Rex Sikes' Movie Beat

Twisted Dreams Film Festival, founded in 2011 by Christopher K House and Stephen Milek, two friends with a passion for the silver screen. Chris can thank his parent's for his obsession with horror and the macabre. Both being horror fans, Chris grew up watching old horror films, specifically the Universal Monsters collection of fright films. He was born into a family of magicians and was weaned on...

WIlliam Lu, director, served as a development assistant for David Madden and Robert Cort at the Cort/Madden Company at Paramount. He received his MFA in film and TV production from FSU where he produced the 35mm thesis film “Two-Bit,” which was a 2003 Student Academy Award finalist. He was Hired at the SyFy Channel and then spent three years at Herzog & Company where he worked in TV, web and m...

David Murphy, casting director and acting coach, is co-founder of the Chicago acting school, The Green Room. There are multiple areas of expertise to his teaching. He's worked for 20 years  in the field of acting. Since 2001 he has worked as a Commercial Casting Director at O'Connor Casting. He splits time between casting and teaching. Around the casting office, there are two "David's" (...

Craig A. Knitt, award winning artist, filmmaker, teacher, performer, writer and creator is a founder of the Wildwood Film Festival, a festival dedicated to Wisconsin film talent. The past three years Craig has also been a volunteer for the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival. When Craig is not busy teaching visual art, he is busy creating film projects or performing Improvisational C...

James Breckenridge, script consultant, has worked in the entertainment industry for over 25 years. In 1995, he founded of The PlayCrafters Group. As its Director, he specializes in helping writers from all over the country develop producible scripts for motion pictures, television and theatre. Through creative counseling and objective feedback, he encourages writers to focus on the essential eleme...

Join Ian Teal co-director of The Weyauwega International Film Festival will be returning November 11-14 to the Gerold Opera House in Weyauwega, WI for it’s fifth year of films from around the globe. This year the festival presented by Wega Arts will be screening forty-three films representing seventeen different countries. Many of the films were either made in Wisconsin or have Wisconsin connectio...

Bill Rebane, Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Author started his assent from the mail room, at age 17, to Floor Manager, Asst. producer and assistant to the Executive producer, providing him the opportunity to partake in countless daily live television productions. His first independent production effort was “Twist Craze,” a ten minute musical theatrical short subject purchased by AIP became an i...

Join Rick Vaicisu,The Flyway Film Festival Director and Rex Sikes discussing what's new at the upcoming 8th Fest in Pepin, Wisconsin. October 21-25, 2015. Flyway showcases top-notch emerging filmmakers from across the globe. Flyway has won accolades from industry pros, filmmakers, and audiences. Opening night film is The Driftless Area, starring John Hawkes, Zooey Deschanel, and Anton Yelchin. Wor...

Rocky Lang, Producer, director author, PT 2. Rocky's new book "Growing Up Hollywood" is available at Amazon! He has been involved in the motion picture and television business all his life. He Executive Produced, “Racing For Time” for Lifetime Television starring Charles Dutton, which received a Best Picture nomination for The Image Awards. He has had 8 books published. Growing up as the...

Peter Marshall, PT 30, The Director's Series - The nuts & bolts of directing film and television with Peter Marshall. Peter has had a 35-year career and has worked as a PA, dolly grip, electrician, assistant cameraman, commercial production manager, first assistant director, TV series creative consultant, television producer and director. He has worked on industrial films, documentaries; telev...

Kathy Fehl lived in NY, writing plays, directing, and producing theater. She created a five hundred seat theater at 79th and Riverside, the heart of the Upper West Side; the first show she directed there was Waiting for Godot, starring David Morse. She studied with several brilliant teachers, including Lee Strasberg, Geraldine Page, Christine Lavren, and John Guare. In addition to the fourteen pla...

Jeff Gendelman, writer and producer, wrote and produced The Surface, an 18-year journey of perseverance from idea to production. The film stars Sean Astin, Chris Mulkey and Mimi Rogers and was directed by Gil Cates Jr. Jeff also produced and directed the award-winning short film, In Passing. He produced the Los Angeles world premiere of the play, The Letter Writer, and then developed it to be made...

Rick Vaicius is director and founder of Flyway Film Festival, Wisconsin's bluff premier destination for independent film as noted by Emmy award-winning blogger Scott W. Smith “ … a festival that should be on your radar”. Founded in 2008 Vaicius has created a standout, intimate and high-quality annual festival. Over the past four years, Flyway has brought over 80 filmmakers into the local community...

