Writer/director Finn Taylor was born in Oakland, California and
spent a few of his early years in Norway, before returning to the San Francisco
Bay area. From an early age, Taylor picked up a taste for wanderlust from
his father. "I had probably driven across the country sixteen times
by the time I was 17 or 18 years old," says Taylor. He attended the
University of Montana, where he helped write the wilderness management plan
for the first privately owned wilderness in the U.S., and took poetry classes
from Richard Hugo, who encouraged him to develop his talent for writing.
Taylor then traveled all over the U.S. for six years with a friend (an experience
which inspired "Dream with the Fishes"), before returning to the
Bay Area to attend San Francisco State University, where he concetrated
on playwrighting and poetry. He won the Browning Award for Dramatic Monologues
in 1987 and second prize in the Academy of American Poets Awards in 1988.
He also wrote and directed a play, "Idiot Savant."
After graduation, Taylor became the literary director for Intersection for
the Arts, a San Francisco theatre which had earlier launched the careers
of performers like Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. At the theatre, he
met filmmaker Jeffrey Brown, who asked Taylor if he had written any screenplays.
Taylor showed him his first script, which Brown hired him to rewrite. They
both worked on several drafts of the script together. The result was "Pontiac
Moon," which was ultimately produced by Paramount Pictures in 1994,
starring Ted Dansen and Mary Steenburgen, and directed by Peter Medak. Taylor
moved to Los Angeles and has worked as a screenwriter for the last eight
years. His other screenplays include "Available Light" and "Thief
of Santa Monica."
After having "Pontiac Moon" produced by a major Hollywood studio,
Taylor was determined to make "Dream With the Fishes" independently.
"There is nothing inherently wrong with the studio system, it's just
that when, as a writer, you put four or five years into something, you take
a big risk in handing it over to someone else. Granted you're financially
compensated for that risk, but sometimes it's not worth it."
Barry Stone's (director of photography) film credits include "Rude,"
"A Christmas Reunion," "Paris, France" (winner of the
Canadian Society of Cinematographers award for Best Cinematography), "Leather
Wings," and "The Understudy: Graveyard Shift 2." He has also
worked on dozens of documentary and educational films and has shot numerous
music videos.
Johnny Wow (Co-Producer) is staff producer at the Los Angeles based
Broadcast design firm and production company, 3 Ring Circus. His film credits
include "Red, White & Black," and "That's What the Love
Can Do." His clients at 3 Ring Circus include Showtime, The Family
Channel, Star TV and UPN.
Mitchell Stein (Co-Producer) has been an independent producer in
the Bay Area film, television and audio community for more than ten years.
He has produced or been on the production team for projects for LucasArts,
Commercial Pictures, Walt Disney Productions, New World Pictures, American
Playhouse, (c)olossal Pictures, Nintendo, InterPlay, Electronic Arts, SunSoft,
U.S. Gold, and others. In addition to producing, Mr. Stein is co-owner of
San Francisco's Outpost, a full-service digital production facility specializing
in digital video and soundtrack production for film, television and multimedia
projects.
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