EDUCATION:

• Youth Program

• Screenwriting

• Film / DV / Audio

• Photography

• Web Design

• Instructor Profiles

• Conferences

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China In Transition: Photos by Priscilla Briggs & Dan Dennehy Aug 6-Sept 24 Click Here

Darin Back has been a professional working photographer for over 15 years. He worked as first assistant to Annie Leibovitz at Vanity Fair for one year early in his career. Darin’s work in the industry has taken him around the country. He has shot and been published in New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. Some of his most recent local editorial/advertising photography has appeared in AARP, Business Week, Forbes, People,and Smart Money magazines. He has also instructed at the Mpls Photo Center.

Dan Beers has worked as an artist and commercial color and B&W printer for over 23 years, including three years as the manager of the Northlight Lab. He is widely known in art circles for his platinum print landscape photos. Dan was manager/master printer of the Curtis Centennial Project, creating gold-tone glass prints from antique negatives produced by Edward S. Curtis. As an independent artist, Dan blends 19th, 20th and 21st century photographic techniques. His work has been exhibited at the IFP MN Center for Media Arts and Minnesota Center for Photography.

Paul Bernhardt is an award-winning director of educational videos in the Digital Learning Group at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. As an independent producer/director, his films have screened at festivals and on public television. He has been teaching editing with Final Cut Pro at IFP Minnesota since 2002.

Joel Dickinson is recognized for his efforts in the advancement of multimedia design and development for educational programming. His design work with the University of Minnesota Extension Service has won several awards and received national attention in US News & World Report. Joel has a BS in Graphic Design and an M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in multimedia design and development, both from the University of Minnesota. His work includes educational video production; curriculum design and development; and program identity, packaging, and graphic design. He is also an accomplished music producer with numerous productions that have been featured on the Billboard dance charts.

Terry Faust has been a photographer for 27 years, working as a staff photographer and freelancer for newspapers, magazines, and in-house publications in the Twin Cities and New York. He has taught photography and multi-image production at the School of Communication Arts, Articulture, Minneapolis Park and Recreation, and South High School’s Adult Community Education Program. He has received grants and awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Intermedia Arts, MNTV, The Loft, and the Neighborhood and Community Press Association. He belongs to the National Press Photographers Association and the Minnesota News Photographers Association.

David Grant is a Twin Cities-based screenwriter and playwright. As a playwright, he has been commissioned to write new work for the Minnesota Science Museum, the Minnesota Historical Society, Mixed Blood Theater, VocalEssence, The Playwrights’ Center, and Great American History Theatre. As a screenwriter, he has written drama for Twin Cities Public Television, Russell Simmons’ Def Pictures, HBO New York, Davis Entertainment, and the Showtime Network. Grant has been a recipient of screenwriting fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the McKnight Foundation, and was a finalist for the 1999 Gordon Parks Award and the Heathcote Arts Foundation Fellowship at the Independent Feature Film Market in New York for his screenplay Trouble. His travel story, I Hold High My Beautiful, Luminous Q’uran, appears in the book, Best Travel Writing, 2009, published by Travelers’ Tales, Palo Alto. He has taught screenwriting at The Loft, Playwrights’ Center, and S.A.S.E., as well as basic writing skills for The Center for Non-Profit Management at the University of St. Thomas. Grant is a graduate of Antioch College and president emeritus of Screenwriters’ Workshop, member of The Loft board of directors, a core alumnus member of The Playwrights’ Center, and a member of the Writers’ Guild of America, West.

Ted Hall has been assisting photographers and shooting professionally since 1997. He fell in love with the “old-school” (pre-digital) medium of photography while running the University of Minnesota's darkroom at the MacPhail Center for the Arts. He's had numerous shows, including a large solo exhibit at the Rogue Buddha Art Gallery. Ted currently makes his living through photographing weddings and events, as well as assisting. His wedding photography can be viewed at www.tedhallweddings.com and his film noir studio work at www.tedhallphotography.com.

Dean Lincoln Hyers was already showing feature films he wrote and directed at film festivals around the nation by the time he was 18 and launched his own interactive media company, Digital Café, as his entrée into the movie business. Through Digital Café, Dean directed and distributed electronic promotions for mainstream Hollywood blockbusters like Godzilla and Die Hard III. Upon selling Digital Café, Dean returned to the director’s chair with his debut feature, Bill’s Gun Shop, for which he took top honors at the SMMASH Film Festival and won Minnesota’s top directing prize, the D. L. Maberry Award. It was subsequently released through Warner Bros. Dean is also a rising star on the professional speaking circuit, and two-time pitch trainer and pitching judge at the Great American PitchFest.

