural parts of Latin America. Chris also lived in Guatemala for ten years, where he had the opportunity to view a spectrum of Latin American art, as well as co-owning a fine dining restaurant recommended by the NY Times.
Chris’s diverse background helps him be focused on diversity and marginal voices in filmmaking. As evidence of his team’s commitment to diversity the 2019 festival came close to 50% of films presented were done by female filmmakers including the first time in 14 years a female director was invited as the opening night film. Additionally 2019 saw the first transgender person win a best acting award.