Nick Nicolaou
Director, Writer, Producer, Make-Up Effects Designer
Nick Nicolaou has been working in the film and television industry for over 25 years and is co-founder of Genre Pictures, a creative and cutting edge production company. Nick has written several feature film scripts, which are all in various stages of development. He has produced and directed short films and trailers that have been at the forefront of Genre Pictures business and artistic growth. Nick is also a director of Make-Up Effects Group, one of the leading make-up effects studios in the world.
Film credits include, The Wolverine, I,Frankenstein, Redd Inc., Laundry Warrior, 2:37, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Silk, Candy, Feed, Man Thing, The Matrix Trilogy, Double Vision, Cyber Wars, Cut,
Two Hands and The Island of Dr Moreau.
Paul Katte
Producer, Make-Up Effects Designer
Paul Katte has been working in the film and television industry for over 25 years. He is a director of Make-up Effects Group, one of the leading studios in the world for the creation of special prosthetic make-up effects, animatronic characters and creature effects. Paul is also a co-founder of Genre Pictures. Along with Nick, he has been at the forefront of Genre Pictures business and artistic growth.
Film credits include, The Wolverine, I,Frankenstein, Redd Inc., The Hobbit, Prince Caspian, Laundry Warrior, 2:37, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Silk, Candy, Feed, ManThing, The Matrix Trilogy,
Paul Katte
Producer, Make-Up Effects Designer
Franc Biffone has successfully run his own production company Take Aim Productions for the past 20 years, working on a wide variety of projects. His roles have included Cinematographer, Producer, Business Development Manager, and International Production Liaison. Franc’s body of work includes Feature Films, Television Drama, Television Commercials, Music Clips and Documentaries.
Franc has been a key driver behind the project’s business concept to bring together creatives, business experts, financial and industry specialists. Franc’s vision for this project is to establish and structure the film as a business venture to be commercially viable and profitable in Local and Global markets.
Daniel Gallahar
Associate Producer, Web Design, Marketing Consultant
Daniel is the director of Rogue Innovations, a Graphics Design company he started while studying IT at University. He has been designing corporate websites for some years and more recently for Film and TV professionals, including Cinematographers, Special Effects Artists and Film Directors.His love of movies and computer games helped establish himself with Creative Nerve Entertainment and he has focused his knowledge and skills to provide an elaborate Internet marketing campaign to help promote the Mary Doe film project.
Daniel aims to continue this creative venture into online film marketing, as well as developing his talents in computer graphics for film and designing computer games.
Richard Taylor
Production Liaison
Richard Taylor is the co-founder of Weta Workshop, Weta Digital and Stone Street Studios and is the design and effects supervisor at Weta Workshop. Richard is a 5 time Academy Award and 4 times BAFTA Award winner and has worked on such films as, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong and most recently The Hobbit, Daybreakers, District 9 and Avatar.
Richard also runs his own children’s production company called Pukeko Pictures.
Richard has been a long time supporter of Nick Nicolaou’s feature film proposal Mary Doe and believes the script, production planning, and Nick’s capabilities as a director all point to the fact that this will be a wonderfully powerful film.
Andrew Smith
Production Liaison
Andrew was the supervising producer for WETA Workshop’s hit series Jane and the Dragon. He manages Pukeko Pictures and is a producer of their new property the WotWots. Andrew Smith is the Business Advisor for WETA Workshop Ltd, and its affiliated merchandising company WETA Collectibles Ltd. He is a chartered accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in New Zealand.
Joining WETA in 1998, Andrew has been the accountant for all of WETA Workshop’s projects including The Lord of the Rings, Master and Commander, The Last Samurai, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and King Kong. More recently Andrew has moved away from finance to concentrate on the business affairs for WETA Workshop.
Kane Manera
Production Liaison
Kane Manera was born and raised in Perth, Australia. Upon graduating from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts, he moved to New York to attend the Stella Adler Studio of Acting’s Conservatory program and has lived in New York ever since.
