Camera Phone Filmmaking

After cutting her teeth producing plays in Los Angeles and New York, Hope Farley sold her soul and wandered into the world of commercial and music video production. Hoping to make her fortune there, she spent 18 years touching every part of the business from sales, development and production at Production Company @radicalmedia to working as a Line Producer and Agency Producer on hundreds of award winning projects. In 2013, Hope joined forces with her great friend, director Ramaa Mosley to found Adolescent Content. A love of problem solving and conquering unchartered territory made that venture her most exciting to date. Hope is a gifted dragon slayer which comes in handy with her two young children at home, the hundreds of “kids” she works with at Adolescent and the clients who entrust those kids with massive budgets. When she isn’t deal making or career managing at Adolescent, you can find Hope at her local Erewhon fueling up for her next big race.

Leslie Bumgarner graduated with a BS from the University of Texas at Austin and earned an MFA at the American Film Institute in cinematography. She received wide acclaim for her work as cinematographer for the family drama, Going Bongo, the first international feature to shoot in Tanzania. The Fifth Episode of the series Co-Ed she shot for NBC/SnapChat was listed as the most inventive episode of Television of 2018 in The New Yorker Magazine. Recently she shot the series UnMade for IMDB/Amazon with celebrities finally telling stories they always wanted to make. Feb 6th on the College Humor subscription service, Dropout, the series Total Forgiveness launched to a huge audience. Some of her other clients and credits include: Mattel, Lifetime/A&E, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard Magazine, Us Weekly, College Humor, ATTN:, Big Breakfast, and Discovery. She was also a camera operator on Icarus, the Oscar winning feature length Documentary of 2018.

Since studying cinematography at Howard University and the prestigious American Film Institute Conservatory, Richard Vialet has served as Director of Photography on numerous feature films and tv shows, including multiple top-five U.S. box office theatrical hits. His theatrical credits include Acrimony and Nobody’s Fool for director Tyler Perry, the acclaimed horror anthology Tales of Halloween, with director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Game of Thrones), and the award-winning indie drama The Last Fall. His television work includes the Starz drama P-Valley and the upcoming BET​ drama American Soul. He has worked around the world, having shot films entirely in Cambodia, Bulgaria, and Costa Rica. In addition to feature films, he has photographed international commercials and a variety of music videos, featuring artists such as Destiny’s Child, Snoop Dogg, Take 6, Bilal, and Najee. He is represented worldwide by Dattner Dispoto and Associates.

Theodore Melfi is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. His feature credits include the Golden Globe nominated, St. Vincent (writer, director, producer,) starring Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, and Naomi Watts, Going in Style (writer) with Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, and Michael Caine, and the Oscar Nominated Hidden Figures (writer, director, producer,) which won the SAG Best Ensemble Cast Award for Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, and Jim Parsons. Melfi‘s latest film, The Starling, staring Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, and Kevin Kline is currently in post production and will be released by Netflix in the Fall of 2020.

Rachel Feldman has directed more than 60 hours of dramatic television and is also an accomplished screenwriter. Feldman will soon be directing her passion project, Lilly, a political drama based on the remarkable life of fair pay activist Lilly Ledbetter. The script won The Athena List and The NYWIFT Ravenal Director’s Grant. Feldman recently directed multiple episodes of Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, and The Rookie, as well as the pilot and full first season of the new MGM series The Baxters. Feldman’s drama pilot, “Kinks” won the 2020 ScreenCraft Best Pilot Award, and the WGA Drama Queens Award. Feldman is former chair of the DGA Women’s Steering Committee and an activist for gender equity behind the camera, you can see her interviewed in the Geena Davis doc, This Changes Everything, Amy Adrion’s Half The Picture, and Bloomberg TV’s Celluloid Ceiling.

Christine Swanson has developed, written and/or directed movie projects for various companies including HBO Films, Magnolia Pictures, State Street Pictures, and Faith Filmworks, her own independent film company. Christine received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Television Motion Picture for For the Love of Ruth. Christine also directed three original cable movie premieres for TVONE entitled, To Hell and Back, For the Love of Ruth, and Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story which broke network ratings as the most watched original movie in network history. Recently Christine directed The Clark Sisters movie for Lifetime. Christine’s work has won numerous awards and have played in many film festivals including, Sundance, Chicago International Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, The Hampton International Film Festival, Cannes Festival du Film Panafricain, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and American Black Film Festival to name a few. Christine Swanson earned her MFA in Film from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Christine also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame double majoring in Communications and Japanese. Christine recently directed episodes of Chicago PD and FBI.