The FilmUp Podcast

Some might know him for his work on HBO's Def Poetry.Rafael Casal is a critically acclaimed Writer, Producer, Actor, and Poet. He made his Feature debut in "Blindspotting," which he wrote, produced, and starred in. The celebrated film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where Lionsgate won a major bidding war for the film. The movie was later turned into a series for Starz and Rafa was the Showrunner, Co-Creator, Writer and reprised his film role of Miles. He acted opposite Hugh Jackman in the Emmy-winning HBO film "Bad Education" and Ethan Hawke in Showtime's "The Good Lord Bird." He wrote music for the Apple series "Central Park". And you can see him most recently in Loki on Disney+. Rafa is also a big supporter of the BAVC - Bay Area Video Coalition, a non-profit that is an evolving coalition of passionate creators, activists, independent makers of all mediums and everyday people, effecting change one story at a time. You can learn more by going to www.bavc.org.

Welcome to The FilmUp Podcast, Your Home For All Things Filmmaking. I'm Aryeh, founder of FilmUp and with Co-host Nick Mahar, we we explore the journey of accomplished filmmakers and their road to success. Each podcast episode is dedicated to a non-profit of our guest’s choosing to both highlight our interviewee’s passion outside of filmmaking and bring awareness to a good cause. Our goal is to use Film to move the world Up - FilmUp. Come join us for this week's episode and let's explore the world of filmmaking together.

Bryan is a Grammy Nominated and award winning Brooklyn based director. He is a director, editor and writer working with artists like The Black Keys, James Bay, and James Arthur. He's gained notoriety for his original creative direction with artists and brands and has had work featured on CBS, Funny or Die, NPR, NOWNESS, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork. Bryan was also nominated for a People's Choice Country Award for "In Your Love" which is the first country music video to portray gay love on screen. Bryan is also a big supporter of The Trevor Project, an organization focussed on suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ young people. Providing information & support to LGBTQ 
young people 24/7, all year round. So he is dedicating this episode to their organization. You can learn more by going to https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

Please welcome the fitness legend himself, Don Saladino to The FilmUp Podcast! Don has coached actors, athletes, & musicians for over 20 years. He has developed a reputation for training some of the biggest names in Hollywood for the big screen. Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Anne Hathaway, Sebastian Stan, Liev Schreiber, Hugh Jackman, & David Harbour are among his roster of clients. He has been tapped as a fitness expert in publications such as Muscle & Fitness, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, & Men’s Fitness. He has also been featured in People, US Weekly, Origins, In Touch, Cosmo, & Shape; and has made appearances on The Today Show, Page Six TV, People NOW, E News, & WebMD. He sits on the advisory board of Men’s Health Magazine. Don lives in New York with his wife, Mel, and their two children, Amelia and Donny Jr. - & their pups Rigatoni & Sambuca. Don is also a big supporter of The Don Monti Memorial Research Foundation, an organization focussed on easing the pain and suffering of their patients, to help their families at a time of great need and ultimately to find a cure for all cancers... So he is dedicating this episode to their organization. You can learn more by going to https://www.donmontifoundation.org/

Get ready for a fun episode to kick off the new year!! Please welcome Wendy Kurtzman to The FilmUp Podcast! Wendy is an Emmy-nominated casting director who has helped launch the careers of many well known actors including such notables as Sandra Bullock, Reese Witherspoon, Patrick Dempsey and Evan Rachel Wood. She has more than 30 years of experience in feature films, movies for television, mini-series and theater and has worked with many distinguished directors such as Paul Schrader, Diane Keaton, Sally Field and Roland Emmerich, for whom she cast the blockbuster “Independence Day,” starring Will Smith. Prior to starting her own casting business, she was a casting executive at Lifetime and NBC. She began her career as an actress in musical theater and graduated with a degree in theater from UCLA. In 2013 Wendy launched College to Career Acting, to help emerging BFA/MFA artists navigate the transition from Academia into the Entertainment Industry. Her experience as both a performer and a casting director afford her a unique perspective into what it takes to succeed as a performer. Recently, Wendy joined PhilmCo Media as Head of Casting while also serving as Faculty at UCLA and Pace University where she teaches personal narrative, audition technique and transition to the Industry. Wendy is also a big supporter of ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE CIVIL RIGHTS LAW AND COMBATS ANTISEMITISM. So she is dedicating this episode to their organization. You can learn more by going to adl.org

