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Angelo Pizzo
Screenplay Writer
 Angelo Pizzo’s first feature film as a writer and co-producer was the rousing Hoosiers, which earned two Oscar nominations. It has been named the best sports film of all time by both ESPN and USA Today, and is also in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. Pizzo followed Hoosiers with two more sports films based on true stories, the beloved Rudy and The Game of Their Lives. In addition, he was Second Unit Director on both Rudy and Hoosiers. He began his career in the story department at Warner Brothers Television before joining Time Life Films, where he became Vice President of Feature Film Productions. During his television career, Pizzo produced three movies of the week and two pilots.
After living in Southern California for many years, Pizzo and his family moved back to his hometown of Bloomington (IN), where he serves on the Boards of the Heartland Film Festival, the New Harmony Writers’ Project and the Kinsey Institute. He has received an honorary doctorate from Franklin College and was the commencement speaker there in 2002. Pizzo was the recipient of the Thomas Hart Benton Award as a distinguished Indiana University alumnus, the Governor’s Art Award for contributions toward the arts and was named a Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest civilian honor given in Indiana.
New York Times selects ‘HOOSIERS’ as top pick.
Billy Higgins
Producer
 Billy Higgins has worked on the production side of film and television for over 30 years, on more than 25 films. He served as Executive Producer for the Universal Pictures releases The Perfect Man and Honey. Among other films, Higgins has produced, co-produced or line produced projects including Rudy, The Game of Their Lives, Proof, Two for The Money, and Simon Birch. He served as the unit production manager on such films as Ali, High Fidelity, The Straight Story, Rudy, Music,Betrayedand on the sports drama, "The Game of Their Lives" with filmmaker David Anspaugh. In addition, Higgins’ television credits include television miniseries, pilots, telefeatures and episodic series for CBS, NBC and ABC. He recently completed work as a production or unit production manager on major studio projects, such as The Express for Universal, and on independent films, such as completing post-production on The Cache (formerly Root of All Evil). Higgins lives on the Fox River, northwest of Chicago, Illinois.
Nancy Cuomo Bailey
Producer
 Nancy Bailey is a seasoned professional in the world of film and video. A native of upstate New York, Ms. Bailey’s career began in still photography; among those praising her work was National Geographic. She transitioned into video, first shooting projects and eventually becoming an editor as well. In 1995, Bailey founded ACT 2, Inc., a successful producer of television pilots, commercials, corporate promotional and instructional videos and CD and DVD programming.
ACT 2’s clientele includes local, regional and national businesses and organizations. Based in Nashville, Bailey and her company have earned a reputation for creating a finished product equal in quality to anything made in Los Angeles or New York. A member of the Writers Guild of America, Bailey was named the female entrepreneur of the year in the Southeast Region of the United States in 2001 by Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter.
Louise Levison
Financial Consultant
 Louise Levison is President of Business Strategies (moviemoney.com) a consulting firm that specializes in writing business plans for film and other entertainment-related companies. She is the author of Filmmakers & Financing: Business Plans for Independents (Sixth Edition, October 2009, Focal Press) and publisher/editor of The Film Entrepreneur: A Newsletter for the Independent Filmmaker and Investors.
Levison’s clients have raised money for low-budget films, such as The Blair Witch Project, the most profitable independent film in history, and for companies raising as much as $300 million. Other clients’ projects include Bailey, Moving Midway, Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman, Sandstorm, High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story, Protecting the King, The Open Road, Dinner Rush, Paradise (aka Little Chicago), The First of May, Michael Winslow Live and California Dreaming.
Among her corporate clients are Danny Glover’s Louverture Films (Trouble the Water, a nominee for the 2008 Best Documentary Academy Award, Toussaint) and his Louverture Film Fund I, The Pamplin Film Company (Crimebusters), Majestic World Entertainment, WhiteLight Entertainment (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever), Summitworks Film Fund 1, Audience Alliance Motion Picture Studios (Broken Hill), Monterrey Pictures Entertainment, Tokuma International Ltd (Shall We Dance and Princess Mononoke) and the Ilya Salkind Company. Levison is also an affiliate of the Berlin-based consulting company Peacefulfish (peacefulfish.com) and writes an industry blog for Baseline Research, a division of Baseline StudioSystems.
Levison is an Adjunct Professor in the Extension Program at UCLA and has been a Visiting Professor at the Taipei (Taiwan) National University of the Arts and Chapman University (Orange County, CA). She has presented seminars and/or been on panels for Film Independent (FIND), the Sundance Film Festival, Producer's Guild of America, Galway (Ireland) Film Fleadh, National Assoc. of Latino Independent Producers and the Hollywood Film Black Festival, among others.
