Peter Hawley

Department Chair

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." Read Peter's Blog

Brian Read

Faculty

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.

Killian Heilsberg

Faculty

Killian Heilsberg-McElrath has spent the last seven years teaching at Lincoln Memorial University, a tiny school in rural Tennessee, nestled in the Cumberland Gap. She mostly taught broadcasting but snuck in things like screenwriting, animation, interactive development, communication in persistent virtual environments and anything else that was bright and shiny. She has written and directed film, television, and stage productions, especially children's theatre and musicals. She loves writing and film in all their myriad forms and will explore anything she can get near.

Armando Ibanez

Faculty

Armando P. Ibanez is a filmmaker, poet, and an award-winning writer. He has won numerous writing awards, including The American Film Institute's Colin Higgins Screenplay Production Award for the screenplay he wrote for his narrative thesis short, "A Moment of Silence." Armando, a graduate of AFI, is the founder and president of an independent film production company, Pluma Pictures, Inc., which is dedicated to producing films about heroes and heroines. He has also produced, written and directed a number of short documentaries and poetry videos, most of which have screened in national and international film festivals.

Amy Rising

Faculty

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.

Laurie Scheer

Faculty

During her 20 year career in the entertainment industry, Laurie Scheer has worked for ABC and Viacom Enterprises International, has purchased, developed, and preproduced a number of independent feature film projects, and, as a Development Consultant, has acquired and developed materials for numerous production companies. She has been a guest speaker at nearly every important industry organization from the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences to the Writer's Guild to the Romance Writers of America. Among other distinctions, Laurie is a judge for the International Emmys and is an Emmy-nominated producer, serves as a board member of the UW-Madison Film Festival, and works closely with various national chapters of WIFV.

Adam Salasek
Production Check-out Manager