Our Advisory Board

Dwight Adair Owner, Seadra Productions

Dwight Adair, a film producer/director for many years while living in Los Angeles, provides feature films, traditional television broadcast, music videos, corporate videos, and Internet productions with first-hand knowledge of the standards of prime time television and feature film production.

Adair began his career as a dialogue coach on the feature films “Urban Cowboy”, “Hard Country”, and more recently the Academy Award nominated “A River Runs Through It.” Dwight’s expertise was also utilized in several NBC Live Theatre Specials where he coached Henry Fonda, John Lithgow, Tim Hutton, Sally Field, William Hurt, Ned Beatty, Pearl Bailey and others. Mr. Adair became a member of the Directors Guild of America after working on the “Dallas” television series for six seasons. He has over a dozen hours of prime time television to his credit as director, including episodes of “Dallas” and “Dynasty.” He produced the NBC movie of the week “She Fought Alone” that aired in 1995. Mr. Adair Chaired the Entertainment Industry Task Force of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce 1994-1996 and served as a Director on its Board in 2002-2004. In 2000, he joined a delegation of motion picture professionals on a trip to China “Legends of China” to foster relations with their industry, where he delivered the keynote address. In the last three sessions of the Texas Legislature, Mr. Adair was instrumental in the passage and subsequent amending of the Texas Film Development Act, a tax incentive program for qualified producers shooting in Texas.

Adair was president of Granite House Inc., a successful production company headquartered in Austin 1994-2002. While there, Adair produced the Home and Garden TV series “Dream House,” a thirteen episode documentary series that aired through January, 2002. He has been interviewed by the editor of flixusa.com on directing and producing filmed entertainment and on two separate occasions by senior analysts at the Wall Street Reporter.com on the subject of corporate sponsored convergence entertainment. He is a graduate of the nationally acclaimed Leadership Austin program, is on the Board of Advisors and is an adjunct professor of St. Edward’s University MBA Program focused on Digital Media, and is a director in good standing in the Directors Guild of America.

Adair has produced and/or directed numerous television commercials, corporate videos and DVD’s, documentaries, public media presentations and live television broadcasts, is a media consultant, and possesses over thirty years of personal experience in the motion picture, video and television industries. Recently Mr. Adair produced a documentary on Bob Wills entitled “Faded Love” and owns www.bobwills.com Mr. Adair has completed a documentary on female athletes entitled “Go For It!” and produced a HD video educational library for St. Jude Medical that can be viewed at www.heartlibrary.com Currently, Adair is editing a documentary on West Texas musical legend Tommy Hancock of Lubbock, Texas, entitled “West Texas Yoda”.

Frank Bonniwell President and CEO, Studio Nouveau

Frank Bonniwell is President and CEO of Studio Nouveau an L.A.-based VFX company which designed and created the cinematics for Capcom's Resident Evil 5. Before founding Studio Nouveau, Frank cultivated and perfected his talent for 3D animation and production by contributing his skills to A-list Hollywood productions. Bonniwell worked on such blockbuster films as Polar Express, Spiderman-2, Monster House, Matrix Reloaded, Matrix Revelations, Flags of Our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima. At the end of working with Clint Eastwood on Letters from Iwo Jima, Frank landed his next project working directly with James Cameron on his next film projects Avatar as Technical Director.

Frank has been involved in the computer industry for 14 years as a computer technician, animation studio business owner, Animation Director, Technical Director, Technical Animator, Character Animator, Motion Capture Specialist, Motion Capture actor, and Visual Effects Supervisor for feature films. His work history includes directing, acting, running a motion capture system, supervising 30 artists while producing several projects at once. He has worked with many of the top game console companies in the world such as Microsoft's Digital Anvil and Sony's flagship game company Naughty Dog where he created their entire motion-capture pipeline.

 

Fiona Cherbak VP of Business Development, GameX

Fiona is Vice President of Business Development for the Games & Media Expo (GameX), an NBC-backed game consumer show and industry conference. Fiona has enjoyed a career in business development, marketing, recruiting and strategic planning for clients in games, entertainment, technology and finance, with her early career spent at The Walt Disney Company and Universal Studios.

Fiona has worked closely with various professional member societies and organizations such as IEEE, ITSC, AIGA and SIGGRAPH, serving on advisory boards, producing events and handling marketing, fundraising, promotions and PR for numerous national and regional programs.

Fiona is Chairperson for IGDA Women in Games, and advisory board member for SXSW Screenburn, IndieCade, Women in Games International and Austin ACM SIGGRAPH. She serves as a regular speaker and editorialist on diversity hiring issues and career development in the games industry.

Matt Fangman Principal, Fangman Design

With over 14 years’ experience in the advertising industry, Matt Fangman is an award-winning designer who understands that powerful creative comes from smart strategy and planning. His ability to listen to client needs and develop a targeted creative plan enables his clients to build better brands. His past clients include IBM, The University of Texas at Austin, Keene Trial Consulting, Momentum Software, Thinkwell.com, ProTrader Securities, Tivoli, Cigna, drkoop.com, BioMedical Services, Link18, Aspyr Media, Spin City Cycling, Tigerlily Acupuncture, The Marketing Underground and KCI, among others.

