Thought Division - media collective

Monty Lapica is the founder and managing director of Thought Division, a multifaceted production company with offices in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. He is an award-winning film director and technology entrepreneur. Monty is also the founder and managing partner of Coloma Ventures, a Las Vegas based venture capital group with a focus on Internet based start-ups.

“Self-Medicated,” Monty’s debut feature, which he wrote, directed, and co-produced at age 24, was the winner of 39 international film awards – the most of any independent film in its year of release – including the top prize at the Australian International Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize at the Rome Film Festival, and the PRISM Award. “Self-Medicated” went on to be acquired by Lionsgate and was released in theaters nationwide and overseas.

Born and raised in Las Vegas, Monty was the recipient of two academic scholarships graduating Magna Cum Laude from Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television in just three years. Monty has merged his film background and passion for technology to create numerous ecommerce initiatives. He is the founder of Recognition Networks, a web based company responsible for discovering and lauding thousands of talented artists around the world, with annual events taking place in numerous destination cities across the U.S. and abroad. Monty is also the creator of the internet sensation Facebook app, “Break-Up Alert,” which went viral and received international media attention within 48 hours of launch.

Monty’s work has been recognized by publications such as the New York Times, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post, USA Today, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Times of India, and The Boston Globe. He has been invited to lecture at a variety of institutions including the University of Utah, Loyola Marymount University, Santa Monica College, churches and community outreach groups. Las Vegas Mayor, Oscar Goodman, honored the achievements of Monty and his producing partner by formally declaring August 31st to be “Monty Lapica and Tommy Bell Day.”

Monty is firmly entrenched in the Las Vegas arts community and is the founder and president of the Las Vegas International Film Festival, the state’s premiere independent film event. He serves on the Board of Directors of the United States Tennis Association – Nevada and is an advisory board member of the Marty Hennessy Junior Tennis Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships and educational opportunities for underprivileged youths through tennis.

In his free time, Monty unwinds in the snowboard parks of Mammoth Mountain, California, where he was a competitive ski racer as a child. He’s a fanatical tennis player, loves “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and believes avocados and sushi are the world’s best foods. His next film project is titled “Methodical,” a crime drama based on an original screenplay of his.

Timothy Kendall is responsible for creating searing visuals and unforgettable images for many of the world’s top brands. As a graduate of the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Mr. Kendall is a multi-disciplinary talent who has refined his filmmaking and technical skills since childhood, receiving numerous major awards in virtually every aspect of production and post.

Early on, Mr. Kendall honed his skills as an editor, cutting several hundred commercials and independent film projects. His focus on story and character garnered attention and soon he was hired to direct second-unit on feature films. “Self-Medicated,” his first foray into long-form content, went on to win 39 international film awards, was acquired by Lionsgate and released in theaters nationwide and abroad.

Mr. Kendall was recognized for his talents as a commercial director at a young age. His first Nike spot, which he conceived, directed, and created visual effects, won the Kodak Student Achievement Award and was included in the archives of the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. From there, Mr. Kendall quickly became a sought-after presence in international advertising, directing countless commercials for many of the world’s most recognizable brands including campaigns for McDonalds, IKEA, Walmart, M&M’s, NASCAR, Kit-Kat, H&R Block, Clarks, Buffalo Wild Wings and professional sports franchises Phoenix Suns and St. Louis Cardinals.

Mr. Kendall has won virtually every major advertising award across varying campaigns, including multiple Telly Awards, several Addy Awards, several Clios, AICPs, and an Emmy. His work has been showcased by top ad agencies and publications including Saatchi and Saatchi at the Cannes Film Festival as part of their “Commercials of the Future” series as well as by Shoot Magazine in their feature “Young Directors to Watch.”

Mr. Kendall’s has a master’s expertise in visual effects and has been invited to lecture at Pasadena City College on the subjects of Maya software, 3D modeling, and animation in Media Arts. Between directing commercials, Mr. Kendall has co-created a slew of web series and viral internet sensations, having surpassed several million views on YouTube combined. Recently, Mr. Kendall sold his hit web series “LA I.C.E.” to Fremantle Media LTD to be developed for Canadian television.

