Lunch Ladies Movie| United States

BIOS

DESMOND EVAN SMITH - Costumer

CLARISSA JACOBSON - Writer/Producer

Originally from Minnesota, Clarissa Jacobson is from the only family in the state that isn’t Norwegian and didn’t eat Tater Tot Hotdish every Sunday. Clarissa has a BA in theatre from Indiana University and trained at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. A long-standing member of Twin Bridges Writing Salon, she has several other scripts under her belt including the full-length version of Lunch Ladies. Her book - I Made A Short Film Now WTF Do I Do With It (a guide to film festivals, promotion, and surviving the ride) is available at her website and more. Clarissa creates scripted projects with partner, Shayna Weber, under their Rebel Minx banner and happily resides in Los Angeles with all the other weirdos.

J.M. LOGAN - Director/Producer

Josh is an award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer who has lived many lives in the film industry. Starting in makeup effects building big rubber monsters and slinging blood on movies like The Dentist, Wishmaster 2, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he transitioned through visual effects, sound design, composing and supervising post production for the studios. He now wears diverse hats as a multi-faceted filmmaker directing, shooting, producing and editing. In addition to directing Lunch Ladies, his recent projects include an interactive feature film The Garage Sale, producing a feature documentary The Disunited States of America for SKY TV and Manson Family Vacation for the Duplass Brothers, and just finished directing the award-winning short, The Relic.

JOE BRATCHER - Producer/Head Choreographer

Joe Bratcher seems to reinvent himself every seven to fourteen years. Retrieving various incarnations from his 45 year adventure: After graduating Northwestern University, Joe was an actor in Broadway musicals, television and film, a writer of movies, episodics, and books, a screenwriting teacher at UCLA Ext. Writer’s Program for eight years, creator of the first beginning screenwriting on-line course for UCLA, artistic mentor to many including the trifecta producing team on Lunch Ladies – Clarissa, Shayna and Jessica - owner (with wife Judy Farrell) of Twin Bridges Screenwriting Salon – 29 years and counting, literary manager and producer… but always always always… at heart… a tap dancer. (Still taps three hours a week.)

SHAYNA WEBER - Producer

SHAYNA WEBER is a screenwriter, producer and director originally from Bend, Oregon. Shayna started out working in casting and talent management before settling into a career as a producer, during the rise of unscripted television, where she developed, produced and directed a number of projects. Her roster of shows includes: “So You Think You Can Dance,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Weakest Link,” and more. She has worked for NBC, Fox, Disney, MTV, VH1, Travel Channel, Discovery and Bravo. Shayna creates scripted projects with her partner, Clarissa, under their Rebel Minx banner and lives in Los Angeles with her musician husband and three-year-old son.

MATT FALLETTA - Exec. Producer/Special Effects Supervisor

Matthew Falletta grew up in North Carolina and attended The North Carolina School of the Arts to study acting, mime and dance and Columbia College in Chicago. In NC he helped create East Coast Stunts at Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington as well as opening a special effects shop working on productions like One Tree Hill and Virus. Today Matt resides in Los Angeles and is the co-owner of SOTA F/X which has been in business for well over 20 years.

*We are pleased to have obtained Matt through the Los Angeles Prison System on a work release program. He has been cleared of all charges against him and is looking forward to reintegrating himself into society as a rodeo clown. Matt continues to maintain that "the swarm of dried leaves came at me with obvious malice and I simply did what had to be done."

CHRIS EKSTEIN - Director of Photography

Chris Ekstein graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and received his MFA from AFI, where his 35mm thesis received the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Grant. He is also the recipient of the Panavision New Film Maker Award. In 2010, Chris won best cinematography at the American International Film Festival and was the cinematographer on the features Mexican Sunrise (Gold Award-WorldFest) and Callous (Best Picture-IndieFest). Chris is a founding partner of Market Street Productions and the father of two girls who lent us their one-eyed hamster, Smarty, for our classroom scene.

AMELIA ALLWARDEN - Editor

Amelia Allwarden grew up between two horse farms in New Hampshire, and worked on a blueberry farm as a teenager. Never wanting to be anything other than an editor, she moved to Los Angeles and interned with American Cinema Editors, where she learned the craft of editing in depth. Reading the Harry Potter books as a kid made her want to pursue a career in story telling. She still believes in magic, probably because editing IS magic.

ANTONI M. MARCH - Composer

At age 7, Antoni M. March won his first prize for a composition. At 14, he wrote and copyrighted an opera for symphony orchestra, choir and vocal soloists. Today he is one of the youngest composers to have conducted and recorded his own music with a 67-piece symphony orchestra at the Eastwood Scoring Stage/Warner Bros. Studios. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Madrid and a Fulbright scholar who attended USC's screen scoring program, his concert music has been performed all over the world. Lunch Ladies was his first film job and he has since gone on to work on Netflix productions such as Kissing Booth 2 & 3, The Cook of Castamar, Below Zero and more.

ALICIA & RAY HO - Production Designers

Husband and wife team, Ray and Alicia Ho have done production design and set dressing for film, TV, various music videos and theatre. In addition, Ray is a bitchin’ tattoo artist and builder boy wonder while Alicia has a background in Interior design, Art History and is fierce with a sewing machine. A force to be reckoned with, Ray and Alicia were hired one week before filming, and were able to transform the Lunch Ladies’ empty kitchen into a huge crazy mess, complete with amazing homemade stenciled food cans and boxes (see photo to left) and an overkill of Johnny Depp memorabilia.

ERIC RAGAN - Line Producer

Eric Ragan is a freelance producer, director, editor, writer and is a graduate of Los Angeles Film School. Eric specializes in working on new, non-traditional and innovative projects for television, film, and the web. His feature film project, Scumbag, won Best Ensemble Narrative Feature at Queen’s World Film Festival 2017. Eric was a calming force throughout the production and his Burning Man photos he shared on set were super sweet.

Desmond Evan Smith is a costume designer, stylist, art director and scenic artist based in Los Angeles. Desmond excels in detail, which can be seen right down to the mildewed food stains he lovingly painted on LouAnne’s hideous comfort support orthotic plastic kitchen clogs. He has a degree in art history and a background in fine art painting, custom clothing construction and tailoring. He's worked on numerous productions for clients and artists including Bruno Mars, Demi Lovato, Britney Spears, Chris Brown, Big Sean, YouTube, Apple, Toyota, Ford, Fiat, Chanel, Vanity Fair, Young the Giant, and even UFC wrestlers.

KRYSTOPHER SAPP - Artist/Creator of T.Rex The Meat Grinder

Krystopher Sapp loves to stay locked up in his studio creating dark and twisted worlds in the form of mixed media assemblage. Inspired by his favorite horror and sci-fi movies, war history books and intense nightmares his works are cultivated from fear and molded into beauty. He uses found objects and items purchased at Home Depot – the place he calls his art supply store. By day, Sapp is a commercial artist and has created album cover, t-shirt and poster art for bands such as Demented Are Go, Meteors, Necromantics, Penis Flytrap, Zombie Ghost Train and many others.

SUSAN BOYLE - Food Stylist

Susan Boyle put hours upon hours of work and creativity to make the sick and unsavory creations: chocolate “diarrhea” pudding, pies upon pies, chunky cheerleader stew, limp green beans, meatloaf gristle, and painstakingly handcrafted “beef turds” designed to soar effortlessly through the air at the Lunch Ladies. Susan is also a registered RN – which helped us breathe easy on set with the vomit-worthy food that was served up.