2017 Faculty

James Duke

Producer, Act One Executive Director

James Duke is an accomplished filmmaker, pastor, educator, and communicator. As an independent filmmaker, James has almost twenty years experience in film, television, and video production. His credits include writing, producing and directing over a hundred award-winning short films, documentaries, and theatrical productions.  He has produced several feature films including The Least of These starring Isaiah Washington and Robert Loggia, and Ragamuffin about the life of Christian singer/songwriter Rich Mullins. James’ passion for developing filmmakers led him to found the Inspiration Film Fest as well as serve as the executive director of the Damah Film Festival.

Recently, he served as the president and CEO of Updog Studios, a production company in Florida that seeks to create provocative, thought-provoking entertainment and commercial cinema. James is a successful team builder with strong leadership skills and who enjoys collaborating with other creatives.

As a pastor, James served on staff at his church, Mosaic LA, for 10 years where he oversaw several ministries including film, live production, and family ministries. He’s also served as pastor in communities of faith in Tennessee and Florida.

As an educator, James’ passion for investing in and mentoring the next generation of filmmakers and storytellers has led him to create high school and collegiate-level curriculum taught and fully accredited in schools both in California and Florida.

As a communicator, James has been privileged to speak to thousands of people around the world on the topics of film, faith and culture.

James received his B.A. in Communications from Union University in Jackson, TN. He is also a graduate of the Los Angeles Film Studies Center, and the Act One writing program.

He is madly in love with his wife, Samantha, and their two young children.

Korey Pollard

DGA First Assistant Director, Producer, Mentor, Lecturer

Korey Pollard is a DGA first assistant director, mentor and lecturer. His
previous television and film credits include, Jack Ryan for Amazon, The
middle for ABC, Salem for WGN, The Player for Sony Pictures Television &
NBC Television The King of 7B for ABC Family with Craig Ferguson,
directed by David Frankel, Kevin From Work for ABC Family with McG, A to
Z for NBC, Stephen Bochco’s show Murder In The First for TNT, The ABC
series Nashville, TNT’s television series Rizzoli & Isles. TBS television
series The Wedding Band. FOX’s LIE TO ME, Life on NBC, critically
acclaimed USA television series Monk, HBO’s Deadwood, FOX’s House,
ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, NBC’s Boomtown and CBS’ CSI, Once Upon a
Time in Mexico, Spy Kids 2, And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself, Thirteen
Days, Waterworld, Clear & Present Danger, Eye For An Eye, GI Jane,That
Thing You Do and Stand By Me among many others.

He co-produced his first film in 2006, an independent adaptation of Robert
Whitlow’s novel, The List.

Korey is an adjunct instructor at College of Entertainment & the Arts-
Lipscomb University-Nashville, he has also been a guest lecturer at
University of Texas, Austin, Branford College-Yale, New Haven, Belmont
University-Nashville, Eastern University, Lakeland Fl., Azusa Pacific
University, Azusa, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts-Chapman
University, Vanguard University, Orange County, Compass College of
Cinematic Arts, Grand Rapids, Biola University, La Mirada, Los Angeles
Film Studies Center (L.A.F.S.C.); he is on the Advisory boards of Compass
College of Cinematic Arts-Grand Rapids, Hollywood Connect-Los Angeles,
Belmont Motion Picture Dept.-Nashville. He. Korey recently joined the
Board of Directors at Green House, Hollywood and holds a position on The
First Assistant Director/Unit Production Manager Committee at The
Directors Guild of America.

Korey lives in Sherman Oaks with his wife of over twenty years in a half
empty nest.

Michael Sajbel

Writer, Director

Michael O. Sajbel is a feature film writer and director. Wraith (2017) is his most recent film, starring Lance Henriksen, Jackson Hurst and Ali Hillis..

His most recently nationally-released film, The Ultimate Gift, starred James Garner, Brian Dennehy and Abigail Breslin,. He also directed, One Night With The King, with Omar Sharif, John Rhys-Davies and Peter O’Toole.

Michael was born and raised in Wisconsin and is married with three children. He graduated from UCLA.

Scott Teems

Writer, Director

Arthur Anderson

Writer, Producer, Director

Arthur Anderson began his film career while attending the University of South Carolina. Because of his background in standup and live radio comedy sketches, local advertising agencies hired him to develop comedic radio and television commercials. As a result, Arthur opened a successful commercial production company, Riaan Productions, where he served as Producer/Writer/Director.

After graduating, Arthur began working on feature films in New York. He became a member of the Directors Guild of America, moved to Los Angeles and worked on numerous television shows and feature films as an Assistant Director.

The New Lassie TV series was his first venue as a television Writer/Director. He also directed two successful series of training videos, ‘The Lassie Dog Training System’, with Lassie’s owner, Bob Weatherwax. The series was sold via an infomercial directed by Arthur entitled, ‘The Legacy of Lassie’.

