High School Musical 3 Senior Year - Behind the Scenes with the Filmmakers

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

KENNY ORTEGA (Director, Choreographer, Executive Producer) has amassed a body of work that is loved by millions worldwide. He is the director and choreographer of Disney Channel's Emmy Award®-winning "High School Musical" and the sequel "High School Musical 2."

Ortega created and directed the sold-out "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds" concert tour with special guests, Jonas Brothers. Spanning 70 dates and 58 cities in fall 2007 and winter 2008, the concert was filmed in state-of-the-art 3-D at several venues including Salt Lake City and St. Louis. The 3-D film, directed by Bruce Hendricks, produced by Art Repola, and featuring Ortega as he works with the young artists to prepare for the tour, was an unprecedented success.

He produces "High School Musical: The Ice Tour," which debuted in fall 2007, and served as creative director for "High School Musical: The Concert," which launched in fall 2006. The sold-out 42-date arena concert tour ran throughout North America and, after a break to film the sequel to the movie, carried on through spring 2007 in Latin America. Ortega also directed and choreographed the hugely popular Disney Channel Original Movie "The Cheetah Girls 2" in Barcelona, Spain.

He was nominated for a DGA Award for "High School Musical 2," which has been seen by more than 286 million television viewers worldwide. For the original 2006 movie, which has been seen by more than 255 million viewers worldwide, Ortega won the DGA Award and the Emmy Award® for outstanding choreography with his team, Bonnie Story and Charles Klapow. The trio is also among the honorees at Dance Camera West's inaugural Choreography Media Honors. The Imagen Foundation, which recognizes the positive portrayal of Latinos in media, honored Ortega with a Creative Achievement Award. Variety named Ortega Showman of the Year in Fall 2008.

He previously won two Emmy Awards® for Directing and Choreographing the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Ortega received the Career Achievement honor at the American Choreography Awards in 2004.

Born to first-generation Spanish parents in Redwood City, California, Ortega began his career at age 13, performing in plays and musicals, including the production of "Oliver" with Georgia Brown.

In the 1980s, he became known for his stage direction and choreography of The Tubes, ultimately catching the attention of singer Cher, who asked Ortega to choreograph her television special. He became the most sought-after choreographer for the industry's biggest musical artists, including Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Gloria Estefan, Elton John, Bette Midler and The Pointer Sisters.

When Ortega made the transition from stage choreography to film choreography, he had the honor of working with the legendary Gene Kelly on the feature film "Xanadu," and then again on Francis Ford Coppola's "One from the Heart." Kelly taught him how to design choreography for the camera. Ortega went on to choreograph the hit films "Dirty Dancing," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Pretty in Pink" and "St. Elmo's Fire."

Ortega directed Walt Disney Pictures' "Newsies" and "Hocus Pocus." He also directed episodes of "Gilmore Girls," "Ally McBeal," "Chicago Hope" and "Grounded for Life," garnering him an Emmy® nomination.

He has collaborated on numerous theatrical and large-scale outdoor spectacles. In the summer of 2007, he worked with Hugh Jackman on "The Boy from Oz" stadium tour in Australia. Ortega continues his work in Las Vegas, overseeing the production of "Lake of Dreams," a new outdoor, multimedia show for the Wynn Hotel, and co-producing the grand openings of Wynn Las Vegas, Bellagio and Wynn Macau (China) with Steve and Elaine Wynn. Ortega also choreographed the renowned dancing fountains outside the Bellagio Hotel.

BILL BORDEN (Producer) is the Emmy Award®-winning executive producer and creator of Disney Channel's smash hit movie "High School Musical," the sequel "High School Musical 2," and producer of the feature film "High School Musical 3: Senior Year."

He counts among his feature film producing credits "End of Days," "Get on the Bus," "Desperado," "The Cure," "A Midnight Clear," "The Man in the Moon," "La Bamba," "White Nights," "Home of Our Own" and "Against All Odds."

He served as executive producer on "In the Mix" with R&B artist Usher, Steven Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle" and Jackie Chan's "The Medallion." In addition, Borden was production executive of "Alien Nation," "Midnight Run" and the writer of the upcoming Columbia Pictures feature "The Moscow Rave," which shot in Russia. He also served as the supervising producer for foreign locations on "Mission Impossible III."

