Guests in attendance at the up-coming Paso Robles Digital Film Festival, will be invited to attend a slate of first-person panel discussions, featuring a list of well-known film industry professionals and personalities. PRDFF organizer Ben Standley is pleased to announce that panel discussions planned for the festival will be hosted and led by as many as 16 already-booked, knowledgeable Hollywood film-makers, actors, editors, composers and publicists.

"What's unique, is that at a lot of film-festivals, the public and emerging film-makers---they can't rub shoulders with people of this stature.

Most festivals feature a kind of red carpet thing, where the well-known film-makers are on display for a few moments, and then whisked away. But we're setting up these panels, so guests and the general public can exchange ideas, ask questions, and most importantly, learn about the insider information they need in the shifting paradigm of today's digital film-making world," Standley said.
Panelists also will be on-hand at numerous film-screenings, hosting their own films and interacting with guests. Other panel-discussion will be 'sit-down' events with audience participation, at various venues. A complete schedule of panel events, along with locations and times, will be announced. All festival guests can attend any panel discussion event, with their festival pass.

Panel topics will include 'Film in the Digital Age', 'The Role of the Internet in the Digital Age', 'Film Scoring', and a special discussion group on 'The History of Malpaso'. Several other panel-discussion groups are being planned as well, on a variety of topics related to film and film production, with a
special focus on 'digital arts' and new media technologies, documentaries and'The CD to DVD Transition. of the Music Business'.

Here's a brief look at PRDFF panelists, who guests can look forward to meeting:
Joel Cox (film-editor): Joel Cox has worked with Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood on more than 30 films. In 1992 he won an Academy Award for Best Editor. Cox will also receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival, and participate in the 'History of Malpaso' discussion.

Bruce Ricker (producer-director): Bruce Ricker has co-produced numerous films with Clint Eastwood, for 20 years. Ricker's fourth documentary, Tony Bennett: the Music Never Ends, will be shown at the festival. Ricker is also the creator of Rhapsody Films, and will be part of the 'History of Malpaso' discussion.
Joe Hyams (publicist): this well-known film publicist has worked with Clint Eastwood since 1971, and also with talents such as Stanley Kubrick, Francois Truffaut, David Puttnam, Barbara Streisand, Robert Redford, and John Wayne. Joe Hyams will be part of the panel-discussion on the 'History of Malpaso'.

Judie Hoyt: Judy Hoyt stared working with Clint Eastwood in 1975, on The Outlaw Josey Wales. She has worked with him for a total of 20 years on such films as Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Bird, PaleRider ,Sudden Impact, Honkytonk Man and many more.
George Wilkins (film composer): George Wilkins was 'composer-in-residence' at Walt Disney Productions for more than seven years, and responsible for writing, arranging, and producing more than 36 hours of music for film, theater, and also pavilion attractions at Disneyworld attractions such as EPCOT in California, France, Tokyo and China. Wilkins is a current resident of the Paso Robles.

Max Gail (actor, filmmaker): best-known for his television role as Det. Stan 'Wojo'Wojeciehowicz, from the sit-com 'Barney Miller' in 1975, Max Gail now runs his own production company, Full Circle, creating documentaries on topics such as Agent Orange, Native Americans, and nuclear issues.

Nigel Sinclair (producer): as an independent film and television producer, Sinclair co-founded Intermedia Films in 1996. In 2000 Queen Elizabeth appointed him a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his work in the film industry. One of his many credits includes the definitive
documentary on Bob Dylan, No Direction Home, directed by Martin Scorsese.

Ramblin' Jack Elliot (folk musician): Jack Elliot is one of the last true links to the great folk music traditions of America, with more than 40 albums, and considered one of the country's legendary foundations of folk music. Honored at the White House in 1998 with a National Medal of Arts for his contribution to American Folk Music, he was also awarded a Grammy in 1996 for his 'South Coast' recording.

Christopher Felver (photograher/filmmaker): Christopher Felver's works have been exhibited internationally and are collected by numerous libraries and museums. He participated in the 53rd Venice International Film Festival and received the Best Art Documentary Award at the Cinema Arts Centre Independent Film Festival.
Gary D. Roach (editor): Gary Roach has previously worked with film-editor Joel Cox and director Clint Eastwood as an assistant editor on Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Space Cowboys, True Crime, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, among others. Additional credits include Catwoman, The Blues (mini-series), Monterey Jazz Festival: 40 Legendary Years and Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall.

Les Blank (filmmaker): Les Blank is a prize-winning independent filmmaker, best known for a series of poetic films that led Time Magazine film-critic Jay Cocks to write, "I can't believe anyone interested in movies in America---could watch Blank's work without feeling they'd been
granted a casual, soft-spoken revelation."

Hector Galan (documentary film-maker): Hector Galan has been making documentary films for more than 30 years. Recent credits include the
documentary, 'Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads'. He has produced and directed 11 films for the PBS series Frontline, two films for The American Experience, and many critically-acclaimed and award-winning independent films.

Cass Warner (filmmaker) Cass Warner has the honor of being a third-generation filmmaker. Her father, twice Oscar-nominated writer/producer Milton Sperling, worked on the Warner Bros. lot and her grandfather, Harry Warner, was the President and Founder of Warner Bros. studios. After studying acting with the acclaimed Milton Katselas, and learning screenwriting under the mentorship of her father and Howard Koch of "Casablanca"
fame, her production company, Warner Sisters, was born. 

John Andrew Parks (song-writer, story-teller): a song-writer's song-writer, poet, and story-teller, Park's melodic narrative run from wind-blown praries and old jalopies, to shooting stars across the cosmic canvas. As Kenny Rodgers once said on an NBC TV Special, "John Andrew Parks, is one of the greatest singer-songwriters I've heard in 20 years, and whether or not you like this song, you've never heard anything like it
before!"

