Glass Eye Pix Interns

Santiago Saba Salem
(2018 – Present)
Santiago Saba Salem born in Lima, Peru. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts film program in 2019 and received the Rhodes Family Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film. Currently, he is enrolled in the MFA Directing program at Brooklyn College’s Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.

Yturralde, Garay, Salem & Skotchdopole

Matthew Yturralde
(2018 – 2020)
Matthew Yturralde was born and raised in San Diego, California. In 2010 he enlisted in the US Army and served honorably for six years. Matthew attended the School of Visual Arts and graduated with a BFA in Film in 2020. He was awarded that years’ Rhodes Family Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film.

Luke LeCount
(2019)
Luke LeCount is a social worker turned writer/director now living in New York City. Before moving from Indiana in the Spring of 2019 to work with Glass Eye Pix, he led a Mental Health program for an organization who helped people who were currently and formerly incarcerated that suffered from severe mental illnesses and traumatic brain injuries. He hopes to incorporate these experiences into his filmmaking and tell stories through the lens of genre. He especially appreciates and admires Glass Eye Pix for their dedication to telling unique stories and their ambitious way of getting it done.

Caleb Cushing
(2019)
Caleb Cushing is an actor and writer who has worked in both regional and New York theater, as well as independent film. He had an appearance in Jack Fessenden’s war film FOXHOLE.

Nick Funess
(2018)
Nick is currently living in L.A. He completed a stint at RS, a production company under Ridley Scott. Meanwhile, he’s been working on short films and writing scripts. His latest short film, MEAN SPIRIT, was featured on No Budge.

Julie Neira
(2017 – 2018)
A Brooklyn native, Julie Neira is a writer and director currently enrolled in a Masters program for film. Aside from her own films, she has worked as a Sound Operator on numerous short films and documentaries. In 2019, she was an Associate Producer on Rigo Garay’s Glass Eye short film SIZE UP.

Rigo, Henry & Hypo

Henry Johnston
(2017)
Henry Johnston is a writer and videographer, originally from Los Angeles, and is expanding an ever growing portfolio of feature scripts, short films, web series, and short documentaries. Since 2014, he has worked extensively with Dolmen Pictures, writing and editing feature film screenplays for clients. Since moving to North Carolina, Henry Johnston has founded Sawbuck Productions, a production company that strives to bring original horror screenplays to fruition, bring an unblinking light to very dark corners, and provide a community for local filmmakers. He was a PA on Fessenden’s DEPRAVED and took on the role as Police Officer #1.

Sydney & Fess

Sydney Clara Brafman
(2016)
Sydney Clara Brafman is a multidisciplinary filmmaker living in Brooklyn, NY. Her films have screened around the world in Japan, Sweden, Australia, Fantasia, SXSW and the Cannes Film Festival and many more. She is considered one of 110 filmmakers who represent the future of film, media and entertainment, according to Variety Magazine. She’s known for her short films The Only Thing I Love More Than You Is Ranch Dressing, and Decapitato: Consequenze Mortali, and her screenplay SQUIB.

Roman Fusco
(2016)
A sound designer from Princeton, NJ. He studied at NYU Tisch Film and interned at Glass Eye Pix in the summer of 2016 in the previous Brooklyn office. His favorite horror film is “The Host” and he currently lives in Los Angeles where he works as a sound designer and editor. He was recently awarded best sound for his work on the horror short “Black Moon” at the Oxford International Film Festival, 2020.

