Milena Grozeva-Levy, Instructor
James Savoca, Instructor
Roy Cox, Associate Instructor
Richard Favaro, Associate Instructor
Robin Mortarotti, Associate Instructor
Rod Gross, Associate Instructor

Milena Grozeva-Levy, Instructor
Producer/Director/Editor

Milena was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and came to the US in 1991 to study at Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges. While at Harvard, Milena was fortunate to work under the mentorship of filmmakers Robb Moss, Ross McElwee, and Dusan Makavejev, as well as with still photographers Chris Killip and Ed Grazda. After receiving her BA degree magna cum laude from the Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) department, Milena earned her MFA degree from the Radio-TV-Film Department at the University of Texas at Austin.

After earning her MFA degree, she was offered employment at Digital Anvil, a Microsoft Game Studio, as part of their 3D Cinematics Team for the PC computer game Freelancer. Milena was responsible for creating the 3D character blocking, as well as setting virtual cameras, performing scene editing, and editing particle effects.

Milena has produced, written, directed, and edited a number of films, both on 16mm film and digital video. Movin' On, a 56 min. drama, for which she was the Director of Photography, garnered the Silver Award at the Houston International Film Festival. She has received several awards at European film festivals, and her film Emily, a 56 min. narrative, screened at the Angelika Film Center as a part of the Independent Feature Film Market '2000 in New York. A documentary about LIFE magazine's prominent woman photographer Hansel Mieth by Emmy-nominated producer/director Nancy Schiesari, on which Milena did the motion effects design and online editing, aired nationally on PBS in 2003. Milena's latest short, With All My Love, received the Two Star award at CIAFF -- Canadian International Annual Film Festival in Toronto, and screened at St. John's Women's Film Festival, Canada, the Yale Women In Film Festival, 2005, and the Dallas Video Festival, in August 2005.

James Savoca, Instructor
Writer/Director/Producer

After studying Film and Photography at Syracuse University, and working as a camera operator (NBC affiliate station), James moved to New York, where he worked as a staff photographer (still life and fashion), production assistant on feature films (Sidney Lumet, Barry Levinson) and studied acting at Carnegie Hall with Louise Lasser.

In 1990, James founded the theater group Big Head Productions. His first fulllength play TALK TO ME, which he wrote and directed, sold out audiences at Tom Noonan’s Paradise Theatre. He followed-up with off-Broadway productions of OFF MY BACK, TOMORROW NEVER COMES, and JUST LIKE TELEVSION. In 1995, he assembled a sketch comedy group called The Guilty Players, performing weekly at New York’s Under Acme in Greenwich Village.

In 1996, James wrote and directed a short 16mm film entitled REVELATION, starring Kevin Corrigan. REVELATION made its broadcast premiere on The Sundance Channel.

After his first taste of filmmaking, James started his own production company, Solo Group Productions. In 2000, James made his feature film debut; writing and directing SLEEPWALK, starring Drea de Matteo, Ivan Martin and John Lurie. SLEEPWALK, a 35 mm film, premiered at SXSW Film Festival. The Independent Film Channel showcased SLEEPWALK as part of IFC's Next Wave Films where it ran monthly for 3 years.

In 2005 James completed his second feature film, THE CROOKED CORNER, starring Chris Messina and Marlo Marron, which he wrote, directed and produced. In 2007, James wrote and directed his third feature film, AROUND JUNE, starring Samaire Armstrong, Jon Gries, and Brad William Henke.

To view trailers, clips, reel and reviews, go to savocafilms.com

Roy Cox, Associate Instructor
Producer/Director/Editor/Production Designer

Roy has been an award-winning filmmaker for over thirty years. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Film from San Francisco University in 1972 and began producing and directing documentaries and educational films for KLVX television, the PBS affiliate in Las Vegas.

In 1975, Roy co-founded Eclipse Productions and for the next fifteen years, produced/directed PBS programs, commercials and corporate marketing films for many of Silicon Valley's most influential companies; Apple, Adobe, IBM, and Hewlett Packard. Production highlights include: Mythos, an eight part PBS series documenting Joseph Campbell's final lecture tour, hosted by Susan Sarandon, and Imagine, a seven part PBS series examining technology's impact in the classroom.

Roy's feature film credits include Production Designer and Editor for ClownHouse, a thriller produced by Francis Coppola's Commercial Pictures starring Sam Rockwell. Roy was also Production Designer for Francis Coppola's The Gunfighter; a period western inspired by the Hopalong Cassidy novellas starring Martin Sheen and Keith Carradine.