Today we are thrilled to be joined by Keaton Heinrichs, Chris Williams, & Gary Marshall. Keaton, Chris, & Gary are some of the incredible executives behind Nant Studios. NantStudios is a state-of-the-art full service production ecosystem comprised of traditional, broadcast and virtual production stages. The company is based in Los Angeles with two campuses in Culver City and El Segundo. Past projects including,Avengers Endgame, Deadpool, WestWorld Season 1, and much more. A bit more on our Guests: Keaton - Before his tenure at NantStudios, Keaton honed his skills while working full-time at BoulderLight Pictures, a production and foreign sales company celebrated for its recent success BARBARIAN (2022). During his time at BoulderLight, Keaton assumed the roles of Creative Executive and Director of Foreign Sales. His responsibilities encompassed discovering talented directors and writers, nurturing feature- length scripts, overseeing nationwide film productions, and orchestrating international sales at renowned markets such as Cannes and AFM. Chris - With over 25 years industry experience, Chris started his career in visual effects as a Digital Artist, then moved to become a Digital Effects Supervisor working on various projects including, Sky Captain and World of Tomorrow. He later became the co-founder of Unit Eleven where he served as a Previs Lead (previsualization lead) on the Transformers franchise with Michael Bay. With a wealth of previsualization supervising experience under his belt, he moved onto The Mandalorian series where he has been developing revolutionary virtual production tools and utilizing real time technology to create innovative workflows for LED volume content. Working as Virtual Production Supervisor on over 40 projects at Nant Studios the further push for innovation contnues as Head of Production. Gary - Hailing from London, Gary has enjoyed a 20+ year multi award-winning career spanning feature film, commercials, games and location based entertainment. Coming up through the ranks of the 2000’s Soho post scene at MPC London, Gary went on to join the “Avatar” crew in 2009 at Weta Digital, New Zealand, where the first virtual production (VP) revolutions were taking place. That immersion in ground breaking production techniques eventually lead Gary back to London, where alongside luminaries of the industry Alfonso Cuaron, Chivo Lubezki and Tim Webber, Gary would lead the Framestore VP effort for “Gravity”. Here, he accelerated the adoption of real-time technology both as a visualization tool, and as an in-camera VFX solution. These novel workflows would sow the seeds of contemporary ICVFX LED workflows. Going all-in on real-time rendering, Gary relocated to NYC and led Framestore’s 2016 “Field Trip to Mars'' project - the single most awarded campaign at Cannes Lions ever. Answering the siren song of Hollywood, Marshall moved to Los Angeles and spent the next 4 years at Disney’s Advanced Research Group and leading The Third Floor’s global R&D team building bleeding edge real-time theme park attractions and VP tools, before joining NantStudios in 2020 to build the VP studio campus of the future. Nant Studios is also a big supporter of Walk to End Alzheimer’s through the Alzheimer’s Association. Held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide, Walk to End Alzheimer's is the world's largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer's care, support and research. So they are dedicating this episode to their organization. You can learn more by going to ACT.ALZ.ORG.

With a community of over 2M followers and 25M+ likes, The People’s Paparazzi aka Johnny Cirillio, takes some time off from snapping fashion shots on the streets of NYC and joins on, The FilmUp Podcast. Johnny Cirillo was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, in 1980 to a father who delivered UPS packages in the Garment District of Manhattan and a very creative stay-at-home mom. During high school on Long Island, he developed a passion for photography when his mom gave him his first 35mm and shared with him some of her black-and-white photo- graphic work from the sixties. Film and photography became an obsession. He rolled his own film, built his own darkroom, and bugged every one of his friends to sit for him as he explored all facets of the medium. Johhny is also a big supporter of Mythic Bridge Inc. NYC. Using the transformative power of film-making, Mythic Bridge provides disconnected youth with a safe path towards practical film education and entertainment employment opportunities.. So he is dedicating this episode to their organization. You can learn more by going to mythicbridge.org/.