Susan Morgan Cooper (director/ producer): Susan was drawn to Eddie Adams, the photographer in An Unlikely Weapon, because of his fascination with displaced and oppressed people. In 2008 Susan is set to direct her first dramatic feature. Based on a documentary she made a few years ago, Roadrunners is the story of a cop from East L.A. who takes a group of gang kids and turns them into a championship roller hockey team.
Ronnie Blakley (actress): Ronnie Blakley may be most widely-known for her performance as country-music superstar Barbara Jean in Robert Altman's 1975 film, Nashville. She was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress, and along with Lily Tomlin, and is often regarded as offering one of film's most revealing performances.

Richard Bellis (film composer): Richard Bellis is a film and television composer, a former member of the USC faculty and a past president of the Society of Film Composers and Lyricists. Some of his many credits include the Emmy Award-winning score of Stephen King's 'IT', and the book, 'The Emerging Film Composer'.

Chuck Banner (producer): Chuck Banner has worked developing children's programming, and with the Dallas Symphony on Amazing Music, a family concert series, (A&E, PBS), and in co-production with Fireworks Entertainment on Real Kids, Real Adventures for the Discovery Kids Channel. His latest nationally-broadcast production on PBS was Amazing Music Jazz, which he directed, produced and edit.

Jack Tempchin: Jack Tempchin wrote a number of big Eagles hits like Already Gone and Take it to the Limit and has two songs on the new Long Road Out of Eden Album by the Eagles, on the charts now. He also has a song Smugglers Blues sung by Glenn Frey on the Miami Vice Television Soundtrack.

Rick Roas: Rick Rosas will be here playing bass with Jack Tempchin. He will appear as a musician and a panelist after the screening of  Neil Young: Heart of Gold.  He has played bass for years with Neil Young and is in the film.  Rick has also played with the likes of Joe Walsh, CSN&Y, Johnny Rivers and many more.

Christopher Reyna: Christopher Reyna is a technical expert who has extensive experience with the full spectrum of production, post-production, and exhibition of high quality moving images. He has specialized in the development and implementation of new digital tools for Giant Screen and ultra high-resolution image presentations. He also pioneered the transition from photochemical to digital toolsets with an emphasis on maximizing quality.

James Mathers: In addition to being the Director of Photography on over thirty-five films and MOWs, he has seen six TV series from inception through their first season.  Recent projects include a pilot for DreamWorks directed by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Forty Year Old Virgin), an HD feature for director David Mickey Evans (The Sandlot, Radio Flyer), and several features pioneering the use of the 4K RED One camera.

Michael Jensen: Michael Jensen is the CEO and President of Jensen Communications (JCI), a strategic public relations management and marketing firm specializing in Music, Television & Film, The Arts, Non-Profit, Crisis Management, and Corporate world. Some of JCI's long-time clients include Santana, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Herb Alpert, Jackson Browne, and XM Satellite Radio among others.

Dave Cole: David Cole has a wide variety of feature film and TV credits as an actor and a recent three-year term as Vice-President of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. Cole has broadened his involvement in the indie film 'biz' to include assisting filmmakers with the production, marketing, distribution and film festival strategizing for their films, promoting The Center for the Study of Film and History.

Kathy Kelly: Kathy Kelly has over 25 years experience in all aspects of media communications. Her work has included projects for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Turner Classic Movies, Capitol Records, MGM, Kal Kan, Toshiba, Amgen, Gemstar, Hoover, Fitness Quest, Braun, T-Fal, Conair, Murad, GNC, Motorola and many other national and international consumer brand marketers.

Carole MacDonal began her career at an advertising agency, producing commercials and jingles. The more she became involved with film, the more her career began to take a turn towards production. Her credits include Truth Be Told, a feature film directed by Jeff Byrd starring Blair Underwood and Regina King, My Dark Lady, a feature directed by Buffalonian Frederick King Keller, and The Barry Williams Show, a Sean Penn directed project for Peter Gabriel. 

Travis Howard: Travid Howard made his first mark as a cast member on the first season of USA Network's "Nashville Star" in 2003. It was on that show that he began to write several of the biggest hits that kicked off the blazing career of current rising country star, Miranda Lambert.

Del Breckenfeld: Del Breckenfeld is Director of Entertainment Marketing at Fender Musical Instruments Corp. Through his career, Breckenfeld has worked with some of the biggest names in music and movies, including The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Tom Hanks and Will Ferrell and television shows such as Two And A Half Men and American Idol just to name a few.

Gary Conway: A Renaissance man for our time, Gary Conway (born Gareth Monello Carmody) was the youngest artist to win a major prize at the LA County Art Exhibition and, before age sixteen, was awarded full scholarships to the three most prestigious art schools in the country. His remarkable talents expanded to include TV star and successful screenwriter. He wrote scripts for such popular films as Over the Top, as well as the highly successful American Ninja series.

Archie McLaren: Archie McLaren is no stranger to the world of fine cuisine and rare wine. He is the founding Bailli of the Central Coast Chapter of the Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs, a member of the Vintners' Club of San Francisco, the Wine & Food Society of San Francisco, the San Francisco Chapter of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin and the Marin County Chapter of the International Wine & Food Society. He is one of only two Americans inducted into the Austrian Wine Brotherhood, and one of the few Americans inducted into the Commanderie des Bontemps - Medoc et Graves & Sauternes et Barsac of Bordeaux in France.

Other panel-discussion leaders and panel-members To-Be-Announced.