Borden is a principal at T&C Pictures, which has recently produced and financed several movies in the State of Utah including "Lock and Roll Forever" and for MTV "The American Mall."

In television, he executive produced the Disney Channel Original Movies "Tiger Cruise," "Ring of Endless Light" and "Ready to Run," as well as the network pilot "Alive & Kicking," and movies-of-the-week "Body Language," "Backfield in Motion" and "Blackout Effect."

He attended California State University Northridge and did his graduate studies at the University of International Arts in Florence, Italy, in the field of Art Restoration.

BARRY ROSENBUSH (Producer) is the Emmy Award®-winning executive producer and creator of Disney Channel's "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2," and producer of the feature film "High School Musical 3: Senior Year."

Rosenbush is a veteran in the entertainment business with a 30-year track record. After graduating New York University's Film School, he spent three years in the television commercial production business for Wakeford Orloff.

Rosenbush's first film production assistant jobs included working for Woody Allen on "Annie Hall," Gene Kirkwood on "Rocky" and Mardik Martin on "Raging Bull." Rosenbush launched his own career with projects at Lorimar and Hearst Entertainment, eventually joining Kirkwood's Koch/Kirkwood as vice president where he shepherded the films "Idolmaker," "Pope Of Greenwich Village," "A Night In Heaven," "Gorky Park," "The Keep" and "Ironweed."

In 1986, Rosenbush started his own production company ROSY BUSHES INC., where he worked on a number of projects with ABC, TNT, Columbia Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures, including "Infidelity," "Cold Sassy Tree," "Zelly & Me" and "The Fisher King." He formed a partnership with producer Bill Borden in 1990 and together they developed and produced the television movie "Backfield In Motion" for ABC.

In 1993, Rosenbush took a two-year sabbatical from show business to work as vice president of marketing for Hillside Coffee, assisting in taking the company public, and as a vice president of business development for United Investments, a venture capital firm.

Rosenbush rejoined Borden in 1995 to develop and produce a number of films and movies for television, including "Blackout Effect" and "Get On The Bus." In 1999, Borden and Rosenbush joined Beacon Pictures to work on the development of several film projects, including "Repairman Jack" from the F. Paul Wilson novels. In 2001, Rosenbush joined Dimension Pictures as a production executive on "Scary Movie 2," and in 2003, he worked with Bruce Beresford as a production executive on the HBO movie "And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself."

Rosenbush recently produced "American Pastime," "Animals," "The American Mall," "Lock and Roll Forever" and "It's The Music," which was shot in Russia for Sony International and CTC.

DON SCHAIN (Co-Producer) produced Disney Channel's "High School Musical 2" and the original "High School Musical," for which he won an Emmy Award® in the Outstanding Children's Programming category.

A veteran filmmaker, Schain produced more than 45 movies for big and small screens, including the Disney Channel Original Movies "Return to Halloweentown," "Read It and Weep," "Life Is Ruff," "Buffalo Dreams," "Halloweentown High," "Going to the Mat," "Pixel Perfect," "Right on Track," "The Luck of the Irish" and "Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire."

As producer, he oversaw production of the feature film "Little Secrets," starring Evan Rachel Wood and Michael Angarano, and was producer for "Deep Winter" and "The World's Fastest Indian," starring Anthony Hopkins. In addition, Schain produced the cable movies "Paradise," "Edge of America," "Maldonado Miracle," "Just a Dream," "Nobody's Baby," "Partners in Crime" and "The Runner."

From 1991-97, he was head of production for Leucadia Film Corporation and worked on such movies as "Just in Time," "Wish Upon a Star," "Windrunner," "Just Like Dad," "Breaking Free" and "Alan & Naomi."

Schain is the president of the Motion Picture Association of Utah.

PETER BARSOCCHINI (Writer) wrote the Emmy Award®-winning Disney Channel Original Movie "High School Musical" and its sequel "High School Musical 2." He was nominated for the prestigious Humanitas Prize for his work on the contemporary movie musical.

