Visdream

Jesse Griffith Vice President & Director Born in Oakland, in 1974, Jesse Griffith began his directing career at the age of seven, when he made his first series of 8mm sci-fi films which combined live action with clay-mation. At age ten, he was scratching super-eight negatives with a razor blade in order to simulate laser blasts. From this point forward, Mr. Griffith directed an average of three movies a year. His work would later earn him the title of California Art Scholar and gain him acceptance into the California State Summer School of the Arts in Film, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. During the wee hours of the morning in the winter of 1993, Mr. Griffith met writer/producer David A. Cole, in the editing bays of UCSC. Almost nightly, the two men would be the first to enter and the last to leave the isolated studios of the University's Film and Video Department.
	When asked of his intentions by Mr. Cole, Mr. Griffith simply replied, "I want to direct," a familiar refrain if there ever was one! However, his delivery resounded with conviction, so Mr. Cole pursued the issue, "How long have you felt that way?" "I made my first film when I was seven, the (then) eighteen year old Griffith answered. I've been making films (eighteen of them to that date) ever since. At the time (1993) he was working on his first feature length piece, Starbuster 4000, a space action adventure shot on hi-8 video, spawned by his childhood seriesStarbusters 1, 2 & 3, which were filmed between the ages of ten and thirteen. At age ten, when most boys were playing sand lot ball, he was scratching super eight film negatives in order to simulate the effect of laser blasts. He also incorporated stop frame animation, a concept most ten year-olds, couldn't comprehend.
From this meeting, the magical collaboration of producer and director was born. Mr. Griffith graduated from UCSC in June of 1996, and has now moved to Los Angeles to take on his role as vice-president of Mr. Cole's production company (Visionary Dreamscapes Entertainment). In March of 1997 Jesse Griffith and David Cole began pre-production on the romantic comedy Just Add Love which Mr. Griffith directed as his first professional feature film. With very little money and a lot of ingenuity, the production team joined forces with Chapman University's School of Film & TV to make this picture. Mr. Griffith is going full speed creating the fantastic, and blending it with reality. His other notable works include The Valley of Princes, a classic fairy tale portrayed in experimental stop-action animation that combines computer graphics with still photos; and Southpaw, an exciting 8mm Western film. His love of camera movement and appreciation for romance are trademarks that shine through consistently in his varied works.