August 1st is Respect for Parents’ Day. In honor of this, the SAGIndie staff shares what they plan to do to show respect for their folks or, in Darrien’s case, how she plans to demand respect from her kids.
Darrien Michele Gipson
SAGIndie Director
An M.F.A. recipient from the Peter Stark Producer’s Program at USC, as well as a USC President Samples Fellows, a university honors program for Community Service, Darrien was formerly the Vice President of Production for DEF Pictures, where she shepherded such films as Gridlock’d and How to be a Player. Darrien began her career at SAGIndie as the Event Coordinator, where she traveled throughout the country to festivals, educating filmmakers on SAG’s low budget contracts and all ensuing budgetary and distribution concerns. She visited more than 25 states, 3 countries, and over 55 festivals to consult with independent filmmakers. Yes, she has a lot of frequent flyer miles. No, she isn’t sharing them.
As the National Director of SAGIndie, Darrien is responsible for just about everything – global warming, demoting Pluto, lowering Cancer rates. She is also responsible for the strategic planning and oversight of SAGIndie, including administration, sponsorship negotiations, national advertising campaigns, and SAGIndie.org – the organization’s online resource for independent filmmakers. Darrien is the engine behind SAGIndie, pushing it into being the best independent filmmaking resource EVER.
Darrien will show respect for her parents by sending them a C note for the times she wasted good food, broke that thing they loved, and made them burn gas driving her all over the d*mn place. Conversely, she will DEMAND respect from her kids by taking adorable pictures of them in questionable outfits for future date deterrents and general blackmail. Also, in order to keep said children from getting out of control, the girl will be chained to her bed at night with a small glass of water just out of reach, and the boy will be forced to wear red Speedos (ala David Hasselhoff) under his clothes (guaranteeing he will never drop trou in ANYONE’s presence).
Eliza Hajek
SAGIndie Manager of Development and Sponsorship
Born and raised a Phoenician, Eliza spent her childhood eating cacti and shooting things. After high school, she escaped to Chicago to attend art school. While in college she maintained several internships, including the Cannes Film Festival, in addition to working on several films in all different capacities. Upon receiving her degree, she worked in advertising post production before moving to Los Angeles. Eliza also works as a music supervisor and writes for several music publications, and she is very cool and interesting. Now you know everything!
Her duties as Manager of Development and Sponsorship encompass (among other things) traveling to film festivals, speaking on panels and at seminars, and interacting with independent producers worldwide in order to get the word out about the SAG Low Budget Agreements.
Eliza doesn’t care that August 1st is Respect for Parents’ Day, and insists that Will can’t make her update her bio because he’s not her real dad.
Will Prescott
SAGIndie Information Coordinator
Will hails from Seattle, Washington where he grew up subjected to gross amounts of rain and outdoor activities. He came to Southern California to pursue lesser air quality and a career in filmmaking. Since obtaining his M.F.A. from the Conservatory of Motion Pictures at Chapman University’s Dodge College, Will has worked on many film, video and new media projects in various capacities. He most recently served as Managing Editor of the KCET produced website, Wired Science.
As the Information Coordinator, he will handle, among other things, SAGIndie web operations, marketing and PR efforts, interviews with indie filmmakers, and will travel to film festivals and other functions to help spread the word about the Screen Actors Guild Low Budget Agreements. He hopes to one day own a German Shepherd and a Pug whom he will name De Niro and Pesci, respectively.
Will plans to show respect to his parents by blocking them from his Facebook page. There are certain things in an adult male’s life that, once seen, can’t be unseen.
Ellen Tremiti
SAGIndie Assistant
After getting used to a plethora of road construction, shopping malls and diners, Ellen left her home state of New Jersey to pursue duel B.A. degrees in Film and Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College in Boston. While in college, Ellen interned for an entertainment law firm and went on to intern for LionsGate Films in their feature development office. She also won an EVVY, basically her school’s version of a Pulitzer, for Outstanding Short Nonfiction Prose and she continues to pursue writing in its many forms on her own time.
Ellen graduated from Emerson with honors and moved to Los Angeles determined to pump her own gas and break into the entertainment biz. After mastering the dynamics of the fueling station, she landed her job as Assistant to SAGIndie National Director Darrien Gipson and the rest of the SAGIndie staff. She’s also spreading the word about SAG’s Low Budget Agreements and she couldn’t be more thrilled!
Ellen plans to show respect to her parents by acting out, maybe getting arrested again, another DUI, or maybe she’ll just fail to report to rehab or refuse to wear her SCRAM anklet, just so her dad can be on Larry King again.
Michael Sladek
New York Coordinator
Michael is an independent director, producer, screenwriter, and designer. He founded and currently runs Plug Ugly Films, a Brooklyn-based film, video, web and theater production company.
In addition to his position as SAGIndie’s rep in New York, he freelances as a director, producer, writer, cameraman and coordinator and has worked for Tribeca Film Festival, Clinton Global Initiative, painter Mark Kostabi, RKO Pictures, ACME Pictures, and many more. Michael was Talent Coordinator and Floor Producer at MTV News, worked as Personal Assistant to author Jamaica Kincaid and, in Los Angeles, for the entertainment ad agency Jacobs & Gerber. A professional stage and screen actor since childhood, Michael has been a member of SAG for over twelve years. A proud dropout of many mediocre colleges, he’s also a published journalist and used to manage New York punk bands before realizing that the music industry is a mess.
Michael plans to spend Respect for Parents’ Day by slapping the (expletive deleted) out of whichever parents got the Federal Government to actually declare August 1st Respect for Parents’ Day. This might very well include Lindsay Lohan’s and David Hasselhoff’s parents and certainly a number of (expletive deleted) who also voted for Prop 8.