In his free time, Mr. Kendall ponders whether anyone actually reads bios.

Toni Gemayel is an entrepreneur, software developer and startup enthusiast. He frequently speaks at tech conferences about WordPress, web performance, and agile web development. He brings industry experience in web apps, mobile apps, infrastructure, cloud based technology, data aggregation, the real time web and a great deal of open source technology.

Toni founded Two Giraffes, an award winning development agency that works with startups to build well thought out, pixel perfect websites. Toni also built Wake Forest University’s website, which is one of the largest WordPress installations of their 30 million active sites. Wfu.edu was awarded to the WordPress showcase. He is also a open source contributor to WordPress, having written almost a dozen plugins.

Toni built Fonadu.com, one of the first HTML5 ad networks on the web, serving an estimated 2 million users a month. Fonadu is one the top ad networks for bloggers, and has acquired a majority the top 1% of bloggers. Fonadu also serves mobile ads, making it the only food blog network of its kind.

Toni has worked with some of the top web agencies in the world, and brings a wealth of experience of web traffic. His current network of sites he has built in the last 36 months reach in excess of 8 million people a year.

Jonden Jackson is Director of Web Design and Development for Thought Division and brings over ten years of experience in top-tier website design, website development, and branding. Jonden has lent his expertise and talent to many highly regarded web agencies, founding his first start up venture, Ectomachine, along with web agency, Forefathers, for which he serves as co-founder and creative director of design and development.

Evolving from a very broad design-based background, Jonden has worked with a large clientele consisting of start up ventures, national chains, international artists and musicians alike. From the nascent foundations of conceptual projects, to the end goals and completions for devoted clients, Jonden has overseen and worked closely alongside companies and clients for proof in numbers results.

Born in London, 1969, Robert Gallagher currently resides in Santa Monica, California. Photography became something more to him after studying W. Eugene Smith and Richard Avedon’s “In The American West.” From then on, he realized he wanted to capture the essence of people in pictures.

In December 2001, two months after the day that changed the world, Robert’s first solo exhibition, “Ground Hero – Portraits of September 11,” was featured by ABC News. He is a regular contributor to TIME, Sports Illustrated, Empire and People magazines, and his portfolio includes Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Tom Cruise. Robert’s work has been exhibited in Paris, London and Los Angeles and he is proud to have his work archived in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery in London.

As a kid, Robert fell off a six foot wall backwards onto concrete… on his head. As a teenager, he delivered newspapers in snow, driving rain and biting wind on dark winter mornings. Not fun. He served many pints in North East England pubs, one time got punched, kept serving. Also not much fun. Early in career shot Deepak Chopra, accidentally referred to him as Tupak. Doesn’t think he even noticed. Can’t pronounce his r’s, which is a shame when you consider his name. Can talk backwards (perhaps due to the fall). Life lessons so far – you always have to be able to laugh!

Rodrigo Damián Fernandez is a master of digital fine art and among the world’s top illustrators. He specializes in album artwork for musicians, illustration for book covers, magazines covers, movie posters, advertisements, and countless other graphic pieces.

Rodrigo has won numerous major awards for digital art and photography including multiple first place awards across various competition categories at the prestigious Biennial of Young Art. His work has been featured in several leading digital art and illustration publications around the world including Magazine Arte y Diseño por Ordenador, The Big Book of Contemporary Illustration, and Illustration Now published by Taschen.

Rodrigo’s work was selected as the cover art for three books in the Basal Colleccion Library including The Interpretation of Dreams, Selected Tales of Sherlock Holmes, and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Born and raised in Las Vegas, Jared has built an impressive resume of experience in a broad range of industries, beginning in Las Vegas and expanding to Eastern Europe.

After leaving the United States in 2005, Jared travelled to more than 30 countries in search of broadening his horizons and understanding the world business markets. Settling down in Paris, France, he studied business marketing and international economics at the prestigious American Business School of Paris.

Shortly after completing school, Jared founded two companies, a nightclub and event management company in Paris, France and a web development and design company in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Jared has extensive expertise in the creation and development of digital advertising content, custom websites, mobile applications, and enterprise level software solutions. Jared has devoted clients in several countries across two continents and continues to create exciting new digital solutions for businesses across the globe.

