TransWorld Film Group was founded in Los Angeles, California. Our objectives are to establish unique film related training and educational programs for emerging film makers. A major component of this is to integrate a new generation of filmmakers with current industry professionals who will share their knowledge and experience of production and visual story telling with them. Our courses will range from one month overview courses, to 3 month introductory courses to 3 year baccalaureate programs with several options in between.
Ariel Levy, who has 40 years of major motion picture production experience, has served as the Chief Executive Officer and partner since the company was founded. Mr. Levy combines his rich experience of major feature film production experience with more than 10 years leading the Los Angeles Film School to create an innovative educational pedagogy for the art and craft of visual storytelling. His approach is to treat visual storytelling as a new global language that transcends all barriers. He is actively consulting with Asian and African countries to initiate film schools that will train film makers to create content for global distribution and to establish open cultural connectivity.
With its deep understanding of filmmaking theories and practices, TransWorld Film Group has been able to provide full lines of comprehensive filmmaking training and services by making full use of its teams’ expertise and knowledge, accumulated over many years of industrial operations, its unique corporate culture, and business reputation, TransWorld Film Group is dedicated to creating more outstanding filmmaking talents in its efforts to serve the society through developing successful industries and projects.
At 23, Ariel Levy became the youngest 1st Assistant Director in the UK film industry. As a 1st AD, he worked on a variety of films including Hammer Film’s COUNTESS DRACULA, Joe Orton’s, ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE, the BOND film, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and the Steve Martin vehicle, MY BLUE HEAVEN.
He became a production manager at BBC television with directors such as Ken Loach, Karel Reisz, and Michael Lindsay Hogg, then returned to feature films as line producer on Frank Schaffner’s SPHINX, Herbert Ross’s NIJINSKI, Wolfgang Peterson’s ENEMY MINE, and Home Box Office’s THE FAR PAVILIONS, productions on location in countries such as Hungary, Egypt, France, Italy, Germany, Iceland and India.
In 1984 Ariel became Head of Production for Talia Films, supervising the production of two films in Canada, and one in Portugal.
In 1989 he became Executive Vice President for Hughes Entertainment, supervising the first HOME ALONE, and preparing the original BEETHOVEN movie.
This was followed by MR. BASEBALL for Universal, shot mostly in Japan, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK in France, and preparation on, SPY GAME and MILLION DOLLAR BABY. Because of his international experience and skill handling difficult productions, Ariel was hired by the bond company to take over FOUR FEATHERS, which had gone over budget while filming in Morocco and the UK, and facilitated its successful completion up to the Director’s cut.
In 2002, Ariel was invited to teach at the Los Angeles Film School by the founding dean, and subsequently became head of production. He designed a unique program to expose students to a “real” production experience, with the conviction that such immersion provides the best film education. The method was to hire seasoned professionals as key personnel on a production of the television comedy series, FAWLTY TOWERS, and a TWILIGHT ZONE episode. Students were given crew positions and mentored by these professionals.
This “hands on” approach became the core educational model of the school, giving its graduates unique advantages over those from other film schools. Under his leadership, Ariel made several changes to the film program by injecting an increased concentration of collaborative film making, an expanded awareness of visual story telling in all formats using the web as a potential marketing and distribution platform, and a more fluid intuitive approach to creating media.
As the CEO and Co-founder of Transworld Film Group, Ariel is leading the company in designing innovative curricula to prepare international emerging film makers for a fast evolving visual story telling world with emphasis on aesthetics using the latest technology in support. In addition, Ariel is actively developing theatrical and television projects suitable for Chinese production and distribution.
Mr. Ma received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from University Of Southern California and the second Bachelor of Science Degree from Portland State University in International Business and Information Systems Management. In 2002, he received a Master Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington.
Prior to Cofounding Transworld Film Group, Mr. Ma had acquired more than fourteen years of experience in business management and International business development. He has successfully established Golden Elements Group with partners in 2003. The group has gone through three stages-first as a single IT operation, followed by business diversification, then on to a conglomerate. In the past 14 years, Golden Elements has successfully created several subsidiary companies like KIWI SYSTEMS, GOLDEN LIGHT HI-TECH, MAGE INTERNATIONAL, GOLDEN WIND SOLUTIONS and DAYU ENERGY in different industries. Mr. Ma has served as the Chief Executive Officers in most of subsidiary companies, and led those companies to great success.