Max Friedlich
(2015)
Max Friedlich is a playwright and screenwriter from New York City currently based in Los Angeles.
He is a two-time winner of the Blank Theater Young Playwrights Award as well as the Stephen Sondheim Young Playwrights Award for New York City. In 2012, he was the youngest writer to present at the New York International Fringe Festival where his play SleepOver was selected for the Fringe Encore Series. Other New York productions and workshops include: White Girl Wasted (The Kraine, Less Than Rent Theater); Frat Boy: The Musical (The Bowery Poetry Club); Egg (Young Gotham Artists @ The Tank); and Black Ice (IRT, G45 Productions). His work has also been produced at Ithaca College, Northwestern University, Wesleyan University, and Sarah Lawrence College. In July of 2017, he was an artist in residence at New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater. He has been profiled by NY Press and The Daily Beast and was chosen to represent “the American man at 18” in Esquire Magazine’s 80th Anniversary edition. Most recently, his play MANGER was workshopped in association with the Pasadena Playhouse. He is a member of IAMA Theatre Company’s Under 30 Development Lab. For film and TV, he is currently co-creating a half-hour comedy (co-creator Stephen Falk) for FX, a short form series for FX with Bossy Boots , a half-hour animated series at Sony TV , and a feature for Felix Culpa Productions. Recently, he served as head of video and storytelling for Brud, an LA-based story-telling studio and the creators of Lil Miquela (named as one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People on the Internet), as well as writing for the Snapchat series SOLVE. He currently works in social media and digital marketing for people like Diplo, Major Lazer, and Flume.

Rigo Garay
(2015 – 2016)
Rigo Garay is a writer, director and actor from Long Island, NY. He has worked as miscellaneous crew on numerous Glass Eye productions such as TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, THE STAKELANDER, LIKE ME, THE RANGER, STRAY BULLETS, DEPRAVED, THE EGG AND THE HATCHET and co-stars in Chris Skotchdopole’s MISS MILLIE. In 2017, Rigo officially joined the full-time GEP team as the Office Coordinator and has been there since. His directorial debut short SIZE UP, is currently in post production.

Taylor with Skotchdopole

Taylor Zaudtke
(2014 – 2015)
Taylor Zaudtke interned for Glass Eye Pix while attending Hofstra University. Her first role as an actress was in the GEP short film THE EGG AND THE HATCHET, directed by Chris Skotchdopole. She went on to star in fellow Glass Eye intern Eric Pennycoff’s directorial debut SADISTIC INTENTIONS. She continues to act in more titles soon to be released.

Ben Duff
(2014 – 2015)
Ben Duff is a long time GEP collaborator, working in the G&E department for titles such as STRAY BULLETS, LIKE ME, THE RANGER, DEPRAVED and more. He’s teamed up with Beck Underwood on the Creepy Christmas Film Festival 2018 for the animations and serving as Director of Photography on Chris Skotchdopole’s MISS MILLIE.

Walter Montiel
(2013 – 2015)
Walter Montiel is a Paraguayan writer, director and producer, living and working in New York City. By 2015, he had written a couple of short films, COMMITTING… and GLOAMING ALMOST INVISIBLE, when Paraguay TV approached him to develop narrative material for their channel. That collaboration culminated in the proof-of-concept short, TORMENTAS, his first directing effort. The following year, he Associate Produced Glass Eye Pix’s THE EGG & THE HATCHET. He continued to develop his craft in subsequent directing efforts like #CHANCHY, and the upcoming REASONS FOR DRINKING. Walter is currently developing a couple of feature films, one of which he is co-writing with fellow Paraguayan, Cafe Cibils. He is also a member of the National Board of Review.

Skotchdopole, Ben Duff and Jesse LoCascio with the Fessendens

Jesse LoCascio
(2012 – 2013)
Jesse LoCascio interned for Glass Eye Pix during his junior year at SVA, assisting producer Brent Kunkle with distribution and delivery of Rick Alverson’s THE COMEDY (2012). Upon finishing college, he worked as a 35mm projectionist for The Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville NY, inspecting and showcasing hundreds of repertory and contemporary films. In 2013, he was offered a camera assistant position on Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s werewolf film LATE PHASES (2014), which he enthusiastically accepted. From there, Jesse continued to work as a focus puller and camera operator on a wide myriad of projects, both for Glass Eye Pix as well as many other filmmakers and companies. His work has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, as well as on VH1, MTV, CNN, ESPN, Discovery Channel and Travel Channel. His theatrical film credits include Kirby Dick’s Oscar nominated documentary THE HUNTING GROUND, WHITE GIRL, RETURN TO NUKE EM HIGH VOL 2, CLARA’S GHOST, Jack Fessenden’s STRAY BULLETS, Robert Mockler’s LIKE ME, Jenn Wexler’s THE RANGER, Larry Fessenden’s DEPRAVED, and Jack Fessenden’s upcoming FOXHOLE. In 2019, he was profiled in The New York Times for his work in purveying the art of 35mm cinema projection in the digital age.

