Sunday, February 11, 2018

2/12/18 - Filmmaker and chairman of the Dean’s Arts Council of the UCI Claire Trevor School of Arts, Ivan Williams, joined Janeane live on KUCI 88.9fm!

LISTEN to today's show with Ivan Williams!


ABOUT IVAN WILLIAMS
Ivan Williams is a partner and Scenario’s executive vice president of finance. After a successful career as a senior business leader at major energy companies (ARCO and BP), he has been active starting up a media technology company, and executive producing feature films, Broadway musicals, musical recordings, theatrical plays, and Web tv shows. A member of Film Independent and the Sundance Institute, Ivan holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Oregon State University, and is a Dean’s M.B.A. Scholar at the UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business, and a veteran Naval Reserve intelligence officer. An active contributor to his alma maters, Ivan serves as a member of the board of directors for Oregon State University’s Alumni Association, and is active with the University of California Irvine as chairman of the Dean’s Arts Council of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, serving as a member of the Graduate Division’s Dean’s Leadership Council, as an entertainment industry advisory board member for the Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute, and a founding board member of the L.A./Orange County Anteaters in the Arts organization.


IVAN WILLIAMS & UC IRVINE
Ivan Williams is the chairman of the Dean’s Arts Council of the UCI Claire Trevor School of Arts, a member of UCI Graduate Division’s Dean’s Leadership Council, and a Advisory board member of the UCI's Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute. He is also a board member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Anteaters in the Arts organization. Even though he obtained his M.B.A. from UCI, his undergraduate education in chemical engineering from Oregon State University; he is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the OSU Alumni Association.

SWITCHING GEARS
After 31-years as an engineer and a business executive with ARCO, and BP, and a 10-year additional side career as a navel reserve intelligence officer, Ivan decided to enter the world of the film industry back in 2011. That is when he and his wife acquired an equity position in an independent film studio in Hollywood (on the Jim Henson Lot) and made his first film “KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM” with Ryan Kwanten and Peter Dinklage.

Ivan then executive produced a Broadway musical, FIRST DATE, which starred Zachary Levi, and Krysta Rodriquez. But before “M.F.A.” he executive produced the feature film “BIG STONE GAP” that had Ashley Judd, Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Wilson, Jenna Elfman, Anthony LaPaglia, Jhon Benjamin Hickey, and Jasmine Guy acting in and EP’d a hit web series about a couple of NYC females who move to L.A. to find their sexual and life fulfillment. That Vimeo series was “BE HERE NOWISH Season 2.” His film “BIG STONE GAP” was the second biggest box office Rom-Com hit of 2015 behind Amy Schumer’s “TRAINWRECK.”

Dark Sky Films is the the distributor of his latest film, which was a finalist for the Grand Jury Narrative Award at last year’s SXSW Film Festival. His film was released Oct. 13th (about a week after the Harvey Weinstein news broke) in 15-cities across the U.S. Recently, one blogger rated his movie as one of the 10 best films of 2018.

http://www.scenario-la.com


Coming up! UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts - Joel Veenstra, Chair, Department of Drama, Head of Stage Management

Chair, Department of Drama Head of Stage Management Joel Veenstra is a professional stage manager, production manager, producer, and improvi...