A seasoned creative director, Matt’s design and production know-how consist of print communications, corporate collateral, online media and dimensional graphics. After graduating from The University of Nebraska with a BFA, Matt moved to Austin and honed his design chops at the Olson Group and The University of Texas before opening Fangman Design. Matt stays involved in the local design community serving as an Advisory Board Member for AIGA Austin and Austin ACM SIGGRAPH.

Gary Gattis Executive Producer, Spacetime Studios

Gary Gattis wrote his first game on an Apple II+ in 1984. Gary graduated with a Fine Arts/ Computer Science degree from the University of Texas in 1990. Not long afterwards, he got his vocational start in gaming when he co-founded Human Code. Gary next went to work with Digital Anvil as Director of Development. In 2000, he left the gaming industry for three years and went to work for Bowstreet, directing large-scale enterprise software installations for Fortune 100 companies. In 2003 he joined SOE as a Senior Producer, guiding SWG's live development. He and his partners founded Spacetime Studios in October 2005. Gary currently serves as the Chairman of the Austin branch of the Independent Game Developers Association.

Richard Lewis Associate Professor, UT at Austin

Richard Lewis has worked as an editor, producer, director, and/or writer for companies including National Geographic Television, Channel 4 (UK), A&E, PBS, Sierra Club Productions, and Devillier-Donegan Enterprises. Most recently, he worked on The Living Weapon, an episode of American Experience for PBS. His last production, Chimp Rescue, premiered on National Geographic Explorer and won a Genesis Award for Best Cable Documentary. Richard’s editing credits include Nick Broomfield’s Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer. Additional experience includes three years as a story analyst in Los Angeles and three years as a management consultant with Andersen Consulting in Atlanta and London. Richard teaches producing and screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin.

Matt Scibilia President/CEO, Critical Mass Interactive, Inc

Matt Scibilia co-authored GET IN THE GAME! with Marc Mencher and Dustin Clingman, published in October, 2002 by New Riders Publishing, a recognized, authoritative reference about careers in the Game Industry. He is also a voting member of ACM/SIGGRAPH, IGDA, and IEEE and maintains long-term personal contacts with colleagues in the interactive, film and television industries.

He has been working in the interactive game development industry for close to twenty-two years, working for such companies as Microprose (now Atari), Magnet Interactive, Electronic Arts/Origin Systems, Eclipse and Daylight/KalistoUSA, before co-founding BigSky Interactive. A sampling of completed products include F-15 Strike Eagle (NES), Darklands, Civilization (SVGA), Crusader: No Regret (PC/PSX), Wing Commander: Prophecy (PC), and SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (PS2/NGC). Partnering with Billy Cain and Grant Pimpler, Matt formed Critical Mass Interactive, Inc. in early 2003, as a full development studio and contract service provider for interactive productions on all major game consoles (PS2, GC, Xbox and GameBoy Advance), PC, web and wireless platforms. Some of CMI’s recent clients have been Electronic Arts/Origin, Vivendi/Universal Games, Sony Online Entertainment, NCsoft, Midway, SEGA, Trion World Network, and THQ.

Kelley Toombs

Kelley Toombs has been a working designer/art director in the business of visual communications for over 25 years. He has developed brand identities and brand strategies for startup and Fortune 50-500 companies. Over his career he has served a client base including Dell Computer Corporation, Polycom, Inc., Fire Bowl Café, Southwest Airlines, as well as multiple state agencies and associations such as Texas Education Agency, Texas Municipal League and the Texas Realtors Association to name a few.

As a versatile and experienced creative director, designer/art director, teacher and mentor Kelley has won numerous local, regional and national awards in competitions sponsored by Austin Advertising Federation, Austin Graphic Arts Society, Creative Association of San Antonio, Printing Industries of America, International Association of Business Communicators American Typographers Association, French, Curtis and Fox River. His design work has been published in several of PRINT magazines Regional Design Annuals and in the most recent publications “Logo Lounge 5” and “Master’s Collection.” Kelley’s personal work has been on exhibit as well in AIGA Houston’s Loud and Clear Exhibitions and Hope Chapel’s Gallery Lenten Exhibits. This past summer he was the featured artist and juror of Hope Chapel’s Art Circus 2009.

He has served on many boards including the McCallum CLCA Foundation (Chair) Austin Community College VisCom Dept. Advisory Committee, Austin Graphic Arts Society, AIGA Texas, McCallum Fine Arts Academy and AIGA Austin (Founding Board, Vice President, Design Ranch Director, Advisory Committee, Community Outreach Director and Education Director). Kelley presently serves on the Advisory Boards of AIGA Austin, the Art Institute of Austin and ACM Siggraph Austin.

Gary Walker Visual FX Supervisor and President, TexFX

Gary Walker is a Visual FX Supervisor and President of TexFX, an Austin based Visual FX studio. With professional experience in Hollywood, Vancouver, and Dallas, Gary was a senior digital compositor on twelve major motion pictures, including APOLLO 13, WATERWORLD, CAST AWAY, WHAT LIES BENEATH, and most recently was Visual FX Supervisor on Weinstein/Lionsgate’s Sundance Grand Prize nominated independent feature TEETH.

He currently partners with studio and independent feature and documentary filmmakers to provide personable, affordable access to this combination of experience and powerful technology.