CREW BIOS

MARC MORGENSTERN - PRODUCER/ DIRECTOR / WRITER

Marc’s first taste of film came in 1985, in Grade 11 when he was accepted to the Peckham Centre Summer Film Program where he acted in several short films and wrote and directed the animated short Frisky Business, a spoof of the Tom Cruise movie, but instead, a bunch of cats end up throwing a party while their owner is away.

He was accepted at Humber College School of Theatre at 18. In his third year, he was granted a one man show from a class of twenty. Outside of school, Marc honed his acting skills and appeared in several TV and Film productions such as Monster Match, By Way of The Stars and Pray For Death Paul Henderson.

To expand his skill set, Marc went back to school for advertising and design. With a flair for the dramatic, Marc quickly became the only student ever to be offered an internship at the prestigious MacClaren McCann Advertising agency.

As prestigious as it was, Marc refused because was offered a Job in second year of school. Since then he’s developed such advertising campaigns as PagePass, Chit Chat and Ashley Madison, where he’s written and implemented a series of commercials and nationwide campaigns.

Regrouping and looking to tackle the entertainment industry a different way, He continued writing. In the year 2000, he submitted his script Open ‘Til Midnight to the Feature film program at the Canadian Film Centre. The film made it to the final three, but was unfortunately rejected.

An industry contact put Marc in touch with Neil Trifunovich, a special effects supervisor on several high-profile productions. Neil was looking for his foray into directing and wanted to adapt a short story that was written in the 40’s. Neil and Marc teamed up and Marc wrote Appointment With Love. This project is currently in production and was Marc’s first commissioned assignment.

In 2003 Marc graduated from the Hollywood Film Institute and immediately turned one of his scripts, The Vampire Conspiracy, into a feature film. Shooting over ten gruelling days, this labour of love wouldn’t knock Marc down. Amongst those, a twenty-hour shoot day and a key member getting very ill.

After shooting was done on The Vampire Conspiracy, he immediate took the reigns at directing no less then three music videos, the first video being Whatever Happens on the Road for a local artist Aleah D’Kos. With a keen eye and a shrewd budget, he managed to shoot the video in one day, utilizing fifteen extras, a dance scene, and numerous photographs being set on fire.

Marc’s second Music video was for The Backline, called Pounding Eight Legs, A dark and disturbing ride into the imagination of a child. Although just a performance video, the style and execution pulls the content off.

The third Music video in Marc’s repertoire is entitled What Makes A Man. Written by Len Susman and Greg Wyard and performed by Greg. It follows the journey a boy makes to become a man and how it is paramount with the help of his father.


In 2005, Marc was hired to write and direct the short film Attack of the Mutant Germs, an educational short video on teaching children how to properly wash their hands. The client loved the concept so much, a half hour television pilot is in the works.

In addition to music videos and short films, Barternetwork Ltd. and Chasers Juice commissioned a 30 second commercial to use in display booths and electronic ad space in malls. Marc utilized stock photography and design to create a thirty second commercial from scratch.

On October 30, 2005, Marc premiered The Vampire Conspiracy at the Royal Cinema in downtown Toronto. The film spun out into several merchandising items such as a graphic novel, a sound track and a novel adaptation. As well, York Entertainment, a distribution company out of California, has picked up the worldwide distribution rights.

Just after the premiere of the film, Marc was made Producer of the television show HouseCapades for Magnolia Stone Productions. HouseCapades deals with the fun part of buying and selling homes. Mike Bullard has been attached to host and production begins at the end of February.

Currently, Marc is developing the animated series Space Coppers, which he wrote the pilot. As well as developing the comedy series Sympathy For The Devil.

In the immediate future, Marc will be directing the winner of the Nashville North’s Country Superstar Challenge.

CLYRE LYNDLEY - PRODUCER
trained as a director, stage manager and teacher before heading overseas to work. While living in Australia, England and Colombia, she worked on various theatrical and music theatrical productions in the capacity of producer, director, writer, stage manager, choreographer and/or vocals instructor. Clyre has moved back home to Toronto to begin a career in film as a director and producer. She has two feature film projects planned and will begin shooting towards the end of the year.

ALLAN SCHWARTZENBERGER - PRODUCER/EDITOR/POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR
An experienced and versatile film and video professional, Allan Schwartzenberger has been working in the Canadian Film & Television business for the past six years. Allan has directed projects for Coca-Cola Bottling, Verity, CTV Calgary (CFCN) and Tsunami Media to mention a few. As an editor, Allan has cut movie trailers for such Canadian Distributors as THiNK FiLM, Velocity Home Entertainment and Video Service Corp. Additionally Allan has edited projects for the Ford Motor Company, BYCK Canada, Amgen and many other major players in the Canadian Pharmicutical Industry. Allan is currently editing his first feature film, “The Vampire Conspiracy” on which he also acted as second unit director. Allan is also in development of a new comedy series entitled “The Devil Came Down To George.” He is currently Post-Production Supervisor for Imarion Inc.

