ABOUT FIRE TRIAL FILMS
Filmmakers Ryan Stevens Harris and John Michael Elfers are the award-winning team at Fire Trial Films — a boutique production company focused on 35mm. The full-service company handles projects from pre-production to post and owns and maintains its own equipment, including a fleet of film cameras, vintage lenses and support, grip and lighting as well as 4K film scanning. Past features include “Beyond White Space” (2018), “Discarnate” (2018) and “Finale” (2010).
JOHN MICHAEL ELFERS
By age 18 Elfers shot a no-budget digital feature and moved from Ohio to Los Angeles. After graduating magna cum laude from USC in 3 1/2 years, he formed Fire Trial Films with collaborator Ryan Stevens Harris. Elfers’ debut feature, Finale (2010), shot stylishly on Super 16mm and boasting all in-camera practical effects, played top genre festivals (Screamfest, Film4Frightfest, Fantasporto, etc) and won a slew of awards, culminating in worldwide distribution by Image Ent. Since then, he's been a gun-for-hire on 4 other features, directing additional scenes to fix story issues and increase production value. His award-winning screenwriting also landed him on the Blood List. He resides in Hollywood, developing his follow-up features, Kiss Before the Slaughter and Voracious, while writing Horror / Thriller features on assignment.
RYAN STEVENS HARRIS
Harris is an award-winning filmmaker and exhibited artist. He studied filmmaking in London and at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. From there, he founded Fire Trial Films and lensed the award-winning supernatural horror film, Finale (2009), utilizing an eclectic fleet of S16mm cameras. Harris' directorial debut, Virus X (2010), a tech-noir shot on a shoestring budget, was released by Lionsgate. In 2016, Harris directed "Whisper", an animated music video for the indie band Playing to Vapors that was featured in a special showcase at the SXSW Film Festival. Multi-talented, Harris edited three features released on Netflix, 2307: Winter's Dream (2016), Darc (2018), and the Netflix original The Hard Way (2019). He also cut Watchtower (2019), which was nominated for two Emmys and premiered at the short corner at the Cannes Film Festival. Harris sound-designed promos for Roland Emmerich on Independence Day Resurgence (2016), which led to work as Additional Sound Designer and Additional Editor on the $100M Lionsgate war-epic Midway (2019), which was #1 at the Box Office upon its release. Most recently, Harris wrote and directed his second feature, Moon Garden, a lush dark fantasy shot on expired 35mm film stock with vintage lenses. Harris currently resides in Los Angeles.
WOLFGANG MEYER
Wolfgang Meyer is a cinema-warrior with a 17 year devotion to feature filmmaking. NYU trained, he spent 8 years directing, producing and crewing features & TV in New York, before descending upon LA, where he’s focused on cinematography. He’s DP’d genre features with legends such as Tony Todd, James Duval, Michael Berryman, Angus Scrimm, Linea Quigley, Debbie Rochon, and Brinke Stevens. And on the side, he’s tackled music videos written up by Rolling Stone, with such stars as Sting, Moby, LP, and Berlin. His latest feature, shot on Super 35mm, boasts absolutely stunning imagery and camera work. Give him coffee and cigarettes, he’ll outwork and outlast anyone.
KEVIN JAMES BARRY
Kevin James Barry has studied art independently since he was 13. While still in high-school he was accepted into the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts for painting, and soon after discovered a passion for filmmaking. He graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with honors, while simultaneously directing his award-winning first feature film “Serena and the RATTS”, which sold for distribution in North America and Japan. His second feature "Among Them" just released in North America, Japan, Germany, and the UK. Kevin has freelanced for over 10 years as DP, Camera-Op, 1st AC, Editor and VFX Compositor — applying his painter’s-eye to composition and framing, with prominent clients and talent such as Absolut, Estée Lauder, Clarins, ABC, Nerdist, Joss Whedon, Nikki Minaj, Robert RIchardson, Top Rank Boxing and The Briggs. Currently residing in Los Angeles, he continues impressing clients with his on-set precision and attention to detail, while developing his own upcoming features.
MICHAEL ELKIN
Michael Elkin, Esq. is a Los-Angeles-based entertainment attorney. A graduate of the UCLA School of Law, Elkin provides the company in-house legal council, specializing in independent film production, finance and distribution, as well as working with many writers, directors and producers. Elkin and his firm, Elkin Gamboa & Ashkinadze LLP, represent Fire Trial Films in all legal manners and negotiations.