January 31-February 1, 2025Music City Cinema Conference

Host: Adam Drake

Producer/First Assistant Director
The Chosen, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Indivisible, Overcomer

Drake is an award-winning filmmaker who lives in Cookeville, Tennessee and producer and co-host of the podcast The Brosen. He has produced several films and shows including The Chosen, I’m Not Ashamed, and Heaven Bound, as well as various music videos for artists such as Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Ingrid Andress, Cole Swindell, and Hayley Williams from Paramore.  While Drake has worked on many feature films in various positions, he can primarily be found working as a 1st Assistant Director most recently on set of the hit show The Chosen. He recently served as the 1st AD for the comedic Christmas family film The Best Christmas Pageant Ever directed by Dallas Jenkins. Additionally, Drake works as a Professor of Film & Television at Trevecca Nazarene University.

IMDB
Professional Website
The Brosen Podcast
TNU Instructor Site

Andrew Erwin

Director/Producer/Editor
Unsung Hero, Ordinary Angels, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Jesus Revolution, American Underdog, I Can Only Imagine, I Still Believe, Woodlawn

As Chief Creative Officer of Kingdom Story Company, Erwin has earned acclaim as one of the leading storytellers in his genre. Andrew is one of only three directors in America who have had three films receive an A+ Cinema score. Kingdom Story Company has garnered six A+ cinema scores. Notable among Andrew’s achievements are the breakout hits I Can Only Imagine, the top independent film of 2018 which he co-directed, and Jesus Revolution on which he was a producer. Erwin also co-directed the inspiring Kurt Warner biopic American Underdog. 
His portfolio includes memorable titles like October Baby, Moms' Night Out, Woodlawn, I Still Believe, Ordinary Angels, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and Unsung Hero. Looking ahead, his creative vision will be showcased in upcoming releases such as The Unbreakable Boy, slated for 2025. In 2024, Andrew launched The Storytellers podcast, dedicated to highlighting the redemptive stories of luminaries that inspire hope in the hearts of listeners. As a leading figure in Christian cinema, he remains deeply committed to faith-driven storytelling, leveraging his platform to empower and unite a new generation of storytellers.

IMDB
Professional Website
Storytellers Podcast

Joel Smallbone

Actor/Writer/Recording Artist
Unsung Hero, Journey to Bethlehem, Priceless, For King & Country featuring Dolly Parton: God Only Knows, Like a Country Song, The Book of Esther

Smallbone is an Australian actor and one-half of the four-time Grammy award-winning pop duo for KING + COUNTRY with his brother Luke. They have generated over two billion streams, ten GMA Awards, one Billboard Music Award, and an American Music Award. He has performanced on Good Morning America, The View, The Today Show, The Tonight Show, and CMT Crossroads. Smallbone has been a part of several films, landing his first acting role alongside Billy Ray Cyrus in 2014 in the Nashville-based film Like a Country Song, followed by the 2016 independent film Priceless, which he co-wrote and played the lead role, and the 2023 film Journey to Bethlehem opposite Antonio Banderas. Recently, he co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the feature film Unsung Hero, a story about his family’s immigration to America.

IMDB
King + Country Website

Andrew Kramer

VFX Artist/Founder & President of Video Copilot
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Super 8, Person of Interest, Revolution, Almost Human

Kramer is known for his work on many film projects including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Trek Into Darkness, Super 8, and television show intros including Fringe, Revolution, Almost Human, and Person of Interest. He is also the founder of Video Copilot, where he shares tricks for achieving new levels of creativity. Throughout his career, Andrew has inspired and mentored artists to help them secure jobs in the film and television industry, with his hundreds of tutorials on how to produce incredible VFX work in After Effects, and innovative After Effects plug-ins that are widely used in the industry. His work on Video Copilot led to a partnership with iconic film and television director J.J. Abrams.  Today, Video Copilot plug-ins like Element 3D & Optical Flares are among industry standard tools used by large visual FX studios and individual designers. Video Copilot has published over 150 Tutorials along with dozens of digital products and plug-ins used by professional designers around the world. Kramer continues to work in the film industry in addition to publishing exciting new products and tutorials for the growing motion design and visual effects community.

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Professional Website

Jayse Hansen

Hollywood User Interface Designer/Art Director
The Avengers, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Star Trek: Picard, Big Hero 6, Top Gun: Maverick, 2012, The Hunger Game