Dain Ingebretson has been writing and producing in the Twin Cities for ten years with many short films under his belt. He most recently edited for the TV show Kit on the SPEED network, while developing his narrative consulting and seminars for clients like Target Corporation and Waterbury Music and Sound.

Sarah Jones-Larson is a 27-year voiceover professional. For four years a voiceover instructor at The Academy of Film and Television, she was also a faculty member of the University of Minnesota. Sarah was rated above the 99th percentile as an instructor by the University of Minnesota Office of Measurement Services in 2008. Her voice has been heard on thousands of radio and television commercials as well as hundreds of training, medical, and technical DVDs, IVR, and on the Web. Her students have been successful getting local, regional, and national voiceover work.

Deborah Meyer has been an active participant in IFP MN since the 1980s, first as a student/member/volunteer, and as an instructor for the past ten years. Professionally, she works in advertising as both a photo stylist and co-designer. Her fine art photography has been exhibited locally and purchased for publication.

Christopher Mick has taught television production at the University of Tampa in Florida, and digital and film production, producing, and post-production at Columbia College in Chicago. He has been a selection committee member, head juror, and media educator for children with the Chicago International Children's Film Festival. He has written film criticism for Static Multimedia's online magazine, is a juror for the Written Image Annual Screenplay Competition for Columbia College, and is a partner in 355 Productions in Hudson, WI. Christopher was an adjunct professor at the McNally Smith College of Music’s Motion Imaging Department and taught classes at IPR and Screenlabs. He has worked with the Evanston, IL Gifted Kids Program, Rochester Public Library, Village Players Theater, and has taught youth media classes at IFP and through its partnerships with the Walker Art Center, Minnesota Historical Society, and Intermedia Arts.

Dawn Mikkelson is an award-winning media producer and documentary filmmaker who was named to AV Multimedia Producer’s 2004 National Top Producers Showcase. From National PBS broadcasts to Featured Video Podcast by iTunes, Mikkelson’s work in film and video has received international acclaim across broad delivery platforms. She has completed four award-winning feature documentaries. Her most recent film, The Red Tail, directed with Melissa Koch, had its world premiere at the 2009 Galway International Film Fleadh. A former television news reporter at an ABC affiliate, Mikkelson has spoken about documentary filmmaking on numerous festival panels, and also about LGBT and environmental issues at colleges and universities around the world. She teaches documentary film as adjunct faculty at Ottawa University, Kansas.

Dan Miller has worked as a freelance lighting technician for the past 16 years. He has worked in the grip and electric lighting departments on movies, commercials, sporting and special events. Dan worked at the local ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, IA, directing the morning and noon news during the day, and shooting and editing video at the local cable operations at night. After moving to the Twin Cities, Dan spent five years at small ad agency shooting broadcast spots, corporate video, and business theater work before going freelance.

GiGi New (giginew-writer.com) is a film and television writer. She has written over a dozen scripts, been staffed on sitcoms, and developed material for several studios and independent producers. A finalist for The Disney Fellowship, she began her career as an assistant on Everybody Loves Raymond and moved on to writing for the award-winning Nickelodeon family series The Brothers Garcia. She has since worked for Gavin Polone (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Gilmore Girls), Wally Wallodarsky, and Maya Forbes (The Larry Sanders Show) on the FOX series The Ortega’s. More recently she has written film scripts and developed material for Aqua Entertainment, Gunn Films, The Walt Disney Company, Maya Entertainment, Avalanche Entertainment, and Underground Films. Currently she is developing a show with Walt Becker, director of Van Wilder and Old Dogs and producer of the upcoming series Glory Daze, premiering on TBS this fall.

Jila Nikpay (jilanikpay.com/facesornewamerica.com) is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker who explores the theme of cultural memory and belonging in her films and photography, focusing on the transitory and the temporal nature of reality. Nikpay’s films have been screened at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis-St.Paul International Film Festival, and Arizona International Film Festival. Solo exhibition of her photography has been held at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts and the Print Center in Philadelphia. Her portrait projects have been published and are in the collection of Minneapolis Public Library and Minnesota Historical Society.

