How to Lock-In Professional Actors and Musical Talent

Speakers

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  Colin McCormack Communications Manager, SAGindie
  

  Colin McCormack

  Communications Manager, SAGindie

  Colin McCormack is the Communications Manager at SAGindie, a free educational resource that assists indie filmmakers in hiring professional actors for their films. He has worked in various capacities as a writer, producer, and editor on projects ranging from features, short films, commercials, and documentaries. As SAGindie’s Communications Manager, he handles advertising and promotions, filmmaker interviews, and web operations for SAGindie.org. Colin also manages SAGindie’s Movies & Music program, designed to offer resources that bring together independent filmmakers and music professionals.

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  Debby Romano Casting Director
  

  Debby Romano

  Casting Director

  Debby Romano has worked in casting for 30 years. She is a 3-time Emmy nominee and Artios Award winning CD for the TV series SCRUBS. With her business partner, Brett Benner, they cast the current AppleTV series SHRINKiNG and will soon be starting the indie feature SPIRIT WEEK based on the AFI thesis short BALLOON. Prior projects include long running series LAST MAN STANDING, ONE TREE HILL and COUGAR TOWN, as well as numerous other “shorter running” TV shows (we all know how that goes).

  She cast the pilot and season 1 of THAT ‘70s SHOW as a CD at Liberman/Hirschfeld Casting. That experience gave her the confidence to start Romano/Benner Casting.

  A New Jersey native, Debby always loved film, TV and theater. For her 13th birthday, she asked her parents for a filing cabinet to organize clippings and articles of the actors she loved. Her parents feared she might grow up to be a stalker! She turned out okay. Debby loves that this job is different and full of surprises every single day and is thankful to keep calling it her profession.

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  Germaine Franco Composer
  

  Germaine Franco

  Composer

  Full rests are rare for Germaine Franco. As a Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated composer, she’s been in constant motion. Her extensive resume, coupled with her curiosity, and inventiveness, has made her a trailblazer. Franco was the first Latina to win a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media with her score for Encanto and the first to receive the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature with Coco in 2018. In addition, Encanto received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, an SCL Award for Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film, an Annie Award for Best Music in a Feature, a Billboard Music Award, and a World Soundtrack Awards nomination for Film Composer of the Year in 2022. The film was directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush, co-directed by Charise Castro Smith, and produced by Clark Spencer and Yvett Merino, with original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

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  Roxanne Castillo General Counsel, Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund
  

  Roxanne Castillo

  General Counsel, Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund

  Roxanne Castillo is General Counsel for the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund (FMSMF), the non-profit that collects, processes and distributes residuals to musicians who work on film, television and streaming media scores. Prior to joining FMSMF, Castillo served as Director of the American Federation of Musicians’ (AFofM) Los Angeles Local 47 Electronic Media Services Department and was responsible for contract administration and advising producers about AFofM agreements covering film, television, commercials, sound recordings and videogames. From 2020-2021, she provided legal and production consulting advice to independent filmmakers and companies on a wide range of subjects, including WGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and AFofM agreements. She has been featured as a guest speaker on topics such as intellectual property, musicians’ royalties and residuals, and she currently teaches copyright law at UCLA’s Extension program. Castillo served as a board member of the California Copyright Conference and is currently a member of FilmLA, Inc.’s Operations Committee. A native Angeleno, Castillo received her J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law.