Team
Three people, one crew. Click a name above to jump straight to their section.
Ryan McDonald
Ryan is an Ogden native who graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2009 with a degree in Film. He made his feature debut in 2020 with the iPhone-shot "Married and Loving It!," which went on to travel the festival circuit and pick up awards including Best Screenplay and Best Mobile Feature Film.
His second feature, "Left for Dead," is a post-apocalyptic thriller shot over 17 days on location across Utah. Outside of production work, Ryan founded Ogden's Big Lebowski Fest, hosted annually at Peery's Egyptian Theater, which grew from a small house party into one of the city's recurring traditions.
Directed by Ryan McDonald — Left for Dead Pitch Video
Brandie Lee McDonald
Brandie writes and directs across both comedy and drama. She wrote and directed "Convicts & Chocolate," a "Con Air"/"Forrest Gump" mashup short filmed on the actual retired "Con Air" aircraft at Wendover Airfield, which went on to win Best Use of Theme at the Carbon Shortcuts Film Festival.
She has credits on more than a dozen local and international productions, including work with UK-based Raya Films, and co-hosts Ogden's Big Lebowski Fest alongside Ryan at Peery's Egyptian Theater.
Jason White
Jason is a writer, director, and producer with associations to 37 different productions, including 3 feature films and 11 award-winning productions. He has produced a total of 27 films, written more than 20 scripts that have been produced, directed 8 short films, and directed 1 feature-length film, "The Truth About Us."
Most recently, Jason's script "Obsession" has been accepted into 11 script competitions, selected as a quarterfinalist and semifinalist, and has won 3 awards for best feature-length script. He's also an alumnus of the 2023 Slamdance Scriptwriters Showcase for emerging screenwriters, hosted by AGBO Films.
Jason holds a Master of Arts in English. For his final project in that program, he wrote a full-length play, which he later adapted into his first feature credit, "The Truth About Us." Along with childhood friend and fellow filmmaker Ryan McDonald and a few other filmmakers, he co-founded the nonprofit New Ogden Cinema, which promotes filmmaking and film education through the production of cinema and has produced or assisted with several features and more than a dozen short films.
Jason is also head writer on the web series "Proper Manors," where he's writing the bulk of the first two seasons while keeping each episode's story arcs and character consistency on track. Season one is fully written, and season two's plot is already mapped out and ready for production. Directors with a strong visual and narrative sense of storytelling — along with dramatists and theater directors who've moved into film — have been a major influence on his writing and directing style.