Reyshan Parker

Since he was handed his first video camera at the age of eleven, Reyshan Parker has dreamed of the entertainment business. As a child Reyshan wrote and directed a series of super hero shorts called “Quickman” and dabbled in a bit of Lego animation. Editing from the camcorder to a VCR, he also watched his father build computers and the young boy imagined the possibilities if the two were combined. Reyshan excelled in the theatre department in high school, acting in numerous full-length plays and being accepted to the prestigious Acting Ensemble; the members of which wrote and directed skits that were then toured around the state.

After heading to college for acting, Reyshan soon found writing to be his passion and completed his B.F.A. in playwriting with a minor in Film at Ohio University in 2007. While studying under Charles Smith and Erik Ramsey, he wrote several full length plays, most notably Risk, Best Intentions, and Strike: The Musical, an Appalachian Comedy, that won the Humble Play playwrights festival in 2007, and was then produced by ARTSwest theatre company in 2008 to excellent revues.

Also in 2007 Reyshan wrote, directed and produced Casual Fine Dining, a mocu-mentary about a small town restaurant. The film was lightly based on his fifteen years of bussing, waiting tables, bartending, and managing the front of house in 3 star restaurants. He followed it up with Poor Crusader’s, a documentary on the Appalachian economy, Disorder, a short about a PTSD soldier, and The Closet, a psychological ghost thriller.

Reyshan got the idea for a feature film entitled Noir, before heading to the Savannah College of Art and Design where he studied Producing under Andrew Meyer, Directing under Lubomir Kocka, and Screenwriting Under Michael Nolin, David Engelbach and Amy Maddox. The next three years of this young artist’s life were spent dedicated to developing the complex story perspective, keeping in mind financial feasibility with regards to each aspect of the filmmaking process. During this time he also wrote and directed, The Man who Wouldn’t Listen, directed, Marias Ghost, and Elderado, produced a beautiful little short called, Phillip, shot Noir.0: The prologue which was nominated for a Scademy Award, and has since published the Novel version of Noir as well as the first two Comic Books in the Graphic Novel series, while in pre-production for the feature film version of Noir.

Reyshan currently resides in Savannah, GA where he is putting together, a what he calls, Independent Lasagna: The Independents Guide to the Feature… “keep it simple stupid”. Which will be a free guide book and online graduate video lecture course on how to make feature films, basically for the cost of food… Needless to say there are a lot of layers.