In 1990, Roy founded Roy Cox Productions and embraced the world of digital filmmaking, having recently upgraded to Final Cut Pro HD. Under his own banner, Roy has continued to produce/direct numerous independent films for PBS and high-end corporate marketing. Recent projects include the keynote videos for Apple's introduction of the iPod, and the iTunes Music Store where Roy worked with celebrities such as Moby, Alanis Morissette, and Smashmouth's Steve Harwell. Roy's recent PBS programs include: When LIFE Was Young, a look at LIFE Magazine's contribution to Photojournalism, and Let The Mountains Talk, a conversation with Sierra Club legend, David Brower.

Richard Favaro, Associate Instructor
Lighting Director/Gaffer

Dick Favaro has over twenty years of experience in the San Francisco Bay Area providing lighting services to the motion picture and video production industry, including commercials, feature films, television, corporate marketing, educational and documentaries. Currently, he owns a 4-ton grip truck and a 1-ton grip van. His comprehensive lighting and grip inventory meets the needs of any shoot.

His recent clients include: SBC, Sun Microsystems, Family Communications, Applied Materials, Intrepid Productions Bank of America, PBS, Oracle, BBC, IBM, Lieberman Productions, McDougall Creative, VISA, Woodward and McDowell, The Frankel Agency, MTV, Lifetime, and Kendall Jackson Winery.

Dick received a Bachelor of Arts from a small liberal arts college in Iowa. He spent several years in Chicago learning the trade of lighting. Dick moved to San Francisco and worked freelance, having settled in lighting, buying more and better equipment. As business opportunities grew he started work on commercials, short and long feature films gaining well known clients. For SFSDF, Dick will be teaching lighting seminars, working on productions, and mentoring students in the fine art of lighting.

Robin Mortarotti, Associate Instructor
Producer/Creative Director/Director of Photography

Robin is an award-winning film maker with over twenty-five years of professional film and video production experience. Mortarotti has served as Producer, Production Manager, Director of Photography, Post-Production Supervisor and Editor on feature, documentary, and promotional film projects for companies including American Zoetrope and LucasFilms. He has produced many documentary and educational programs for business and industry, and won a number of national awards for his work.

From 1973 to 1977, he was a Producer/Director at KLVX Television, a PBS station in Las Vegas. There he produced award-winning work such as A Vision in the Desert, a dance documentary currently distributed by the Public Television Library in Washington, D.C., and Festival, a documentary about the Utah Shakespeare Festival, which won the "Best of West" award in 1976. From 1978 to 1979, he was a Producer at WCCO Television, a CBS affiliate in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There he produced a number of prime-time documentaries, including A Death in the Family, which won Columbia/DuPont and Sigma Delta Chi awards and aired as a segment of "Bill Moyers Journal."

Clownhouse, his first feature film, was produced by Francis Coppola's Commercial Pictures and has been shown at domestic and foreign film festivals including Cannes in 1988 and Mysteryfest in Italy the same year. Mortarotti was Co-Developer, Producer, and Director of Photography. The film is currently in worldwide distribution.

Behind the Shells, a documentary about the making of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Part II aired on Showtime Television in April of 1991, and is distributed with the film in video stores throughout the country. Mortarotti co-produced, photographed and edited this thirty-minute, prime-time program.

Robin co-produced and photographed the Italian sequences in HBO's Godfather, Part III documentary in Rome, Italy. He also co-produced and edited a studio press kit for the Coppola/Lucas feature film Tucker. On a recently completed production, Gunfighter a period Western produced by Coppola's Commercial Pictures and starring Martin Sheen, Mortarotti served as Production Supervisor in addition to directing and photographing the film's second unit.

Rod Gross, Associate Instructor
Director/Editor

Rod Gross is a film and video director with extensive editing and motion graphic design experience. In his studio he creates with the latest digital tools, melding together live action scenes, graphics and animation.

Rod has won numerous national and international awards for his work, including Best Director from the Festival Internazionale del Filmato Turistico in Italy, CINEs, Cindys, Intercoms, Joeys, Tellys and Gold Medals at the NY International Film Festival.

In his first video shoot right out of San Francisco State University, Rod worked with Vincent Price on a live product introduction, along with concerts for the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Starship. He directed single and multi-camera video magazines, live stage, and corporate events.

Rod's focus is filmstyle single camera directing, making short movies for marketing, education, sales, and corporate communications with distribution on the web, Flash, DVD, broadcast, trade shows and corporate events. A short list of clients includes Cisco, Nokia, Wells Fargo, McKesson, Philips and Charles Schwab.

In a recent venture into the specialty video market, Rod co-produced and directed two DVDs: Silicon Magic and At the Limits III - both videos guide the viewer through the semiconductor manufacturing process.

Rod's production company, Studio 144, currently has 2 feature films in development. He continues to explore new media possibilities and enthusiastically embraces the HD medium, though if cost were no object, "I'd still shoot film."

"It's been quite an adventure over the last 25 years, first working with film emulsion, then magnetized tape and now pushing pixels - but the constant for me continues to be the creative - the passion for creating moving images for the screen." - Rod Gross