Crew Bios

Jason Leaver

director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer, visual effects

Out With Dad marks Jason’s first foray into web series production; for which he serves as the series creator, producer, writer, director, cinematographer, editor, visual effects and somehow finds time to maintain the series’ website and all other social networking.

Since 2004, Jason has received a number of awards for his short films. His video installation project “Mobius” was selected and appeared in Toronto’s 2009 Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. In February 2011, Jason was nominated for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Writing in the Independent Soap Awards in NYC, and again for writing in 2012. In both 2011 & 2012 he won Outstanding Writing, Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Cinematography in a Drama Series at the LAweb Festival for his work on Out With Dad (which also won grand-jury prize in 2012). His short film lol_wom3n won Best Narrative at the 6th annual One Minute Film Festival in Toronto. In 2012, The Indie Intertubes honoured Jason with Best Writing in a Drama.

In recent years, Jason has been heavily involved the Toronto Web Series Community, a growing, supportive network of digital storytellers. Through this amazing community of digital storytellers, Jason has gotten involved with several web series, including cinematographer on Nadine Bell’s Leslieville; co-creator (with Elize Morgan & Ash Catherwood), director and editor of The Gate; co-director and cinematographer of Mike Donis’s Pete Winning and the Pirates and guest director of two second season episodes of Jonathan Robbins’ Clutch.

Joshua Ary

production manager (season 3), key grip (seasons 1 & 2)

Joshua Ary is an up and coming filmmaker studying at Ryerson University. He has produced a wide variety of documentary and fiction short films. He’s had a healthy handful of films in festivals such as the Flicks Film Festival in Netherlands and the Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival. He loves getting his filmmaking hands dirty on sets and doesn’t wear gloves for that very reason.

Adrian Ellis

composer

www.adrianelliscomposer.com
@adrian_ellis
Adrian is a multi-instrumentalist who grew up in Germany and Canada, and has studied classical guitar and fine art in both countries. He now resides in Toronto, where he composes music for award winning films, tv, multimedia, and theatre. Most recently, he composed the theme and music package for CTV/Discovery Canada’s “Daily Planet”. An active producer, musician, and arranger, he appears on numerous recordings and in live performances. Also busy in media music community, he has developed and moderated panels for the Screen Composers Guild of Canada and served as a jury member for the Gemini Awards. When not making music, you can find Adrian writing his blog “The Music Creative“, and teaching kids Karate.

Lizz Hodgson

art director

https://lahodgsonphotography.wordpress.com
http://vimeo.com/lahodgsonphotography

Lizz Hodgson has been dreaming and creating for many years now. Grown from seeds in suburbia she made it to the big city in 2006 where she attended York University for film production. There she specialized in Documentary film and writing. Winning several awards for her social films she has had her worked screened internationally and awarded at home in Toronto. She was published in the Canadian magazine The Exceptional Family before even graduating university. She has recently completed a feature length documentary on Wind Energy in Canada and is currently working towards a genealogy project involving Toronto, the turn of the century and her trail blazing ancestors. Lizz has been with Out With Dad since the first moment director Jason Leaver introduced it to her in a little coffee shop on Bloor Street. She hopes to continue creating and providing to her artistic community and to never stop contributing. She can be found performing in small venues around the GTA, filming or photographing through her photography business LAHodgson Photography or boxing in the West end. Lizz is excited and delighted to be with Out With Dad for season 3.

Bruce William Harper

cinematographer (season 2 & 3)

www.brucewilliamharper.com

Charming, bearded, and a father of one, Bruce divides his time between instructing filmmaking with youth at TIFF, teching on film sets, and shooting passion projects for emerging filmmakers. He has won cinematography awards with the Toronto Film Challenge in 2010 and The LA Web Series in 2012 for his work on Out With Dad’s second season.

Bruce has shot the web series’ Microwave Porn, Sweet Fever, The Gate, Team Epic, and The Straight-Man, and over 30 short films, a handful of music videos, a smattering of corporate and event coverage, bla, bla, bla… oh yeah, and a really great MTV Commercial!

A family man with the best wife in the whole wide world, and the wickedest cool three-year-old boy around Bruce adores challenges, and once wrote his name directly on the Hollywood sign in Red Sharpie.

