Filmmaker Bios

Filmmaker since the early 1970s, Lope Yap, Jr. is an honored member of the Directors Guild of America (since 1980). He has collaborated with John Korty, George Lucas, and Rob Reiner, among other distinguished filmmakers.

His extensive credits include The Ewok Adventure, Titanic, The Hunt for Red October, Just Like Heaven, Rumor Has It, More American Graffiti, Farewell to Manzanar, Sucker Free City, and television series including Monk, Beverly Hills 90210, Full House, and Fuller House. He also co-produced the Academy Award–nominated IMAX film Special Effects: Anything Can Happen, directed numerous PSAs and 2nd Unit episodic work, and has been involved with over 1,500 national and international television commercials, music videos, and documentaries — including the San Francisco Pier 39 large-format film San Francisco The Movie, the IMAX film The Spirit of Silicon Valley for the San Jose Discovery Museum of Innovation, the 2014 Brazilian telenovela Geração Brasil, and Apple TV's Truth Be Told (2018).

Beyond film, Lope is a dedicated Community Activist — a Hall of Merit Member and former VP of the George Washington High School Alumni Association Board (San Francisco, CA) and a Palace of Fine Arts Board Member. He has been associated with numerous nonprofit and for-profit projects throughout his career.

After graduating from the USC School of Cinema, Janice began her career at Columbia Pictures Studios in the production office of the hit television series Fantasy Island. She then moved into 35mm film editing at an LA company producing promos for television stations across the U.S., before finding her true passion in production and travel.

Janice went on to production-manage and produce over one hundred TV commercials — including campaigns for Ford F-150, McDonald's, Legos, and Michael Jackson — taking her across the U.S. (including Hawaii) and internationally to Canada, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and England.

After relocating to Northern California, she produced corporate content for companies including Adobe while also producing and assistant directing independent projects. In a notable career turn, she served as the Commercial/Corporate-Educational Representative at the San Francisco SAG-AFTRA office, where she authored a contract waiver that simplified the process for hiring union talent — increasing employment for guild members. Her depth of experience across every phase of production makes her an invaluable force on the SW Fire & Angels team.

Laurel Ladevich is an award-winning filmmaker and producer with expertise across all aspects of filmmaking — writing, producing, directing, and editing. As a producer at Lucasfilm and Pixar, she spearheaded numerous landmark projects. As a film and sound editor, she worked on dozens of features including two Star Wars films, one Indiana Jones, and a Jurassic Park.

Laurel wrote, directed, and produced the Emmy Award–winning documentary Fly Girls for The American Experience/PBS, and co-produced the Academy Award–nominated IMAX film Special Effects: Anything Can Happen. She was nominated for the British Academy Award and received the Woman of Achievement in Communications Award in 2001. Her rare combination of storytelling mastery and technical precision brings an extraordinary editorial vision to the SW Fire & Angels documentary.

In addition to being an incredible filmmaker, Michael is the ultimate prankster and joke teller: e.g.,

Michael "Mike" Maley was raised in the world of motion pictures and has spent more than four decades building an extraordinary career across nearly every major department in film production. A proud member of IATSE Locals 728, 600, and 16, his career has spanned cinematography, lighting, visual effects, rigging, camera operation, and technical direction.

Mike's impressive body of work includes Return of the Jedi, The Right Stuff, Aliens, The Running Man, RoboCop, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Jacksons: An American Dream, Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, Cowboys & Aliens, The Lone Ranger, Red Tails, and Jurassic World. He has served as Director of Photography and Second Unit DP on numerous features and specialty productions, earning a reputation for calm leadership and deep problem-solving ability.

Among projects close to his heart, Mike fondly recalls working with Robin Williams on Flubber, and his work on The Jacksons: An American Dream, productions involving Huey Lewis and the News, and the Grateful Dead's iconic Touch of Grey video. He represents a disappearing breed of filmmaker — one shaped by mentorship, practical experience, and a lifelong devotion to the collaborative spirit of cinema.

Fred Runner is a production sound mixer who has recorded dialogue for documentaries, commercials, and feature films including Total Recall, Mrs. Doubtfire, Basic Instinct, Batman Begins, and most recently Top Gun: Maverick — which won the Academy Award for Best Sound.

Fred is also President of Friends of Number 9, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring the last surviving steam locomotive of California's Mt. Tamalpais — once the home of the Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods Railway, known as the Crookedest Railroad in the World. In its lifetime, the scenic railway carried over one million people up the mountain and into Muir Woods. Fred also serves as a California State Park Docent at Mt. Tamalpais State Park and is the historian of the West Point Inn and its cabins — the only surviving buildings of the Scenic Railway.

"The day of the accident Scott was a very happy young man. He had been working out hard, making good progress and was getting recognition with his pictures selected for a calendar. The accident left him in serious jeopardy. He had severe burns from which many people would just not survive. For a significant length of time every day held the very real possibility that he would not survive. The general expectation was that he would not. But those who held that expectation did not know Scott."

"He was determined and single minded. He had learned from his weight training to work hard and never give up. He had been told to stay away from weight training but of course he did not listen. He had to have people help him get weights in his hands and it was not uncommon for a training session to end with bloody hands. He could not pick up a glass in one hand but found a way to trap a glass between both hands and manage to drink out of it. He managed to compete again and is at it still. He does not know how to give up and never quits. No matter how hard it gets."

"We all have heroes in our lives, some are celebrities on the big screen and others are people in our local community like Scott Wolt is in mine. I have known this good natured gentleman for most of the three decades I've lived here on the North Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. I am a 73 year old natural medicine healer, licensed as an ND for 32 years and now as a health coach these last 8 years."

"Scott has been in to see me several times a year for healing, lifestyle tips and chats on how to improve his quality of life. He has struggled and defeated many health challenges while recovering from a serious massive body burn while serving in the U.S. military. Through occasional setbacks, Scott has refused to surrender to failure and continues to march on to this day. His dream through education is to help other veterans and burn victims of all kinds learn the techniques he uses to more easily overcome the pains, prejudices and obstacles his injuries have manifested since that fateful day. I'm proud to say that we have also become friends and I look forward to our periodic Sol Duc Hot Springs trips with my client and friend, Scott Wolt."