Jeff Carney is an award winning filmmaker who began making movies at the age of 10 in his backyard with his parents Super 8 film camera and a old reel to reel (black and white) video camera.  His success ranges from independent films to studio films (over 18 and counting)  with a wide range of experience from pre-production to production (director, producer, writer, cinematographer, sound)  to post-production (editor, animator, music composer, sound design including effects editing, mixing) through distribution. He follows each of his projects from the earliest concept to the finished film all in house. For the last 22 years he has made movies, including in the Quad Cities, that are distributed around the world.



                                       
                                                     Jeff Carney receiving an award.


In the early days, the star of his productions was a friend named Chris Young who went on to star in the movies "The Book Of Love," "The Great Outdoors," "Warlock 2: The Armageddon," and as Bryce the teenage genius/ inventor of the title character in the television series "Max Headroom."  Along with John Poffenbarger and Greg Padakis, the four friends formed their own neighborhood filmmaking group made up of any local kids they could kidnap for a few hours to be in their films. That early experience of making films throughout his neighborhood and city while working with different personalities every day proved to be a great benefit as his career would begin.

                                     
                                      Filming during the early days 1980  - from left
                                      Jeff Carney, Chris Young, and John Poffenbarger.


While attending Alleman high school, he spent four years at WQAD-TV (ABC affiliate in Moline, Illinois) in their Junior Achievement program where they had high school students sell commercials for a weekly half hour variety television show which the students also produced.  During his senior year, Jeff Carney was elected President of the JA company at WQAD and won Best Production Methods/Company of the year at the end of the year JA awards including National JA Delegate status and a college scholarship. He also received a personal sales award for the number of commercials sold to area businesses.

From Junior High through College, Carney made over 300 short films with several winning awards for Best Director, Best of Festival, and Best Film including "Too Much Of An Inconvenience" and "The Foreclosure."  While in high school, he also produced and directed two music videos for local musicians. Carney graduated from Black Hawk College (WQPT PBS station) in Moline, Illinois where he earned an A.A. Degree in Mass Communications TV Production and from St. Ambrose University (TV-11) in Davenport, Iowa where he earned his B.A. Degree in Mass Communications TV Production.

Since neither college had film courses, Carney took summer film courses at USC (University of Southern California,  Los Angeles) where he participated in filmmaking classes and their Studio Business workshop which involved spending several days a week at Universal Studios and time spent at other studios like Paramount Pictures and Columbia/Warner Brothers.  There he had the opportunity to not only make films but also spend time with Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Randal Kleiser (director of Grease) among others. Carney was elected President of his college fraternity Phi Theta Kappa (Eta Kappa Chapter).
                               
                               Director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green
                               Mile), Jeff Carney, and Director Chuck Russell (The Mask, Eraser,
                               A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 3).

An early credit includes work as the associate producer/assistant director on the family movie "Hawk Jones" where only children starred and played adult roles in a cops and robbers movie. "Hawk Jones" had nearly 100 child actors in the cast and it was the first feature length film to be shot entirely in the Quad Cities.  Carney went on to work post production on the documentary The Texas Chainsaw Massacre A Family Portrait followed by his role as the cinematographer/worked post production on the independent horror comedy Beauty Queen Butcher.  Carney has been involved with over 18 movies including "Field of Dreams" which starred Kevin Costner, Burt Lancaster, and James Earl Jones.  He also worked with the agents of two Oscar nominated actors (Jason Miller from The Exorcist and Patty McCormack from The Bad Seed) in getting them signed on to the independent film "Mommy" which he was the original director on.  Carney has worked for the Italian production company Duea Films (director/producer Pupi and Antonio Avati) on five films including "Bix: An Interpretation of a Legend (1920's bio pic of the jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke which was in Competition at Cannes) and with actress Brooke Shields on the Avati produced television mini series "An American Love." 

                                      
                                                  Jeff Carney and Brooke Shields.
               

Among the films Jeff Carney produced and directed are "Sinister Tales," and "The Shadow People" which deals with an alien invasion of a midwestern community.  "Sinister Tales" won best director/movie at the Horror Film Festival and "The Shadow People" won a Merit Award for "showcasing outstanding talent" at the B-Film Fest in New York. A special edition DVD of The Shadow People is in the works.  He produced and directed "Siege of Evil," a horror movie about communication with the dead which is being distributed worldwide by Pendulum Pictures and Mill Creek Entertainment as part of the "Everlasting Evils" DVD set. It was just re-released as Tomb of Terrors. Plans are in the works for a single DVD release in about a year as Carney has already turned in, at the distributors request, a director commentary track, outtake reel, and stills. "Siege of Evil" won Best Scream Queen at the 2005 Horror Dance International Film Festival.


        
                                             Two scene shots from Siege Of Evil.


Carney recently produced and directed "Autopsy Of The Dead" in Pittsburgh, PA which was released in late September 2009 on DVD - a historical documentary on the George Romero film Night Of The Living Dead (1968) which is a masterpiece of horror that some have called "the best horror movie ever made" and "one of the most gruesomely terrifying movies ever made."  Online fans voted "Autopsy Of The Dead" as a nominee for the Best Independent Film of 2009 at the Rondo Awards.


                                     


He is also working on several other film projects including his next Quad Cities movie, "The Ansbach Horror", about a unstoppable evil in the countryside which will be filmed in the Quad Cities area (Rock Island / Moline Illinois and Davenport / Bettendorf Iowa).