Eric Taylor

location sound (season 3), producer (seasons 1 & 2)

@dreadpirateeric

Eric had his start in entertainment working in small theatre. He vaguely recalls earning a couple awards for his performances. Since moving to Toronto he’s been a columnist for a variety of online sources, event coordinator for a music production company, and conference/party coordinator for Toronto’s premier web consultancy, Unspace.

After collaborating in several short films Eric took on the task of producing the first two seasons of the award-winning Out With Dad series. He’s been spotted around a few video sets lately. Also, there’s been some big talk about him being a location sound mercenary.

Kara Dymond

producer (season 2)

Kara holds a Master’s degree in teaching as well as a drama specialist and anthropology minor from the University of Toronto. Although she now has her dream teaching job, Kara still tries to keep up her reputation as a theatrical jill-of-all-trades. She has worked as an actor, singer, playwright, producer and stage manager. As a playwright, Kara most recently took home the 2^nd Place Award in the Toronto Fringe New Play Contest 2010 for her play Her Child. Kara’s play Losing Berlin had a reading at the Tarragon Theatre Studio Space in May 2008. She performed in its original incarnation as a one-woman show, which debuted in the U of T Drama Festival 2004 (Best Actor Award and the Robertson Davies Playwrighting Award) and the London Fringe 2004. Kara’s favourite acting credits include Kelly in The Drowned World (muckheap productions), Albertine in Past Perfect, Kent in King Lear, Edna in Waiting for Lefty (UCDP), Lampito in Lysistrata (Hart House Theatre), Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Martha in The Secret Garden, Anne in Anne of Green Gables, and Ko-Ko in The Mikado (Opera Buffa). Film credits include Taking Possession and Penance (award-winning), which she co-wrote with Jason Leaver.

Rebecca Rynsoever

consulting producer, engineer, casting, music supervisor

What’s an engineer doing on a film production? We don’t hold that against her. Rebecca and Jason Leaver have collaborated on a number of short film projects with Rebecca serving as the producer. Rebecca’s experience in the arts goes beyond her love of spread sheets; she’s a performer too. Recently she’s performed, as a dancer/singer, in a number of musical stage productions in Sarnia, Ontario.

Brendon Smith

storyboard artist & location sound (season 1)

Brendon is an actor, illustrator, cartoonist and occasional sound technician. Most recently, Brendon performed as Belize in Angels in America (Column 13).
Past theatre credits include: Column 13, Edmond (Pimp/Prisoner), In Arabia we’d all be Kings (Greer), Our Lady of 121^st Street (Flip). The Fringe Festival, The Fall of Team Justice (Peter). Aisle Seat Productions, Hurly Burly (Phil).
Past film credits include Celeste’s Island and Penance, directed by Jason Leaver.

Amanda Mitro

sound (season 2)

@ridicucats
Amanda is a graduate of Ryerson University’s Radio & Television Arts Program (2005), where she focussed on audio engineering, mixing and sound design. Interning at Metalworks studios in Mississauga, she realized that while she loves music, film sound is where her passion truly lies. Upon graduation, she spent 3 years in South Korea teaching English and working on educational stage performances at Kyonggi- English Village. Returning to Canada in 2008, she’s worked on many productions as everything from a PA to location Sound Recordist. She’s also Stage Managed for NXNE, continuing to follow her love of music. While enjoying her experiences in production, Amanda plans to pursue more work in post production sound and loves that moment when battling with ADR when everything finally snaps into place. Also, she is ten ninjas.

Hannah McKimm

co-producer (season 1)

Hannah McKimm is a keen Second Year student who is studying Film at the International Film School of Wales, Newport, Wales, UK. She has just recently completed an exchange programme also studying film for a term at Ryerson University in Toronto. She has made several short films during her time at both of these schools and has many plans to make plenty more over the next few years. Outside of school she enjoys helping with other productions. In the summer of 2009, she worked as a Location Assistant on Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans, and in March 2007, during her working holiday to New Zealand, she worked as an assistant on The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Working with Jason on his upcoming web series and developing the pitch package for Nuit Blanche 2010, has been a pleasure. She looks forward to their future projects.