D I R E C T O R

Jeff Piccinini has worked as a freelance director of photography (DP) since 1999 and is the president of Purple Cinema, Purple Motion Pictures and Purple Raven Music. He worked as a DP on HGTV’s “House Detective” series for several years in addition to anumber of short films. “Spirits of the Road” is his first feature work as director and producer. Piccinini resides in Marin County and continues to write music and currently performs with S’Cream, a tribute to Cream, a popular ‘60s British rock band. Jeff Piccinini created Purple Motion Pictures in 2003 to produce independent film
productions and to offer creative services as a director of photography. His long-term vision for Purple Motion Pictures is to create Purple Cinema to offer independent online content. Purple Cinema’s Purple Raven Music is the musical administration of original music by various artists to be released as online MP3 downloads as well as CD products.
Jim Mallon

W R I T E R

James Mallon is a writer and screenwriter. “No Good Deed,” his second project as a
screenwriter, was originally conceived as a pilot for a television series, “Spirits of the Road.” However, in an effort to appeal to a larger, broader audience base, Mallon collaborated with Piccinini to create an online version of the film instead and served as co-producer on the film.

"I have always loved serial stories like The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Matt Helm, James Bond and Perry Mason among some of my early favorites. Authors who capture me in this way remain in my mind forever. In later years darker themes like Cormac McCarthy’s border trilogy have left a strong impression on me. For the past couple of decades, I have been writing a set of Caribbean thrillers that have developed a knockabout character with deep back-stories in the later books. These stories whetted my appetite to write a series for cable television.

"Oh yeah, I watched the X-Files, The Sopranos, Deadwood and The Wire, all of them groundbreakers. Another thing that became obvious to me is the power writers have in television and the commensurate respect in the form of a good paycheck, excellent goals for a struggling writer. Jeff had worked with my brother Bruce in a video company they put together in the San Francisco Bay Area producing short infomercial type ads for regional business districts in the North Bay and airing them on local cable TV channels.

"At the time we had formed a group to brainstorm a series based in Petaluma, the former egg capital of the US. Some of the members dropped out and Jeff approached me to write and produce this music-based road trip series that brought us to where we are today. I had done a short movie with my nephew taken from a story I had written trying out character for my Caribbean thrillers. It’s a road-noir set in Florida called LOOP, four people on the road at night, 23 minutes TRT. It took a few years for computers to catch up and we edited it with Final Cut on an Apple G-3. I enjoyed doing the editing and scoring, so Jeff’s idea for Spirits of the Road really appealed to me. All the problems we had in developing our story seemed easy in comparison to the challenges we now face in marketing our project. We’re hoping the writers’ strike will open a few opportunities for meetings in the coming months."

Click here to read an excerpt from James Mallon's "Crimeboy News"