Alex MacInnis

Freelance Media Producer

Producer/Director/Writer of audio and video documentaries, art video, and fiction.  Videographer specializing in verite-style documentary shooting.  Editor experienced with Avid, Final Cut, Pro Tools.

AUDIO

Valley of Smoke - creator/producer - audio documentary series on Southern California history and current events, available as podcast.

Don't Want to Complain, 2015 - producer - feature audio documentary about families and death.

27 Nights, 2012 - producer - for Audio Postcard series/Trop Magazine

God's Square Mile, 2012 - producer - inaugural piece for Audio Postcard series/Trop Magazine

River and Sea, 2012 - producer - created for World Listening Day, Listen Up LA!, Ave 50 Studio, 2012

The Madeline Brand Show, KPCC - Prop 39 Co-locations - producer/reporter, April 30, 2012.

Destroy the Picture, Painting the Void 1949 -1962, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles - Producer of Cell Phone Audio Tour for exhibiton (2012), featuring over 20 artist interviews.

Sleepless in Stockholm, 2012 - producer - created for Listen Up, Los Angeles! event

Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles - Producer of Cell Phone Audio Tour for exhibition (2011), featuring over 40 artist interviews.

This American Life - reporter/contributor, Episode #415"Crybabies", September 2010

VIDEO

"Birancanga", 2015 - music video for Rwandan rap artist Ama G, featured at urban planning conference

The Tristan Project (2004-2014) - Technical Director and Editor of live mix of Bill Viola

video performed with full orchestra and singers to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.  Staged by Peter Sellars, Conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Valery Gergiev. Orchestras including: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Mariinski, London Philharmonia, Finnish Radio Symphony, Opéra Nationale de Paris, Canadian Opera Company (Toronto), Teatro Real (Madrid). Soloists including: Ben Heppner, Waltraud Meier, Rene Pape, Sophie Von Otter.

The Entertainer at Rest, 2014 - video web min-series profiling the home lives of freelance entertainers.

Poems From Future Architects, 2014 - video collaboration with five Rwandan archictecture students reading their poems about their country.

Bill Viola, Jake, 2014 - technical director - video for W Magazine/Art Basel, featuring Jake Gyllenhaal

Untitled Scrap Vessel documentary - camera and sound, documentary on cargo ship stranded off coast of Oman (currently in post-production)

Bill Viola, The Martyrs, 2014 - technical director - permanent installation in St. Paul's Cathedral, London

Gift Series: Coin, 2014 - two channel video installation in coast guard cottage in East Sussex; in collaboration with Clare Whistler, Chris Dury.

We Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust, 2014 - documentation of adobe plastering of drone, Occidental College, Los Angeles. Artwork by      Finishing School, Nadia Afghani, Matt Fisher.

Masoro Village Project, Rwanda, 2013; documentation of earthbag construction of village houses

Knitting Nation 12: H20, 2013; documentation of day-long collaborative artwork led by Liz Collins, Occidental College, Los Angeles.

The Stoic Meditations of Womack, 2013 - filmmaker - 12-part web series: Marcus Aurelius plus cats.

Bill Viola, Inner Passage, 2013 - Editor

Bill Viola, Man and His Soul, 2013 - Director of Photography

Bill Viola, Man/Woman Searching for Immortality, 2013 - Director of Photography

"Be My Baby" Ukelele Orchestra of the Western Hemisphere music video, 2013 - Editor

Engagement Party ­- (2008-2012) Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles - Producer, videographer, editor of monthly documentation of collaborative art/social practice events.

It Walks By Night, 2012 - filmmaker - documentation of Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass, LACMA.

Spectral Analysis, Pyramid Lens Delta, The Particles (of White Naugahyde) by William Leavitt (2011-2012) - documentation of experimental theater performances.

Back East, 2011 - filmmaker - experimental feature of 4,500 mile timelapse across North America

The World's Largest Potholder, 2010 - Editor - documentation of ongoing project of artist Laurel Paley

Bill Viola, Night Journey 2009 - Editor - Video Game collaboration with USC Experimental Game Lab.

Gift Series: Coal, 2007 - three channel video installation in barn in East Sussex, England; in collaboration with Clare Whistler, Victoria Rance, Sophie Campeau-Ferman.

Too Loud a Solitude, 2007 - Editor - director: Genevieve Anderson, rod-puppet movie based on Czech novella by Bohumil Hrabal.

Barbara Bestor Architecture, Topanga Canyon, 2007 - documentation of steel frame construction project.

Hippos on a Hybrid, 2006 - filmmaker - Fiction short with paper cut-out puppets

River of Crime, 2006 - filmmaker - short produced for MOMA retrospective of The Residents

Down by Law (2006), 2006 - filmmaker - short documentary of aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

See You in Baghdad, 2005 - Editor - (director: Walid al-Awadi), following the first US troops into Baghdad in April 2003 in movement known as "Thunder Run".

Forces of Nature, 2004 Graphic Films/ National Geographic TV) - sound recordist, 2nd unit DP, videographer - IMAX format documentary filmed in Turkey, Montserrat, and "Tornado Alley". Also editor of trailer, EPK, "Making of" featurettes.

Documentary Recordings (1998-2003)- videographer and editor of over half a dozen feature-length instructional videos of health/safety/fitness titles.

