BIO
Having a love of film since a young boy, Richard Diaz has always wanted to be a filmmaker even before he knew what that was.
Born on August 17, 1973 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, he always loved going to the movies and when he got a VCR in 1981 he then watched movies all the time. In second grade he was chosen to be one of twelve children for a special class for gifted artistic children which he was in for four years in grade school while living in Norwalk, Connecticut.
At the age of 12 he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he began reading and studying films knowing exactly what he wanted to do. In High School he was involved in several film classes and film clubs and was chosen to head up the “Senior Class Video” for his graduating class.
He went on to study film at Columbia College in Chicago. While there he took every class he could ranging from general filmmaking to film theory and history to editing and video. After graduating in 1996, Richard went on to write, produce, edit, and direct Drop Off. He also got Reggie Bannister (star of the world famous Phantasm films) to appear in it. Originally meant as a feature film the project turned into a promotional piece to raise money for the feature. As impressive as the promotional trailer has become the film was never made due to several outside factors. Learning from his mistakes (including who to trust and who not to) Richard put everything aside for two years and “lived life” before getting back into his dream of making movies.
Embracing digital editing led to an opportunity to learn a then new program called Final Cut Pro from Apple. In 2000 Richard became one of the first editors in Chicago to offer editing services with Final Cut Pro. Because of the popularity of DV, Final Cut Pro became quite the program to use for editing. Working successfully he edited several projects ranging from short films to commercials plus one video for the Smithsonian for their Triceratops exhibit which can still be seen in Washington DC to this very day.
Partnering up with his Drop Off star, Kirk Sanders, Richard produced the promotional trailer for William Shakespeare’s Macbeth which went on to win an award for “Best Trailer of 2001*”. The two of them started Walking Shadows Productions, Inc. to make the film version of Macbeth. Richard decided running two companies was too much for his already full plate, so he turned his partnership over to Jon Gaunt who has helped turned Walking Shadows into a successful media company for which Richard is heavily involved in as an editor and a shooter.
Aside, from writing Drop Off and co-writing the screen adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Richard has also written several screenplays including the action film Another Sunrise and the upcoming horror film Distortion. Aside from writing he has helped Produce several projects including the award winning Joseph Hillock film The Skywalkers (“Best Film” at the Fourth Annual FilmCon). And the Kirk Sanders directed short film Broken Echoes, which was nominated for six awards (including "Best Picture of 2004") at the Midwest Independent Film Festival awards ceremony where it won two ("Best Actress" and "Best Cinematography").
Embracing the technology of today, Richard is on the cusp of modern filmmaking and uses it for every film and project he is involved in.
