Jeffrey Scott Frentzen (born September 7, 1956), sometimes credited as Jeff Frentzen, is an American novelist, journalist, screenwriter, director, and actor. He directed his first film, House on the Hill, in 2012.
Jeffrey Frentzen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jeffrey Scott Frentzen September 7, 1956 |
| Occupation(s) | Novelist, journalist, screenwriter, director, author, journalist |
Early life
Frentzen was born in Oakland, California, and was raised in Orinda, California. His father was an insurance adjuster and his mother a stay-at-home mom. He graduated from the University of California. He began his career in print journalism, and was the first managing editor of Cinefantastique, a movie special effects journal, and then moved to computer high-tech trade press magazines, including PC Week (later eWeek) and CNET, leaving that firm in 1997 in an executive role. He is credited with co-creating one of the first commercial websites, in 1993, called PC Week Online, and helped develop an early content format for podcasting (PC Week Radio). He has been active as a film producer-writer-director since 1998, and continues to work as a journalist in the high-tech and medical industries. He was an executive producer for Aesthetic TV, an online TV production house, from 2012 to 2017.
Non-Fiction and Novels
Frentzen co-wrote (with David J. Schow) The Outer Limits Companion (Ace Books, 1986), and in 1998 published Javascript Annotated Archives (McGraw-Hill, co-written with Henry Sobotka and Dewayne McNair). He is the pseudonymous author of two novels, The Bayou Brigade (Warner Books, 1981) writing as "Buck Sanders" and a self-published novel, My Summer With the Family (1992), authored by "Joe Hudson."
Film
In 2012, Frentzen directed his first film, House on the Hill, for which he also co-wrote the script and co-produced. The film premiered In Europe in competition at the Monaco Charity Film Festival in May, 2012. Prior to that, Frentzen had moved into film production in 1997 when he partnered with German expatriate director Ulli Lommel, with whom he worked on several productions. In 2000, they made Danny and Max, a Germany-produced, English-language children's film shot in Arizona, with Frentzen receiving screenwriter credit and with Lommel directing. In 2005, Frentzen and Lommel formed a movie production company, The Shadow Factory, where they made several micro-budget horror movies that were released by a Lionsgate Entertainment subsidiary, Artisan.
In 2014, Frentzen wrote the documentary, Ode To My Mother, and has also produced or directed a series of music videos for folk rock performer Janine Ferguson. Frentzen is credited as screenwriter of Georges Chamchoum's feature film, 9 Women, which is still in development.
References
- In The Outer Limits Tavern with Jeffrey Frentzen (Jeffrey Frentzen and the Battle for OUTER LIMITS) We Are Controlling Transmission. September 2011.
- An Interview with Jeff Frentzen, Director of House on the Hill January 2016