Jared speaks four languages, his native English, French, Spanish and Russian.

Brenton Covington is an award-winning live action director based in Los Angeles, California. He has produced and directed four feature films, plus over 80 short films and commercials in North America and Asia. He began his career as a stage lighting and sound technician in 1996, then in 1998 he moved into film and video production. He graduated top of his class in kindergarten, and has a fancy for Legos and the color yellow. Other favorites include, chess, hockey and pretending to be taller than he actually is.

Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Nathan moved to Los Angeles to further his studies of the arts, acting, directing, and all things cinematic. Since then he’s written, produced, & directed numerous projects of varying length & style. Nathan prides himself in maintaining the highest standard of excellence in all of his work.

Lorenzo de Guia is a fashion and portrait photographer with an affinity for the cinematic. Recent projects include a lookbook for accessories brand Bloom Bazaar and New York designer Marissa Senzon for her line By Chance as well as portrait photography of Craig Ferguson for his comedy tour Does This Need To Be Said.

His work could also have been seen at this year’s Sundance film festival for the film experience dubbed Pandemic’s. During his past career as a commercial director, he directed award winning spots including Beep! for The Hard Rock Hotel and the VoCAPulary campaign for Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop among others.

When de Guia isn’t taking photos, he is often traveling cross country barefoot, raising a family of endangered Asiatic black bears, or making cous cous. He currently lives in New York City with his girlfriend and their cat, Arsenio Hall.

Sammy J. Vassilev is an internationally recognized and published commercial photographer and motion picture cinematographer. Over the last 17 years, Mr. Vassilev has worked as a photographer / cinematographer in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago and Europe for several leading photography companies, production companies and ad agencies.

Sammy’s education in photography and art began at the age of 8. At 16, Mr. Vassilev arrived in America, landing in New York City with four hundred dollars in his pocket and not a word of English. He overcame staggering odds to enjoy a flourishing photography and film career, becoming a leader in his field. Sammy’s photography career began in communist Bulgaria in the early 1980’s and eventually segued into photography / cinematography for national and international television commercials, music videos, feature films, documentaries and print campaigns. Sammy has shot over 80 internationally broadcast music videos for MTV, BET, VH1 and various international television networks along with over 80 internationally broadcast TV commercials and 7 feature films.

In May 1995 Sammy graduated from Northwestern Business College in Chicago with a degree in Business Management. In August of 1995 Sammy relocated to Las Vegas to study film at University of Nevada Las Vegas. In 1996 Sammy received a diploma from NY Institute of Photography where he completed a Master Photography Course. In 1998, Sammy became US Vice Champion in his sport of Skysurfing – only 20 people in the world have competed in this sport due to the high risks involved. In 2000 Sammy was selected as the “Bulgarian of the Year” in Chicago by the community and the media along with Hristo Stoychkov, one of the world’s foremost soccer players. This prestigious award was bestowed to “The Bulgarian who has achieved the highest achievements in the US and representing the Bulgarian community with top honors” as voted by the Bulgarian community and press.

In 2003 Sammy was accepted in the International Cinematographer’s Guild – Hollywood, California, which is the most prestigious Guild for Photographers and Cinematographers in the world. Mr. Vassilev is fluent in English, Bulgarian and speaks some Russian and Serbian.

With over eight years of sales and marketing experience, Shane Stuart serves as Director of Marketing for Thought Division.

An award-winning documentary filmmaker in his own right, Shane produced and directed the innovative and poignant documentary, Heart of a King, which chronicles the lives of four unique Elvis impersonators as they set out to follow their dreams.

Voula Konstantarakis serves as the Office Manager of Thought Division and has over ten years of professional experience in office administration with an emphasis on human resources, employee relations, recruiting, personnel development, and team building.

She is responsible for managing all aspects of office organization, productivity, and administrative support. She directly supports the Managing Director and Creative Director with production implementation, new project initiatives and engagement.

Voula holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame. She is also a graduate of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas where she earned two Bachelor’s Degrees in Business and Criminal Justice and a Minor in Business Law.