Flashpoint Academy

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People

Film Program
Recording Arts Program
Game Development Program
Visual Effects & Animation Program
Broadcast Media Program
Core Studies Department
Key People

Film Program

Paula Froehle
Flashpoint Dean
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Paula Froehle is a director, writer and producer, as well as a visual artist.

Peter Hawley
Chair, Film
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Peter is an award-winning film writer and director working in feature film, documentary, television and TV Commercials. He has been teaching film at the college level for a dozen years. Around Flashpoint Academy he is known as "the film guy."

Amy Rising
Faculty, Film
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Amy Rising has been in the film business for three years, her primary focus is producing. She has worked on numerous award winning short films, several feature films, television shows, and music videos. She has worked on narrative as well as documentary productions.

Recording Arts Program

John Murray
Chair, Recording Arts
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John Murray has worked professionally in film and video sound postproduction for 24 years designing and mixing award-winning soundtracks for features, documentaries, shorts, and advertising commercials.

Bernie Mack
Associate Chair, Recording Arts
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Bernie Mack has been working professionally as a Recording Engineer for the past 15 years, which started by his founding of SoundHouse Studio. Since 1996 he worked out of Star Trax Recording, a Chicago based recording studio, with very diverse clientele in the music, advertising and multimedia industries.

Miguel Kertsman
Faculty, Recording Arts
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Composer, musician, producer, audio engineer and music technology consultant Miguel Kertsman has worked on numerous recordings, Grammy nominated and award-winning projects. He writes, produces, and engineers music for the symphonic stage, TV, film, the media, and records. Original works released internationally by Sony, RCA Victor, and Universal Edition; and collaborations on audio, music technology, academic development, and acoustics projects.

Jeff Kliment
Faculty, Recording Arts
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Prior to joining Flashpoint Academy, Jeff Kliment was Academic Manager for the Department of Audio Arts and Acoustics at Columbia College Chicago. Mr. Kliment has contributed to a wide variety of projects including post-production for feature films as well as sound design, voice, and music production for television, radio, and interactive video games. He has also engineered dozens of albums for independent and major labels and mixed hundreds of live shows in venues across the country.

Game Development Program

Simeon Peebler
Chair, Game Development
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Simeon Peebler is an award-winning game developer whose career has spanned the full spectrum of the game industry. He is credited on many PC CD-ROMS including Where's Waldo?: Exploring Geography, Eraser: Turnabout, Warheads, You Don't Know Jack: The 5th Dementia, and Veggie Tales: Veggie Carnival.

Ted Gordon
Faculty, Game Development
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Ted Gordon has worked in Game Development since 1999 as an Artist and Animator. In joining Flashpoint's Game Development Faculty, Ted brings real-world game development experience with Hand-Keyed and MotionCaptured Animation with 3ds Max and Maya, Maxscript and Melscript.

Rich Coons
Faculty, Game Development
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Rich Coons comes to Flashpoint with a diverse career background including experience in Architecture, Fine Art, Game Development and Higher Education. He has a wide range of knowledge from his many years in the Game Development industry, and he has a passion for sharing that knowledge with his students. His game credits include: Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, NBA Inside Drive, Hunter: The Reckoning and Duel Masters: Cobalt.

Visual Effects & Animation Program

Perry Harovas
Chair, Visual Effects & Animation
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Perry Harovas has over 16 years experience in CG animation, visual effects, film, television and games. He has created visual effects for six feature films, directed 2 half-hour animated children's shows which aired in 31 million households, co-authored the best-selling 848 page book "Mastering Maya" which was the first book released about the animation program Maya, and was translated into languages worldwide.

Broadcast Media Progam

Brian Read
Director, Broadcast Media
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Brian K. Read received his B.A. in Broadcasting & Film from the University of Iowa, and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College, Chicago. His background combines over twenty years of teaching with an active freelance career, as a director and lighting cameraman. Most recently, he was Director Of Broadcast Operations for the University of California, Irvine.

Core Studies Department

Francine Sanders
Director, Core Studies
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Francine J. Sanders has been a professional writer and communicator for the past 20 years. Since 1998, she has taught college-level film studies and screenwriting courses. She also frequently lectures and writes about film-related topics, and is the facilitator of a Chicago-area film discussion group, which she founded in 2001. Her published work includes a memoir about her experiences as a civilian investigator for the Chicago Police Department, which appeared as a cover story in The Chicago Reader.