Dan Damman started his career in comedy as a weekend player with a group at The Second City in Chicago. He came to San Francisco and the post facility, Rough House Editorial, where he worked on narrative films, documentaries, and commercials.

 

After co-writing a musical comedy with Chris Thomas, the two partnered to form Potluck Productions to pursue self-initiated creative projects and filmmaking. The company specializes in using humor as a hook whenever possible.

 

Dan served as Head of Production for the online video website, Sports ID, where he oversaw all aspects of production, writing, and editing for over 1,300 instructional sports videos, directing athletes like Bill Walton, Gabrielle Reece, and John Elway.  He has worked as a freelance Director/Producer for Levi Strauss & Co since 1998 creating content for internal purposes, the web, and for their flagship stores (other clients include Mervyn’s, AT&T, Netforce, and Cisco Systems.)

 

Dan recently completed a year as an “Artist in Residence” at the San Francisco Film Society’s FilmHouse along with a dozen other independent filmmakers and producers.

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Chris Thomas recently completed a year long residency at the San Francisco’s FilmHouse. He and Dan formed Potluck Productions in 2004, producing web videos and providing live streaming and media services for San Francisco businesses and nonprofits. After graduating from MIT with a double Master’s degree in Technology and Policy, Chris spent several years working on environmental protection and poverty alleviation projects in Colombia, Mongolia, and Oakland, CA.

 

In 2003 he began to focus on provocative story telling as a method for social change. He co-wrote, directed, and produced the musical comedy Goin’ Dot Com! and then a successful comedic political commercial for Moveon.org before co-founding Potluck. He also ran the game changing “Do More Than Vote” civic engagement campaign in 2006, and Video the Vote in 2008, a national campaign to film voting booths for irregularities on election-day, producing 1000 videos in 24 hours.

 

Chris and Dan have been co-hosting “Script to Screen” for five years, a monthly event that brings together the SF film community to read scripts, watch films, and have nerdy conversations about theme, metaphor, and story.