Hansen is known for his future-forward design and animation of computer interfaces, holograms, HUDs, and medical simulations for blockbuster film franchises such as Marvel’s The Avengers, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Space Force, and The Hunger Games. His designs advance and clarify storylines in films like Batman v Superman, Star Trek: Beyond, Ender’s Game, Big Hero 6, Top Gun: Maverick and many more. In his more than twenty-year career, Hansen has created some of the most iconic user interfaces in film history for characters such as Tony Stark, Nick Fury, Spider-Man, and Star-Lord. He has presented keynote presentations at some of the most notable film, media, and design conferences across the globe in countries like Israel, Russia, Japan, Spain, and the U.S. Some of those include SxSW, NAB (Adobe Stage), After Effects World Keynote, Comic Com, and others. Hansen also works as a Spatial UX Research Scientist for the Army Research Laboratories in Human Performance Augmentation for Volumetric UI/UX Design.His portfolio includes memorable titles like October Baby, Moms' Night Out, Woodlawn, I Still Believe, Ordinary Angels, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and Unsung Hero. Looking ahead, his creative vision will be showcased in upcoming releases such as The Unbreakable Boy, slated for 2025. In 2024, Andrew launched The Storytellers podcast, dedicated to highlighting the redemptive stories of luminaries that inspire hope in the hearts of listeners. As a leading figure in Christian cinema, he remains deeply committed to faith-driven storytelling, leveraging his platform to empower and unite a new generation of storytellers.

IMDB
Professional Website
LinkedIn

Darby Faccinto

Hollywood User Interface Designer
Loki, Hawkeye, The Marvels, Deadpool & Wolverine, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Faccinto is a freelance FUI (Future User Interface) designer who holds credits from several Marvel and D.C. Comic films and shows such as Deadpool & Wolverine, Loki, Hawkeye, Black Adam, and The Marvels. His work has appeared in Aquaman & the Lost Kingdom, White Rabbit, Secret Invasion, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and others. Faccinto has carved out a niche in helping stories further their worlds by creating a look and feeling to their tech. Specializing specifically in the Film/Television space, he expands and pushes the visualization of data, interfaces, and technology featured in films and shows. He has worked for Marvel Studios and leading design and visual effects studio Cantina Creative, which is known for hit films such as Avengers: Endgame, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Spiderman Homecoming, to name a few. Faccinto is a graduate of Trevecca Nazarene University’s Film & Television program.

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Professional Website

Megan Hill

Executive Producer/VP of Studio Operations

Megan Hill is an Executive Producer and Vice President of Studio Operations for Vū Technologies. Her diverse fifteen-year-career as a director, photographer, editor, and executive producer has prepared her for success at Vū. Through over 150 virtual production shoots, she has learned techniques for very quick turnarounds, saved her clients’ money, and produced high-quality productions for clients such as Disney, Publix, HCA, The Mill, and Neiman Marcus, to name a few. Her biggest achievement at Vū would be the team she has trained and cultivated and the operational procedures she has put in place to make the studios run successfully.

VU Nashville
Professional Website
LinkedIn

Torry Martin

Screenwriter/Actor/Producer
Adventures in Odyssey, Christmas on the Range, Heaven Bound, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone

Martin has a long list of accomplishments as an award-winning actor, author, storyteller and a standup comedian. He chooses to use his gifts for laughter, writing and entertaining to bring serious messages to audiences through the softening blows of humor. Martin has written several films including Christmas on the Range, Heaven Bound, The Roar, and The Matchbreaker. He has also written for Adventures in Odyssey, a children’s radio series produced by Focus on the Family and is the author of several books including Under the Circumstances, What a Character, Of Moose and Men, The Call of the Mild, and Shameless Self Promotion.

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Professional Website

Dan Haseltine

Songwriter/Composer/Music Producer
The Chosen, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Christmas with the Chosen: Holy Night, The Shift, Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers, A Walk to Remember, Jack Frost, Hard Rain, Crossroads

Haseltine is a Nashville-based, three-time Grammy-winning songwriter, producer, and musician with fourteen #1 radio singles, twelve critically acclaimed albums, and multiple BMI songwriter awards for his work as a member of the multi-platinum selling band, Jars of Clay. He continues to make pop music with his bands, The Hawk In Paris & The River Cryers. Haseltine’s first composing job was for the film, Hometown Legend in 2001. He was brought on as a composer for the hit television series, The Chosen in 2019. He and his co-composer, Matthew S. Nelson, have composed music for the feature film The Shift (2022) and the Lionsgate film, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024). Dan is also the founder of Blood:Water, an NGO that helps local African organizations end health disparities in their local communities.”

IMDB
Blood:Water

Matt Nelson

Composer/Touring & Session Musician
The Chosen, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Christmas with the Chosen: Holy Night, The Shift, Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers

Nelson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his score (co-composed with Dan Haseltine) for the hit original series The Chosen and for his work as a touring and session musician. His creative voice is warm, contemplative, and sincere, valuing classical tradition while celebrating imperfection and timbral experimentation. Nelson holds a Bachelor of Music from Middle Tennessee State University, where he studied cello with Xiao-Fan Zhang and jazz guitar with Paul Abrams, and an Associate of Arts from Pensacola Junior College, where he studied cello with Dr. Brad Knobel.

In addition to album credits as diverse as JD Souther, Anderson East, Michael W. Smith, and Hooray for the Riff Raff, Nelson has performed live with Amy Grant, Sleeping at Last, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Cheap Trick, among a long list of others. He has appeared on NBC’s Today, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Grand Ole Opry, and NPR’s Mountain Stage.

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Professional Website