Over the course of his career he has built deep industry relationships with international entertainment companies, TV networks, motion picture companies, manufacturers, suppliers, and vendors; as well as domestic and foreign producers, directors and investors.
As President, Mr. Stanley Ma is responsible for establishing Transworld Film Group’s global strategies, goals and objectives, and leading the operation and international development of the company’s Los Angeles and Asia locations.
Jeffrey A. Okun has contributed visual effects and 2nd unit direction to a wide-range of films such as the award winning sci-fi hit _Stargate (1994)-, and Deep Blue Sea (1999), The Last Starfighter (1984), Lolita (1997), Cutthroat Island (1995), Sphere (1998) and Wes Craven's Shocker (1989).
His credits also include music videos from such varied artists as Sting, The Beatles (for A Hard Days Night re-release), Jimi Hendrix, Janet Jackson, Wayne Newton, Bryan Adams, Amy Grant, Dolly Parton, Prince, Michael Jackson, the Neville Brothers and Rod Stewart, in which he created many amazing camera and optical effects.
Okun is known for creating 'organic' and invisible effects, as well as spectacular effects which seamlessly expand both the look and scope of a film, but also enhances the storytelling aspect of the movie. Additionally, Jeff is the creator of the revolutionary visual effects techniques dubbed the "PeriWinkle Effect" & the "Pencil Effect", which have been used in many projects to help achieve more a sense of the fantastic, wonder and more accurate budgets. Okun is the author of breakdown, budgeting and tracking software currently being used by professionals throughout the industry.
Charles Bernstein has played jazz in the cellars of Paris – danced and played folk music with the Greeks and with gypsies from the Balkans – he has won academic honors including the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship and a Chancellor's Teaching Fellowship – conducted his own orchestral music at the age of sixteen – written and produced off-Broadway – recorded with great artists and legendary producers – studied composition at Juilliard, and with American master Roy Harris – he is equally at home with electronic, orchestral, ethnic, jazz, pop and music of the spirit.
Mr. Bernstein is very active as a composer of film and TV scores. He has composed scores for over 100 motion pictures, including genre classics A Nightmare on Elm Street (the original),The Entity, Stephen King's Cujo, Dracula spoof Love At First Bite, and a wide variety of comedies, dramas and action films. He has provided music for Academy Award winning documentaries Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision and the all-music film Czechoslovakia 1968, as well as for the Tom Hanks Vietnam saga, Return with Honor. His many made-for-television films include the Jane Seymour historical epic Enslavement (Emmy Nominated for Best Score), HBO's Emmy Award winning Miss Ever's Boys with Alfrie Woodard, the Michael Mann Emmy winning 10-hour miniseries Drug Wars, Hallmark Hall of Fame's Emmy winning Caroline?, Jack London's The Sea Wolf (Emmy nominated for Best Score), and Emmy Nominated mini-series The Long Hot Summer, as well as the acclaimed historical mini-series Sadat.
When he is not writing music, Charles Bernstein is writing about music. National film critic Leonard Maltin calls Charles Bernstein's award winning writings about music "stimulating, informative and fun." According to Oscar winning song writers Marilyn and Alan Bergman, he is "always a fascinating writer." His writings have won the prestigious ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award. In addition to scoring movies, Mr. Bernstein has composed for modern dance, theater and the World Festival of Sacred Music. His MASS: Voices of the World won praise from Quincy Jones, who called it "a beacon of light bringing hope to our hearts as we enter the twenty-first century," and from best-selling author Thomas Moore, who deemed it music "to bring re-enchantment into our lives."
Mr. Bernstein is currently elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Board of Directors of The Society of Composers and Lyricists, and the Board of Directors of the ASCAP Foundation. He has taught on the graduate film scoring faculty at USC, and holds an annual film scoring seminar in the summers at UCLA Extension.