He has acted in the feature films Goodbye Baby, Crush, Suburban Girl, The Blood Shed and numerous others, as well as shooting over 100 episodes of the World’s longest television drama, CBS Networks
The Guiding Light until its conclusion in 2009.
He recently completed work as the Associate Producer on the feature film Needle, directed by John Soto and starring Michael Dorman, Jessica Marais, Travis Fimmel and Jane Badler, to be released at the end of 2010.
Wayne Haag
VFX Matte Painter
Wayne graduated from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with a BA in Illustrative Photography. His RMIT portfolio led to work as a matte painter on The Fifth Element and Red Corner whilst at Digital Domain in L.A. Wayne then brought his Matte Painting experience back to Australia and helped define the look of the TV series Farscape.
Wayne’s next major contribution was to the The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a senior Matte Painter at Weta FX in New Zealand. He was hand picked by Mark Stetson VFX Supervisor, (Blade Runner, Star Trek the Motion Picture), to bring Tolkien’s epic vistas to life in Rivendell, Lothlorien and Helms Deep. In 2003 Wayne co-founded Emerald City Design in Sydney and served as its Creative Director for two years. He won multiple Mobius Advertising Awards for clients such as Singapore Airlines, Telstra Bigpond and Sony.
He was VFX Concept Artist for Superman Returns, and the Production Designer for the animated feature, The Fourth Magi.
Michelle McGahey
Production Designer / Art Director
Michelle McGahey has an impressive list of credits as Art Director and Supervising Art Director. She graduated from Sydney College of the Arts in 1982 with a BA of Interior Design and from the Australian Film Television & Radio School course in Art Direction and Production Design.
Her first assignments as Art Director were on the feature films, Mushrooms, John Seale’s;
Till There Was You and Sony Pictures; Race the Sun.
She was Production Designer on I,Frankenstein starring Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy.
Michelle was also Art Director for the groundbreaking Alex Proyas sci-fi classic Dark City, and then followed by the equally iconic Wachowski Brothers film The Matrix. Other credits include Mission Impossible II, Star Wars Episode II, The Knowing, Tomorrow When the War Began and The Killer Elite.
Michelle has received an Urban Cinefile Award for Outstanding Achievement in Production Design for the film Sample People. She has twice been nominated by the American Art Directors Guild for ‘Best in Art Direction’ for The Matrix and for the US TV Series Starter Wife.
Anthony Egan
Editor
A versatile filmmaker with over twenty year’s experience, Anthony has worked in all facets of the business. His two decades young relationship with M.E.G. began with the multi award winning horror satire Placenta. A firm friendship developed and he’s since been editor on all of M.E.G’s productions to date.
His services as a lecturer and mentor have seen him employed by a number of colleges including AFTRS. A highly skilled film editor, Anthony has worked on hundreds of independent film productions and feature films such as S.N.A.K and Mortal Fools. He’s better known as a screenwriter and story editor, with the upcoming horror films Needle and Flies 3D to his credit.
Anthony’s services have been utilized by Instinct Entertainment, Icon, Fox Searchlight, Beyond, Voyager Films, Vitascope Filmed Entertainment, Cine-2000 (Korea), China Entertainment (Hong Kong) and many others.
Steve Summers
Composer
Steve Summers is an accomplished musician able to play several instruments from Lead/Rhythm guitars (including Bass), Drums and all manner of percussion through to Piano and Keyboards/Synthesizers. He commenced his music career playing in several bands throughout the mid 1980’s.
Since that time Steve has gone on to score for feature films and TV such as: Mortal Fools, S.O.S, Bookies, The First $20 Million Is Always The Hardest, Van Wilder, Not Another Teen Movie, Dude Where’s My Car?, A Time For Dancing, 10 Things I Hate About You and One Tree Hill.
