Key Players
Tony Vidal
(Producer, Director, Writer) studied screenwriting at USC where
he earned a Masters degree in Cinema Production. He later became head
story analyst at Orion Pictures. Scripts he evaluated there included: Born
on the Fourth of July, Romancing the Stone, Ten, Caddyshack, and The Great
Santini. Tony later became head story analyst at The Ladd Company, working
with Alan Ladd Jr.
Tony took a break from the film world, traveling extensively, and managing a family-owned real estate company for several years. Eventually, he returned to writing, turning out five screenplays, and winning the Marin Arts Council grant for screenwriting. At the same time he became head of the University of California at Davis Screenwriting Program, where he taught numerous classes and led an annual conference.
Tony also worked as a Senior Writer/Director for Playback Media, a Silicon Valley startup, streaming business and learning video programs over the Internet. These programs were creative mini-movies, shot on location with a full crew and professional actors. In addition, Tony was hired by Summertime Films to co-write Her Best Move, an indy feature about girl's soccer being distributed by MGM in Summer, 2008. Tony has also written a novel about the film world, 45 Minutes to Nowhere.
Now, Tony is producing The Prankster (and other projects), to entertain and inspire the movie audience. He lives in Marin County with his wife Joanie, and daughter, Celina.
Martin Rosenberg (Cinematographer) has been involved with almost every major film to come out of Hollywood since the early 1980's. He brings a skill and professionalism that has been honed with some of the best film makers in the industry. We are very lucky to have a cinematographer as artistically skilled as Mr. Rosenberg as you cannot find a better Director of Cinematography. Marty is the reason The Prankster is so beautifully shot.
Marty resides in Marin County with his family and is constantly shooting films for Kerner and ILM.
Mike Kitchens (Assistant Director) joined
American Zoetrope Studios in 1973, working in post- production on;
American Graffiti, The Conversation, Godfather II, and Apocalypse Now. He
became manager of the post-production facility in 1975. In 1976 he joined
the editorial team of Star Wars at Lucasfilm Ltd., in Marin County. Just
after Star Wars' release he left the world of post-production for
production. In 1978, after helping cast the juvenile lead, he went to
Italy with The Black Stallion, to work as the dramatic and dialogue coach
for the young actor. When he returned he joined the Director's Guild of
America and began working as an assistant director on More American
Graffiti.
The next few years he moved between casting, coaching and assistant directing on a number of films. On ET, he helped with the Los Angeles juvenile casting and in 1980 went to Alaska with the production of Never Cry Wolf, both to help with casting and as an AD. In 1982 he began working with Walter Murch on a film that was being developed by Walter for Disney, Return to Oz, eventually helping cast the juvenile female lead and working as her coach during principal photography in London. He was credited as an Associate Producer on the film and worked through the film's release in 1985. Since returning to California in 1985 he has worked until the present out of The San Francisco Bay Area as an Assistant Director, Associate Producer, Production Manager and Producer on scores of commercials, pilots, TV shows and films.
Michael “Brandy” Valentino (Associate Producer) has worked professionally the past 22 years both in front of
and behind the camera. He started his career in theater and film as an actor for many main productions at A.C.T.in
San Francisco. In 1986 he was cast in his first film, Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Francis Ford Coppola).
He attended UCLA film/theater school on a writing scholarship. From there he went on to act in several
movies, television and national commercials with some of the top names in the film industry. In 1998 he started making a shift towards production, and worked
his way up to First Assistant Director. Michael returned to the Bay Area in 1999 and worked on a few commercials
before opening a sucessful computer company. In 2000 he opened Insight Computing, LLC,
selling it in 2005.
Valerie Castro (Associate Producer) recently moved to San Francisco from New York City. In New York, Valerie worked for Castle Hill Productions, Inc., and still continues to serve as an Associate Program Director for the Coney Island Film Festival. She has co-produced popular and successful film screenings at New York's prestigious Anthology Film Archives, Pioneer Theatre, Galapagos Art Space and the Coney Island Saturday Night Film Series. She studied film and TV at San Francisco State University.
Frank Simeone (Line Producer) is a well known motion picture producer in San Francisco, who has produced and managed over thirty films in the Bay Area. His motion picture career began as a production assistant on Francis Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW at American Zoetrope where he continued to work through the productions of THE BLACK STALLION, HAMMETT and RUMBLE FISH. He has worked as a production manager on two projects for LucasFilms, THE BATTLE FOR ENDOR, a network television special, and TIGER TALES, a dramatic short to encourage children to read. Frank's production experience in the studios of Zoetrope and LucasFilms has enabled him to help independent filmmakers get their features "in the can." Some of these movies include, NINA TAKES A LOVER, DUMBARTON BRIDGE and the recent film festival hit, DREAM WITH THE FISHES. He worked on Dreamworks' production of A.I., LucasFilms' PHANTOM MENACE and most recently Ang Lee's THE HULK.