Filmmakers

From left to right: Vince Clemente, Zbigniew Fiks, Daniel Billups, Brad Besser

BRAD BESSER – DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, EDITOR, CINEMATOGRAPHER

Brad Besser is an independent filmmaker and film editor born in Salt Lake City, now living in Los Angeles. Brad has been working as a director and editor for the last decade. Brad got his start at KJZZ TV, the broadcast station of the Utah Jazz. He continued his career as a commercial editor in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles Brad worked with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks on The Pacific, and Michael Mann and David Milch on the HBO series Luck. Brad has been an editor on the narrative feature film Planet World and documentary feature film Born and Bred. Additionally Brad edits for funnyordie.com.

VINCE CLEMENTE – DIRECTOR, PRODUCER

Vince Clemente studied Film at Columbia College Chicago. He now lives in Los Angeles, California where he is pursuing a career in producing/directing documentary films. He is constantly exploring the world around him with an objective eye, searching for the next great story that needs to be told. His heart and unique sense of humor is reflected in the care and originality of the subjects and stories he chooses to document. Working as a Producer in his latest project, Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters, a documentary film about finding the best Tetris player in the world, he not only produced the film, but also directed and produced a large scale event in downtown Los Angeles where the world’s finest Tetris players came to compete for tournament champion. Over 400 people traveled from around the country to attend the event, which was funded by the actual copyright owners of the beloved game. Vince also managed to get the CEO of Tetris, Henk Rogers, and the inventor of the game, Alexey Pajitnov, to be present at the tournament and in the film. The event made headlines showing up in nearly all of the major papers (Los Angeles Times, USA Today, etc.) and was featured in most of the local news broadcasts. The event will serve as the climatic scene of the feature length film directed by acclaimed director Adam Cornelius.

DAN BILLUPS – CINEMATOGRAPHER

Dan Billups is a independent filmmaker, documentarian and cinematographer based out of Chicago. Dan worked as the Director of Video Production for the Kane County Cougars before attended Columbia College in Chicago. He has worked on feature length pieces, including Z, and Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters, which documents the 2010 Classic Tetris Championship. He is currently working with his production team to create their latest documentary recording the global journey of The Big Banana Car. He is also a co-founder of “Various Artists”, a collaborative group of filmmakers based out of Chicago.

MIKE KRAMER - COMPOSER

Michael Kramer is a TV and film composer that has written music for FOX, CBS, Cartoon Network, and a number of independent films. Raised in Chicago, Michael was home-schooled which allowed him the time and freedom to actively purse his passion for music. After studying music and technology at Columbia College in Chicago, he went on to attend the acclaimed USC Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program. Now based in LA, Michael works hard to hone his craft as a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music producer. Currently, he is writing music for the new show Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu, on Cartoon Network.

STEVEN AGUILAR - SOUND MIXER

Steven Aguilar is a spanish-speaking musician and audio engineer based out of Chicago. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Audio Arts and Acoustics he landed a job at Towers Productions working his way up to the audio department. There, he and his team mixed shows for the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and The History Channel. Following his work at Towers, Steven freelanced around the Chicagoland area with different recording studios and post-houses. While freelancing he collaborated with Vagabond Studio, working on Kartemquin’s latest documentary The Interrupters. Steven is currently an audio engineer at Onda Musica y Sonido and Particle Audio in Chicago.