Barsocchini recently penned "Lock and Roll Forever." He is the writer and producer of the adventure thriller "Cuba and the Night," and is writing feature film and television projects for DreamWorks and HBO.

He began his professional writing career while attending high school in the San Francisco Bay Area, writing more than 300 columns about popular music for the San Mateo Times. He worked as a freelance stringer for the Associated Press and the San Francisco Examiner, as well as contributing reviews to the Associated Press and Rolling Stone. As a young journalist (age 16; he told editors he was 18), he spent weekends backstage at the legendary Fillmore West, covering artists such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, The Grateful Dead, the Kinks and Elton John.

Upon graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a degree in creative writing, Barsocchini was hired by the Merv Griffin Company as an interviewer for the Merv Griffin Show. In 1979, he was named producer, a position he held for seven years. He won two Emmy® Awards as producer of a talk/variety program, becoming the youngest talk-show producer ever to receive the award.

Barsocchini produced two primetime specials, "Secrets Women Never Share" and its sequel, "Secrets Men Never Share." He also produced a one-hour special at the White House, featuring President Ronald Reagan and Mrs. Reagan, and was granted rare access to the first family's private living quarters.

Barsocchini's first novel, "Ghost," was published to laudatory reviews in the late 1980s; Paramount purchased the screen rights, beginning Barsocchini's transition to the film business. His action/thriller screenplay "Drop Zone" was produced by Paramount and starred Wesley Snipes. Barsocchini also wrote the novel adaptation of "Mission Impossible," a book that was a bestseller in 13 countries.

DANIEL ARANYO, A.E.C. (Director of Photography) previously worked with director Kenny Ortega on the Disney Channel movies "The Cheetah Girls 2" and "High School Musical 2."

Aranyo has shot a variety of movies and commercials in the U.S. and Europe. He won Best Cinematography awards at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York for the movie "Cross Bronx," and at the Guadalajara Film Festival in Mexico for the movie "La Distancia." His work has been chronicled in The American Cinematographer magazine.

Aranyo was born in Barcelona, Spain, and graduated with an MFA in Cinematography at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

MARK HOFELING (Production Designer) is a frequent collaborator with Kenny Ortega, having served as production designer on "High School Musical," "High School Musical 2," as well as "The Cheetah Girls 2" for Disney Channel.

Hofeling is a 20-year industry veteran whose recent projects include the upcoming "Dadnapped" and "Minutemen" for Disney Channel, as well as "Read It and Weep."

Other film credits include "Edge of America," "The Substitute 3," "Just A Dream," "Nobody's Baby" and "Return to the Secret Garden."

Hofeling also has numerous television movies to his credit including "Life Is Ruff," "Go Figure," "Buffalo Dreams," and writer Sam Shepard's "See You In My Dreams."

His credits as art director include "The World's Fastest Indian" and "The Maldonado Miracle." He was assistant art director on "Con Air."

Recent projects of DON BROCHU (Editor) include MTV Films' "The American Mall" and Thomas Kinkade's "Home For Christmas."

His extensive film credits include "In The Mix," "The Medallion," "The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest," "Dudley Do-Right," "Blast from the Past," "Volcano," "Chain Reaction," "On Deadly Ground" and "The Fugitive," for which he was nominated for an Oscar®. Other credits include "Beyond the Law," "Under Siege," "Lock Up," "Mystic Pizza," "La Bamba," "Born in East L.A." and "The Slugger's Wife."

Brochu began his career as an assistant editor on films such as "Tootsie," "Against All Odds," "Out of Africa" and "Alien Nation."

CAROLINE B. MARX (Costume Designer) broke into the entertainment industry as a costumer on the popular FOX television series "In Living Color" where she learned both character definition with actors such as Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx and the Wayans Brothers, and the use of combining fashion/dancewear while working with the Fly Girls, including Rosie Perez, Carrie Ann Inaba and Jennifer Lopez.

After three successful seasons, Marx left the hit show to become a costume supervisor on several series such as "Martin" before transitioning into features as an assistant costume designer on several films, including "Color of Night" starring Bruce Willis, and "Glory Daze" starring Ben Affleck, Sam Rockwell and Matthew McConaughey.

