Producer, Writer
Making his start in the theater community in Phoenix, Arizona, Jay Holben directed several plays before moving into the filmmaking world. He has directed five previous short films (Wall, Fly, Paranoid, The Night Before and Hunger) in addition to working for several years as a Director of Photography.
Prior to his work as a Cinematographer, he worked as a Gaffer on many popular music videos for Korn, Brandy, Shaquille O'Neal and Ice Cube in addition to feature films such as Free Enterprise.
His short, Paranoid, which was adapted from the poem by Stephen King, garnered overwhelming praise for its stylistic excellence and the personal endorsement of Mr. King. His short Hunger appeared as one of horrormeister John Carpenter's favorites on American Movie Classics as part of a Halloween special and was also listed as a favorite of New York Post's film critic Linda Stasi.
As a Producer, Jay has also made three independent feature films in addition to more than a dozen short films and commercials. Additionally, he is a frequent contributing writer for American Cinematographer magazine.
CHRISTOPHER PROBST, Director of Photography
Producer, Writer
Although Holben and Probst have been working side-by-side in various capacities for more than a decade, Descent marks the duos third collaboration as director and cinematographer respectively. Their previous outing, the dramatic short film, The Night Before, garnered Probst the International Cinematographer's Guild Film Showcase Award for Artistic Achievement in Cinematography.
Probst broke into the industry as a camera assistant and second-unit director of photography on independent films, commercials and music videos - working with such artists as Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Destiny's Child, Korn, Christina Aguilera, Sisqo and Wu Tang Clan.
As a skilled handheld camera operator and second-unit cinematographer, Probst has lent his talents to such feature and television projects as the ASC Award-winning NBC epic mini-series Uprising, the NBC hit-series Boomtown and the upcoming Sci-fi, serial-adventure, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie.
In addition to his on-set work, Probst also moonlights as the technical editor of American Cinematographer magazine, where he has been writing since 1995.
KEVIN BOYLE, Production Designer
An East Coast transplant, Kevin Boyle s a graduate of the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, where he studied film, photography, fine art and sculpture.
A true jack-of-all-artistic-trades, over the years he has worked as a technician for a film and video equipment rental house, as a postproduction coordinator and he worked his way through the trenches of production from 3rd grip on up to 1st assistant camera.
Although Descent is Kevin's first collaboration with Holben as a production designer, he has previously strutted his stuff in front of the camera for one of Holben's 30-second speculation commercials, and had worked with Probst in the camera department for several years prior to co-founding 360 Degrees.
DAN O'BRIEN, Editor
Although born in Los Angeles, Dan O'Brien's formative years were spent in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He made his way back to Los Angeles to attend business school at the University of Southern California, but eventually decided to forego his business ambitions to enter the world of post-production.
For the past seven years, O'Brien has worked as a commercial editor at Harley's House in Santa Monica. Branching out from TV Spots to films, O'Brien's moonlighting work includes the short films The Great Upsidedown, QIK2JDG and Holben's The Night Before.
BUCK SANDERS, Composer
Raised in South Carolina, Buck Sanders moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music in 1989. He spent his time playing guitar in bands while working at a laser disc specialty store to support his music habit. During his stint at the video store, he found an untapped passion for film scores and received a full education on film composing from the team of professional film geeks working there. One of these geeks happened to be acquaintances with film composer Marco Beltrami, who had just completed workon Wes Craven's Scream. Sanders was introduced to Beltrami and a professional match was made. He began working as Beltrami's assistant in 1997 and the duo completed the Scream trilogy together in addition to Mimic, The Minus Man, The Watcher, Dracula 2000, Joy Ride, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Angel Eyes, Blade II, Terminator 3 and most recently Guiermo Del Torro's Hellboy.
Sanders also scored three other of Jay Holben's projects: Paranoid, Hunger and The Night Before in addition to the short thriller Mindgame, directed by Jamie Neese.