John Daly - 

Visionary Spirit winner 2005

 Producer John Daly stood behind many big-budgeted independent films of the '80s and '90s and sustained a reputation as a successful risk-taker in a traditionally conservative Hollywood. Though considered a maverick by many moguls given his willingness to back films that the big studios wouldn't touch, Daly remained a savvy businessman with a sharp eye for moneymakers. Born in London in 1936, as the son of a cockney dockworker. Daly got his start working as a teaboy and later as a waiter in the Merchant Navy and as an insurance salesman. He met David Hemmings and the two founded the Hemdale Company in 1966, as a talent agency that repped bands including Black Sabbath and Yes.

Daly's career focus shifted somewhat in 1971, however, when he purchased Hemmings's share of the business and used it to form his own production company, Hemdale Group Ltd; under Daly's aegis, it blossomed into one of the leading "indie" production and distribution houses in the UK. He demonstrated an astonishing, almost visionary skill as a moviemaker, and unveiled a predilection for standing behind directors in whom he believed - including Robert Altman (with the 1972 Images), Ken Russell (with the 1975 Tommy), Bernardo Bertolucci (with the 1987 Best Picture winner The Last Emperor) , James Cameron (with the 1984 Terminator), and Oliver Stone (with the twin 1986 releases Salvador and Platoon, the latter also a Best Picture winner).

The company occasionally issued excellent films that turned into box-office disappointments as well (witness the 1981 Cattle Annie and Little Britches), but these marked exceptions and not the rule; at the time of Daly's death, the press marked that he had overseen the production of more than 100 titles at Hemdale, grossing in excess of $1.5 billion - a whopping sum for an independent production house.

From the late 1980s into mid-1990s, Hemdale's output remained prolific, though in 1995 Orion purchased the studio (by then renamed Hemdale Communications) and its assets. Daly's filmmaking efforts continued, but witnessed him branching out into scriptwriting and directing in addition to producing; he held down all three roles on the romantic adventure/political drama The Petersburg-Cannes Express (2003) and the period psychological drama The Aryan Couple (2004), the latter starring Martin Landau and had it's NorCal premiere at The Sacramento Film Festival. Couple - the tale of Jewish husband and wife servants posing as Aryans during the Nazi regime, who conceive of a plan to extinguish Eichmann and Himmler - received mediocre stateside reviews but did pick up a number of international festival awards. Sadly, this marked one of Daly's last major efforts and he died of cancer at age 71 in October of 2008. (bio by hollywood.com)

Lew Hunter; GodFather of American Screenwriting  by Sally J. Walker

Lew Hunter has been a "name" in the Hollywood writing community and television for over 40 years. A past chair of the Film Department at UCLA, his title there is the retired Professor and Film Chair Emeritus. SCREENWRITING 434 is the title of his revered textbook. His students have created such well known movies as "Highlander, The Movie" (Gregory Widen) and "About Schmidt" (Oscar winner Alexander Payne).  His writing colonies offered in Nebraska and around the world are currently motivating wave after wave of ambitious, talented writers. His second book, NAKED SCREENWRITING: INTERVIEWS 20 ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING DIRECTORS AND WRITERS.

 His first writing break came in 1969 when he sold and Aaron Spelling produced "If Tomorrow Comes" and earned his WGA membership card. Lew went on to work with such iconic writers as Paddy Chaefsky, Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon and Ray Bradbury. His MOW, "Fallen Angel," received a 1981 Emmy nomination and multiple national and international awards.

This astute man built on his hard-earned insights as he moved up the administrative ladder of the industry working with Walt Disney studios and the major networks. He served as Program Director for NBC from 1973 to 1977, supervising classic series like "Batman," "Bewitched," "The Adams Family,"... well, almost the entire present-day Nick-At-Night schedule. For more on Lew Hunter go to: www.lewhunter.com

JOHN OTTMAN - Composer, Editor

From an early age in San Jose, California, John Ottman began writing and recording radio plays on cassette tapes.  

USC film school became his big stop, where, after already having been a veteran of numerous Super-8 films, the film he worked on, "Summer Rain", ended up winning the Student Academy Award. On that film, a production assistant named Bryan Singer noticed what John had done, and befriended him.

On Singer's first feature, Public Access, John edited the picture for three months in the evenings and weekends while at his job at Promax. His effective sequences and editorial montages became the highlight of the picture. Additionally in the eleventh hour, the film lost its composer, and John's time had come. After having heard John's early work, and sensing his passion for scoring the film he had created in the editing room, Singer (leerily) asked Ottman to write the score. Public Access received the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, with the score and editing being applauded in reviews. The synthesis John created between music and image had been born.

