Advisory Board:

Carole Dean
www.fromtheheartproductions.com

Thirty years ago Carole Dean took a $20 bill and turned it into a $50 million a year business when she reinvented the tape and short end industry in Hollywood, NYC and Chicago. Carole coined the phrase "short ends" and began buying and selling film ends left from production. She was instrumental in the birth of the Hollywood independent film community because she offered film to Indies at prices they could afford, allowing many producers to go on to great success, customers like Casavedes took chances with her raw stock and succeeded.

As president and CEO of From the heart Productions, between 1994 to 1998 , Carole produced over 100 television programs, including the popular cable program, HealthStyles, where she interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry including, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Weil and Dr. Caroline Myss.

In 1992 Carole created the Roy W. Dean Grant Foundation in honor of her late father. To date Carole's grant and mentorship programs have provided filmmakers with millions of dollars in goods and services and have played an instrumental role in establishing the careers of some of the industry's most promising filmmakers. A sough-after international speaker, Carole is currently touring the U. S. with her popular book, "The Art of Funding Your Film: Alternative Financing Concepts" in the form of workshops.

From the Heart has given close to $2,000,000 in over 25 grants. Carole has helped these documentarians to pursue their dreams from original donation of raw stock, lights and camera to the current New York Film, LA Film and LA Video grants valued at over $50,000.00 each and the new editing and writing grants that take you to New Zealand.

Louise Levison
www.moviemoney.com

Louise Levison is President and Founder of Business Strategies, a consulting firm, which specializes in writing business plans for film, Internet and other entertainment related companies, developing corporate strategies and guiding entrepreneurs in looking for and working with equity financing.

Among her clients' recent films are The Blair Witch Project, the most profitable independent film in history, Hoover, starring Ernest Borgnine, The First of May starring Julie Harris and Joe DiMaggio, The Secret, Dinner Rush, Extremedays and the European films Olivetti 82 and Charles The Fifth: The Emperor and the Girl.

Among her corporate clients are Tokuma International Ltd, the Japanese conglomerate responsible for Shall We Dance and Princess Mononoke, the Pamplin Film Company, the Ilya Salkind Company, Whitelight Entertainment, Gabriel Film Group, Gener8xion Entertainment and Landmark Global. Ms. Levison is the author of "Filmmakers and Financing: Business Plans for Independents" (Third Edition, Focal Press, Jan. 2001) and publisher/editor of "The Film Entrepreneur: A Newsletter for the Independent Filmmaker and Investor."

Ms. Levison has taught classes for filmmakers at UCLA and presented seminars for the USC Entrepreneurial Program, The Independent Feature Project, the Sundance Film Festival, ShowBiz Expo, the Florida Motion Picture and Television Association, the Arizona Film Commission, the Cincinnati Film Commission, Women in Film, California Lawyers for the Arts, the Hollywood Film Festival, the Hollywood Black Film Festival, the Learning Annex, the Brunico Creative Financing Conference, the Los Angeles Venture Association and the National Association of Women Business Owners.

Prior to working in the entertainment industry, Ms. Levison was a market analyst for the American Iron and Steel Association, an Economist at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Palo Alto (CA) and Director of Corporate Planning for both Torrance Memorial Medical Center and the City of Hope. In addition, for three years she co-hosted a call-in radio show for entrepreneurs on the Business Radio Network and is a former registered stockbroker. She holds an M.A. in Asian Area Studies from New York University and an M.B.A. in Finance from California State University.