Team
Andrew Apostola
Co Founder and Creative Director
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Andrew Apostola is one of Australia's leading creative producers and online strategists. He is the co-founder and creative director of Portable. In 2006 he and business partner Simon Goodrich created and launched portablefilmfestival.com, an international film festival for iPods, mobile phones and laptops that has seen the company expand internationally. In 2008 he was awarded a British Council Award, recognizing him as one of Australia's leading cross media producers. He is a judge of the Premier's Design Awards in Victoria and for the Australian Film Institute Awards and a resident mentor for the Laboratory for Advanced Media Production (LAMP), Australia's preeminent cross media hot-house. In 2009 the company not only works with some of the world's coolest technology and lifestyle brands but also has a suit of its own projects exploring fashion, publishing and education online. The company's next online project Swappler.com, which is set to launch later this year, reimagines the fashion retail space to allows designers and stores to go digital. Andrew has spent an extensive amount of time traveling abroad and studying. He has lived and worked in Toronto, Oregon, Colorado, Sydney and Tasmania and has completed a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), a Post Graduate Diploma in English Literature at the University of Melbourne and Film and Television Production at Ryerson University in Toronto.
Simon Goodrich
Co Founder and Managing Director
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Simon Goodrich is co-founder and General Manager of the Portable Film Festival, and of Portable Content. He has over a decade of experience in the community media industry in Australia, and is widely known for his work as President and Manager of the Student Youth Network in Melbourne. Simon led SYN FM's successful application for a full time community broadcasting licence in 2001, and established the SYN FM school training program. He has served as a board member of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, the industry's national peak body, and conducted a number of successful national consultations to Federal Government, attaining increased support for broadcast training initiatives and the promotion of Australian music. Prior to Portable, Simon held the position of Business Development Manager of Diversitat, a community organisation in Geelong, Victoria. He is currently President of the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, representing over 700 companies in the online media, advertising and interactive space; in 2008 he was recognised as one of Australia's leading entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by Anthill Magazine.
Al Cossar
Program Director
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Al's role as Program Director is informed by a vast range of experience in the film industry. He has worked as a post-production supervisor and editor for film and broadcast television, as a teacher of editing at the University of Auckland and as a co-manager and programmer of a number of film festivals and events around Melbourne. Al studied film editing in Portland, Oregon, where he had the good fortune to learn from notable film cutters Nick Edgar (Roger Corman), and Jaime Fowler (James Cameron). He is also a member of the Australian Film Critics' Association, and a frequent contributor of reviews and opinion to InFilm Australia. Al likes films quite a lot, and would prefer to be watching one ... right about ... now. He enjoys shouting expletives at render bars, spilling his Yum Cha, and growing beards in the wintertime.
Hody Hong
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I am hody hong. I love to experiment. And I don't like capitalized characters. I like interactions between people and technology, and sex is a good topic to me too. I enjoy creating things. oh, I love good food too.
Mark Natividad
Developer
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Mark is a BS Computer Science graduate of The University of Melbourne and has been working for Portable Content for a year and a half. He has been programming for over 4 years and has worked on projects utilising a wide range of programming languages and technologies. When he's not whacking his head on his laptop you can find him tinkering on his beloved car, shooting hoops or enjoying a round of golf on weekends.
Chris Ward
Developer
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Starting with writing fanzines and by creating one of the first UK based ezines Chris (aka Chinchilla) combined his loves of music, technology and doing things his own way. Whilst at university, Chris formed a band called Art Brut, who went on to much critical and commercial success, leading to a whole load of new experiences, opportunities and people. He left the band in 2005 due to personal reasons, having to sort out his head, and took to the road again on his own, clocking up yet more airmiles, experiences and great friends. These travels bought Chris to Melbourne where after several brief return visits to the UK, he has called home. Since living here a new band called 'Macaca Mulatta' was formed which came to a premature and sad demise in early 2008 just after recording their debut album, AAA. Most recently Chris has been taking a break from music, branching out into many other avenues such as creative writing, learning the drums, running his own business, getting a proper job and all sorts of bits and pieces. Oh, and he recently got married to the delightfully crafty Cate. Chris is into technology, music, arts, drama, reading, writing, film, the environment, social justice, equality, peace, beer and a whole lot more. Basically, having as many interesting experiences as possible.
Brigit Ryan
Account Manager
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Brigit is currently finishing a Bachelor of Design in Fashion at RMIT University, which has taken her from Melbourne to the UK and back again, with a stint at Nottingham Trent University in 2007. At 18, she began work as a small-time fashion designer out of her mum's garage, but gave it all up to work on less wearable interests. Brigit's illustration and painting has been featured in several exhibitions, on album covers and in publications. A serial volunteer and student, Brigit has worked as both a paid and unpaid gallery attendant, exhibition installer and general organiser to people in need, most regularly at ACCA and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces. In 2009 she curated Portable Film Festival's Portable Fashion Festival feature as part of L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, and now works as an Account Manager for Swappler, and organises events for Portable.
