|
MEET THE CREATORS
| Chris Burgard, Director |
| |
Chris Burgard was born in Mequon, Wisconsin, the son of a police officer and a cowgirl. He graduated from Dominican High School in White Fish Bay, Wisconsin where he was captain of the ski team, a football halfback, a member of the jazz band, a singer and an actor in musicals.
He later graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Theater Arts. While dating a ballerina, Burgard decided to take up ballet dancing and after a scholarship with the Ruth Page Chicago Ballet, he was good enough to become a company member with the Savannah, Duluth and Long Beach Ballet companies.
He moved to California in 1985, determined to become a filmmaker. He started his motion picture career as Mathew Broderick’s dance double in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. As an actor, he also appeared in commercials, the TV series Tour of Duty and Growing Pains, the films Twice Dead, 84 Charlie Mopic and the HBO pilot, Lessons Learned.
While making his living as a Hollywood stuntman, and riding bulls on the rodeo circuit, Burgard made his directorial debut on the cult horror film The Ruining, which featured Wings Hauser and Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld). The film was picked up and distributed by Troma.
After starting Little Bonanza Productions with his wife, Lisa, in 2002, he later partnered with producer Jennifer Champagne and editor Todd Sheridan Perry to create BORDER, an investigative documentary on the state of our southern border with Mexico.
Dissatisfied with second-hand media coverage, Burgard and his camera team journeyed down to the U.S. Mexican border and, over a period of several months, interviewed Border Patrol agents, illegal immigrants, Minutemen, politicians, representatives of the ACLU and local ranchers to make a realistic assessment of just how porous our border had become. The result is a fascinating and startling look into the world of illegal immigration, and, according to the New York Times, “ a terrifying glimpse of…horrors too numerous to mention.” As Scott Gordon mentioned in The Onion’s AV Club, “Maybe it will take people like Chris Burgard to redeem the American political documentary.”
|
| Jennifer A Champagne, Producer |
| |
Co-owner of Max Ink Cafe, LLC and Max Ink Productions, LLC, an animation and effects house/production house in Venice, California, Jennifer oversees all Max Ink business and production issues.
Jennifer is a great supporter of the independent spirit, eager to jump in and lend both her energy and that of Max Ink’s. As a result of this dedication, Max Ink Cafe/Max Ink Productions has contributed to
twelve short films over the past eight years including Blue, Choose Life, The Dancing Cow, Shadow of Doubt, The Story of Computer Graphics, the effects-laden shorts Only Hope and Pearl Harbor II: Pearlmageddon, Betrunner, Nooner, Aubrey Vox, Lonesome Matador and Effloresce (which is currently in post production).
Since starting Max Ink, Champagne has produced the effects on other notable projects such as American Zoetrope’s Jeepers Creepers, NCIS, Infested, Shakedown, the Emmy Award-winning Superbowl XXXII, Dragon Rage, the Black Scorpion series, Profiler, XFiles, Freakylinks, Even Stevens, Players, and Nitro Film’s Logo. The latter won Max Ink Cafe the Animation Magazine Animation Spotlight Award.
Jennifer is also passionate about supporting women in achieving their goals. As founder of Chicks In Film, Champagne connects a group of industry women ranging from Writers to Directors to Producers
to Studio Executives who share resources and strive to empower women in the industry. Other memberships include Chicks Who Click, Women In Animation, IFP West, and Los Angeles Women Aviators.
An accomplished visual effects trade press writer, Champagne regularly contributes articles to Millimeter Magazine, AWN, and DV Magazine, as well as The Digital Media Net Community.
|
| Todd Sheridan Perry, Editor |
| |
Co-owner of Max Ink Cafe and Max Ink Productions, Todd Sheridan Perry also serves as the primary VFX Supervisor, with responsibilities ranging from Visual Effect Design and Concept to On-Set Plate Supervision and 2nd Unit Direction to CG Supervision to doing the hands-on work at the computer.
Perry is a classically trained artist as well as both a traditional and digital animator. His diverse background in video games, film, and television has led him to play key roles in over 30 films and television series. His prominent credits include Bryan Singer and Dean Devlin’s The Triangle (for which he holds an Emmy), The Chronicles of Riddick, New Line Cinema’s Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and American Zoetrope’s Jeepers Creepers.
