Noshing With Shane Stanley – February 10, 2022

Emmy Award-winning Filmmaker and Author of What You Don’t Learn in Film School

This week, Ira spoke with Shane Stanley, multi Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and author of “What You Don’t Learn in Film School.” In this filmic episode of Ira’s Everything Bagel, Shane talks about growing up in Hollywood; why he chose to become an independent filmmaker; his niche in raising capital for productions and respecting his investors; his open door policy with other filmmakers; why he wrote the book on filmmaking; how relationships are everything in the business and in life; being of Hollywood and yet not in Hollywood, as long as you can deliver content; film vs. digital production; where the power of studios come from today; and the films he’s completing right now: “Night Train,” “Double Threat,” and “Break Even.”

At sixteen years old, Shane Stanley had already received his first Emmy Award for his work on “Desperate Passage,” which starred Michael Landon. Over the next few years he learned filmmaking under his father, Lee Stanley, on what became known as “The Desperate Passage” Series (1988 to 1995) starring Sharon Gless, Edward James Olmos, Marlo Thomas and Louis Gossett Jr.. The self-produced series earned a total of thirty-three Emmy nominations, (winning thirteen) as well as numerous Christopher Awards and CINE Golden Eagles. In 1994, the Stanley’s feature film, “Street Pirates” was a two-time winner of the CINE Golden Eagle Award for best feature documentary and film editing.

In 2001, Shane launched Visual Arts Entertainment, his own production company, most notably credited with “Gridiron Gang,” starring Dwayne Johnson & Xzibit as well as the critically acclaimed independent film, “A Sight for Sore Eyes,” with Academy Award nominee, Gary Busey. The film, (produced for under $10,000) marked Shane’s directorial debut and went on to win the Gold Special Jury Award at Worldfest Houston, Best Dramatic Short Film at the International Family Film Festival, a Telly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film and Television as well as two Aurora Awards for writing & directing. The film was also invited to Cannes to compete in the annual international film festival.

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