The Purple Glasses

A lover of movies from a young age Susan decided to shift careers from Sports Medicine to the Entertainment Industry after moving from New York to Los Angeles. She first started out working behind the scenes as a Production Coordinator which quickly led to working in the field of film & television development. While in development Susan’s love of story and screenplays blossomed. 

Wanting a more hands on experience within film and television she trained at UCLA’s Entertainment Studies Program in the craft of Script Supervising. Since then she’s had the opportunity to be a part of over forty projects where she’s worked and collaborated with professionals at the top of their fields. She’s now combining this experience and directing her first short film, The Purple Glasses which is based on how she met her best friend in middle school.

Luke Miller is a multi-talented cinematographer who has strengthened a variety of projects across television and film. Most notably, Luke served as director of photography on the final seasons of Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sam Waterston and Martin Sheen.

Approaching filmmaking in general from a holistic point of view, Luke believes that all decisions matter to the final product and need to work together in concert, from the aspect ratio, to the lenses, to the set design, wardrobe and props. He prides himself on being a problem solver on set, and works diligently to elevate any project, find the best way to put the director’s vision on screen, and offer up additional ideas that are harmonious.

Originally from a small farm town west of Chicago, Luke currently resides in Los Angeles. When not on set, you’ll find him riding his bike up a mountain (sometimes with his daughter in tow), or enjoying a film in the theater he designed and built in his backyard.

Brent McHenry is an award-winning Los Angeles-based director, creative producer, and lover of Story + Light + Movement + Music. Residing in Los Angeles for over 15 years, Brent has helmed productions for countless clients, agencies, artists, and fellow filmmakers. While sharing love for multiple genres, his true passion lies in visually stunning, emotionally provocative, character-driven dramas, nail-biting thrillers, and absurd comedies. As a producer, Brent’s films have screened in countless festivals across the world, from Tribeca to the European circuit and nearly everywhere else in between. 

Because of repeated, unsupervised exposure to Star Wars and Jurassic Park at an early age, Brent plans to one day venture to the outer reaches of space and/or recklessly joyride through a minimum security dinosaur theme park in a 1993 Ford Explorer with Jeff Goldblum riding shotgun.

Autumn Palen is a graduate from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she obtained a B.F.A. in Film & TV Production. She has completed artistic residencies in the realm of photography and videography through Getaway Cabins in Boston, De Licerias 18 in Porto, Maajaam in southern Estonia, and virtually through Barcelona's Cel Del Nord. She has contributed short narrative works to Penny Thoughts, Dipsea and Scribd, as well as Spotify Original podcast, Parcast’s ‘Cults,’ and she is currently a Creative Director for the Nous Foundation, which strives to preserve Francophone and Creolophone culture in the United States.

Her interest in creating art first stemmed from a desire to entertain others. In elementary school, she would scrawl comics onto scratch paper, passing them to classmates, waiting in eager anticipation for their reaction. Over a dozen years after that first creative spark, the desire to reach others still holds strong.