Rhea Pappas (rheapappas.com) has worked as a freelance photographer in Minnesota for eight years shooting album covers and promos for record labels and photographs weddings, portraits, fine art projects, and editorial work. She has worked at West Photo and National Camera Exchange and was the 2005 recipient of the Scholastic Photographic Portfolio Award Scholarship at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she graduated. She spent the summer of 2008 teaching photography for the Duluth Public Schools’ Community Education Program. Rhea’s photography has been exhibited at the Perpich Center for Arts Education, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Fallout Urban Art Center Gallery, and Icebox Gallery. Rhea won the Best of Student category in the 2008 Advertising Photographers of America national photo competition, resulting in an exhibition at the Calumet Gallery in New York City.

John Pennoyer is a freelance nature photographer whose love of the outdoors shines through the images he captures. Over the last ten years he has been conducting photography workshops at the American Bear Association (americanbear.org) in Orr, MN. He also teaches photography classes at various locations in the Twin Cities area. For the last five years he has been shooting totally digital using Nikon equipment. His photo credits include Minnesota Conservation Volunteer, Lake Country Journal, Bowhunter, Outdoor Life, and many other national and regional publications. John has been a member of the Minnesota Nature Photography Club (minnesotanature.org) for 27 years and was recently awarded honorary status. Since retiring from General Motors, John has been working full-time in his own photography business, Impressions of Nature (impressionsofnature.net).

Michael Richmond has over seven years professional experience in film, TV, commercials, and web content, with the last four dedicated to animation and visual FX. His credits include Up In The Air, The Book of Eli, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He is currently directing animation under his own company, Dizilu (dizilu.com), with an office in Minneapolis.

Emmy award-winning filmmaker Jesse Roesler has a storytelling addiction. From comedies, to documentaries, to robotic love stories, you’ll find him ever exploring the humor, lightness, and depth of the human experience through the use of cinematic expression. His mini-movies have found homes in international film festivals, on national television, and in your Web browser.

Nick Sadler is an actor, writer, and director whose work has screened at Cannes, Sundance, Slamdance, as well as theatrically, and on cable. A graduate of The Juilliard School and a participant in the Sundance Institute’s Filmmaker’s Lab, he’s been fortunate to work with such esteemed filmmakers as the Coen brothers (True Grit), Doug Liman (Fair Game), Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, and Martin Brest. He is currently developing a film with Todd Field (In The Bedroom, Little Children).

Dawn Schot Klotzbach has worked both as a sound mixer and post-production sound designer/editor for many independent films and projects. She has recorded audio with Flash, DAT, Minidisk and Nagra recorders, and has mixed/designed with Pro Tools and Digital Performer software. “What's amazing about good sound is that you don't notice it; it's when you DO notice the sound that you have a problem.”

Beth Smith has worked on feature films for over 16 years. As a script/continuity supervisor she works closely with directors and cinematographers on projects ranging from large-budget studio features (The Last Kiss, Grumpier Old Men, and Wag The Dog) to small independent films (Bill’s Gun Shop and Snow). Over the years she has also worked on numerous commercial and industrial projects. Beth has been a guest lecturer at Minneapolis Community and Technical College and Rosemount High School and is a judge for the Rosemount Film Festival.

Jon Springer is an award-winning indie film producer, director, and cinematographer with regional and national acclaim. His films have garnered rave reviews from some of the top film sites in the world, including Ain’t it Cool News, Film Threat, and Fangoria. Springer’s cinematography credits include a long list of feature films, narrative shorts, documentaries, and over 700 commercials. His latest feature film, The Hagstone Demon, starring indie film icon Mark Borchardt, premiered at the 2009 Tromadance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Along with numerous awards for his direction and cinematography, Springer won the IFP/McKnight Artist Fellowship for Filmmaking in 2007.

Justin Staggs is an independent, Minneapolis-based music video director with over three-dozen music videos to his credit, most of which have received national and international broadcast promotion. Justin was the winner of the 2004 Kangaroo Project and was also chosen as one of the elite recipients of Twin Cities Metro magazine’s 2009 Keep Awards for excellence in filmmaking. Justin is a self-taught filmmaker and has an extensive creative background in advertising design, illustration, and screenwriting. In addition to being passionate about film directing, he enjoys teaching and sharing his unique insights into his craft and creative process with his students.

Eric Weidmann attended the Los Angeles Film Studies Center before receiving a BA in Philosophy of Creative Media from Greenville College in Illinois. He has spent the last seven years working in professional DVD production and freelance video editing. He currently is a freelance graphic designer and technical consultant.