Denver Media Professionals Podcast

Katie Gail Smith Katie is a dedicated grip from the Denver market and has been an active member of the freelance film community for over 6 years. After transitioning from stage lighting, she’s worked on national commercials for top Fortune 500 companies

Kent Youngblood has over twenty years of production management experience with commercials, network promos, digital content, and photo shoots. He spends his career crewing, scheduling, budgeting and location managing for production companies such as Paramount, Viacom, Herzog & Company, and High Noon Entertainment. Kent helps create commercials for clients like Audi, Ford, Coors, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and Verizon. He helps create promos for networks such as Disney, HBO, and Starz. You may have seen his work on properties such as the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, CNN, ESPN, and CBS Sports. In addition to making commercials, Kent is a film director, a producer, a writer, and a cinematographer. His films have screened at numerous festivals worldwide, garnered notable media attention, and won the coveted Golden Remy for Best Experimental Film at Worldfest several times. Those films were Patriot Dreams in 2003, and Wonder City in 2004.

A true renaissance man of film, Alex Ferrari worked his way up through the ranks from the bottom to become an award-winning director and writer, as well as a producer, editor, colorist, cinematographer, podcast host, consultant, and all-around indie film guru. His commitment to making the art of indie filmmaking accessible and relatively inexpensive to the masses has garnered a massive following of dedicated fans worldwide. He can often be found on the guest list as a speaker at any number of film and media events, and his films have screened at festivals around the globe.

In addition, Alex Ferrari is the creator of the Indie Film Hustle website and podcast. He has also created the podcasts Bulletproof Screenplay and Ask Alex, and has recently launched Indie Film Hustle TV, which is a fantastic resource for filmmakers on the internet.

Cory Taylor Bryant is an award-winning professional production makeup, special makeup effects, and hair artist based in Denver, Colorado. Cory has been a member of IATSE since 2014 and has over 20 yrs. experience. She has trained with several of the industry’s top award-winning makeup artist including Ve Neill, Eryn Krueger Mekash, Neill Gorton, and Todd Debreceni.

Cory has worked on a multitude of various productions including feature and short format films, television, music videos, commercials, live stage events, musical acts, corporate, personality/celebrity appearances, print, and editorials. She’s worked with celebrities, CEO’s, top motivational speakers, personalities, politicians, professional athletes, and musical artists. Cory specializes in beauty/straight makeup, male grooming, special makeup effects including prosthetic application and extensive complex effects, character/disguise/aging/trauma/injury makeup, practical makeup effects, and hairstyling.

Chad Chisholm is a professional photographer and travel writer who specializes in commercial photography in the food and beverage, hospitality and luxury travel industries. His work has been featured in many publications including Cowboys and Indians, The Wall Street Journal, Modern Luxury and more.

Chad’s homeschool background allowed him to experiment with entrepreneurship from a young age and earn three college degrees by the age of 20. A brief stint in Real Estate taught him some essential sales techniques but couldn’t sway him away from a creative career. Today, Chad works full time as a commercial photographer from his home base in Denver, CO.

Through his business—Custom Creations—Chad works on a huge range of job profiles, from agency run, international projects to creating updates for small business marketing materials.

In this episode of the Denver Media Professionals podcast, Chad shares the trials and tribulations of forging a career in photography and gives his advice for breaking into a lucrative and sustainable photography career.

David Baud is the owner and founder of Kosmos Productions, based in Denver, Colorado. Hailing from France originally, David currently lives with his wife in Colorado, but continues to work extensively in Europe. David has over 20 years of experience in broadcast television, film and video, and has directed, edited, and color graded numerous national and international productions.

David's passions for film was first nurtured by his childhood love for making stop motion movies with his older brother. Using a variety of different animation techniques, he learned his craft literally frame by frame. After studying computer generated imagery and computer languages in Paris, David first became an assistant to a television director, then a freelance cameraman. He learned all the aspects of production—from working on 16mm film to a weekly broadcast video television show. Since the advent of non linear editing systems in 1993, David has applied his expertise to digital post production, editing, and visual effects, with color grading being his special focus.

Meryem Ersoz is one of Colorado’s top film producers and has worked on projects ranging from the $200,000 to 3 million dollar range.

Her local production company, Red Pine Studios provides local Colorado production services and supported the major motion picture Dear Eleanor, directed by Kevin Connolly.

She has worked as a cinematographer and digital imaging technician for the Discovery Channel, Nova, Nat GEO, CNN, Vice and more.

Her latest venture, Blackwing Air Sea Land Cinematography is set to be a game changer in high speed productions.

Meryem’s background as a PhD academic and professor gives her a unique and cerebral take on the business of filmmaking.

Meryem talked with us about her unique insights into everything from understanding and distilling film, to her favorite adrenaline inducing moments with her latest venture.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design was founded in 2002 with its release of the DeckLink capture card. The company originally specialized in capture and playback cards, but today encompasses all aspects of the film, post production and television broadcast industries. The product line underwent a huge transformation in 2009 when they acquired DaVinci Systems. Bob Caniglia, who was working for DaVinci at the time, came over to Blackmagic Design with the acquisition. Bob tells us that one day he was the youngest guy at DaVinci, and the next found himself as the oldest guy at Blackmagic Design. He sat down with us to talk shop and deliver the inside scoop on all of Blackmagic Designs's most exciting innovations.

About Bob Caniglia

Bob Caniglia has been working in the film and television industry since 1985 when he was a part time camera operator and editor for industrial videos. He went on to finish school at night while working full time as a commercial producer and director at a local CVS affiliate. Eventually Bob found himself in Los Angeles, working as an editor for the Disney Channel and 525 Post Productions. He later worked on music videos for the likes of Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson.  Bob eventually transitioned his career into production and post production, working with major manufacturers including Panasonic, Snow, DaVinci Systems and Blackmagic Design where he is currently Director of Sales Operations. When he’s not telling the world about the latest and greatest Blackmagic Design projects, Bob is a professional comedian performing under the stage name Bobby Z.

Eileen O’Brien’s vast career in the film industry is a testament to luck, hard work, and the value of kindness. Eileen’s credentials span from holding cue cards for Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live to working for David Letterman, also known as the best boss she ever had, to taking on the role of production secretary for Dick Cavett.

After transitioning to film festivals, including Cannes and Sundance, she settled in Denver where she continues to foster support and connections for the local film industry.

Freelance director Adam Patch graduated ten years ago from San Francisco’s Academy of Art with meaningful connections in the industry and an impressive demo reel which launched his career.

Since moving to Denver in 2013 and starting a family, Adam found steady freelance gigs which allow him to work remotely, traveling only for the days of the shoot. Some of Adam's recent clients include tech giants Apple, Square, Google, and LinkedIn.