Sam Longoria

Sam Longoria (born March 12, 1956, in Seattle, Washington, USA) is an American producer-director and visual effects engineer. He produces independent feature films in digital, 35mm, and 65mm formats, and also serves as writer, director, actor, editor, and cinematographer. Longoria began making films in 1970 at the age of 14. He created a feature-length 35mm film in Enumclaw, Washington, and in 1978 moved to Hollywood, with prior film and theatre work in Portland, New York, and Chicago. His Hollywood work, often uncredited, began in the 1980s as a member of the technical crew on films such as *Ghostbusters*, *2010*, *Return to Oz*, and *Captain EO* (the largest-budget industrial film ever). Longoria appeared in a film with Mel Brooks and Mickey Mouse in a Rob Minkoff film for Walt Disney World, which still plays at the park, and was a successful *Jeopardy* contestant. He has worked on several Oscar-nominated films and one Oscar-winning film. He has attended the Academy Awards 17 times and the Grammy Awards twice. In 1985, he photographed President Ronald Reagan in the White House for a large-format film documentary. In 1992, he created 35mm projected backgrounds from small-format film and video elements for Peter Sellars's production of Paul Hindemith's opera *Mathis der Maler* at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. More recently, Longoria built camera electronics for the 1994 film *Terminal Velocity*, optically enlarged Charlie Sheen and Martin Sheen's Super 8mm home movies for the 1999 film *Five Aces*, and performed hydraulic special effects on the 1997 film *Dante's Peak*, which featured the largest water dump in cinema history (650,000 gallons, weighing 5.4 million pounds). From 1985 to 1994, Longoria produced six live stage comedy shows a week, a Russian drama, and two successful comedy radio shows at The WILD SIDE Theatre in Hollywood. He loves improv (study, teaching, and performing), and uses it in his shows and films. In 1998, he assisted in the studio with his friends' *The Firesign Theatre* comedy recordings and is credited as "Mascot" and "Nuts and Berries." In 2001, he began working in Seattle during the summer. He sang, danced, and acted onstage at the Seattle Center in several productions of The Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society and in other plays and films. He has recently built a visual effects facility and editing room and is producing a visual effects adventure. He has written several books on producing and marketing independent features and is an active consultant. Longoria is a member of the Visual Effects Society and the Masquers Club in Hollywood, and currently focuses on making his own films in both Los Angeles and Seattle.