Matthew Ballen

Currently writing projects for Academy Award winning producer Quirin Berg (The Lives of Others) and German feature film director Simon Verhoeven, who's film Mannerherzen premiered #1 at the German box office.

Past projects include:

FATTIES, an original dark cult comedy that won second place in TwitPitch, a screenplay competition by ScriptShadow – one of Hollywood's largest screenwriting communities (www.scriptshadow.net).

HOLLRIEGEL, a screenplay polish for director Simon Verhoeven.

Creative Director and Screenplay Consultant for boutique screenplay analysis, development and marketing firm based in New York City. Our writers and projects have placed in the top 10 of the Slamdance Screenplay Competition, been optioned by A Band Apart (Quentin Tarantino's company), been optioned through Inktip.com, and gone on to work with top level managers and production companies, including Anonymous Content.

Producer for approximately 40 web videos for the Onion, including This Week In History, Behind The Pen, Onion Special Reports and the Onion Weather Center. Also helped produce branded entertainment videos for Onion collaborations with Budweiser/Shocktop and 7/Eleven.

Responsibilities included everything from casting, locations, creating and managing budgets, overseeing production and supervising post-production to occasional directing, editing, VFX directing and assistant directing.

The Onion. Producer for approximately 40 web videos for the Onion (www.theonion.com), including This Week In History, Behind The Pen, Onion Special Reports and the Onion Weather Center. Also helped produce branded entertainment videos for Onion collaborations with Budweiser/Shocktop and 7/Eleven.

Handsome Experts. Writer/director/producer for www.handsomeexperts.com. Small collective with past experience at SNL Digital Shorts, Vimeo, Kickstarter and more. Our comedy shorts have been featured on Huffington Post, The Daily What, Jezebel, College Humor, Laughing Squid and ABCNews.com, as well as the homepages of Funny or Die, Nerve.com, and Vimeo.com.

Dow Jones/Scott Dikkers Studios. Producer and Assistant Director for "DJFX," a set of branded entertainment videos for Dow Jones' Foreign Exchange software platform, written/directed by Scott Dikkers (co-founder and general manager of The Onion.)

Producer of web pilot "Everything Is Awful" for the website My Damn Channel (producers of Wainy Days, Daily Grace and Inside Carly).

Director and Co-Writer of primary video for the Naked Cowboy's New York City mayoral campaign. Worked with co-writers Naked Cowboy and Patrick Sutherland of interactive media agency Direct Ignition to re-brand Naked as a (somewhat) viable mayoral candidate –www.youtube.com/watch?v=T65BY0n4ito

Contributing Writer and Script Consultant for "AllaKattan!" -- a three-part cable promo for IFC starring veteran Saturday Night Live actor Chris Kattan. The promo was created in association with the IFC mini-series Bollywood Hero, also starring Kattan, and sponsored by the Palm Pre.

Also served as on-set consultant alongside director and producer John Rosenblatt (www.roseymedia.com) as well as producer and head writer Brian Townes.

Writer/producer/director of national TV spots, radio commercials and high-end corporate videos. Projects also include identity, branding and web-based creative. Clients include Intelligent Office, Repechage, PrintPOD.

Screenplay coverage. General production office assistance.