Steve also has strong affiliations with many internationally renowned orchestras who have showcased his pieces. Orchestras such as: Sydney Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, London Metropolitan, BBC Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Dusseldorf Symphony, Budapest Philharmonic, Amsterdam Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Washington Symphony, New York Youth Symphony and the Geneva Chamber.
Brandon Hendroff
Storyboard Artist and Conceptual Designer
Brandon Hendroff is a hardcore veteran Storyboard Artist and Conceptual Designer in the Australian Film industry, with over 25 years experience and thousands of commercial projects under his belt. He has worked on more than 14 feature projects, most recently X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Needle. He has been a long-time collaborator with the team at MEG, and personally rates ‘MARY DOE’ as “- without exaggeration, the best Australian Cinema project I have seen planned in 20 years”.
Katherine Brown
Make-up Supervisor
Katherine Brown’s career as a Make-up artist has spanned over 20 years. She first picked up a brush after moving from the country in 1990 and starting her make-up studies. Katherine has strived to develop her skills to the highest level in all mediums,from Make-up Effects and Prosthetics to Beauty and Body Art. Katherine also enjoys the thorough research and design needed to create convincing characters and innovative looks. In 1999 Katherine completed Cut, her first Project with the Make-up Effects Group, which has led to a long-standing working relationship both with their make-up effects projects and
Genre Pictures productions.
Film credits include, The Wolverine, I,Frankenstein, The Hobbit, the three Chronicles of Narnia films,
Star Wars Episode II, Wolverine, Where the Wild Things Are and The Nugget.
Marea Fowler
Costume Designer
With a passion for excellence, Marea Fowler has become a renowned and award winning costume designer and fashion coordinator, offering work of the highest quality for film, television, advertising
and theatre.
She has created many costume designs for numerous Nimrod and Belvoir St. theatre productions with such Directors as Richard Wherritt and John Bell, as well as film and television productions such as Australia, Mask II, Les Patterson Saves the World, Burke and Wills and Playing Beattie Bow.
Her commitment to the highest standard of design, construction and finish, keeps her in demand both locally and internationally, with much of her work becoming recognized icons, such as Yogo, Twisties and
The Wiggles.
Liz Keogh Palmer
Costume Designer
With over 30 years experience as a Costume Designer, Liz Keogh has built a reputation on designing costumes that fall outside the norm. Liz gathers inspiration from many visual references. This is reflected in many of her designs, which can take on a sculptural–like appearance.
Liz is a very visual designer with meticulous attention given to colour, texture and construction of her designs. Experience with working in a range of different materials & finishing techniques has helped Liz achieve excellent results in costume design, such as the “The Strangers” characters in the iconic film
Dark City.
She believes that good costume design is to assist the director in achieving his or her vision and help create a mood that is unique and atmospheric. Liz best demonstrates this in the opening scene of the international feature film I, Robot, starring Will Smith.
Maura Fay Casting
Casting Agent
Ann Fay is one of Australia’s leading casting agents. As head of Maura Fay Casting she is part of a dynamic, creative and reputable company that has been established for 20 years and is responsible for casting a vast array of projects domestically and internationally. With offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland, affiliates in Los Angeles, New York, London, New Zealand and Singapore, Maura Fay Casting is respected by actors, producers and directors the world over.
Ann had the great privilege of auditioning and casting Heath Ledger in the series ‘Roar’ when he was only seventeen. This introduced Heath to the American market and marked the start of his swift rise to international stardom and critical praise.
Maura Fay Casting continues to introduce upcoming stars to national and international feature films, television series and pilots through close collaborations with noted industry leaders.
Harry Dakanalis
Stunt Coordinator
Harry is at the forefront of Stunt Action Design for Film and TV with over 200 credits to his name. He has developed an organic style of Stunt Action Design unlike that of his competitors. As Australia’s freshest and most innovative Stunt Coordinator, he has been given the honour of working on award winning art-house films such as Samson and Delilah, Red Hill & Mao’s Last Dancer.
