7A PRODUCTIONS

Using our experiences as guideposts we trust our instincts and imagination in our approach to making movies. Staying true to the script story, allowing it to direct us, and letting everyone involved influence the process, we enable ourselves to be creative in every step of making the film.

Michael Knowles (actor/writer/director, producer)
Michael Knowles is an award-winning filmmaker who wears many hats with ease -- acting, writing, directing, editing, producing, and cinematography. His feature films, Room 314, One Night, Nikki: A girl with Rett Syndrome and his short films, Nick and Stacey, Acting 101, The Lesson, Argo, The System, Together among others have played in over 60 Domestic and International film festivals, winning many awards along the way.

Michael, and his first feature film, Room 314, received critical acclaim from The New York Times, Variety and many other publications during its Theatrical Run at The Pioneer Theater in NYC . Room 314 was released on Home Video in August 2008.

Michael's second feature film, One Night, a screenplay he also wrote, starred Oscar nominee Melissa Leo, Bill Sage, Michael Muhney, Robert Clohessy, Paola Mendoza, Aaron Staton, Billy Lush, Christian Campbell, Holly Fain, Merissa Morin, Frankie Shaw, Bill Dawes, Kevin Cahoon, Maria Zyrianova and Donnamarie Recco. Michael won two best director awards at festivals and the film was released on VOD and DVD in 2010.

Michael directed his third feature film, East Fifth Bliss, in the spring of 2010 in NYC. East Fifth Bliss starred Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu, Peter Fonda, Chris Messina, Brie Larson, Brad William Henke and Sarah Shahi. Michael adapted the novel, East Fifth Bliss, with the novelist, Douglas Light. East Fifth Bliss is in post production.

Between narrative feature films Michael Shot, directed and edited a documentary called Nikki: A girl with Rett Syndrome, which is about a teenage girl who suffers with a devastating neurological disorder called Rett Syndrome.

As an actor Michael has appeared on the award winning HBO series Sex And The City as Marathon Man and on an award-winning episode of Law & Order: SVU as Artie Felton. He has also appeared on Guiding Light, As the World Turns and All My Children. More recent film credits include award-winning feature films such as Point & Shoot, which premiered at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, screened at the 2004 Hamptons International Film Festival, and won the Audience Award at the 2004 Cinema Paradise Film Festival. Walking On The Sky, another film in which Michael acted, won best Dramatic Feature at the 2005 New York International Film & Video Festival (LA edition) and had a limited theatrical release in September 2005. Michael recently played a role in The Babysitters, starring Cynthia Nixon and John Leguizamo, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival.

In the spring of 2008 Michael invented a revolutionary, simple and affordable camera stabilization system called The Atlas Camera Support and Stabilization System. The Atlas is selling to people around the world and has received positive reviews.

atlascamerasupport.com

Michael owns and operates his own production company, 7A Productions, with his business partner, John Ramos.

7Aproductions.com

John Ramos
John was born and raised in New York City, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School and then Princeton University (Class of 1992). Following college, he worked as a business journalist for Across The Board, the official magazine of The Conference Board. He left that position to pursue a career in options trading, first on the floor of the American Stock Exchange, and then in off-floor positions in New Jersey and London. Upon returning to the U.S. in 2004, he set his sights on the film industry, forming 7A Productions with longtime friend Michael Knowles. Over the past three years he's honed his skills as both a producer and a writer, co-writing the feature script Perspective, a psychological drama, as well as producing the narrative feature One Night and the documentary feature Nikki. In addition, for the last five years he has written freelance television recaps for the well-known website Television Without Pity, which was recently acquired by Bravo/NBC Universal, and also contributed to Neptune Noir, an anthology of essays about the acclaimed television show Veronica Mars, guest edited by series creator Rob Thomas.