ACE
NORTON
Ace Norton (yes, that’s his real name) is an Asian American artist and filmmaker born and raised in Venice, California. Ace creates visuals on a variety of media platforms including music video, advertising, fashion, and film. He also draws, sculpts and is frequently commissioned for his installation and photography work.
A third generation filmmaker in his family, Ace would spend most of his childhood making films and by the end of his high school career, he had written and directed dozens of shorts. Ace attended the University of Southern California in their film production program, and shortly after started a small production company out of his garage with a number of his closest film school friends called, Commondeer, then shortly thereafter signed to Partizan and subsequently Prettybird.
Since then, Ace has directed over eighty music videos, television commercials, fashion short, and short films. His prolific body of work includes campaigns for Honda, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Gucci, Samsung, Nissan, Gap, Mercedes, Dolby, T-Mobile, House of Fraser, and Vans, as well as music videos for Foster the People, Jennifer Lopez, Death Cab for Cutie, Scissor Sisters, Norah Jones, Bloc Party, Simian Mobile Disco, Regina Spektor, Aesop Rock and Sebastien Tellier. Ace’s work has been featured in the L.A. Times, The Huffington Post, Nowness, Nylon, Interview, Anthem, Boards, Promo magazine and numerous others. Highsnobiety regarded him as one of the “Best 10 Directors Working Today”.
He won Best Film and Best Director at the Milan Fashion Film Festival as well of a slew of others at Berlin and La Jolla. He was nominated for “Director of the Year” at the MVPA for his video “Hustler,” by Simian Mobile Disco. This also won “Video of the Year” at the ViMus Music Video Awards and is listed as one of the “Top 100 Music Videos of All Time” by NME. His work for Death Cab for Cutie was nominated for a Grammy.
His films and videos have also been shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival, SXSW, and festivals in Berlin, Venice, Japan, and England. Ace has served as the president of the jury at the Off Film Festival in Venice, Italy and was a keynote speaker at both LAMVF and in Berlin. Ace loves to surf, loves to cook, and loves to solicit his best friends to write his biographies for him…
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STEPHANIE MARTIN
Stephanie is a Latina Director and Cinematographer from Argentina. Stephanie is a graduate of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women program, where she co-wrote and directed her short film, WILD HORSES, which premiered and won Best Live Action Short at Palm Springs ShortFest. The film stars Mireille Enos (THE KILLING, HANNA) and Brooke Shields, and tells the story of the plight of America’s wild horses. Following this, Stephanie was selected to be one of the Directors on the anthology feature film BERLIN, I LOVE YOU. Parallel to her career in TV and Film, Stephanie also Directs Television and Directs and DPs Commercials. Last year, Stephanie directed two episodes of Fox’s The Resident and one episode of Walker for the CW.
In addition, she directed the concept trailer for Freeform’s PARTY OF FIVE. Stephanie is a fellow of both the Disney and the Sony Directing Programs.
Stephanie Martin credits her visually charged directorial voice to her background in Cinematography.
Originally from Argentina, Stephanie got her start as a set lighting technician on independent films before becoming a Cinematographer. As a Cinematographer, she has worked on numerous features, documentaries and commercials as well as as working as an Operator and 2nd Unit DP on mainstream features (such as WORLD WAR Z and EAT PRAY LOVE). Stephanie credits the fact that she is fully trilingual and bicultural to her being at ease working anywhere.
Stephanie received her BA in Political Science and French at Wellesley College and her MFA in Cinematography at the American Film Institute. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys surfing, horse riding, gardening and traveling the world with her family. Stephanie is a member of the DGA and IATSE local #600. With multiple passports, Stephanie speaks English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
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MAURILIO RODRÍGUEZ
Maurilio Rodríguez is a young film and advertising director who has fully immersed himself in the world of Virtual Production. His focus is on a direction where he unleashes his creativity and technical skills to make the most of the possibilities offered by this cutting-edge technology.
Maurilio owes much to his experience in independent and low-budget filmmaking, where he honed his creative mindset and ability to think outside the box, skills that he still applies to his current projects. Coupled with his solid previous experience as an assistant in numerous Virtual Production projects, having worked with renowned directors like Román Coppola, he now has the expertise to direct any commercial and production, whether in studios with virtual technology or traditional locations.
His versatility and ability to adapt to different environments enable him to deliver outstanding results in any context, aiming to combine cinematic storytelling with top-tier visual effects. Maurilio Rodríguez seeks to position himself in the industry as an innovative director who redefines the boundaries of advertising through his knowledge of Virtual Production.
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FERNANDO CASTANIER
A filmmaker born in the small city of La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. His first encounters with cinema were with film reels and a 35mm projector from a small private collection that his father preserved.
In the bathroom of their home in the Guerrero neighborhood of La Paz, Fernando Castanier Sr. improvised a small darkroom with red light, where he taught his son Fernando how to develop 35mm photographs. This sparked Fernando’s curiosity and exploration, leading him to seek images in various settings, taking advantage of the privileged region in the Baja California peninsula and its vast landscapes.
From a young age, Castanier has dedicated his life to cinema, specializing in cinematography for commercials, short films, and music videos. He has recently worked with Luis Miguel and Rob Schneider on international advertising campaigns, and for brands like Mercedes Benz, Volvo, BMW, and VOGUE.
He has also worked on over 30 short films and music videos with artists such as Belinda, Lil Wayne, Alemán, and Julión Álvarez. Currently, he is in pre-production for his directorial debut and DP role in “Las Brujas del Mar,” a fiction feature film produced in his home region of Baja California Sur.
His work has been recognized several times in New York, the UK, and the USA. He won the Light & Shadow Art & Film Competition Festival in Soho with his project Calafia Dreamin’, where he was the only Latino finalist among over 2000 participants worldwide. He was also recognized for the short film “Alicia,” for which he received the Zeiss Cinematography Award at the Warsaw Festival.