With The Usual Suspects, and all future Singer films, John held to his promise that, despite his scoring dreams, he would commit to the months required to also edit Bryan's films. The Usual Suspects released him from his 9-5 job, (a whopping $1,000 a week for editing) and the leery producers gave the go-ahead to have him both edit and write the score for the complicated picture. Through sound and picture montage, (edited in John's living room on an old Steinbeck flatbed machine and a splicer) coupled with his musical vision, The Usual Suspects received widespread acclaim, invariably mentioning the romantic score and inspired editing. John was nominated by the American Cinema Editors and won the British Academy Awards for his editing, as well as a Saturn Award for his score to the film.

After Suspects, actor/director Ben Stiller hired John to score The Cable Guy, which was John's opportunity to weave in his distinctive style within a comedic context. Before The Cable Guy was even done mixing, John was already hard at work writing a huge score for the film, Snow White: A Tale of Terror with Sigourney Weaver.

After scoring Lake Placid for the same studio, Phoenix productions approached John to direct Urban Legends: Final Cut. Having planned to write his dream score for X-Men for long-time collaborator Bryan Singer, Ottman was faced with a hard decision. But X-Men was scheduled for a December 2000 release and it was too early for them to hold John to the production which was phasing in and out of the green light/red light status. When John signed to UL2, X-Men green-lit and later pushed their release to July 2000. The collision of schedules pre-empted his scoring the film. Urban Legends: Final Cut marks yet another record-setting feat by Ottman. This time he accomplished triple duties, stylishing directing, editing and also scoring a studio film, opening at number one at the box office. He recorded the score with the Munich Symphony Orchestra.

Once every couple years, the overwhelming task of both editing and scoring a Bryan Singer film confronts John. For X-Men 2, John did the job that took 5 editors on X-Men 1, and wrote the heralded score for the picture. This was the first time John had tackled both tasks on such a monstrous production. There were about four weeks for him to write 95 minutes of music for a 100 piece orchestra, as well as constantly being torn away from his writing to attend to the myriad of editorial post-production duties as editor.

After X2, John took a break. Joel Silver found John for Gothika. It had been a few films since writing a horror score, so John was inspired by the material. When he realized it was actually more a psychological story, he was even more excited by it and even did a 15 minute demo to picture to get the job. With Gothika, there was no temp score, and John feverishly wrote the score as they would finish editing each reel. He would then present his mock-ups of the score mixed in the Avid as the editor presented the reel to Joel Silver. Joel got an opportunity to pre-view the actual score the same time he was seeing the cuts. This began a wonderful collaborative relationship with Joel Silver.

Next was the action thriller, Cellular. Dean Devlin, who had hit it off with John on Eight Legged Freaks, was the producer. Cellular's post production schedule got extended, so during that time John agreed to write the main theme to Imaginary Heroes, an independent film written and directed by X2 writer Dan Harris. There wasn't time to write the score, so John's friend, Deborah Lurie, adapted his theme and scored the film. John then delivered a heart-stopping action score for Cellular utilizing the full battery of the orchestra, as well as a creative use of electronic phone sounds woven in the score. The most challenging part of the project was keeping an emotional connection between two main characters played by Kim Bassinger and Chris Evans, who are never in the same space.

Before Cellular was finished, Joel Silver contracted John to score Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Robert Downy Junior and Val Kilmer) and House of Wax. The timing worked out, and John began writing one of his favorite scores to date, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Kiss Kiss is a tongue and cheek noir mystery by Shane Black. John gave the score a retro-60's edge blended with a seductively mysterious use of the orchestra. The score also gave John a chance to shine in terms of writing sensitive music for the film's heroine, Harmony. The end result was an exciting amalgam of styles. The main titles were animated to his main theme and is one of his most enjoyable title sequences to watch and hear.

When John read the script to Fantastic Four he waged his own campaign to get on the film, as it was exactly what he'd been looking for in terms of tone. He would get a chance to emerge from the darkness of X2 and let his hair down writing a "fun" comic book super-hero score with plenty of heart. About the same time he found out from director Bryan Singer that Bryan had decided not to do X3, and instead do Superman Returns. John was disappointed that he wouldn't get to write a sequel to his X2 score, and the looming task of the editing and scoring Superman haunted him. The moment the baton was set down for Fan 4, John was on a plane to Australia, where he was already a few weeks behind editing Superman Returns. A year later, John delivered an epic, tear-jerking and spine-tingling score, cleverly peppering in nods to the original Williams music within the two hours of original score he had to write.

As soon as John finished up Superman Returns, he was asked to edit and score a Hitachi commercial for famed director Jean Paul Goude. Soon thereafter, Joel Silver asked John to score The Invasion, a body-snatchers incarnation starring Nicole Kidman. Not completed, John's vision is a strange score heavy with tailor made synthesizer textures blended with orchestra.

 John has also been commissioned to write a piece for the Young Musician's Foundation, which John supports. His piece, based upon one of his first compositions called The Forest Suite, will be performed by the Young Musicians Foundation orchestra in mid-April of 2006. (courtesy of JohnOttman.com)