The MacGuffin is a weekly podcast exploring the world of film. Topics include new releases, film festivals, independent filmmakers, and pretty much anything worth talking about in the world of film. Have something you are interested in having discussed? Email us at macguffinpodcast (at) gmail (dot) com or message us at twitter.com/MacGuffincast

HOSTS
Spencer Fornaciari
Spencer(at)MacGuffinPodcast(dot)com
twitter.com/ThatSpencer

John Portanova
John(at)MacGuffinPodcast(dot)com
twitter.com/TweetSizeHorror

John was born and raised in Washington State.  While in High School he watched the 3 movies that turned him into a lifelong film fan and wannabe filmmaker; John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, John Carpenter’s Halloween, and Kevin Smith’s Clerks.  After ingesting a steady diet of 80s teen and horror films throughout school, John started to make his own short films.  Unfortunately, they were awful beyond belief so he enrolled in the film production program at the Vancouver Film School in Canada.  Following graduation John moved to Seattle and was involved in the productions of many short and feature films.  In addition to co-hosting The Macguffin Podcast, he continues to write and direct short films.

WRITERS
Chad Eng
Chad(at)MacGuffinPodcast(dot)com

An Illinois-born transplant to Minneapolis, Chad began his infatuation with terrible films as a child watching Kung Fu Theater religiously back in the 80’s. From there, USA Network’s “Up All Night” fueled his passion for combining gratuitous nudity, awful plots, and painful acting – thank you Rhonda Shear. In recent years, Chad has hosted numerous “Bad Movie Nights” both in Minnesota and in Illinois. These potluck-driven parties have led an incredible number of people to appreciate the values of such films as “Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter”, “Bloodcar”, “For Your Height Only”, “Bikini Bloodbath”, and “Executive Koala”.

Chad continues to augment his film collection, and is not opposed to writing emails and letters to directors requesting copies of films that were never published. Chad is currently pursuing an MBA in Marketing and when he has time, enjoys watching painful movie recommendations, watching roller derby, eating unhealthy food, listening to music, and playing disc golf.

Brandi Sperry
Brandi(at)MacGuffinPodcast(dot)com
twitter.com/ouibrandi

Brandi grew up in a house where the TV was always on, usually tuned to Turner Classic Movies. She is one of those people who worries about kids these days not appreciating black and white films. Brandi attended Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, where she began writing seriously about movies while taking film history classes. Now back in Seattle, she works in education when she’s not writing something, watching something, or rearranging her Netflix queue.

Allen Almachar
Allen(at)MacGuffinPodcast(dot)com 

Allen was born in the Philippines but was raised in America thanks to the United States Navy. His earliest memories of movies came with such undisputed classics such as the Indiana Jones and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogies, or anything with Jean-Claude Van Damme. His love for film sparked after watching Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, a film he cites as “the movie that made me love movies.” Since then, he has developed a passion for film that has yet to be relinquished, watching movies as far back as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, to Quentin Tarantino and James Cameron, and everything in between.

He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Washington, but knows that the world of film is his true calling. When he’s not writing for the Macguffin website or making his own terribly-made video projects, Allen loves to play video games, play his guitar, and dance, not shying away from letting people know that he once auditioned for Step Up 3D.

Ed Davidson
Ed(at)MacGuffinPodcast(dot)com
twitter.com/edmusinc

Ed Davidson is a Seattle native. So of course, the crappy weather has made him spend countless hours in a darkened room watching anything at all that is projected or televised. He loves old stuff like “The Thin Man” movies (damn, Myrna Loy was hot), loves watching “Lost” (damn, Evangeline Lilly is hot), and has an unhealthy obsession with “Star Trek” (damn, Patrick Stewart is hot). He has proudly watched every movie that has won the Best Picture Oscar, and his lifetime goal is to have watched every film in the book “1001 Movies To Watch Before You Die”. Ed currently lives in Shoreline with his wife, 2 daughters, 2 dogs, 2 gerbils, and some incredibly large raccoons that pop out from under his deck like something on “The Munsters”. He has newly discovered snowboarding, soccer, and why Charles Bronson doesn’t suck as much as he had always assumed.

He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Drama from the UW back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and works for a large NW based software company (but not the one you are thinking of).

Jeremy Berg
Jeremy(at)MacGuffinPodcast(dot)com

Originally born in California, Jeremy moved all over the state, and traveled all over the world, before striking out for Seattle to attend The Seattle Film Institute. Between SFI and working on films after his graduation, Jeremy met many of the co-conspirators that he still works with years later. Two years ago he started 47 North Productions with the three other co-founders and since then has worked on numerous projects as writer, director and cinematographer. He co-created the Seattle based webseries “Adler & Zenith” with John Portanova and together they churned out 16 episodes of the series over the course of a year and a half. The show gained a loyal following with viewers from all over the world finding the show on the web. He continues to devote most of his time to writing scripts and making films with his friends.

Mark Jones
Mark(at)MacGuffinPodcast(dot)com

Mark was born in Bristol in the UK but has lived in a small place called Yateley for most of his life. He’s currently at Oxford University, making his way towards a degree in English language and literature. He spends much of his time watching, making and writing about films. The MacGuffin Podcast asked him to join their team after reading his posts on his own film blog (https://atowninblackandwhite.wordpress.com). He’s not sure what he wants to do when he leaves university, though something to do with film seems pretty fun apparently.

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