Biography
David E. Harshbarger, raised in Northern California, started making films as a young teen in Los Altos and San Jose, California. His first semi-professional film was a "Youth for Nixon" Campaign Film. At seventeen years old, David received his White House press credentials making him the youngest member of the White House Press Corps. This came to the attention of an independent Educational, Industrial and Commercial filmmaker, Carrol Whitaker of Carrol Films in San Jose. Carrol was a one-man-band operation and took young David under his wing and taught David every aspect of 16mm filmmaking from script to screen. Nothing was farmed out. Carrol and David did all there own transfers, editing, (picture & sound), effects, (including negative cutting) and titling. Making such epics as "The Making of a Newspaper" for elementary schools and "The Surgical Removal of Bladder Calculous " for Stanford University Medical School.
After graduating Awalt High School, David attended Foothill College in Los Altos California, Attending and acceding in Film Radio and Television. Courses where David had his own Sunday Morning broadcast radio show for KFJC, a renowned FM Station in the San Francisco Bay Area. David transferred to Los Angeles Valley College where he excelled and completed more Broadcasting, Performance and Marketing courses.
David broke in to feature films sweeping a stage, where he met David L. Hewett, a low budget feature filmmaker and owner of Hollywood Optical Systems, David Hewitt noticed David's ambition and soon David was a Set Builder, Painter, Propman, Grip, Camera Asst, 2nd Asst Director and extra casting for the $350,000 epic, "The Lucifer Complex" with Robert Vaughn, Aldo Rey, and Keenan Wynn. For the next 10 years David, as a non-union Prop Master and Assistant Prop Master, went from one non-union show to another, primarily low budget films, like" The Sword and the Sorcerer", "Beastmaster", etc. and Prop Master for more than a couple of dozen of TV Movies, Pilots and Miniseries for NBC, CBS and TNT. (including a series of dramatic movies that told the story of Early American History from the Native American perspective, from1650's-1970's (French Indian Wars through the 1973 Siege of Wounded Knee). Mentoring under Andre' Brummer and George Costello, in the Low Budget, non-union world of production allowed David's ambition to spill into every department and performed literally every production job on the set from Camera to Craft Service. He continues to coordinate On- Set Special Effects. (Rain, Fog, Smoke, Fire, Wind and Mechanical FX Rigs) for smaller productions.
As a Property Master, under British and International Property Masters, Ron Downing and Eddie Fowley, David was trained in the British System of Art Department protocol. This system has the Property Master assume the tasks of assisting the hiring all the art department personnel, managing costs and budgets as well as maintaining all aspects and properties for Set Design, Set Decoration, Set Construction as well as Mechanical Effects, Armory and Hand Props. David was fortunate to apprentice and work as Assistant Property Master for the late Eddie Fowley, the British Property Master for Director David Lean and all of his major motion pictures. In 1991, David became a I.A.T.S.E. Local 44 Property Master and came to mainstream Feature Films with "Backtrack" for Director Dennis Hopper and has continued to be Dennis's Prop Master for the all the features that he has directed since. With nearly 100 films under his belt, David has worked at every Major Studio (Warner Bros., Disney, 20th Cent Fox, Paramount, etc.) beside some of the most respected and talented Directors in the business.
David now owns a Prop Rental and Fabrication Service (Prop Heaven of Antelope Valley) and continues to participate in feature film projects as an Associate Producer, (The Lost and Found Family, Sony Home Video), for Terry Collis, (Producer of "Tombstone") specializing in wilderness locations, challenging logistics and historical period accuracy, as well as Co- Producing and Directing, ("Inside the Criminal Mind with Vincent Bugliosi") and Designing smaller productions with extreme efficiency.
In 2009, David co-founded GRNNRG.ORG with his brother, Dr. Charles Hooper, a non-profit organization that spreads awareness of clean and nature driven energy production while mentoring young filmmakers.
He now brings his experience to the film industry from Antelope Valley, CA (his home for over 25 years), as a Producer, Director, Production Designer, Production Supervisor and Technical Consultant for Independent Features, Educational/ Instructional films, Commercials, Industrial films, Broadcast and Theatrical.
