Bios
Dana Jae
Founder, Writer, Executive Producer
Dana Jae has 20 years experience working in audio with the past 10 years dedicated to film sound in roles from production sound mixer to post-production sound designer and re-recording mixer. She has over 20 independent short, feature film, and documentary credits. For the past 6 years, she has also been a part-time faculty member at City College of San Francisco where she teaches various courses in audio production. Dana has always loved to write. She began writing songs, poetry, and short stories at an early age. More recently, she has dedicated herself to the art of screenwriting. In December 2006, inspired by her love of classic rock music and lyrics, she wrote a couple of shorts screenplays that introduce the cast of characters in the FIlms on 45 universe.
Jody Yvette Wirt
Partner, Producer, Editor
Jody Yvette Wirt is the mother-hen of all productions. Jody is able to produce, assistant direct, operate camera, act, edit, cater, do hair & make-up, and leap tall buildings in a single bound! Jody's background is marketing, funding, and educating in fine art, performing arts, and film. Born and raised in Southern Louisiana and Texas, Jody has been schooled in the fine art of hosting, entertaining, and cooking; she brings all of these skills together to create family-style productions. Jody has produced 3 feature films and dozens of shorts. Jody is a partner in Films on 45 and Whaddya Gonna Do About It? Productions.
Kathy Sterling
Partner, Legal and Business Affairs
While an undergraduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, Kathy indulged her love of music and literature, graduating in 1984 with a relatively useless degree in English Literature. She then traveled Europe and the East Coast of the United States before returning to San Francisco to work at a meaningless and menial job. It was then that Kathy decided that she wanted to go into business, and she had two life-changing realizations: (1) that in order to be a key part of a successful enterprise, one needs to have either a business vision, capital, or a skill; and (2) that in order to succeed in business, a person must either be a lawyer or depend on a lawyer at some point in time. Kathy decided to become a lawyer and through her practice of law to develop her business skills. She moved to Southern California to attend law school at USC and has been providing legal services to successful businesses and their owners for about 18 years at a small, high-quality law firm in Los Angeles. Kathy is looking forward to being part of the team that makes Films on 45, LLC, a great success, both as a business venture and as a creator of entertaining and unique video products.
Stephanie George
Partner, Production Accountant, Production Sound Mixer - "Moore, Rose"
Stephanie George is a live and location sound engineer who holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration & Finance from University of Central Florida and an Associates Degree in Recording Arts from Full Sail where she graduated in the top 5% of her class. Stephanie came to the Bay area in February 2005 and in this short time has done FOH sound for over 100 bands at venues such as Bottom of the Hill, 12 Galaxies, the World Music Festival at Brava Theater and location sound on various documentaries, corporate projects and feature film. Stephanie also does live audio recordings for web casts. Stephanie is classically trained in piano, bassoon and clarinet. She is a partner in Films on 45 and also works as the production sound mixer for some films and production accountant.
John Madden
Director "Moore, Rose" | Director, Co-writer "Head South"
John Madden is a Renaissance Man, a talented-hyphenate, a person who knows a lot about everything. John has jumped into every kind of creative endeavor at some point in his life, including (but not limited to!) theater, musicals, TV, dance, choir, pastels, poetry, scripts, a novel, punk-band front-man, sound engineer, composer, and - the culmination of it all - FILMMAKING! John's first feature film, "Rabbits and Wolves"; is an intense and intelligent look at opposing forces in America. For John's 2nd feature film, he was determined to do the impossible - create 30 movies in 30 days. The result is "30.30"; which examines the effects of primal forces in our world in their positive and negative aspects, and all of these connect, weave, bounce, and crash into one another to create one explosively original feature film! John is also an avid historian (WWII is his specialty) and a great resource for current events. John Madden is the creative force behind Whaddya Gonna Do About It? Productions.
Denise Bostrom
Co-Writer "Head South"
Denise Bostrom wrote her first documentary film on contemporary jazz musicians as a college senior in '73. It aired on WNET-TV and was shown nationally on PBS. She has since written documentaries, corporate films, educational films & web casts garnering awards from major festivals (American Film Festival, Women in the Director's Chair, Nyons, and Toronto, Berlin and New York Film Festivals) as well as industry awards (Joey, Golden Cine). She's also worked on feature films as a script-doctor & supervisor with renowned directors including Chris Columbus, Wes Craven, George Lucas and Wayne Wang. She works with local and national companies as a producer and screenwriter, and teaches screenwriting and film studies at City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State University.
