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Michael Giannantonio is highly experienced and knowledgeable in virtually all aspects of live and planned production including: live entertainment, theatrical & production lighting, cinematography, script-writing, project development, broadcasting, financing, pre-production, production, post-production, marketing and distribution. Michael currently writes, produces and directs motion pictures for a global market.
Michael was born on March 12, 1973 on K.I. Air Force Base in Michigan, USA. Michael displayed his creativity and leadership abilities at a very young age. While in elementary school Michael took to the arts creating sculptures, paintings, etc, often finding his works on display in the school's front office, and winning many awards in art fairs. Michael had even mastered his first magic trick at a very young age of 6 years old. By the age of 11, Michael had made his first musical recording. Before age 12, Michael was performing complex magic tricks for his friends and family. Michael also discovered the video camera and had begun developing ideas and producing home videos. Coming from poverty, at age 13, Michael worked through the summer for Performance II Body Shop in Glendale, Arizona. Michael made a mere $50 per week and was able to save his hard earned money to buy something he was fascinated by, the guitar. Michael spent his spare time learning to play the guitar. At age 14 Michael started his first local band, 'Nitefire'. Michael then made his professional debut as a musician at the age of 15 when Nitefire played its first paying gig at the famed Phoenix, Arizona nightclub, The Mason Jar. This led to a 10 year career as a professional lead guitarist in popular Phoenix, Arizona local rock bands.
As with many struggling artists, Michael's story a difficult one. Michael has struggled for many decades of his life. At age 17, with his stepfather in prison and his family struggling for survival, with a mere 3 1/2 credits left, Michael was forced to leave high school to work full time as an electricians apprentice. Michael once again excelled and within a few years Michael found himself managing electrical crews on large projects such as Fry's Grocery Stores, Target, Marshalls, and more. Shortly there after Michael was working as a journeyman electrician for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local 640. During this time Michael's latest band was making progress, headlining major venues within the Phoenix area, and growing a fan base. While working protocol level 5 tool install on swing shift at Intel's new FAB 12 plant in Chandler, Arizona, Michael discovered something he saw a big future in, computers. Being no stranger to technology and having built many computers of his own, Michael saw big potential in the direction Intel was going in with their newest microchip processors. This led Michael to leave the electrical field and transition into the technology industry.
Michael accepted a position as a salesman at a multi-site technology company in Phoenix, Arizona. Within 6 months Michael was promoted to shift manager. Shortly thereafter Michael was promoted to the store manager. Meanwhile, Michael's band, Loaded Gun, was in the studio recording. After a failed recording session caused by a member of the band, Loaded Gun lost their potential record deal. Those events pushed Michael to leave the band and move into a new creative direction, a solo act, where Michael was later to become a world renown stage hypnotist and magician. At this time Michael was now overseeing the management of several technology locations and realized there was nowhere left to go within the company. There was only one thing left to do, start his own technology company. Michael formed a new technology company, Performance PC Computers. As with everything Michael had done, he immediately excelled. Michael worked directly with vendors such as Intel and Microsoft to create some of the worlds most advances personal computers. Michael went on to acquire government technology contracts in which he established citywide municipal local and wide area networks, sat on advisory boards, municipal CIS and technology committees, implemented municipal technology policies, and advanced the technology sectors within his local and state state governments. Michael was even called in to analyze, update, and certify the Y2K status of all embedded chip equipment within multiple cities, safely carrying municipalities, and their communities, into a new decade.
Being successful within the technology sector left Michael with something missing, his creative outlet. Michael began channeling some of his profits into his magical and hypnotic stage show. Michael then took this show on the road, touring the world performing at elite venues. In 2003, after becoming a world renowned stage hypnotist and magician and having started numerous successful companies, Michael formed another company, a talent agency responsible for the representation of live entertainers. His stage acts were also being regularly featured on national and international television shows, in print media and on radio broadcasts. During this time, Michael also found himself writing and consulting for the film industry, as well as producing professional video related works, and arranging feature film financing in his "spare time".
In late 2004, Michael, now performing in excess of 250 live shows per year for casinos, fairs, festivals, theme parks and more, found himself somehow feeling "empty" inside. In 2005, along side lifelong friend, John Voight, Michael wrote, produced and directed his first award winning short film titled, "The Devil Inside". The success of this short film led to Michael's retirement from the stage and to his transition into film and television. In 2006, Michael and John partnered with a Phoenix based educational institution to established a post grad production and post-production house. During this time the duo stated that they learned a lot of tough lessons within the industry.
Michael then utilized decades of stage production, audio, visual, computer and lighting knowledge within an executive level management position as the manager of lighting and power distribution for a tri-state live event production company. Michael ultimately left this position to spend the next year and a half writing, producing, directing and editing all types of video productions for a well known Scottsdale, Arizona based production company. At the same time, Michael was secretly aligning himself within the television and film industry. Michael then entered the television and film industry as a freelance producer, director and director of photography. Michael accepted hundreds of positions within the film and television industry to gain working knowledge of every department.
Michael finds himself writing, producing, directing or filming feature length and short subject films, television shows, documentaries, commercials, corporate videos, artist profiles and more. Michael, alongside his production company, Summitstar Films & Entertainment, has found his true calling and loves his aspiring career in film and television.
In 2023, Michael completed construction on his own studio, Summitstar Studios, and looks forward to a long and prosperous career sharing creative and artistic visions with the world.