In 1996 Marx became one of the youngest designers to join the ranks of the Costume Designers Guild and began her career as costume designer on Mike Binder's "The Sex Monster" and Daniel Water's "Happy Campers" Her original designs for the film "Happy Campers" were featured on MTV's "House of Style."

On the small screen, Marx has also created the "Look" for numerous network television series such as the award-winning "Gilmore Girls" and HBO's first sitcom "Lucky Louie."

Most recently, Marx designed the MGM comedy feature "College," directed by Deb Hagan, and the psychological thriller "The Killing Room," directed by Jonathan Liebesman and penned by Ann Peacock ("Chronicles of Narnia"). The film stars Chloe Sevigny, Nick Cannon, Peter Stormare and Tim Hutton, and will be released in early 2009.

Marx's costumes have been featured in many publications including Vogue, Spin, Paper and People magazines. Her costumes for "HSM3" have been featured on "Access Hollywood," "Extra," "Good Morning America" and the upcoming "Hollywood Green."

CHARLES "CHUCKY" KLAPOW (Choreographer) is choreographer of Disney Channel's Emmy Award®-winning "High School Musical" and its sequel "High School Musical 2." Klapow can also be seen in front of the camera as part of the Wildcat basketball team and a principal dancer in all three movies.

For his work on "High School Musical," Klapow won an Emmy® for Outstanding Choreography which he accepted with one of his mentors, Kenny Ortega, and fellow choreographer Bonnie Story. At the time, Klapow was the youngest person ever to win the Emmy for Choreography. The trio was also honored at Dance Camera West's 2007 and 2008 Choreography Media Honors.

In 2007, Klapow choreographed "High School Musical: The Ice Tour," just after choreographing and dancing in "High School Musical: The Concert," which launched in fall 2006. The sold-out 42-date arena concert toured throughout North America and Latin America.

Klapow's credits include the popular Disney Channel Original Movie, "The Cheetah Girls 2" and numerous national television commercials. He served for two seasons as co-director and choreographer of the Sparkids, a hip-hop squad that performs at all of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks home games.

Klapow began dancing at age 10; by age 12, he was dancing for Patti LaBelle, Celine Dion, Salt-N-Pepa, Melissa Etheridge and Sheila E., among others, in an all-star concert for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. He was featured in Paula Abdul's music video "Zip-A-Dee-Doo- Dah."

At age 15, while attending Van Nuys High School, Klapow was already assisting some of the most prominent choreographers of the time. He assisted Emmy Award®-winning choreographer and mentor Marguerite Derricks on "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," "3rd Rock from the Sun," "Fame L.A." and more.

In the 1990s, together with best friend Wade Robson, Klapow created a dance company called L.A. Images. He also choreographed music videos for Swedish pop group A*Teens and served as their tour director and choreographer for many years.

BONNIE STORY (Choreographer) is an Emmy Award®-winning choreographer for her work in "High School Musical." For that movie and its record-breaking sequel, "High School Musical 2," Story worked with acclaimed director and choreographer Kenny Ortega and Charles "Chucky" Klapow to create the critically acclaimed choreography.

Recent credits include the summer release from MTV Films' "The American Mall" and the feature "Lock and Roll Forever," along with the Sugar Bowl half-time show in New Orleans.

Story attended Juilliard, the School of American Ballet, New York; she was a Ballet West and William F. Christensen scholarship recipient at the University of Utah, and danced with Ballet West. As a principal dancer, she danced in several ballet companies then moved to Los Angeles to study jazz, funk, modern dance and acting.

Her television and film performer credits include national commercials for MasterCard, Pepsi with Michael J. Fox and Shaquille O'Neal, Diet Pepsi with Ray Charles, and AT&T. She also performed in many music videos including Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" and the MTV Anniversary Show.

