Biography
Tavin's experience spans over twelve years in both independent and studio filmmaking. While known as a pioneer in the world of digital filmmaking her work has spanned a broad variety of digital and analog formats, often melding the best of both to create cost effective, yet creatively compelling work.
Tavin's most recent feature film was Alien Lockdown, starring John Savage and Michelle Goh, which is currently on NBC/Universal's SciFi channel. This film was shot in Bulgaria with Avi Lerner's Nu Image films. She also served as a producer for all news broadcast and playback video footage featured in Roland Emmerich's "Day After Tomorrow." Prior to this, she produced several short subjects and features, including the independent feature On_Line which premiered at Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals and opened in US theaters July 2003. This film, which starred Josh Hamilton, Harold Perrineau and Venessa Ferlito was released theatrically across the US and is currently available on DVD and video at Blockbuster, Amazon and a video rental or retailer near you.
Another recent project, the award winning Taking the Wheel, was an independent short film directed by David Ackerman, starring comedian John Cleese. Taking the Wheel is currently airing on HBO and is distributed by Hypnotic in other markets. Prior to this, she produced the HD 24P video pilot for Sci-Fi Channel entitled The Man with No Eyes, written and directed by Tim Cox, which is currently in development as a series. Earlier in her career she produced the award winning short film, A Fate Foretold starring Grace Zabriskie, written and directed by Rick Nahmias and distributed by Hypnotic.
Tavin's nascent film career began with a variety of work in domestic and foreign productions including work as an Assistant to the Producer on films directed by Blake Edwards, Norman Jewison and Taylor Hackford. In 1994 she moved to Los Angeles to help open the Los Angeles office of French production house, Gaumont. There she helped develop international television series such as La Femme Nikita and Tales of the South Seas.
Tavin returned to film production in 1995 to join Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's Centropolis Entertainment as an assistant to writer/producer Dean Devlin. She worked on the films Independence Day, Godzilla (on which she also served as music coordinator for the award-winning soundtrack) and more recently as a company executive on The Patriot. She worked extensively with Dean Devlin and producer John Masius on the development and production of the Fox television series The Visitor and was instrumental in the initiation of the award-winning original content web series Thevisitor.com, sponsored by Intel. As an Executive for Centropolis, she acted as key liaison to Dean Devlin for Centropolis' music and special effects divisions and worked on the development of projects under the company's deal with Sony Pictures. After five years, Tavin retired from her position at Centropolis Entertainment to devote her full energies to independent producing.
Along with the projects listed here, Tavin is currently in pre-production on Mammoth for Sci Fi Channel and is in active development on a variety of projects, including feature film Liebox for Director David Van Eyssen, "Ev Confidential" for Dean Devlin, and various projects with director Tim Cox. Her specific emphasis is international productions where her command of three languages and her husband's international business experience become an added benefit of their partnership. Tavin is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
