MEET THE TEAM
Ryan Verril, SFP Executive Director
Host, The Disc-Connected Podcast
Producer, Terror Vision/Graveface Films
Producer/Editor, SFP
Ryan Verrill started the Disc-Connected podcast and YouTube channel in 2021 and in a short time has brought together film lovers and physical media collectors from all over the world. His interviews include boutique label heads, film critics, and filmmakers including Sean Baker, Joe Lynch, Lucky McKee, Richard Beymer, JT Mollner, and Bill Plympton. Verrill has expanded the Disc-Connected universe with Someone’s Favorite Productions, the Shelf Shock Rewind Awards Show, and The Physical Media Advocate magazine. He is a skilled editor and producer, and also works as a disc producer for Terror Vision/Graveface Films.
Verrill was involved in the southern California punk scene as a teen, where he was introduced to horror masterpieces like Evil Dead and Zombie. He quickly developed a love for films in all genres, from all eras and countries. With the Disc-Connected, Verrill has fostered a DIY community of physical media fans in the digital age.
Dr. Will Dodson, SFP Creative Director
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Media Studies
Producer/Writer, SFP
Will Dodson is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Media Studies at UNC Greensboro, where he teaches film and media studies, rhetoric, and literature. He is also affiliated faculty with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. He co-edits the book series Foundations of Horror Studies (Manchester University Press) and The Anthem Series on Exploitation and Industry in World Cinema (Anthem Press). He is co-editor of American Twilight: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper (University of Texas Press, 2021). His work has been published in Film International, Quarterly Review of Film & Video, Monstrum, and numerous essay collections.
Dodson’s cinephilia began in 1996, when he stumbled across a VHS tape of Slumber Party Massacre II, and subsequently took a part-time job at a video store, where he systematically rented every film in each section of the store. After graduating college, he worked as a Communications Director for a non-profit media and advocacy organization and facilitated a punk rock music venue. As an academic, he focuses on writing accessible film history and broadening students’ knowledge and tastes in cinema.
Frequent Collaborators
Erica Shultz, SFP Contributor
Author of The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film
Host of Unsung Horrors Podcast
Erica has contributed towards supplemental features to Vinegar Syndrome, Error 4444, Terror Vision, Fun City Editions, Severin Films.
Billy Ray Brewton, SFP Contributor
Founder: Make Believe Seattle and Shindig: A Southern Celebration of Queer Cinema
Film programmer, Festival Director
Writer and Producer, SFP
Billy Ray was born and raised in rural Alabama before heading to the West Coast in 2013. While in Alabama, Billy Ray founded Theatre Downtown, a cutting-edge theatrical production company specializing in original works; created short films with his producing partners; and dabbled in the film festival world. After moving to Los Angeles, Billy Ray wrote and directed the award-winning genre film, Show Yourself; wrote and directed the award-winning Hollywood Fringe play, “A Beast/A Burden”, which enjoyed an Off-Broadway run at the SoHo Playhouse; and directed the award-winning, “Son-of-a-Bitch”, for Hollywood Fringe also.
Additionally, Billy Ray has founded both Make Believe Seattle and Shindig: A Southern Celebration of Queer Cinema, two boutique film festivals; programmed for Slamdance, L.A. Film Fest, Skyline Indie Film Festival, Chattanooga Film Festival, and more; and served as Managing Director for Seattle’s Three Dollar Bill Cinema from 2021-2023. His charitable event series, Scripts Gone Wild, has been featured at Fantastic Fest, and pops up periodically in and around Los Angeles, featuring celebrities like Joel McHale, Perez Hilton, Barbara Crampton, Diedrich Bader, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Amy Seimetz, and more.
As a podcaster, Billy Ray can be heard frequently on the popular Screen Drafts podcast (just enjoyed 2M downloads), and has previously hosted both The Incinerator Podcast and Movie Mixtapes.
In 2024, Billy Ray launched Make Believe Productions, a stage and film production company.
Dr. Clayton Dillard, SFP Contributor
Visiting Lecturer of English at Texas Christian University
Dr. Clayton Dillard completed his PhD in English at Oklahoma State University in 2021, where his dissertation examined space and anti-realism in contemporary European art cinema. He has taught courses in rhetoric & composition, film, and literature at numerous universities since 2013. His research interests include theorizing genre cinema, affective responses to music, and political modernism. He has also written as a film critic, interviewer, and columnist for Slant Magazine since 2012. He contributed an essay on The Mangler to American Twilight: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper.
Maya Haston
Director, Screenwriter, and Producer
Founder of M.E.T. Productions
Maya Haston is a filmmaker with over eight years of experience in directing and screenwriting. She has directed several short films, including N’Oublie Pas de Vivre (A Carmichael Studios Production), Always & Forever, and Carassius Auratus (which has been officially selected for festivals worldwide). As president of Carmichael Studios, a student-run production company at UNC-Greensboro, she produces all the short films students make each semester. Maya co-founded M.E.T. Productions, an indie production company with Tiana Howard and Emma Welborn. Her collaborations with SFP include directing #RestoreTheWynorskiverse feature on Popatopolis, and directing an interview with Joe Bob Briggs for Terror-Vision’s forthcoming editions of Gator Bait and Gator Bait 2: Cajun Justice.
John Dailey, SFP Editor
Producer, Terror Vision/Graveface Films
Host of the RockCHUDson YouTube channel
John is an efficient and entertaining editor of trailers and special features for various outlets. He has completed editing work for Terror Vision, Graveface, BFI, Wicked Vision, and more. His work is continuously expanding and his style is infectious.