Damon Wellner

Damon Wellner is a filmmaker, videographer, and effects designer currently working in Los Angeles.

OBEY

A film school dropout and part-time musician in Boston from 1990-2000, Damon met most of his Probot collaborators among the artists and performers in the Boston/Allston Rock scene. First playing bass for Sebastian O'Brien's psychedelic rock group, OBEY, and later for the pop band LIFESTYLE, led by synth-pop innovator Sean T Drinkwater.

LIFESTYLE

In early 1998, Damon began experimenting with ToyCinema with friends who were also avid toy collectors. Probot Productions was hatched out of the elaborate action-figure battles staged by Damon and his friends, and a desire to capture the fun and creative inspiraton toys can bring. Their first big project took 6 months to shoot. Damon had no editing facilities so the entire movie was shot in sequence and edited in-camera. ProbotProductions.com went online January 1999 featuring Damon's directorial debut, ALIEN 5.

Damon and TeamProbot produced several shorts between 1998 and 2000, including the Farrah mini-series, and the Probot website soon developed a cult fan base. Professor Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at M.I.T., included Damon and Probot Productions in an essay about Digital Cinema and a new trend of indie filmmaking called Media Convergence. Probot has since been picked up as part of the syllabus of several schools and universities, including the University of Wisconsin... not bad for a film school dropout!

PREQUEL, Damon's epic Star Wars parody, caught the attention of Hasbro, Inc. makers of the Star Wars toy line. In the spring of 2000, Damon was approached to create a new Action Figure Theater for Hasbro's Official Star Wars website featuring short homages to the STAR WARS Saga. His first paid job as a director was a 45 second recreation of the lightsaber battle from The Phantom Menace. A dream came true for Damon when he got to make the Official action-figure version of STAR WARS: A New Hope!

In September, 2000 Damon decided to get serious about moviemaking and relocated Probot Productions HQ to Los Angeles. As he began his freelancing career in Hollywood, Damon began to realize that "real" moviemaking was not all that different than his Probot experience. He has accumulated countless hours of on-set experience over the years on all types of productions: 6 feature films, print ads, commercials, music videos, etc. One of his most notable jobs was as an effects assistant and puppeteer on a Telly award winning TV ad campaign for Greyhound Bus. In 2005, he was Prop Master on a movie called Legacy (in post-production now).

In L.A. Damon has expanded Probot beyond Toy Cinema, producing TV spots for local businesses.

In 2003 and 2004, Damon learned more about the professional techniques of visual effects, miniature photography, and pyrotechnics, while working for Fantasy II Film Effects. Damon learned the art and craft of old-school effects from Academy Award winning Effects Master, Gene Warren Jr. (Terminator, T2). Damon assisted the model-makers and pyrotechnics crews, creating several special visual effects sequences for big budget Hollywood features including Hellboy, Resident Evil 2, and The Punisher. Damon has also worked with stop-motion ledgends, the Chiodo Bros., makers of Team America.

Damon has used what he learned from his Hollywood VFX production experience to increase the production values at Probot. His latest movie, ALIEN 5², shows how far they've come.

Currently Damon is in preproduction on an all new animated feature done in his unique Probot style, featuring all original characters and story by Sebastian O'Brien. This project is what Probot has been building towards from the beginning. It will launch Probot beyond the realm of FanFilms and into uncharted territory...