Justin Channell
director/editor/co-writer/co-producer
Justin Channell began making no-budget digital short films with his close friends Zane Crosby and Joshua Lively when he was only 14 years old. At the age of 15, he was running the official fan site for film distributor Troma Entertainment.
When his 17th birthday rolled around, Channell was midway through production on his first feature film, the vampire comedy RAISING THE STAKES. Shot on a shoestring budget of $150, the low-budget comedy managed to make a splash on the independent film scene. Channell shot, directed, edited, and produced the film, sometimes even shooting with himself as the only crew member, to conserve the film's meager funds
RAISING THE STAKES won 1st Place at the West Virginia International Film Festival's Student Competition and Channell was awarded Outstanding Art Student 2005 by the Marion County Arts and Humanities Commission. The film never saw a major release, but still managed to gain an audience through word-of-mouth and online sales. One supporter of the film was Tom Root, the head writer of Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken, who left a very positive review on the film's IMDb.com entry.
Channell began production on his second feature film, DIE AND LET LIVE in the summer of 2006. Working with a larger budget and a more ambitious script (which he and longtime collaborators Crosby and Lively spent over a year developing), the film recieved praise from the horror community and was picked up for distribution by Heretic Films. The DVD is set to hit stores on January 29th, 2008.
Currently, Channell is enrolled as a broadcast journalism student at West Virginia University and writes film articles for the student newspaper The Daily Athenaeum. He is currently developing a segment for the FACES OF SCHLOCK horror anthology titled "The Ghost of Mike", as well as a new feature film, tentatively titled THE MOLD.