Peter Marshall, Pt 29, The Director's Series - The nuts & bolts of directing film and television with Peter Marshall. Peter has had a 35-year career and has worked as a PA, dolly grip, electrician, assistant cameraman, commercial production manager, first assistant director, TV series creative consultant, television producer and director. He has worked on industrial films, documentaries; telev...

Michael Frost Beckner "The Screewriter Series"  EP 7 Screenwriter on Rex Sikes' Movie Beat. Michael launched his writing career with three record-making “spec” script sales: Texas Lead & Gold, Cutthroat Island, Hunchback of Notre Dame. He's writtern dozens of screenplays, studio rewrites, twenty pilots for commercial and cable networks, numerous episodes for network television,  His...

Rex Piano, director, PT 5Upon graduating NYU School of the Arts , Rex worked as a 1st A.D. on dozens of commercials and films until he took a full time position at a NY Commercial Production Company. In 1985 Rex as Head of Production for O’Quinn Productions. he produced numerous videos for Fangoria Magazine. In 1987 Rex became Head of Production for Associated Television International.  Rex wrote,...

GIL CATES, JR. (Producer Director) has produced and directed many films and documentaries, including the 2013 feature film Jobs, which he co-produced, starring Ashton Kutcher, Josh Gad, Dermot Mulroney, and Matthew Modine, and the 2011 feature film Lucky, which he directed, starring Colin Hanks, Ari Graynor, Ann-Margret and Jeffrey Tambor. In addition, Gil produced and directed the critically accl...

Debra Granik, director, nominated for Academy Award, and co-writer of Winter’s Bone, which was nominated for four Oscars, including  Best Picture, and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Granik’s first feature film, Down to the Bone, was awarded the Best Director prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. She is known for her amazing work with actors, essentially launching...

Peter Sherayko, (PT 2) Actor, and owner of Caravan West a supplier of  horses, tack, artillery, costumes, props, Prod. Designer, Art Director, Prop Master, Wranglers, and Sets for movies, played 'Farley' in 'Yellow Rock'. Peter created his company to bring quality to the Hollywood Western and provide today’s demanding film audience with the most authentic product possible.  In the process, Sherayk...

Horror Equity Fund, LLC leads the industry in genre-specific funding solutions for horror-centric projects including films, ancillary rights exploitation and other horror-related projects. Unlike “pre-sale” or donation-based crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, which solicit donations or contributions in return for a poster, download, or other consideration, Horror Projects presented through H...

Michael Frost Beckner "The Screewriter Series"  EP 6 Screenwriter on Rex Sikes' Movie Beat. Michael launched his writing career with three record-making “spec” script sales: Texas Lead & Gold, Cutthroat Island, Hunchback of Notre Dame. He's writtern dozens of screenplays, studio rewrites, twenty pilots for commercial and cable networks, numerous episodes for network television,  His...

Brian Herskowitz, Screenwriter, has completed over a dozen feature films. His first produced feature was a low budget slasher titled DARKROOM. He wrote and directed the award winning short film ODESSA OR BUST starring Jason Alexander, Red Buttons, Jason Schwartzman. Brian wrote, directed, and produced the documentary 1736: SOMEWHERE TO TURN and the short film JOANNE. His TV writing credits include...

Daniel Veluzat, PT 3 producer, movie set ranch owner, is an entrepreneur like no other. He started off in the entertainment business over 30 years ago. As a young boy Daniel grew up on movie/TV sets such as 1941 starring John Belushi, Baba Black Sheep starring Robert Conrad, McMillian and Wife starring Rock Hudson, and Maverick - The Lazy Ace starring James Garner. Daniel pportunities visiting &qu...

Michael Frost Beckner "The Screewriter Series"  EP 5 Screenwriter on Rex Sikes' Movie Beat. Michael launched his writing career with three record-making “spec” script sales: Texas Lead & Gold, Cutthroat Island, Hunchback of Notre Dame. He's writtern dozens of screenplays, studio rewrites, twenty pilots for commercial and cable networks, numerous episodes for network television,  His...

Lenore Andreil PT3 Producer, Director, Actress. Adriel did all three on Yellow Rock. Distributed Worldwide it won 18 Awards, including the prestigious "Wrangler Awards", in every category from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Lenore won for Producing and Best Picture with her partners Steve Doucette, Daniel Veluzat, & Nick Vallelonga, and Best Screenplay with Steve Do...