Sarah-Jane Woulhan
Digital Producer
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Sarah-Jane Woulahan is an award-winning director and producer of short drama and comedy, music video, documentary and new media. As co-founder of nationally renowned music video production company, Squareyed Films, she has directed works for Australia's most recognised musicians including Silverchair, Missy Higgins, Tim Finn and The Living End. In 2007, Sarah-Jane's short film I Love Like Blood was broadcast on SBS as part of their PODLOVE series, featuring extended content online and screening internationally at festivals including South by Southwest, Shanghai TV Festival, St Kilda and DocNz. Sarah-Jane was co-writer, co-director and presenter of Embedded with the Murri Mob, a 50 minute documentary to be screened on SBS in 2009. She was the creative director of cross-media collective 'The Ministry of Truth’, producing web-based television for broadcast on its social networking site ministryoftruth.tv including the half hour pilot, Democracy. Ministry of Truth produced new comedy works for broadcast on ABC's JTV in 2007 and 2008 including the short form satire and online narrative series, Forlorn Gaze, produced and directed by Sarah-Jane. Forlorn Gaze was nominated for an AFI in Creen Content Innovation in 2009 for its ground breaking use of multi-platform narrative. The long-form Forlorn Gaze series is in development with funding through Screen Australia, the pilot episode currently in post-production. Other online projects include Hearts Akimbo, a social networking site for romantics' adventures, in collaboration with Portable Content and the Australia Council. Sarah-Jane's most recent roles include Director and Producer of Falls TV - a live television show broadcast and produced on-site at the Falls Festival in Victoria and Content Director at Portable Content producing work for clients including Tourism Victoria, Environment Victoria and Melbourne fashion designers MATERIALBYPRODUCT and Arnsdorf.
Laurence Barnes
Front End Developer
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Since a wee little lad, Laurence Barnes has been creating websites using Homestead and Angel Fire. Since then Laurence has completed a number of courses including a Diploma of IT Programming at RMIT and is currently studying a Bachelor of IT Design, homing in on his PHP and XHTML skills. Like most people in the world, Laurence believes that IE 6 was developed by Satan and that if we ignore it it will disappear. When he isn’t creating in css or xhtml, Laurence can be found taking photos at gigs around Melbourne for an online magazine. A big lover of home grown indie music, Laurence has been shooting gigs for a number of years and usually rocking out down the road to a local band or seen lurking around Portable listening to some crazy band.
Ashleigh Parker
Programming Assistant
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Currently completing her final year in media communication at RMIT University, Ashleigh has lived in London share housing, Canada’s ice age, eaten Mexican street tacos, New York’s bagels and now finds herself back in Melbourne. Her loves consist of crafting, scotch tape, the making of cards, sequins, design, photography, film, art, sound, books, rhythm jivers, foot tapping, doodling, canoodling and peppermint tea.
Claire Forge
Programming Assistant
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Claire Forgie is a graduate from Swinburne Film and TV. She jumped the border from Adelaide in 2005 and doesn’t have plans to return! She has worked on and produced many documentaries and short films, though she mainly specialises in the post-production field. Most recently her work includes, the one-minute short ‘Errol Flynn’s Pianist’ (snuff box films) and ‘Silence’ (Peep Next Door Productions.) She likes films with a solid and witty dialogue in combination with good editing. Her favourite film is Hannibal and is a fan of Walter Murch. Since forming , she has worked as a postproduction consultant on various short and long form narrative and documentaries. The company’s first short film narrative called ‘Light Bringer’ is due late in 2009.
Jeremy Daniell
Programming Assistant
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Having previously survived the world of Financial Services, a stint in London’s city mile convinced Jeremy it was not the world for him, and he promptly ended up back in Oz studying Film & TV production at Swinburne. Jeremy likes shows from BBC3, Channel 4, movies from Korea, activities where there is a chance of being injured and is unlikely to ever like Macs.
Nick Barber
Programming Assistant
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Nick is the overly-ambitious, under-motivated, clearly troubled and overly-educated (for his own good) member of any group, including Portable's. He enjoys long walks in the rain (no, seriously... "it's good for the scalp" he has been known to say) and meeting new people before instantly forgetting their names. Completing his first year at Swinburne's Film and TV course, Nick has developed a prototype time machine to allow him to simultaneously work at Portable. For more information regarding said time machine please visit or whatever. Nick wishes you a good day :D
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