Stephen Rosenthal
“B” Camera Operator

Steve provided video services for both principal and secondary photography.

He also lent us his expertise when we discovered several scenes of raw footage we feared was damaged and thus, unusable.  He put his excellent client service skills to work and helped try to find us a solution.

Steve is the owner of Caramax Studios (http://caramaxstudio.com) which provides services in web design and development, 3D animation, graphic design, and HD videography and production.

Kash Costner
Boom Operator, Grip Assistant

Kash is a local filmmaker, who also works as crew on other local, independent films.

His most recent short film was screened at the 48 Hour Film Festival in August 2009.

Currently, Kash is hard at work writing a film project he hopes to develop and produce in the future.

Terry Kimmel
Head Grip, Boom Operator, Gaffer Assistant to DP

A man of many interests and capabilities, Terry provides numerous services to the film, theater and art arenas of the area.

Film: Terry is a well-known fixture on film crews in WNY.  He has worked on numerous films, and for several of the area’s directors.  He possesses a solid knowledge of production sets and equipment, and can multi-task on a set effortlessly.

Theater: Terry has acted, built sets, stage-managed, directed and/or produced several productions in the WNY area. Among the plays he's directed are Frankie and Johnny in the Clare de Lune, Groucho: A Life in Revue, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Ruthless!, Luv, and Murder at the Howard Johnson's.  Well known for his association with actress Lisa Ludwig, and under their FreeFall Productions shingle, Terry directed Ludwig in Extremities, 'night, Mother, and the enormously successful The Kathy and Mo Show. Terry has been twice nominated for the Artvoice "Artie" Award for Direction of a Play.

Art:  Art was Terry’s first creative endeavor, and he attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and Buffalo State College.  Terry brought his artistic abilities to Henry’s Future, by creating the drawings depicted in the film of the giraffe sketches as well as the final giraffe picture of mother and baby.   

His current creative focus includes writing, reading, drawing and film. In 2010 he hopes to bundle his talents and write, draw and produce his own comic books, as well as create a website to showcase his artistic talents.

Nikki M. Radice
Assistant to the Producers, Boom Operator

Nikki came to Challenge Films’ attention while she working with DonnaMarie for the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival in 2008.  Her helpfulness and dedication to getting tasks done on time and correctly, coupled with her educational focus on media production, prompted DonnaMarie to work with Nikki and the State University at Buffalo (U.B.) to create a formal internship program.

Nikki proved to be an invaluable assistant, both administratively as well as for production.  Her administrative tasks ranged from research marketing, promotional marketing, to securing assistance for specific project needs.  For pre-production, she helped scout and secure locations. She worked tirelessly behind the scenes completing a variety of production tasks from helping to set up scenes to working boom and grip.  Blending her educational knowledge of production with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience created a very ‘productive’ production assistant!

On top of all that, you might also recognize her as Henry’s original love interest, Beth, in the movie!

Nikki will graduate in May 2010, after which she plans to take time to travel abroad before moving to either New York or California to continue to pursue work in the film and media fields.

Amber Sherman
Boom Operator, Grip Assistant

Amber is a 2009 graduate of Buffalo State College with a major in Media Production. Her passion is camera work, but she enjoys all aspects of producing.  During her college years, she created several short films and other works that were highly regarded by both her peers and professors.

Her first non-student short film is “Commander” which she wrote, directed, and produced and is currently editing.

Amber left the WNY area in autumn 2009 and moved to Los Angeles.  Luckily, her love for travel and her abilities in media production landed her a great job for Princess Cruise Lines, where she shoots and edits promotional material for the company using HDV cameras and top-of-the-line editing equipment. “Being able to tour and see the world through my camera satisfies two cravings at once,” Amber relates in an email to us.  “My current assignment is on the Golden Princess, and I’m on and around all the Hawaiian Islands - you couldn’t ask for a more beautiful place to shoot!”

Brandon Tyson
Boom Operator, Grip Assistant

Brandon Tyson has been acting for the last five years, in films and on stage, as well as working crew on local, independent films.

Though primarily he performed production assistant duties for this film, he also played the part of the basketball referee.  He hopes to be able to audition for more roles in the future now that he has more time to do so.

As an actor, he studied at the Conservatory for Dramatic Arts with Christopher Cass, and at the NYC Mastery Workshops with Dan Fauci.

Phil Utech
Head Gaffer, Boom Operator, Assistant to DP

Phil provided many services during production of the movie, including lighting, power, video and audio.  He also assisted with setting up, and breaking down, scene sets.

He also provided the set and setting for the principal photography required by the poster designer to obtain the raw footage shots needed for the movie’s poster.

Phil is an avid filmmaker, having produced a wide assortment of regular, as well as experimental, short films, including a cute short in which nothing but Lego ™  people and pieces were used!

Phil also writes and produces music for scoring films and other media pieces; most recently, he created and provided some of the music used in Mary’s Christmas, a 2009 48-Hour Film entry.

Production Assistants

These people also helped production and crew! (some of them were also actors in the movie!)

Eileen Beiter	Jerry Broderick	Tim Dugan	John Lesinski	Emil Novak, Jr.
Brendan Orrange	J.T. Perlow	John Rehna	James Vaughan	Suzanna Zorich