Please welcome the one and only, Tonya Lewis Lee to The FilmUp Podcast! Tonyis a director, producer, author and entrepreneur whose work often explores the personal impact of social justice issues. Most recently, the film she co-directed and co- produced, exploring the US maternal mortality crisis, AFTERSHOCK (HULU) has received numerous awards including a 2023 Peabody Award , a 2022 Sundance Special Jury Impact for Change Award, an NIHMC Award and a 2023 Emmy Award nomination. As a television producer, Tonya served as Executive Producer on the episodic series She’s Gotta Have It (NETFLIX) and wrote and produced The Watson’s Go To Birmingham (AMAZON). As a film producer, Lee produced Monster (NETFLIX) which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Tonya is currently serving as an Executive Producer on a documentary film about seven time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix. As an author, Tonya’s children’s books, co-written with her husband Spike Lee, Please Baby Please, Please Puppy Please and Giant Steps to Change the World have sold over one million copies. As an entrepreneur Tonya founded Movita Organics an organic vitamin supplement company to provide a premium vitamin supplement to the marketplace and to continue the conversation with women about how to access and achieve one’s optimum health.Tonya has received numerous awards and recognition for her work including being named to the 2023 Forbes 50 Over 50 list. Tonya is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, The University of Virginia School of Law and is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, the Producer’s Guild of America, a member of the Board of Trustees of the March of Dimes and a Board Emeritus of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Tonya is also a big supporter of March of Fimes. Each day over 1000 babies are born too soon. Their organization focus on preventing preterm birth and supporting those families. So she is dedicating this episode to their organization. You can learn more by going to marchofdimes.org/

Get ready for a hilarious and fun interview with the incredible Dangerbean aka Ben Christensen. Ben is a Canadian comedy influencer with over 700,000 followers cross platform. Known for his hyper-dramatized and absurd sketch comedy, as well as the odd Owen Wilson impression, Ben's fans look to his content for laughs, epic outdoor adventures, and existential crises. In addition to his online presence, Ben has also worked creating indie television for names like Roku, Adult Swim, and Canada's CBC. Ben is also a big supporter of Image Native a non profit that is the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content. So he is dedicating this episode to their organization. You can learn more by going to https://imaginenative.org

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get a film financed? What are financiers looking for before investing in a film? Or once you have the funds, what it takes to make a film? Well our next guests guests answer all of those questions and more. Please welcome Dave Liu and Elisa Gambino to The FilmUp Podcast! Dave and Elisa have been collaborating for quite some time now on their wildly successful production Every Day After. A 35-minute documentary that provides a more nuanced look at the complexities of the healing process due to a cleft-lip that we don’t often see. And honors the invisible labor of a sister whose love and action make it possible for Jary to experience the everyday joys and struggles of growing up. More on Dave and Elisa - get ready for this.. Dave Liu is a 30-year veteran of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood. He is an advisor, author, entrepreneur, investor, filmmaker, and philanthropist. He started his career on Wall Street with Goldman Sachs and then joined Jefferies where he rose from the entry level to executive ranks of Managing Director and Co-Head of the Digital Media and Internet investment banking. He worked on $15 billion of transactions for hundreds of companies. One of his companies reached $200 million in revenue and 1,000 employees. Through his merchant bank, he is CEO advisor and investor to tech companies, many of which have achieved multi-billion dollar status. He is a member of Catalyst, the Sundance Institute’s film financing program, SF FILM Invest, SF FILM’s film financing program, and started Liucrative Media to invest in Asian American and other underrepresented filmmakers. He was previously CEO advisor to ProSiebenSat.1 Media, one of the largest media companies in Europe. Dave is also a “perspiring” artist and writer who loves to draw and write funny. Dave completed the Management & Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania where he received a BS in Engineering and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School. He attended Harvard Business School where he received his MBA. He currently serves on the Executive Board of the Management & Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania and on the Trust Advisory Committee of Tau Beta Pi, the oldest national engineering honor society. He is Chairman of the Philanthropic Advisory Council of Smile Train, the largest cleft-focused organization, and Vice Chairman of AsAmNews, one of the top news sites for Asian America. Elisa brings to bear an extraordinary journalistic foundation to her film productions. Based first in Rome and then Moscow, Elisa spent her early career chronicling world events. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Gulf War in 1990 and from the collapse of the Soviet Union, to the wars in the former Yugoslavia and Somalia, Elisa was there. Her work in Somalia was recognized with a News and Documentary Emmy Award. She interviewed Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, refugees in Bosnia, war criminals in Serbia and South Africans celebrating their first free vote. Elisa believes in the power of short films and has executive produced award-winning shorts on issues related to human rights, global public health and the arts. Dave & Elisa is also a big supporter of Smile Train, So they are dedicating this episode to their organization. Every 3 minutes a child is born with a cleft-lip. Smile train is a non-profit dedicated to supporting those children and their families who are suffering from this hardship. You can learn more by going to smiletrain.org