Meet the producer: Lisa Cooper

Today I’m pleased to announce that Lisa Cooper has joined the lean, mean Beyond Naked filmmaking team as producer. What that means in practice is that Lisa will be a major player in making the film happen, on both a creative and technical level. In addition to typical producer responsibilities, she’ll also be acting as sound recordist, camera assistant, and much more.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Dan on Beyond Naked,” she says. “When I stepped on the scene, this was a ready-made project (title, story, research, website, equipment) and Dan was just three days away from the first shoot. I showed up to hold the boom, and sound. . . speed. . . rolling . . . the adventure began. So far, I can say without hesitation that this is going to be one eye-candy kind of film, and not just the because of the bare-flesh scenes. I had no idea that the Seattle gray could be so damn beautiful. But Dan has a way of making the mundane spectacular.”

Lisa moved to Seattle in 2000 after completing her degree in film, photography and literature at Virginia Commonwealth University. She quickly became part of the Seattle film community by volunteering at the Northwest Film Forum. In 2001, her short film “Kim” was selected to screen at the Bellevue Art Museum Film Festival and at Seattle’s Microcinema Film Festival.

Lisa is also a still photographer who has studied with Mary Ellen Mark. She specializes in pregnancy, family and special occasions.

Lisa recently shot a short documentary about colon cancer, called “Colondar Girl,” after the a friend was diagnosed with cancer. The film focuses on 5 young women who bare their surgical scars in a calendar produced by the ColonClub—an organization founded by a 23-year-old colon cancer survivor who is dedicated to raising awareness about the disease.

In 2006, Lisa was among the top 15 finalists in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s “Get Screened!” video contest with a film called “Tush.”

She currently divides her time between writing flash fiction and short memoir, and finishing her first narrative screenplay, “Slade Drive.”

I’ll let Lisa have the last word:

“You’re not always sure how the working relationship will pan out until the first piece of equipment is broken and the first few hours of precious footage has crossed-over into the virtual unknown, never to be recovered. Now I know all will be well. We’ve responded to these first minor calamities with a laugh, a quick lament, and a sigh—and are sharing in the excitement of knowing that it’s not real filmmaking until you’ve fucked something up. Initiation over. We’re on our way to making one dern good film.”