Chris Messineo
Director ~ NJ Film School
Chris Messineo is an award-winning writer and director.
He is the founder of Off Stage Films, an independent production company, shooting short films and corporate videos. They have won awards for screenwriting, acting, sound, cinematography, editing, score, and directing.
He has worked as a director, screenwriter, crew member, script reader, screenplay consultant, and even a film festival judge. He has taught hundreds of students in night school as well as at schools in the tri-state area.
In 1998, he formed the NJ Screenwriter's Group and since then, they have held over 150 original screenplay readings. In 2002, he created MoviePoet.com, a free online contest and forum to celebrate the art of short scripts and help bring screenwriters and filmmakers together.
Chris is passionate about filmmaking, teaching, and frequently lectures on Hitchcock, Film Noir, Chaplin and Keaton, and much more. He lives in New Providence with his wife and daughter.
Chris Furlong
Teaching Assistant ~ NJ Film School
Chris Furlong believes that “Life is an Improv.”
He has been affiliated with the Chatham Playhouse in Chatham, NJ for over 25 years. He has done it all from performing, designing/building sets, sound design, casting, and painting. He has also served on the theater’s Board of Trustees as President, Vice President and Business Manager.
For over 10 years, he taught drama and improvisation at an overnight summer camp in North Jersey. Chris worked for the S.P.A.T.T. program of Chatham by teaching theater to students ranging from Kindergarten to 6th grade. Locally, he has directed High School plays.
Chris has produced numerous films for Off Stage Films and assisted with production responsibilities on corporate videos. He lives in Morris Plains with his wife and two precious cats.
Paul J. Mason
Instructor ~ NJ Film School
Paul J. Mason has been involved in various areas of production for over fifteen years, but it is his first love, makeup, that he always finds himself going back to.
Having discovered his love for the art of makeup in his late teens, he attended film school at New York University and took classes at NYC based Special Effects Workshop. At Daydream Productions, he worked as an on-site set designer and an effects and prop artist. With CPS Inc., he supervised the effects division and worked in special effects and character makeup, prosthetics, puppetry, props, stop motion animation, and producing new projects.
He has worked on such films as "Across the Universe" and "The Sickness"; such TV shows as 30 Rock and Celebrity Deathmatch; commercial clients such as Verizon and Jeep; documentarians like National Geographic and The History Channel; stage greats like Edward Albee and August Wilson; and such recording artists as Fallout Boy and David Bowie with Trent Reznor.
Today, Mason is a founder of Gotham FX. He is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts and the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School.