In 1996 he joined John Woo as his 1st Assistant Director on ‘Face Off.’ On ‘Mission Impossible II’, Action Writing was added to his duties. Since 2000, Arthur has also been a Co-Producer and Action Writer for Woo on ‘Windtalkers’, BMW Films ‘The Hostage’ and ‘Paycheck’. In addition, Arthur has served as a 2nd Unit Director on several of the above films as well as on Woo’s Fox TV Pilot, ‘Lost in Space’.

Arthur Co-Produced J.J. Abrams ‘Mission Impossible III’ for Paramount Pictures and Directed the East Coast 2nd Unit of the film. Arthur also Directed the 2nd Unit on the Starship Kelvin on the feature film, ‘Star Trek’.

In the “New Media” frontier, Arthur Executive Produced and Directed a webisode series for GO TV Networks entitled ‘Being Bailey’. This was the first made-for-mobile and broadband scripted teen drama distributed across the AT&T, Alltel and Sprint. He also Directed the successful web series for ABC Family: ‘Pretty Dirty Secrets’.

More recently, Arthur has directed numerous episodes on the hit series ‘Pretty Little Liars’.

Tim Cruz

Writer, Director

Manillan-born Writer/Director Tim Cruz was nurtured and trained from a young age to be a visual artist. Tim’s first exposure to film came while working to develop negatives in the back room of his father’s beloved photography business in New York City. During high school, Cruz was accepted to a scholarship program at NYU dubbed the Future Filmmakers Workshop. He continued his collegiate training at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He worked his way from every department serving as a PA and Coordinator till eventually becoming a Producer, a Cinematographer and a Director.

His love of story and film led him to Los Angeles, where he worked in story development for The Weinstein Company before co-founding Prospect Finley.

In addition to film, Tim’s creative vision and drive has culminated in him being an internationally known, highly sought-after music video and commercial Director. Tim works with nearly every major record label, including Warner Music Group, Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, and EMI with some of the hottest stars, such as 50 Cent, P Diddy, Theophilus London, 30 Seconds to Mars, Travis Barker, and Sabi. Selections of his commercial clients include GQ, Sony, Lockheed Martin, Discovery Networks, Bravo, Spark Networks, and MTV.

Catherine Haight

Editor

Catherine Haight, ACE is best known for her work on the Amazon Original Series Transparent. She recently cut The Polka King, with Jack Black and Jenny Slate, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and is coming to Netflix later this year. Currently she is editing Puzzle, an independent feature with Kelly MacDonald and Irrfan Kahn. Other credits include Afternoon Delight, Mozart in the Jungle, Girls, and New Girl. Her work on the pilot episode of Transparent earned her a nomination for both an Emmy and ACE Eddie Award.  She also received an ACE Eddie nomination for the pilot of Girls.

David Crockett

producer, studio executive, production manager, or production accountant

In his 24 years in the film industry, David Crockett has been a part of more than 30 films as a producer, studio executive, production manager, or production accountant. Since 2002 alone, Crockett has produced or supervised films that have grossed more than $1.6 billion worldwide.

Most recently, Crockett produced Gore Verbinski’s upcoming thriller A CURE FOR WELLNESS for New Regency and 20th Century Fox. Due out in early 2017, the film stars Dane DeHaan, as an ambitious young executive who is sent to retrieve his company’s CEO from an idyllic but mysterious “wellness center” in the Swiss Alps only to find that the spa’s miraculous treatments are not what they seem.

While continuing to work with Verbinski to develop his next directing project and assemble a slate for Verbinski’s ‘Blindwink’ banner, Crockett is also currently producing Rupert Wyatt’s CAPTIVE STATE for Participant Media / Amblin Entertainment. CAPTIVE STATE is an ambitious and gritty sci-fi drama due to start filming in Chicago in early 2017. Previously Crockett and Wyatt collaborated on 2014’s The Gambler, starring Mark Wahlberg.

In 2014 – 2015 Crockett produced CONCUSSION (starring Will Smith) the hard-hitting true story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the pathologist who initially discovered and diagnosed the CTE brain disease epidemic in football players in the early 2000s.

Prior to that, Crockett served as Executive Vice President of Production at Graham King’s GK Films. During his tenure there, he executive produced Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award Nominated HUGO as well as supervised the making of such films as the Academy Award Winning ARGO and 2013’s WWZ.

Crockett met King while producing THE TOWN in Boston for Warner Bros and GK Films in 2009. THE TOWN marked Crockett’s second collaboration with Director Ben Affleck as he also executive-produced Affleck’s directorial debut, GONE BABY GONE in 2007.

Prior to that, Crockett had executive-produced several films such as SEVEN POUNDS, THE GREAT DEBATERS, STICK IT and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. He’s also credited with coproducing BAD SANTA and THE GURU. Crockett began his career working on such films as Frequency (Dennis Quaid), Scream (Wes Craven), and Music of the Heart (Meryl Streep), to name a few.