DANA ALEXANDER - DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
An experienced and multi-talented filmmaker, Dana Alexander is an active and enthusiastic professional who often develops his own projects and initiatives. He has shot a number of documentary and music video projects and has just completed shooting his first full length independent feature film, “The Vampire Conspiracy” which is currently in post production. He has recently completed shooting and packaging a 13 episode television series titled “Career Moves” about young Canadian entrepreneurs for Canadian Learning Television and SCN and is now co-developing a television documentary on a community art initiative titled “Walk Here”.

JOSEPH MARTIN - Composer
Joseph Martin has been involved in creating music for television, commercials and movies as well as other media for over 10 years. He has created and produced music for television including Speakers Corner, commercials for “The Docks”, “K Swiss Shoes” and “Great Movies” and the “Love and Sin” CD. In addition, he has created music for several short films including “June”, “Three” and “Gas Station” which recently won the Shannon award for best director at the Los Angeles DV short film festival. He has also been involved in recording and producing music and voice-overs for OMNI 1 television in Toronto. Joseph is currently working on several short films over the next year including as well as originals for his upcoming CD to be released in the near future. Joseph is currently a member of SOCAN and the Song Writers Association of Canada and has taught recording with the Learning Annex in Toronto.

ILIANA SANCHEZ - COSTUMES
I started my career and studied Classical Dance and Theater at three schools, Jalisco Camara Ballet, Mauro Castevez Theatre Company and Atelier Balleteatro Contemporaneo. While I was also training for Classical Ballet and Dance I also ventured into fashion and model training at Model Training- Avenue Agency. All of my training for Dance and Theatre was in Mexico my home country. While I was also training I worked as a professional dancer. Here is where I picked up my interest and skills as a Fashion and Costume designer. My interest grew more as a Fashion Designer as I was also an Actress on two TV shows in Mexico and realized how Fashion and Design crossed over into such work places as Broadcast and Multi Media. From here I pursued and furthered my education at UNICO, (UAG) Autonomous University of Guadalajara in their Fashion Design Coarse. As there is a large industry for performance Dance with the vast amount of Hotels, I started to adventure into creating and de signing the costumes for the shows that I worked in and with. Here I gathered a keen sense of Costume Design and acquired a full understanding of Fashion and being a Seamstress.

Once I had graduated from the University I took on many rolls with in the Fashion Industry. I have worked on runway Fashions to delicate custom peaces for a select clientele. With in my work experience I have been able to become multi-facetted and have a keen sense of the entire work process for designing, creating, and producing Fashion for any environment. My experience as a dancer has also become a major attribute for my work skill set as a Designer. As a Dance Performer I gathered the value of how a costume enables or restricts a performer to move freely with in their performance. This allows me to design and create costumes that have a value for all avenues of Fashion especially for Film and TV Broadcast. Along with my Fashion skills my work experience as a Dance Performer also created another skill set and ability to work as a make-up Artist. This allows me to become a stronger Fashion and Costume Designer as having both attributes enables the Design of both character and
costume to have a sense of completion and versatility. With all the work experience I have gathered over the years in Fashion. I would like to further pursue my career in the Film and TV Broadcast industry. As performing arts cross over in many areas of the work industry, I feel that my skills as a Fashion and Costume Designer would best fit the needs of both TV and Film. I have a great desire to pursue my career in either industry of Film or TV Broadcast as my work experience, education and skill set have been finely tuned to have a strong and positive influence for any project or studio. illiana sanchez


MARA AMBROSE - STILLS PHOTOGRAPHER
Mara Ambrose grew up in kenya, nepal and then rural ontario. moved to toronto at 19 to go to OCAD, 2 years later was asked to be a visiting student at Parsons School of Design in New York. Lived in New York for 2 years going to school and working in the art department of Harper’s Bazzar magaine. Moved ack to Canada due to visa restrictions. Worked at Shift magazine for a year and a half as their photo researcher as well as did a lot of freelance editorial shooting. Decided that feild of photography wasn’t quite right so started assisting many photographers in the city... primarily in advertising. Decided that was boring. Started assisting until stills photographers on big productions for companies such as Disney, Fox, ABC, Alliance Atlantis, Paramount, Hallmark Entertainment, Showtime, and Lions Gate between Toronto and California. Is also currently trying to build a stills portfolio to join IATSE 667, has worked on a few indie films prior to Vampire and figures by the fall will be shooting on unionized productions. For now will stay in Toronto until the experience has been gathered and then hopefully move to LA, for better jobs and lots of surfing.

REBECCA ROSE - PRODUCTION SOUND
Rebecca entered the media industry with a background in interactive and digital media. As a graduate of the CyberArts program at Don Mills C.I., she has had the opportunity to develop skills in graphic design, animation, photography, video production, and web development. During her high school career, she worked for two years at Alias|Wavefront in both their video and web departments. Now, a full-time third-year film student at Ryerson University, Rebecca has spent the last few years exploring the many dimensions of film making. She made her first film when she was 18, winning the People’s Choice Award at the Zoom 2001 Student Film Festival at the Bloor Cinema. Since then she has dabbled in scriptwriting, directing, lighting design, sound production, and post-production and has come to truly appreciate the fine art of film making. To Rebecca, film is a medium for self exploration and expression and she hopes that one day she will have the opportunity to make films that will transform the world. After she achieves her first degree, she hopes to continue her education abroad and attain a masters degree in the theory and philosophy of art and film.