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 movies, (digital and 35mm and 65mm film), and serves as Writer, Director, Actor, Editor and Cinematographer. Longoria began making movies in 1970 at the age of 14. He made a feature-length 35mm film in Enumclaw, Washington, moved in 1978 to Hollywood, with film and theatre work in Portland, New York, and Chicago. Longoria's Hollywood work (frequently 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). Sam Longoria appeared in a movie 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. Longoria has worked on several Oscar-nominated films, and one Winner. 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 had the largest water dump (650,000 gallons, weighing 5.4 million pounds) in cinema history. From 1985 to 1994, Longoria Produced six live stage comedy shows a week, a Russian Drama, and two successful comedy radio shows, in Hollywood at The WILD SIDE Theatre. He loves Improv, (Study, Teaching, and Performing), and uses it in his shows and films. In 1998, he helped out in the studio with his friends' "The Firesign Theatre" comedy recordings. He is credited as "Mascot," and "Nuts and Berries." In 2001, he began to work in Seattle in the summertime. 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 movies. 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. He is an active Consultant. Longoria is a member of the Visual Effects Society and Masquers Club in Hollywood, focusing now on making his own films, in both Los Angeles and Seattle.