David Zucker

Director, Writer, Producer

With a string of worldwide box office hits and a few classic comedies to his credit, director/writer/producer David Zucker has established himself as one of Hollywood’s (or at least Wisconsin’s) most successful filmmakers.

Starting out after college in Milwaukee, with a borrowed video tape deck and camera, David, with brother Jerry, and friend Jim Abrahams, created the Kentucky Fried Theater, setting up shop in the back of a Madison bookstore. Moving the show to Los Angeles in 1972, with their groundbreaking style of outrageous sketch comedy, they quickly became the most successful small theater group in Los Angeles history.

After parlaying this success into an iconic independent feature, Kentucky Fried Movie, David, Jim, and Jerry conceived the idea that would create an entirely new film genre.  Airplane! broke all conventions, featuring dramatic actors like Robert Stack and LeslieNielsen performing zany jokes with straight-laced sincerity. The spoof became the surprise hit of 1980, beginning a streak of hilarious movies including Top Secret! Ruthless People, The Naked Guns, BASEketball, and Scary Movies 3, 4 and 5.
David also found time to produce the successful, but not so hilarious A Walk in The Clouds and Phone Booth.

Recently he completed a feature script, The Star of  Malta, a somewhat twisted version of Film Noir.  Currently he heads up Sinclair Broadcast Group’s wildly successful (according to David) comedy website Circa.com/whoa/humor, and with longtime writing partners, Pat Proft and Mike McManus, is busy writing Naked Gun 444 ¼: Nordberg Did It  for Paramount Pictures.

David currently resides in Los Angeles where he is waiting for the NFL season to begin.

Charles Robert Carner

Writer, Director

CHARLES ROBERT CARNER has written, produced and directed all media platforms for more than twenty years. His work has been both critically acclaimed and highly popular. Two of his films – CROSSFIRE TRAIL (starring Tom Selleck) and RED WATER (starring Lou Diamond Phillips) – are among the highest-rated premium and basic cable movies in television history, respectively.
His most recent film is the Hallmark Western drama, J.L. FAMILY RANCH, starring Academy Award winners Jon Voight and Melanie Griffith, and Oscar-nominee James Caan.

His feature films include WITLESS PROTECTION, starring Larry the Cable Guy and Jenny McCarthy, LET’S GET HARRY, starring Mark Harmon and Robert Duvall, and BLIND FURY, starring Rutger Hauer.

Other television films include A KILLER AMONG FRIENDS (the highest-rated CBS movie of the 1990s), WHO KILLED ATLANTA’S CHILDREN? (Showtime’s highest-rated movie of 2000), and CHRISTMAS RUSH. He directed the ABC-Paramount telefilm JUDAS, which told the story of Jesus from the point of view of his disciple-turned-betrayer. He also wrote, produced and directed THE FIXER for Showtime (also starring Jon Voight), which won awards at film festivals around the world and has been called “visually and emotionally stunning,” and “a minor classic.”

Mr. Carner’s upcoming projects include an action drama about the Fall of the Roman Empire, and an historical drama about the Black Panthers in Chicago in the 1960s.

He is married to writer/actress Debra Sharkey. They have three children: Michael, Grace and Vincent.

Jerry Jameson

Director

Coming Soon.

Glenn Hall

Art Director

Glen Hall, a native of Toronto, began his career as an art director for a New York advertising agency. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2005, he has production designed numerous independent films and commercials. His design has also been featured in print campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands including AT&T, Corona, Fiat, General Mills, Honda, JBL, Samsung, Toyota, Vans and Wells Fargo. While continuing to pursue his production design work, Glen spent six years as an on-set Prop Master for such shows as HBO’s Entourage, Fox’s Breaking In, ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars, Showtime’s House of Lies and TNT’s Men of a Certain Age. In 2016, he was the lead set designer for season one of Fox’s hit drama Lethal Weapon and is currently the assistant art director for the new Seth MacFarlane comedy “The Orville,” premiering this fall on Fox.  He was also the production designer on two of the feature films that premiered at this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival:  Sun Dogs, directed by actress Jennifer Morrison (ABC’s Once Upon a Time), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by first-time director Casey Wilder Mott. Glen is a member of both IATSE and the Art Directors Guild.

James Covell

Composer

Jim Covell is a composer and graduate of the University of Southern California with a degree in Music Composition. His latest film score, Death By Potato  recently premiered on Amazon Prime. He recently completed the new CBS show Hunted and two seasons of the worlwide hit Netfilx series Beastmaster. Having just completed the Independent feature thriller Wraith, he is also on the composing team of the Netflix children’s series, Veggie Tales, and his next feature musical monster score is Kudzu Zombies out later this year.