Dan Merrell
Business Consultant/Marketing
 Dan Merrell is President and CEO of Propeller Consulting, a marketing, branding and entertainment development company that has built a reputation for guiding producers and studios looking to expand their marketing objectives beyond traditional media buys. With the movie-going audience becoming more fragmented with multiple media entertainment options, Propeller thinks beyond traditional media spends to alternative grassroots efforts that will secure an opening weekend box office with an engaged and enthusiastic audience that will lead to expansion and/or more weeks on screens. Large per screen averages the first weekend out is the target and Propeller has shown that the right strategies, tactics and content can lead to pre-release ticket sales success.
Merrell has extensive experience in both consumer branding and family entertainment marketing and has been named to lead or play a significant role on the marketing team on four pictures soon to be released...
- Proud American, (drama, distributor waiting on P&A)
- Cool It!, a documentary film from Rocky Mountain Pictures
- Soul Surfer, a drama coming from Sony in Spring 2011
- Grace Unplugged, a drama coming from Lionsgate in Spring 2012
The Propeller team is also working on THE GRACE CARD and COURAGEOUS coming from Sony in 2011.
In the past five years, Propeller has worked with many of the major studios on several high profile releases including...
- Jonah, A VeggieTales Movie
- The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
- Facing the Giants
- Fireproof
For each of these films, Propeller was given a specific portion of the marketing budget to drive a niche audience into the theater on opening weekend. Grassroots efforts began eighteen months prior to release in many cases and continued AFTER the DVD launch. Each of the films were successful at the box office and beyond. One of the areas of expertise Propeller brings to the table is turning a film into a brand. Their licensing efforts in the film space over the last several years have resulted in over $250 million of ancillary sales on the above mentioned films in categories like publishing, music, educational or church curriculum, broadcast, apparel, gaming, etc.
Tracy A. Powell
Legal Counsel
 Tracy Powell is a member of Sherrard & Roe in Nashville, TN, where he practices primarily in the areas of health care and commercial transactions, securities, and general corporate law. He is experienced in developing, negotiating, and completing corporate, securities, and other business transactions ranging from small private transactions to larger public securities offerings or transactions. Mr. Powell received a B.S. in accounting from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1986 and was a 1989 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review and Order of the Coif. He is a member of the Nashville, Tennessee and American Bar Associations, with memberships in the business and health law sections of each.
Gregory Pease
Legal Counsel
 Greg Pease is an associate at Sherrard & Roe in Nashville, TN, and a member of the Firm’s corporate practice group. Mr. Pease practices in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, securities and general corporate law. His experience includes representing public and private companies in operational matters, acquisitions and divestitures, corporate governance matters, private placements and joint ventures. Mr. Pease’s public company experience includes advising clients regarding periodic reporting required by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Mr. Pease received his J.D. cum laude in 2004 from the University of Memphis, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Memphis Law Review and was one of two recipients of the Dean’s Distinguished Graduate Award for the Class of 2004. Pease authored “Bluer Skies in Tennessee - The Recent Broadening of the Definition of Investment Contract as a Security and an Argument for a Unified Federal-State Definition of Investment Contract,” University of Memphis Law Review (2004). Mr. Pease is a member of the Nashville Bar Association, Tennessee Bar Association, American Bar Association and American Health Lawyers Association.
Kevin Mills
Entertainment Legal Counsel
 Kevin Mills is a partner in Kaye Mills law firm in Beverly Hills CA. Started his legal career as Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C. There, Mr. Mills assumed leadership roles on a variety of legislative and oversight initiatives including telecommunications and cable broadcasting matters, judicial appointments and the Immigration Reform Act.
Upon his return to Southern California, Mr. Mills practiced as a trial and appellate attorney until entering entertainment law.
Mr. Mills has held senior business affairs positions with several studios, including Republic Pictures Corporation, Independent Artists Company, Hal Roach Studios and what is now Hallmark Entertainment. While at Republic Pictures, Mr. Mills was instrumental in recapturing the copyright to the classic film “It’s A Wonderful Life,” which previously had been widely distributed as a work in the public domain.
Over the past 15 years Mr. Mills’ practice has encompassed all aspects of talent representation and also the financing, production and distribution of entertainment product in the areas of both television and feature films. He has extensive experience in international television and film distribution and has studied international business transactions in London, England. In addition, his practice includes general business transactions and represents a number of different types of businesses, both large and small. Internet, computer and digital rights are an important aspect of Mr. Mills’ services to his clients in both the general corporate and entertainment fields.
Mr. Mills is a member of the Beverly Hills Bar Association. He also has served on the Copyright Protection Committee of the American Film Marketing Association, the trade association for independent producers and distributors.
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