Evan Dunsky is an American television writer, producer and director. Evan Dunsky wrote and directed the 1997 feature film The Alarmist based on the play Life During Wartime by Keith Reddin. A writer/producer for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation since 2006, Dunsky co-created and wrote the original pilot episode of the Showtime series Nurse Jackie with Linda Wallem and Liz Brixius in 2008.[1][2] Starring Edie Falco of The Sopranos, the half-hour drama about a "flawed" emergency room nurse in a New York City hospital premiered on Showtime in June 2009 and has recently finished its sixth season. Falco won the Emmy for her role on the show, and Dunsky was a recipient of the 2010 Humanitas Prize.
Hal Lieberman is an American producer and former president of production for Universal Pictures.
Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, Lieberman has a B.A. from SUNY at Stony Brook and an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Lieberman began his career as Warren Beatty's production assistant on Heaven Can Wait, and spent the next eight years as a screenwriter. Tony Ganz and Deborah Blum hired him in 1986 to oversee development for their Disney-based Blum/Ganz Productions; in 1987 he began his journey as a film executive at Universal Pictures, where he worked his way up the ranks to president in 1994. As president of production at Universal, some of the movies Lieberman oversaw through development and production were Apollo 13, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, Fried Green Tomatoes, The River Wild, Death Becomes Her, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Reality Bites, and Problem Child, amongst others.
As a producer, Lieberman's most recent film is House at the End of the Street, to be released in 2012 by Relativity Media and starring Jennifer Lawrence. Lieberman's other films include the critically acclaimed hit movie Bridge to Terabithia for Walt Disney Pictures, Vacancy for Sony Screen Gems and Vacancy 2: The First Cut for Sony's Stage 6, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Claire Danes, for Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures; Around the World in Eighty Days, starring Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and Arnold Schwarzenegger; and served as executive producer on Universal Pictures' U-571 (starring Matthew McConaughey) and The Jackal (starring Bruce Willis and Richard Gere).
Lieberman currently has multiple projects in progress, including Forever 21 for DreamWorks starring Elizabeth Banks, The Secret Lives of Road Crews (to be directed by Chris Columbus) for Paramount, The Umbra (to be directed by Joe Carnahan) for Endgame Entertainment, and The Applicant (to be directed by George Ratliff) for ATO Pictures.
James Mathers (born May 5, 1955 in Los Angeles, California) developed a career as a cinematographer and director of photography. He is the younger brother of former child television star Jerry Mathers of Leave It to Beaver fame.
Mathers appeared under the name "Jimmy Mathers" in several TV and film productions between 1961 and 1968. His most memorable performance was in an episode of the TV comedy series Bewitched in 1964, when he played the role of an introverted boy who is afraid to play on the baseball team because of his overprotective mother.
Mathers attended film school and held a variety of staff and freelance assignments in film production. He then specialized in cinematography and founded two film production companies, The Migrant FilmWorkers and Jim Mathers Film Company.
Mathers has been the director of photography on over 30 feature and made-for-TV films and has been associated with six TV series from Inception through the show’s first season. He is the president and co-founder of the nonprofit educational cooperative "The Digital Cinema Society," a group dedicated to the industry's informed integration of new technology.
Larry Mole Parker runs Mole Richardson Lighting Company, the oldest lighting company in Hollywood's history. He's the founder of Mole-U, which offers lighting workshops and seminars for film students, giving them the opportunity to work “hands-on” in the Mole-Richardson® soundstage. At last count, there are over twenty-five schools involved with this innovative program. Larry Mole Parker is dedicated to this program in the legacy of Mole-Richardson Company and embraces the tremendous passion of the education of filmmakers, past, present and future.
Parker also founded the Mole Stage Network. Created to reflect a more synergistic relationship with its namesake sound stage, Mole Stage Network is the motion picture industry education community’s premiere web destination. Frequent updates, including equipment demos, Gear Blog and Resources, help to showcase the best of Mole Stage Network, while sections like Ask Larry offer dynamic, leading edge content that can only be found on molestagenetwork. Larry Parker is on the advisory board of several of Los Angeles' best films schools.
