


MICHAEL D. ATTARDI, SR. an award winning screenwriter and lyricist, was born in Long Branch , New Jersey , where he excelled on the athletic field as well as in the classroom. Always having a passion for the arts, Michael was accepted as a gifted/Talented student to the Westminster Choir College in Princeton , New Jersey where he won the Philip Turner creative award in music. Michael wrote three screenplays, which were produced by the University Players at Montclair State University . As the youngest winner of the Eugene Stein Musical Award in 1989 for best original University Musical.
With music and writing always on his mind, he formed a 24 piece Big Band in 1994 and recorded a CD named “When I'm with you.” Since 1997, he has worked with former Disney animators while taking courses at the Disney Institute in Orlando, Florida. Michael wrote his first musical animation in 1999. This inspiration guided him to write several musical screenplays and soundtracks.
Michael has won three Perri Awards, The Annecy Film Festival and the Slamdance film Festival for best original soundtrack in 2005 for "Twin Treasures." He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, East and the Society of composers and lyricist. Michael also has 198 musical U.S. copyrights.
Recently, Michael finished his short animated musical comedy film called Once Upon a Christmas Village which won 25 awards, including 10 Grand Jury awards for “Best Animation”, 11 Telly Awards and 4 Accolade Awards for this project.
Michael and his wife, Colleen, share two beautiful sons, Michael, Jr. and Nathaniel.
MICHAEL DAVIS recently retired as the Band and Orchestra director for the Walt Disney World® Resort. During his tenure with Walt Disney World, he conducted the Walt Disney World Band and Orchestra and appeared on national TV specials as "Major Mike". Michael also served as manager of Atmosphere Talent and Education Programs at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Within the Educational programs, he was responsible for the development of educational workshops offered by Disney Magic Music Days and was also responsible for the show concept, audition process and the operational procedures for Disney's Collegiate All-Star Band and Orchestra ensembles. Although he has retired from Walt Disney World, he remains active, serving as a contract conductor, music director, and consultant.
DANI DONADI,an award-winning composer, was born in Venice, Italy. After studying composition, orchestration and sound engineering in Italy and France, he moved to the United States in 1988. He has worked for the Walt Disney Company as a musical artist and has produced the internationally acclaimed CD collection Relaxing With Nature, as well as artists like Glenn Knight, Jim Lyons, Ronnie Christopher, and Taimane, to name a few. Dani has composed, arranged and orchestrated the score for several films, including Twin Treasures, Zandora, Defending Camelot, Cereal, The Sailors Swing and recently the award-winning animation short "Once Upon a Christmas Village" for Dream Balloon Productions, Inc and "From Stage to Screen- a Musical Journey from Sideshow to Soundtrack" with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. Dani also operates his own recording studio and audio production facility in the heart of central Florida: Wolfgang Productions. Dani has won several Telly Awards as well as the Perri Awards for best composer.
PAT GARRET, Pat Garrett is a director and choreographer with extensive experience of working in film, theatre, television and commercials.
Her career has included work in ballet, opera, drama, comedy, musicals, puppeteering and computer animation.
JOHN HADITY is an independent producer and financier with over 20 years of studio experience. Most recently he served as the Executive Vice President of Motion Picture & Television Production Finance for Miramax Films. During his 12 year tenure with the company he was responsible for a portfolio of production budgets valued in excess of $4 Billion. Mr. Hadity oversaw the strategic planning, risk management, labor relations, business affairs, tax, government relations and financial reporting for over 250 production entities, as well as managed all of the parent company's structured finance and off balance sheet transactions. In addition to his corporate responsibilities at the company, Mr. Hadity also served as production rep on several Miramax releases including Academy Award winners SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE , THE ENGLISH PATIENT , EMMA and RESTORATION . Mr. Hadity is a member of the Producers Guild of America, has served on the PAA's
Worldwide Production and International Tax Committees, and is a frequent guest lecturer
at Yale University , Columbia Business School , and New York University 's Stern School
of Business.
JEFF SCHEETZ, Animation Producer, founded The DAVE School in 2000 with his wife Anne after 20 years experience in animation production. The DAVE School offers a program of complete immersion in the art and science of computer animation with extensive practice under industry level supervision. Many of the school's films and visual effects shorts are award winners and he continues to produce commercial projects for a wide variety of clients. Before The DAVE School, Jeff worked for the pioneering visual effects company Foundation Imaging where he supervised visual effects projects for Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, and Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles. In addition, he also worked for Nickelodeon Studios, Universal Studios Florida, Walt Disney Imagineering, and The Disney MGM Studios, where he and Anne met. They have a 7 year old daughter named Emilie.
PAUL "KIT" STOLEN, Art Director, is based in New York City and graduated from Mason Gross School of Art in conjunction with the London Academy, where he earned a BFA in Theatrical Design. Paul has worn many hats in the entertainment business. Some include: scenic and costume design, prop construction, creature design, tailoring, and studio works. Selected credits include design for original musical production Time Traveler Zero Zero, costumes and scenic design for the original production Hard Times Blues, scenic designs for the Sci-Fi films Megolodon, Five and The Mystery of Irma Vep.