Companies such as Splutterfish, LLC, Alias/Wavefront’s Maya, as well as Discreet’s 3D Studio Max have sought Perry’s opinions and beta test feedback. He also shares his knowledge through technical articles and reviews on Digital Media Net and Animation Magazine.
In 2006 he created effects animation for the animated short, Gopher Broke, which was nominated for an Academy Award and was showcased at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. He was VFX supervising the film Effloresce and CG supervising the 2006 Sundance Selection, Wristcutters: A Love Story, as well as handling Technical Direction on a Toyota commercial and the Budweiser Superbowl Spot for Method Studios, and was a technical director on The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift and The Nativity Story. He was Lighting Supervisor on The Kite Runner, based on the best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini and produced by Dreamworks, for which Todd was nominated for a Visual Effect Society Award for Best Supporting Effects in a Motion Picture. He moved into the Frank Darabont directed Stephen King story, The Mist as Lighting Supervisor. Most recently, he was CG Supervisor on a race sequence for the upcoming film Speed Racer.
Editing projects range from CGI films like Players; cinematics for games such as Dragon Wars, War Jets, Thunder Tanks, and Warriors of Might and Magic, as well as a variety of independent films under the Max Ink Productions, LLC banner—Only Hope, Aubrey Vox, the Frank Darabont mentored film, Effloresce, and the documentary feature, Border.
Examples of Todd’s Visual Effects work can be found at the Max Ink Cafe website ( www.MaxInkCafe.com) as well as his personal site ( www.duckyamuck.com), which also contains his resume, published articles, and additional articles of interest.
|
| Lisa Burgard, Executive Producer |
| |
Co-owner of Little Bonanza Productions, Lisa’s film experience is relatively new, but she brings a diverse background to the table as Executive Producer of Border.
Lisa graduated with Honors from Queens University in Charlotte, NC where she received a Bachelor of Arts Double Major in English and Communications. Following graduation Lisa moved to New York where she worked as a JFK-based TWA flight attendant, traveling the world.
From there she went on to the role of Director of Admissions for Chatham Hall – an Episcopal Girls Preparatory School in Chatham, Virginia. Lisa later went on to be an Assignment Editor for WSET ABC 13 in Danville, Virginia.
The next decade brought her back to the Big Apple focusing on fashion where she worked as an Assistant Director and later Director of the Flagship Dior Boutique on 55th and Fifth Avenue where she was in charge of the day to day operations and seasonal buy during Paris Fashion Week. At the Flagship Chanel Boutique her primary responsibilities included helping to coordinate special events and managing a sales staff of twenty-nine employees.
This led to creating her own brand, Hand Made by Burgard, a business that focuses on a line of hand-tooled, hand-stitched American crafted works of art which range from camera bags and totes to belts, wallets, and day planners and more recently, made to measure sheepskin, deerskin and elk skin coats. Viewers of Border can see Chris' prototype elk and sheepskin coats which helped keep him warm during the cold October film shoot.
Under the banner Little Bonanza Productions – a company she founded with her husband Writer/Director Chris Burgard – Lisa oversees all Bonanza business.
The role Lisa finds most rewarding has been as a wife and mother. |
| Danny Moder, Cinematographer |
| |
A third generation filmmaker, Danny Moder has ten years of experience in the movie business. He remains invigorated by camera movement and light while still keeping focus on classic film making. Making a career primarily with 35 mm film, his skills range through 24p high definition
technology to accomplishments in still photography.
Mr. Moder has honed his skills in the camera departments of some of the biggest features in recent memory—camera operating on such projects as The Forgotten, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Seraphim Falls, and the films Fun with Dick and Jane and Freedomland.
Moder served as the Director of Photography on the recent documentary Border where he spent six weeks along the U.S./Mexico border filming a broad range of subjects—Border Patrol ride-alongs, Mexican migrants and drug smugglers crossing the border, politicians, Minutemen watches, and man-on-the-street interviews.
Danny's full length features include Grand Champion and Straight Out of Compton. He was the DP on a number of shorts, including Roadie. His 2nd unit DP credits include Mona Lisa Smile and a number of commercials for RSA and Epoch films.
As a commercial Cinematographer, Mr. Moder’s many clients include McDonald’s, America Online, Burger King, Verizon Wireless, and U.S. Cellular.
Danny Moder graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder in1992 with a Bachelors degree
in Psychology.
|
| |
| Film Crews |
| |
JayTee, Andrew Drazek, Ruth Arnell, |
|