Mole-Richardson, also known as Mole, is a stage lighting instrument and motion picture lighting manufacturing company based in Hollywood, California. The company was started in 1927 by Sicilian immigrant Pietro "Peter" Mule (changed to Mole). Born 10 Nov 1891 in the Italian town of Termini Imerese, Palermo, Sicily, he first worked for General Electric (GE) in New York. In 1927 he began selling incandescent tungsten lighting to the film industry, which allowed a more natural lighting than the previous arc lights. The new lights were also silent, an advantage for the new sound films.
Mole-Richardson invented the Fresnel Solar Spot unit in 1935, adapting the fresnel lighthouse lens for use in motion pictures. It won the first of four technical Academy Awards the company has earned.
During World War II, Mole-Richardson concentrated their efforts on developing searchlights for battleships, tanks and artillery units to aid the Allied Forces' battle in Europe and the Pacific. In 1945, Peter Mole was invited to light the first United Nations conference held in San Francisco.
Mole-Richardson Company is now run by Larry Mole Parker and Mike Parker. Mole-Richardson is considered by many to be the staple of motion picture and television lighting in the movie industry today, setting the standard for tungsten fresnel fixtures. However, they also manufacture HMI (Hydrargyrum Medium-arc Iodide) day-light lighting units.
For over 20 years, Lee has held an international reputation as an acting teacher, coach, writer, and director. Widely regarded as one of the country’s best acting teachers, Lee was profiled in Qualified Acting Coaches: NY (Smith & Kraus). He has taught at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, The NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (Associate Professor), The Atlantic Theater Company Acting School (Master Teacher), The New World School of the Arts in Miami (Visiting Professor) and most recently at the new Relativity School of Media, Film & the Performing Arts where he is an original faculty member. Lee was also selected for two consecutive years to lecture at the annual Screen Actor’s Guild Conservatory Summer Seminar. He is one of the world’s leading experts on Practical Aesthetics, the acting technique originally developed by David Mamet. Lee also taught filmmaking, directing, screenwriting, and lectured on film genre at the Los Angeles Film School.
He wrote and directed the independent TV pilot Crime Share for Route 17 Productions. Lee was also the director and co-creator of Inside Private Lives, the hit theatrical show that was the LA Weekly Pick of the Week, recommended twice by LA Times, received a rave in NY Times, and out of over 2,000 shows placed in the Top 10 at The Edinburgh Theatre Festival.
Lee was chosen for the Warner Bros. Comedy Writers Workshop, Hollywood’s most prestigious showcase for new comedy writers, where he was one of 25 writers selected annually out of over 700 applicants. Lee is also co-author of A Practical Handbook For The Actor, the best-selling textbook (over 300,000 copies) that is required reading in hundreds of theatre programs, including NYU, Harvard, and many others. The book has been translated into Dutch, Japanese, Turkish, and Chinese. As a playwright, Lee is also honored to have been chosen as Playwright-in-Residence at Cal State Northridge in the Veterans Theatre Project for which he has received two grants to develop the story of The Bonus Army into a full-fledged theatrical production. As an actor, Lee has worked professionally in film, TV and theatre, having originated roles in plays by David Mamet, Roger Hedden, Jason Milligan and many others. Appearances include Law & Order, the controversial 9/11 drama The Reflecting Pool, Mamet’s martial arts film Redbelt, and many others.
He has produced high-profile fundraising events at the home of director Brett Ratner for the Foundation For Ethnic Understanding (ffeu.org), raising millions of dollars for that organization. Lee is currently working as an Executive Producer, raising funds for several feature films starring A-List actors, all under $5 million. Lee is proud to be a third degree Black Belt in Kasumi-An Ninjutsu, the Warrior Art of the Ninja.
Lee holds a BFA in Drama from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of California, Riverside Palm Desert Creative Writing Program. He also attended the Drama Studio, London, where he was the youngest student ever admitted.
Born August 21, in Canada. Education: Attended Directing Women's Workshop, American Film Institute, 1977–78. Film editor and actress , Good Will Store (improvisational theatre company), founder and past director; previously worked as film researcher and in wardrobe department.
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