Shaman of the Andes, 2002 Big Mountain Films - Additional Editor

"Wires and Waves", Rilo Kiley music video, 2001 - Director of Photography

Mary Over Mojave, 1999 - filmmaker - international festival screenings, awards at Krakow, LA City of Angels Festivals.

The Wrecking Crew, 1999 Lunchbox Entertainment - Additional Editor - Feature documentary on Los Angeles session musicians of the '60's and '70's.

Death Valley Cabaret - filmmaker - documentary short, with Greg Eliason, Jackie Apodaca

Desert Blue, 1998, HSX/Sam Goldwyn - 2nd Unit Director - (Morgan J Freeman, director. feature starring Christina Ricci, Kate Hudson, Casey Affleck, Sara Gilbert, John Heard)

"Ordinary Gurl", Tsar music video, Hollywood Records/Lions Gate - Director of Photography

The Cone Touch and Go Films - Editor/Production Sound - (director Genevieve Anderson)

Wildlife; The Great Cats, Discovery Channel - Segment Director

Sunlight, 1999 - Touch and Go Films - Gaffer - (director Genevieve Anderson) - rod puppet 16mm short

Boxed, 1998 Touch and Go Films - Gaffer - (director Genevieve Anderson) - rod puppet video short

Grind, 1998 - Producer/Sound - 35mm short (director Greg Eliason), various awards, world festivals

Duck, Duck, Duck, 1997 - filmmaker - experimental documentary about ducks.

Hot Mommies!, Modern Media - Technical Director - 4 camera infomerical

The Perfecta System, Modern Media - Technical Director - 4 camera infomerical

Revostyler Revolution, Modern Media - Technical Director - 4 camera infomerical

Drive Time, 1997 - Director of Photography - screened on various PBS affiliates in California, various festival awards

Lite Bite, Modern Media/QFC Network - Line Producer

Survival Insurance commericals - Modern Media - Line Producer

Death Licked My Face, 1993 - writer, director, producer - 16mm feature, Godard-esque zombie musical.

Miles Between Matchbooks, 1992- producer, DP, writer - various festival awards, 16mm experimental documentary of northern Mojave Desert.

Oeddy Bear, 1992 - filmmaker.

SCREENWRITING

A Crime to Remember, XConProductions, for Investigation Discovery Channel (Emmy winner) - 2013 - 2015  Writer: "Career Girls", "Nellie", one hour episodes.

Too Loud a Solitude - 2007 - feature adaptation of Czech novella by Bohumil Hrabal into puppet movie

Signs of Life (aka Synapse) - (with Lisa Robinson) winner of largest-ever Sloan Foundation Feature Production Grant, finalist at Austin Screenwriting Competition, in development w/ Salty Features.

Breaker (wth Lisa Robinson) Finalist Cinequest Best Screenplay 2005

Down to the Bone, Produced: 2004 - co-writer, adapted interviews with recovering addicts into fiction feature, Sundance Award winner. Directed by Academy Award nominee Debra Granik, Starring Vera Farmiga.

Undeniable - finalist for Sundance Lab  

Tooth and Nail - finalist for Sundance Lab  

Death Licked My Face, Produced:1993. Bruce Corwin Screenplay Award winner (California)

OTHER

Prose writing has appeared on-line in McSweeny's Internet Tendency, MonkeyBicycle, and in print in Autonomy (in German), Roadside Vernacular, Arcade, Le Look, The Nose, Daily Nexus. Photos in magazines Autonomy (Germany, lifestyle) and VISO (Switzerland, architecture)

Krank Press writer/collaborator on series of Los Angeles History calendars 2009-present

Lecture: "Creativity, as such", Goethe Institute - Kigali, Rwanda; July 2013

Wildflowers, 2012 Poetry/music collaboration. Curated by Clare Whistler. City of London Festival.

Guest Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, "Creatures in Strange Places", film/video screening in conjunction with Robert Rauschenberg Combines show, 2006.

 Additional film production experience as Assistant Director, Production Manager, Location Scout.

 Experienced video archivist for both file- and tape-based collections (designed, implemented, and managed archival plan for Bill Viola Studio). 

 Developed tour script for decomissioned Navy Submarine exhibit and worked with new tour guides for Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (1994).

 Musician in Ukelele Orchestra of the Western Hemisphere, former guitarist Hans Christian Rodeo; experimental theater stage manager; high school student    body president and yearbook editor; limousine driver; bird watcher; deep “good for radio” voice; some facility with Spanish and French; Eagle Scout.

EDUCATION

BA, Film Studies; University of California, Santa Barbara.  Additional Coursework: Studio Art at Los Angeles Community College,  Radio/TV/Film at California State University, Fullerton. Barbara Kite Acting Studio (Portland, OR), Writers' Studio (New York, NY)

LINKS

(lots of material also available at alexmacinnis.com )

AUDIO: Valley of Smoke (Series): valleyofsmoke.com

VIDEO: The Entertainer At Rest, Episode 1: vimeo.com/108323052

AUDIO: Dont' Want to Complain (feature) : soundcloud.com/macinnis/dont-want-to-complain

VIDEO: Making of Forces of Nature (Excerpt):   vimeo.com/38671337

AUDIO: This American Life (jump to minute 33):  thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/415/crybabies

VIDEO: Too Loud A Solitude:       tooloudasolitude.com/tooloudasolitude/Teaser.html

VIDEO: Bill Viola (general site):   billviola.com