The Team
Otter Island Films brings together a few exceptional filmmakers. We use the best cameras and sound equipment, the latest technologies… but the bottom line is always the people.
| Matthew R. Simmons (Executive Producer) Ellen Simmons (Co Executive Producer)
Matt and Ellen Simmons began executive producing D‘Arcy Marsh’s films in 2004 with One Land, Two Worlds, a film about English explorer, George Waymouth whose 1605 expedition to the coast of Maine began the English Colonization of North America. In 2004 Matt and Ellen had also just purchased The Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine in order to save it from being torn down by a conglomerate Multiplex and were in the process of restoring the theater to it’s 1920s architectural glory. 8 months later The Strand was fully restored. With state of the art projection and sound systems, it was fast becoming an important part of the MidCoast Community, with a diverse program of films, live music, The Met: Live in HD and many local community events. As part of this effort Matt and Ellen asked D’Arcy to make a series of short films for and about MidCoast Maine. These films would introduce visitors to the people and places of the MidCoast the way only the locals know it, and for the locals, these films would affirm the treasures of their everyday life.
Matt Simmons is Chairman of Simmons & Company International, an investment banking firm specializing in all aspects of the global energy industry. His recently published book, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy has been listed on the Wall Street Journal’s best-seller list. He has also published numerous energy papers for industry journals and is a frequent speaker at government forums, energy symposiums and in boardrooms of many leading energy companies around the world.
Ellen Simmons maintains Board commitments with Harvard Business School, Stratford Hall, The Children’s Museum of Houston, The National Trust Council for Historic Preservation, National Council of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. |  | D'Arcy Marsh (Producer/Director/Camera/Editor)
D’Arcy as been coming to Maine since 1949 (age 9) and began making films in Tenants Harbor when he was 18. “My mother was a documentary film director at the Canadian National Film Board so I grew up around film. When I started there were no film schools around so I learned with friends on an old spring wound Bell & Howell camera. In those days a 100ft roll of black and white 16mm film cost us $2.00 processing included (4 minutes). We idolized Bergman, Fellini and the Wyeths and over 4 years we shot 22 short films about dreams and love, spoofs on life, an epic about birth, and another about vampires.” D’Arcy has 14 Emmy awards for his work. He directed and shot both Voyages of the Mimi, 2 seasons of The Salt Water Sportsman, 1 season of Field and Stream, 17 episodes of Any Place Wild, and 2 Tour de Frances. As a cameraman he shot 10 feature films, 2 years as 2nd camera on Spencer For Hire, 14 Iditarod sled dog races, 7 Olympic games, 18 American Sportsman shows, 20 Wide World of Sports shows and numerous TV specials and documentaries.
|  | Juliet Brown (Producer/Editor/2nd Camera)
Juliet first started as a Production Assistant and then Editor with FLT Films, in London and Cambodia, making conflict resolution films about the Khmer Rouge genocide. Her interest in traditional skills brought her to Maine in 1997 to apprentice as a wooden boat builder. She went on to collect oral histories of Peapod builders for her DVD "Peapods of the Maine Coast." In 2004 she worked as a Researcher and Assistant Editor at Compass Light Productions, for Discovery’s Cracking The Ocean Code and Sunrise Earth. She joined the crew of Otter Island Films in 2007 to work as a Producer and Editor. In ’07 she also produced, shot and edited Keepers of the Trail a documentary about snowshoe guiding in Labrador. In 2009 she will begin a two-year masters program with the UK National Film and Television School in Documentary Direction.
|  | Matt McMakin (Technical Director - Post Production & Website)
Matt McMakin develops and oversees all the High Definition (HD) digital media systems for Otter Island Films. Using the Final Cut Pro edit program and working with our editors, colorist and sound mixer, as well as the Strand Theatre projectionists, Matt has developed a system for hundreds of hours of video material to be edited, sound mixed and color corrected into the finished shorts which are then distributed in a variety of projection, broadcast and DVD formats. Matt also designed and developed the Otter Island Films website and the Strand Theatre HD video projection system. Matt's other clients include: Harvard University; NYU Dept. of film, George Stoney; Boston Museum of Science; Science Museum of Minnesota; Harvard Fogg Museum; Boston Public Library; Peace River Studios; Hazelwood Films; West City Films; Kurzweil Technologies; Peabody Museum; and E.O. Wilson. |  | Frank Coakley (Location Sound)
Frank is a freelance Soundman/Production Mixer from Boston. Over the course of 30 years Frank has been involved with hundreds of documentary, commercial, and theatrical productions. He began his freelance work with “This Old House” and “The Victory Garden” after having served as an engineer at WGBH in Boston. Recent productions include: “60 Minutes” (CBS); “Raising Cain” for Powderhouse Productions (PBS); Woody Guthrie for American Masters (PBS); “The OJ Verdict” for Frontline (PBS); “Global Health” for Nova (PBS); The Rolling Stones documentary, “Forty Licks Tour”; “Drug Court” an HBO documentary and “Young At Heart” a feature documentary. He was nominated for an Emmy (for Sound Mixing) on the Mini Series Krakatoa: Volcano Of Destruction, BBC/Discovery Channel. In addition to his film and video work, he has produced and engineered more than 25 music CDs for release and is a recording engineer on NPR’s “From the Top” classical music series.
|  | Rob D'Amico (Sound Mixer)
Rob is Co-Owner of PostMaster Studios and has 20 years of production experience in music performance, sound design, and sound mixing for film and television. This includes the feature films: “Jack in the Box,” “Code of Ethics” and “Night Deposit.” 13 episodes of Discovery's Home Channel show “House Lift” and numerous documentaries including “One Land Two Worlds,” “The Green Square Mile” and “Sheer Will.” He has made many corporate videos for Avid Technology, Reebok, Iomega, IBM, Lotus and Easy Closets. Rob also records and mixes the Audio Tours for the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston. |  | Mercedes Gilbert (Time-lapse camera operator/Still photographer)
Mercedes has worked throughout Northern Maine and Labrador as Maine Guide and environmental educator. In 2005, she studied Photography at The Maine Media Workshops. The following winter, she worked as still photographer on the documentary film “Keepers Of The Trail” produced by Juliet Brown. In the summer of 2007, Mercedes was awarded a [photographic] fellowship through the Monhegan Artists Residency Program on Monhegan Island, Maine. Currently she works freelance, studies large format Black and White photography and printmaking with fine art photographer Paul Caponigro, and operates the time-lapse camera for Between The Tides. |  | Dave Allen (Color Correction)
Colorist Dave Allen has been working in post production for 25 years: first as senior editor at MultiVision in Needham MA, then as Director of Post Production at Roland House in Washington, DC and now at his own finishing suite in Sudbury, MA. Recent Television projects he has worked on include: "American Masters; Louisa May Alcott" (PBS); "The Truth About Cancer" (PBS); "Crash: A Tale of Two Species," (Nature PBS); "Renewal" (PBS); Discovery's History Channel series, "Tougher in Alaska." Past projects include such groundbreaking series as Blackside's "Eyes on the Prize," "I'll Make Me a World," and "The Great Depression;" David Sutherland's ambitious FRONTLINE SERIES; "The Farmer's Wife;" and Longbow's "The Gate of Heavenly Peace." |
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