Jon Steinberg '97 (Writer & Producer, HUMAN TARGET, JERICHO)

By Sean O'Rourke MAT '68

When Jon Steinberg '97 was an undergraduate in Mather House, he concentrated in government, but movies were his passion. After graduation he went to law school at the University of Pennsylvania and later practiced at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia for a year. But the draw to Los Angeles and the movie industry was too much to ignore. So he packed up his car and drove to California.

Jeff Schaffer '91 (Writer, Producer, & Director, SEINFELD, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, BRUNO, EUROTRIP)

By Sean O'Rourke MAT '68

In college the friends we make and the groups we join are sometimes more important than the professors whose courses we take. This is certainly true for Jeff Schaffer '91. He came to Cambridge with vague aspirations to become a doctor, an archeologist, or at least a scientist of some sort, and it just did not work out that way.

He drifted from classics to archeology to biological anthropology. But more importantly, he joined the Lampoon. And he spent more time in the Castle than the Yard. His was not a classic Harvard experience (is there such a thing?), but it was great education for a comedy writer.

Danny O. Snow '78 (Publisher)

By Cristina Slattery '97

Danny O. Snow ’78 is a man who looks to the future as much as the past. He is passionate about giving previously unpublished books a chance as well as resurrecting those out-of-print books that are no longer commercially viable but that have immeasurable value to those seeking them. His revolutionary spirit has cooled since the 1990s when he set out to transform the publishing industry by eradicating the overprinting of books and other wasteful practices through the implementation of “Print on Demand” method of publishing.

Jonathan Mostow '83 (Writer, Director, & Producer, SURROGATES, TERMINATOR 3)

By Anthony Cistaro A.R.T. '97

You’ve seen the provocative billboards everywhere. Beautiful, youthful people lifting their shirts to reveal metal machinery where their midsections should be – “Human perfection. What could go wrong?” The posters announce the arrival of the heavily anticipated Bruce Willis/Ving Rhames action thrill ride, Surrogates, directed by Harvard’s own Jonathan Mostow '83.

Originally from Woodbridge, Connecticut, Jonathan Mostow began his professional paying career in entertainment on the day he turned 16 (he ran down to the local movie theater and got a job as an usher). Later in college, while browsing Harvard’s course catalogue, Mostow found a single filmmaking class – available only to “Visual and Environmental Studies” majors. Mostow declared the VES major so he could take the filmmaking class.

Eva Gordon HMS '00 (Producer, PLAY THE GAME)

By Sean O'Rourke MAT '68

Filmmakers come from diverse backgrounds: acting, cinematography, writing, film school. Eva Gordon HMS '00 has a different background. She earned a PhD in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, and married an MBA. With a background like that, who would have thought that the first movie she executive produced, PLAY THE GAME, starring Andy Griffith and Doris Roberts, would be in selected theaters on August 28th?

It all began in business school where Eva’s future husband, Marc Fienberg, had trouble developing enthusiasm for straight line amortization schedules and depreciation rules. After graduation, he bought a round-the-world plane ticket, hoping to come back from his trip with a script for a movie. On one night of the trip he woke up with an idea for a romantic comedy and wrote an outline of what would become PLAY THE GAME.

Kevin Rafferty '70 (Documentary Producer, Director, and Cinematographer, HARVARD BEATS YALE: 29-29, THE ATOMIC CAFE)

By Sean O'Rourke MAT '68

On a crisp, clear afternoon in November 1968 forty thousand fans packed Harvard Stadium, Kevin Rafferty '70 among them. Expectations ran high. In New Haven all alumni had received two tickets apiece regardless of the number requested. In Cambridge officials filled the orders of the oldest classes first. When they reached 1949 they ran out of tickets and stopped. A scalper reportedly asked and received a thousand dollars for a block of eight seats.

On campuses across the country people were proclaiming that God was dead. In New Haven everyone knew he was alive and well. He wore number ten and played quarterback. His name was Brian Dowling.

No such optimism reigned in Cambridge. A majority of the twenty-two seniors, feeling underutilized and underappreciated for three years, wanted to quit the team, but at a meeting they decided to rally around their captain Vic Gatto.

Rachel Samuels '92 (Writer, Director, & Producer, DARK STREETS)

By Sean O'Rourke MAT '68

Film noir – dark, moody, filled with moral ambiguity. Hollywood cranked them out in the Forties and Fifties. In “Dark Streets,” Rachel Samuels ’92 revives the genre. Shot in colors from a very dark palette, the film follows Chaz Davenport, who has to solve the mystery of his father’s death, stay ahead of the loan sharks and find someone he can trust . . . if he can trust anyone.

Chaz owns a hot, new blues club in an anonymous American city prone to power failures. The club provides the setting for elaborate musical numbers in the manner of Busby Berkeley. The blackouts provide the noir.

Larry Tanz '92 (Producer & Former CEO of LivePlanet)

By Sean O'Rourke MAT '68

Imagine crossing the Sahara Desert on foot, running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, covering 4,700 miles in 111 days. An international trio of long distance runners along with a scrappy film crew did just that.

RUNNING THE SAHARA is a documentary that follows runners Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin as they traverse the harsh terrain of six countries: Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya and Egypt where Africa’s beauty and hardships are unveiled. Former roommates Larry Tanz ’92, Keith Quinn ’92 and Matt Damon ’92 were pivotal members of the producing team behind RUNNING THE SAHARA.

Dan Sturman '89 (Writer, Producer, & Director, SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION, NANKING)

By Dianne L. Brooks HLS '89

Harvard College grad Dan Sturman '89 is an accomplished documentary filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles. Recent projects include “Soundtrack for a Revolution” (2009) and “Nanking” (2007). It all began when he wandered into what he describes as the “amazing” VES 50 class at Harvard taught by Rob Moss, an “absolute inspiration” as a teacher. A key component of the course is a filmmaking project done in teams. Sturman and his team of classmates followed frontrunner Gary Hart’s ill-fated 1988 Presidential campaign. Hart had left the race, after some suggestive photographs surfaced showing him with a pharmaceutical rep named Donna Rice on a boat called Monkey Business, but later reversed course and re-entered the race for the New Hampshire primary. Sturman says the disintegration of the campaign was heartbreaking, yet he found himself thrilled by the actual filmmaking process. From then on he was hooked...well sort of. It took a viewing of “Roger and Me” the summer after he graduated to finally push him into what he describes as “this ridiculously poorly paid and unpredictable profession.”

Patric Verrone '81 (Writer, Producer, & Former President of the Writers Guild of America, FUTURAMA)

By Anthony Cistaro A.R.T. '97

As a follow up to Harvardwood’s “Brave New Media” Panel discussion, Writers Guild of America West President Patric Verrone '81 recently shared additional thoughts with us on how WGA writers are shaping the future of internet content.

Once upon a time, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his fellow novelists were lured out to Hollywood to write for the studios. They largely fell to drink and despair upon discovering they had traded in their artistic autonomy for the role of the well-paid but underestimated lackey.

Not so in the world of new media, according to Patric Verrone, President of the Writers Guild of America West. In the aftermath of the WGA’s 100-day strike last year against the studio conglomerates, Verrone has continued to deliver on his promise that “every piece of media with a moving image on a screen or a recorded voice must have a writer, and every writer must have a WGA contract.”