For over 20 years Harry has been a Stunt Performer on some of the biggest action films ever made, such as The Matrix & Mission Impossible.
Harry has also developed one of the most well equipped stunt centres in Australia, with customised cutting edge equipment and expert personnel.
Adam Grace
Miniature and Effects Supervisor
Adam Grace commenced his professional model and prop-making career in 1981. His contributions to numerous television commercials incorporated miniatures, models,oversized props, stop-motion animation, and effects rigs.
He has worked on many feature films with the art and special effects departments, including, The Wolverine, The Great Gatsby, The Matrix Trilogy, Mission Impossible II, Star Wars Episodes II & III, Red Planet, Stealth, Superman Returns, Australia, and Wolverine. Adam supervised the model sets and props department for the stop-motion feature $9.99, and has recently completed foreman duties within the props manufacture workshop for Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Adam’s influences growing up were films that utilized miniatures, stop-motion and model effects to sell a story idea. Despite the advances of computer technology, he believes there is still a place for traditional, hands-on effects to assist the storytelling process in film.
Tony Drew
Miniature and Effects Supervisor
Tony Drew has worked professionally in the film and television industries as a creator of models and effects for over 10 years, building up an impressive body of work.
Working both in Australia and abroad, Tony has worked for a number of model making and effects companies on various projects, as well as holding key positions for several film productions including, The Wolverine, The Great Gatsby, Star Wars, The Matrix sequels, Double Vision, Man Thing, Stealth,
Superman Returns, $9.99, Wolverine, as well as Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
A specialist in a wide range of techniques and materials, Tony imbues his craft with an inspiring enthusiasm, complimenting an unequalled passion for the film industry.
Rowan Waderman
Miniature and Effects Supervisor
Rowan started his professional career at age 17, commissioned by the Australian RAAF to build a scale model of an F-111 Fighter Jet. By age 18 Rowan was commissioned by Canadian Media Mogul Conrad Black to build 1:200 scale models of ocean liners for his personal museum.
Rowan then entered the world of film and has worked as a model maker on, Red Planet,
Star Wars Episodes II & III, Matrix 2 & 3, Stealth, $9.99 and Mad Max 4.
His attention to detail and drawing ability saw him promoted to the ranks of Senior Model Maker on Superman Returns, where he built the scale model of Lex Luther’s Super Yacht – The Gertrude, featured in the film.
Rowan went on to work as a Senior Model Maker on Baz Lurman’s Australia and Leading Hand Model Maker on X-Men – Wolverine, where he was responsible for a crew of Model Makers.
Matt Ward
Animatronics Designer
Having spent many years working in the film, entertainment and exhibition industries, Matt Ward has accumulated a wide range of skills using a vast variety of materials and techniques.
Matt has worked on such productions as Babe, Dark City, Star Wars Episode II, Farscape, Matrix 2 & 3, Stealth, Superman Returns, Wolverine, Black Sheep and Where the Wild Things Are.
In his area of expertise, there are always time restraints and a need for flexibility and adaptability on any given project, with Matt often having to design and fabricate one-off solutions to mechanical problems.
He has taken projects from concept to finished item, including design, costing, sourcing materials and components, coordinating the fabrication, and managing a team of technicians to complete the job
on time.
Steve Dunn
Frame, SeT And Match: Post Production
Co-founder of Frame, Set & Match Pty Ltd, editor Stephen Dunn set up the first computer controlled, frame accurate off line editing system in Australia in 1983. The company provides film and video post-production services to the advertising, commercial production and feature film industries. Their philosophy combines creative services partnered with the latest technology.
The more traditional form of post-production, including colour grading and compositing of commercials and films, is complimented by a significant growth and focus on visual effects and motion graphic design. Early business focused on corporate and music videos before expanding into television mini series, telemovies and commercial production.
Today Frame, Set & Match are one of the top four post-production facilities in Australia, providing innovative design and quality service.