Pennycoff, Michael Vincent, Brent Kunkle, Joe Maggio and Seth Anderson

Eric Pennycoff
(2010 – 2012)
Eric Pennycoff was baptized by the fires of Glass Eye Pix in 2010 as an intern. He later went on to become an editor of feature films shot in and around NYC.
Prior to SADISTIC INTENTIONS he produced and directed a segment for The ABC’s Of Death 2 competition “M IS FOR MARIACHI”, which was selected by Tim League and Ant Timpson for an additional release by Drafthouse Films in 2015. Pennycoff also lends his editing chops for Glass Eye projects such as LIKE ME and the GEP Sizzle Reel. His debut feature SADISTIC INTENTIONS is now available.

Mickey Keating
(2010 – 2012)
Before his internship at Blumhouse, Keating interned at GEP. His feature directing debut, RITUAL, was produced by Eric Fleischmann, a friend who was also a former intern at Blumhouse. His next two films, POD, a science fiction-horror film, and DARLING, a psychological horror film, were shot nine months apart; both premiered in 2015. Darling was produced by Glass Eye Pix, where Keating had also interned. For CARNAGE PARK, a neo-Western horror film released in 2016, Fleischmann returned to produce. Describing Darling and Carnage Park, Charleston City Paper critic Kevin Young wrote that they show obvious influences from other horror films, but Keating’s wide-ranging explorations of the various horror subgenres make him a promising director. Katie Rife of The A.V. Club wrote that although Carnage Park is fun, Keating needs to move beyond stylized homage to avoid the risk of being labeled an imitator. His next film, PSYCHOPATHS, completed principal photography in March 2016, and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2017. Offseason, a horror film, completed filming in February 2020. Keating is the host of The Core, a Shudder and Uproxx-produced talk show where he interviews filmmakers about their work and plays with practical effects.

Mike “Dragon” Vincent

Michael Vincent
(2006)
Michael “Dragon” Vincent is one of the early GEP interns. He’s worked on numerous Glass Eye classics like AUTOMATONS, THE INNKEEPERS and more. He has also cameoed in MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND, SATAN HATES YOU, RIDING SHOTGUN and has twice played the Frankenstein Monster for Fessenden in the short film NEXUS, part of ABCs OF DEATH 2 and in the music video FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE STOPPED. Vincent’s debut feature ONLY A SWITCH premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival.

Ti West and Jack Fessenden.

Ti West
(1997 -1998)

Ti West’s directorial work includes the 2001 short The Wicked, which he made at his time in SVA. He later went on to direct Glass Eye titles THE ROOST (2005), TRIGGER MAN (2007), THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (2009) and THE INNKEEPERS (2011). He appeared in 2004’s The Woman Who Split Before Dinner as Old Man Conrad. In 2009, West wrote, produced and directed the web series Dead & Lonely for IFC Films. The first series run ended in October 2009.

In 2012, he worked with Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett, David Bruckner, Joe Swanberg, Glenn McQuaid and the Radio Silence Productions hosts Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Chad Villella on the anthology horror film V/H/S. He directed the segment “Second Honeymoon”. He then went on to direct THE SACRAMENT in 2013.

In June 2015, it was reported that West would direct an episode of MTV’s Scream television series. He directed the penultimate episode of the first season, titled “The Dance”. He has also directed an episode of Jason Blum and Eli Roth’s WE tv horror series South of Hell, titled “Take Life Now”. West wrote, directed, produced and edited the Western film In a Valley of Violence, starring Ethan Hawke, Taissa Farmiga and John Travolta, with an appearance by Fessenden. It premiered at South by Southwest in March 2016