We were lucky to catch up with James and Melanie Renfroe recently and have shared our conversation below.
James and Melanie, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
When we both moved out here over 20 years ago, we had big dreams about the great things we were going to do. Melanie came out with dreams of being the first Oscar winning Casting Director. James came out wanting to be a big feature editor. Well, life, and the entertainment industry, have a way of shaping our best laid plans.
After nearly 15 years of work we found each other and a new purpose. We want to co-direct. Becoming a much more acceptable thing in the industry and with James’ background in editing and Melanie’s in casting, we think of ourselves as a pretty cool team.
Between the two of us we’ve directed 2 episodes of television, an award winning indie pilot, an award winning sci-fi short, and a handful of other shorts and videos. We’re looking for scripts to shoot, and producers to partner with. 🙂
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
We first met almost 25 years ago while shooting a commercial for a class at the University of Georgia. We first became friends a couple of years later when, through a mutual friend, we found ourselves as roommates. If this sounds like the beginning of a RomCom, then maybe you won’t be surprised to hear we’re now married.
Melanie originally moved out to pursue her dream of working in Casting. She would go on to work as a Casting Director on projects such as Southland, Animal Kingdom, American Woman and Shameless.
James came to California wanting to be an editor. He’s worked on a few features, a lot of shorts, but has worked mostly in television. He was an Editor on projects such as Shrinking, Superstore, and American Auto and will be an Associate Producer on the upcoming show Bad Monkey with Vince Vaughn for Apple+.
It was during James’ time on Superstore that the idea of starting the production company first came about. He was in discussions to direct episodes, and would go on to do two, and we thought it would be fun to shoot something of our own. As fans of Stephen King, we took advantage of the Dollar Baby program and made a 30 minute sci-fi thriller called Beached. James wrote the adaptation for the script and directed it. Melanie worked as the Producer, and while she didn’t love that job, she loved being able to be a part of the creative process from beginning to end, and she loved being on set.
We learned a lot, with the top take away being that we loved it and wanted to do it more. StarLizard Productions was born.
Two years later, Melanie directed an indie pilot on which James worked as a Producer. This project, The Countdown, recently premiered at the Nashville film festival, has won multiple awards from a variety of festivals, and will be showing in the DTLA Film Festival the first weekend in November.
The two have shot multiple other shorts and are currently developing several features, tv series, and commercial specs.
We enjoy the process and have a good time making the art.
Come join us in the sandbox anytime!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Our backgrounds in Casting and Editing have made the transition into Directing a lot smoother. Melanie has worked with actors of all skill ranges on parts big and small. She’s given re-directs, has learned from some of the best directors in television, and has even shadowed a few on set. Her experience and comfort with actors gives her the ability to communicate quickly and effectively with the talent allowing her to spend valuable time on other aspects of the production. James has worked more than 40k hours as an Editor on well-known television shows, as well as many indie projects and side gigs. He knows what camera angles cut together and has the ability to look at a script and shape out an edit.
We are able to go to set with a clear plan of what we hope to achieve and can easily communicate our vision and collaborate with the rest of our team. This efficiency allows for us to have greater creative flexibility, while keeping budgets low and hours short.
Having spent over 2 decades out here we’ve worked on a lot of different things, with a lot of different people and have learned that who you work with matters just as much, if not more, than what you’re working on. Our goal is to make films we’re proud of, that people want to watch, with the people we care about.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
Definitely! We’d love the chance to work with more people. Coming from different backgrounds within the industry, we understand the vital role of every member of the production community.
We have a website we’re in the process of finalizing that can easily direct someone our way and has a few of the projects we’ve worked on.
We also have a Vimeo page with links to some projects.
https://vimeo.com/user80422529
We’re currently looking for writers and producers to collaborate and make things with.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://starlizardprods.com/
Image Credits
David Zaugh photography