LEE STRINGER, Miniature Supervisor/CG Supervisor, has a broad visual effects background and his experience includes work on feature films, music videos, theme park attractions, fully animated episodic television and video games. His credits include CG Supervisor at Zoic Studios where he worked on the Sci-Fi Channel's Emmy nominated Battlestar Galactica; and Firefly, which won an Emmy for special visual effects. At Foundation Imaging Lee worked on the Director's edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and spent several seasons on Star Trek: Voyager. In addition he worked on Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles and Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future. He was also a teacher at the Foundation Institute. A model maker as well, Lee has created miniatures for film and television productions, including Cartoon Network's Space Ghost Coast to Coast. His interest in filmmaking, miniatures and effects began at an early age watching the Gerry Anderson series Thunderbirds and Space 1999 while growing up in Great Britain.
RON THORNTON, CGI Line Producer, is a veteran artist with nearly thirty years of experience in the visual effects industry. He has always been fascinated by science fiction and fantasy and his career began with BBC shows like Dr. Who and Blakes 7. Ron migrated to the United States in 1985 and continued work in traditional miniature and optical visual effects until 1990 when he started to use LightWave on the Video Toaster. In 1992 Ron formed Foundation Imaging to produce the visual effects for the television show Babylon 5, for which he garnered an Emmy Award. Foundation went on to create visual effects for many features and TV shows, including Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Contact and The Jackel. Ron also created and produced a 13 episode TV series called Hypernants for ABC. Since then Ron has produced the animation for more than 100 episodes of fully computer generated TV with shows such as Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles, Max Steel and Captain Scarlet. In his time off Ron's hobby is piloting Russian military aircraft.
ANDY VAN ROON is a writer/producer with works in multiple genres represented by the William Morris Agency. He wrote and produced the Y2K Project with Leonard Nimoy; currently working with producer Marc Forby who is bringing $10M on a 2-part sci-fi mini-series based upon van Roon 's screenplay, "Gravity X," is currently Executive Producer of "Hitchcock & Art," "Hope for Lwala ," producer of "The Mysteries and Truths About AIDS," producer/director of "A Bend in the River" - all feature-length documentaries in post production. Screenplays he has written in various phases of packaging include "Beyond the Dark Bayou," "Bloodwing," "Let Us Prey," "The Brothers of Chi." He has recently been commissioned to write the full-length screenplays, "Blood and Eternity" and "Points." He is Producer of the Nashville 48 Hour Film Project [ www.48HourFilm.com] where he has overseen creation of 122 short films. He was Executive Producer of the Nashville Filmmakers Anthology, which included "Forgotten Memories," "Shattered," "X-Marks the Spot," "Circle of Fault," "Dear Mr. Goodlife ." He co-founded Nashville Cinema Partners, distribution company for authentic Grindhouse movies, including "Monster and the Stripper," "Untamed Mistress," "White Lightnin ' Road," "Girl from Tobacco Row" and other properties. He is Founding President of FilmNashville [www.FilmNashville .org], an organization that serves over 2000 film and television individuals and businesses in Nashville and the Southeast. He has produced over 30 events, symposia and conferences related to the business of film and television, including the ten-day Nashville Filmmakers Conference. He is on the boards of the Nashville Film Festival [ www.NashvilleFilmFestival.org], the Nashville Screenwriters Conference [ www.NashScreen.com]. He was the central organizer in lobbying the Tennessee state legislature to secure a $10M film incentive fund, which has just been rolled into its second year. Prior to moving to Nashville, he was publisher and editor of the Chicago Musicale and the Chicago Music Guide, where he wrote and/or edited over 200 articles. His degrees in writing are a B.A. with Distinction from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he had his full-length play, "The Moon Is A Serious Thing," produced at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts; and an M.F.A. from University of Southern California, based in the School of Cinema and Television Studies. He is also currently President of the Lost Boys Foundation, an organization designed to assist refugees from Sudan who have come to the United States for sanctuary; and on the board of Project New Beginnings, an organization that works with prison inmates who are engaged in programs of psychological and spiritual transformation.
DAVE WEST, Motion Capture Supervisor, started his career doing freelance video productions in Hawaii over 15 years ago. Southern Oregon came next where Dave changed his focus to computer modeling and animation, producing national commercial spots for ad agencies, production companies, and network affiliates. The Hollywood bug bit next and Dave moved to Southern California for a character animation position at Foundation Imaging working on such shows as Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, Beetleborgs Metallic and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It was during this time he became Foundation's Motion Capture Supervisor. Dave and his crew worked on the CG television series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, Max Steel and Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future. He continues to provide Motion Capture services at The DAVE School studio in Orlando, and supervises the facility.