Bill Grant
"Behind the Scenes" Videographer/Editor, Technical Advisor
Bill Grant was born in Honolulu, HI and moved to Southern California as a teen. Northern California has been home for over 20 years. In addition to his ongoing Business Development position with a large telecommunications company, he has provided "making-of" videos for several short-subjects and live performance videos for various musicians and non-profit organizations. His jobs in the high-tech sector, along with experience as a bass player in a couple of bands, provide Bill with a broad background in his behind-the-scenes video capture/edit along with technical (and practical) support of crew activities during project planning and while on the sets of "Films on 45".
Margret Ogden
Actress "Moore, Rose"
Margaret "Mags" Ogden grew up in Washington D.C., Chicago and London (which may account for her slipping into different accents regularly.) She has extensive training and experience in the fields of classical voice, theatre, musical theatre, dance and film. She has worked on-stage and back-stage, on-screen and off-screen. She has sung in several small opera houses around the country and worked as a concert soloist including performing as a main-stage soloist at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Margaret has been studying classical voice for seventeen years. She received her Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she also minored in Theatre and Musical Theatre. In 2001, Margaret was given a full scholarship to study method acting and playwriting at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. While living in New York City, Margaret worked as an actress, a stage manager, a house manager and a director. Of course, she paid rent by working as a waitress and a bookseller. In fact, she has worked in just about any job you can imagine while pursuing an education and a career in these arts. Nowadays, Margaret works a great deal in the independent film community in the Bay Area while continuing to pursue a career in music. She also keeps busy teaching math and creative writing to students of all ages in the area. Her favorite people to work with, however, remain the folks of Films on 45.
Pernille Trojgaard
Actress "Moore, Rose"
Pernille Trojgaard was born in Odense, Denmark. At an early age, she discovered her love for theatre and film and decided to pursue a career in acting. In 2002, she moved to New York City to attend The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute while working in several plays and independent films. Upon finishing her studies in 2005, she decided to relocate to Los Angeles, CA where she has been busy doing independent films, among the "Night Terror" and "Justice". Pernille is proud to be a part of the Films on 45 team.
Michele Sieglitz
Director of Photography "Moore Rose"
Michele Sieglitz has worked professionally as an independent producer, photographer and editor of independent films, documentaries and media collaborations for the last 13 years. Much of the work that Michele has produced has been about advocacy for young people and the underrepresented, where she feels the true and tender voice of a culture lies.
In addition to her production work, she also spends a lot of her time teaching and mentoring at a variety of schools and film organizations in the Bay Area, including Odyssey Middle School, City College of San Francisco, The Art Institute of California San Francisco, BAVC, the Sonoma Film Society and the Mill Valley Film Festival.
Michele also runs a production company called lilblackcat productions, where she produces PSA's, promo pieces and short films for corporations and individuals, artists and non-profit clients, from development to post-production. She recently completed a short documentary film about disabled animals, alternative therapies that are used to assist them and the amazing human-companions and healthcare professionals who champion for their right to live long and healthy lives. Currently, she is in development on a new documentary film about factory farming and farm sanctuaries that provide shelter to rescued animals and education to people who seek alternatives to animal abuse in our food system. Her greatest desire in life is to work on a film project with her heroine and fellow animal-guru and protector, Dr. Jane Goodall.
Equal to her passion for photography and design, Michele is a self-described logophile whose interest in fables and myths began at the age of three when she taught herself to read from The Uncle Remus Tales. As a "creative junkie" always looking for the next fix, she is most content in making sense of things though crafting poems and stories while collecting images of the natural world to accompany them. When not behind the lens, teaching in the classroom or writing and editing in front of a computer monitor, you can find Michele getting dirty in the garden , searching for rare and endangered plant species, spending time at Green Gulch Zen Center or beach combing and playing "archaeologist" at one of Northern California's more desolate beaches.
Alan Chun
Gaffer
After being "released" from high school in 1970 Alan did a 2 year stint at Marine World (when it was still in Redwood City) as a scuba diver doing the underwater maintenance and fish and dolphin feeding. He then went to Lassen College and majored in gunsmithing and opened his own gun shop for 23 years. During that time, since he was always interested in photography, he got involved in photojournalism by shooting photos for different newspapers. That led into shooting video for news channels which led into video production for commercials, corporate videos, music videos and films. He no longer has the gun shop and has been a full time gaffer and camera operator in the film and video industry for the last 22 years shooting everything from underwater footage for the Discovery Channel to reality programming for HBO and Showtime to commercials and independent and feature films.