As a professional choreographer, Story has worked with many of the most well-known choreographers and directors in the entertainment business, including Kenny Ortega, Vincent Paterson and Toni Basil. She was co-choreographer for the Opening and Closing ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the movie "America's Greatest Pastime." She also choreographed an episode of "Touched by an Angel," the Disney Channel Original Movie "Pixel Perfect" and an episode of "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," as well as numerous Disney Channel segments featuring Ashley Tisdale, Miley Cyrus and the Muppets.

Her other choreographer credits include assisting choreographer Vincent Paterson on a national Hummer 3 commercial, a Payless Shoe commercial in Canada, and a Norwegian Cruise Line national commercial. She also worked in Tokyo assisting and choreographing "Play Zone 2006," an ambitious stage show with some of the biggest music artists in Japan.

Throughout her career, she has taught classes in dance education at the University of Utah, as well as other master classes. Up until recently, she has been the Associate Artistic Director of Odyssey Dance Theatre.

The music of DAVID LAWRENCE (Composer) has been featured in some of the biggest pop-culture hits in movie, television and music.

The ASCAP Award-winning songwriter wrote the music scores for the feature films "American Pie," "American Pie 2," "Ambulance Girl," "Pop Rocks" and "Van Wilder." For television, his songs were used in "Jericho," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Miss Match" and "Still Life." He also wrote the score to Hallmark Channel's "Burt & Becca."

Lawrence, along with his wife and fellow composer Faye Greenberg, penned one of the most popular songs with kids and tweens, "Stick to the Status Quo," for the multi-Platinum soundtrack to "High School Musical," the #1-selling album of 2006. He also composed the score for the movie.

For the eagerly anticipated sequel "High School Musical 2," he and Greenberg co-wrote the songs "Fabulous" and "Humu Humu."

For the Platinum-selling soundtrack to the hit Disney Channel Original Movie "The Cheetah Girls 2," Lawrence wrote the underscore, the bilingual ballad "A La Nanita Nana" and, with Greenberg, the song "It's Over."

Lawrence's songs have been recorded by Earth Wind & Fire, Diane Schuur, Randy Graff, Ann-Margret, Raven-Symone and Faith Prince.

He is a graduate of New York's Mannes College of Music.

STEVEN VINCENT (Music Supervisor) is vice president, music and soundtracks, Disney Channel, a role he was promoted to in November 2007.

He is responsible for supervising the music used in original programming for kids and tweens seen on Disney Channel and series for kids age 6-11 seen on the Jetix action/adventure block. His job duties also extend to programming on ABC Family, part of Disney-ABC Television Group.

Vincent's duties also include advising and collaborating with TV series and TV movie producers on licensed music and working with recording artists, lyricists and composers in conjunction with Disney Publishing, Walt Disney Records, Hollywood Records and Radio Disney.

His hits for Walt Disney Records include the soundtrack to the Disney Channel Original Movie "High School Musical 2," which debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts; "Jump In" and "The Cheetah Girls 2" which debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. The quadruple-Platinum-selling soundtrack for "High School Musical" made history as the first TV movie soundtrack to reach #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, as well as entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart with an unprecedented nine songs. It was the top-selling album in 2006.

On the series side, the Disney Channel comedy series "Hannah Montana" has spawned two #1 albums - the double-Platinum "Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus" and the certified triple-Platinum "Hannah Montana."

Among Vincent's other credits are the hugely popular soundtracks in the DCOM franchise "The Cheetah Girls," which yielded a double-Platinum-selling soundtrack, five other DCOM soundtrack albums and dozens of other Disney Channel Original Movies and series.

In 2006, Vincent's extensive resume of creative and technical credits qualified him to become a recording voting member of the Grammy Awards®. In 2008, he was elected Governor of the Los Angeles Chapter of The Recording Academy.

High School Musical 3 Senior Year Interview The Story Continues www.girl.com.au/high-school-musical-3-senior-year-interview.htm
High School Musical 3 Senior Year Cast www.girl.com.au/high-school-musical-3-senior-year-cast.htm
High School Musical 3 Senior Year All Dressed Up on Location www.girl.com.au/high-school-musical-3-senior-year-backgrounder.htm
High School Musical 3 Senior Year - Behind the Scenes with the Filmmakers www.girl.com.au/high-school-musical-3-senior-year-filmmakers.htm