The Crew

Before earning his MFA in film production at the University of Southern California, writer-director RANSOM RIGGS worked as a journalist and photographer for several years, an award-winning documentary film editor and in development at Warner Independent Pictures. Currently he's busy writing several feature projects, including a Sixth Sense meets Da Vinci Code-style supernatural thriller, a family-friendly coming of age adventure and a high school drama in collaboration with celebrated YA novelist John Green, whose book Looking for Alaska was recently purchased by Paramount, to be produced by Mark Waters (Mean Girls) and directed by O.C. creator Josh Schwartz. Ransom is also a regular contributor to Mental_Floss, a national humor magazine, and co-wrote Scatterbrained, a coffee-table book to be published in June by HarperCollins.

In more than twenty years in the business, Emmy-award-winning production designer Richard Lewis has racked up some downright stellar credits, from his work with Steven Spielberg on Amazing Stories and on the hit series Andromeda to classics like Max Headroom and Coming to America.

Casting Director Robert McGee's credits include The Virgin Suicides and Francis Coppola's Jack.

Producer Shyam Balsé has years of television industry producing experience under his cap, having run shows for the Travel Channel, Animal Planet and the Discovery network.

Producer Adam Lipsius has worked in the industry for nearly a decade. Beginning in post-production in New York, he worked on numerous features including Men in Black, CopLand and Kundun before founding his own production company, where he's produced two features as well as numerous shorts, commercials, industrials and music videos.

Cinematographer Pyongson Yim is a recent graduate of the USC film program, but in the short time since her matriculation she has already made that tricky-to-navigate leap from student DP to sought-after professional, with festival-circuit credits like this year's Shiner and Seeing Iris.

Design team Shoolery Design has graciously donated time and talents to us. Recent work by Shoolery includes the posters and key art for The Lord of the Rings, Saw, Walk the Line and Stealth.

Visual effects supervisor Jason Scott is pretty much the top dog at USC when it comes to FX. At the ripe old age of 23, he's already collaborated with FX guru Stan Winston and is credited on films like Spielberg's AI and this year's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Composer Bill Johnson has worked professionally scoring feature films, TV, commercials and movie trailers for the last fifteen years. He is also a talented guitarist and music producer, and will be instrumental in recording live music for the film.

Born in Rochester, Minnesota and raised near Madison, Wisconsin, gaffer Michael Nie's Midwestern roots run deep. With a tremendous amount of support from family and encouragement from friends, he made the move to Los Angeles on the heels of his 21st birthday and graduation from film school. Now a resident of the Valley, Michael pursues his career in cinematography. He has a real passion for his work. Currently, Michael is assisting cinematographer Mauro Fiore on the Dreamworks production The Island, creating reference photographs for the colorists at Company Three.

Sound designer Phil Rosenberg-Watt has made a name for himself at USC for his talents in sound cutting and mixing. A rich aural tapestry will be crucial to the success of Spaceboy, and Phil has both the creative vision and the technological know-how to pull off something great.

Editor extraordinaire Jurri Schenck is a recent DreamWorks Animation intern and USC Grad, whose work on Spaceboy was awarded as a semifinalist for a Pixar editing competition. He also is heavily involved in multiple post production projects including editing in High Def and the creation of major movie studioÕs DVDs, such as Madagascar, Wallace & Gromit, The Island, and Just Like Heaven. He currently works for Technicolor Creative Services in Burbank.

Assistant director Myles Price was born and raised in New York City. He graduated the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU in 2002. Currently he is getting his Masters in Film Production at the University of Southern California. This summer Myles has interned at Wolfgang Peterson's Production Company Radiant and the television program Alias. Currently he is Co-Producing the USC Thesis film Zombie Prom starring RuPaul and executive produced by Wes Craven.