About Us

AMF Productions is the brainchild of independent film director Bryan Harley. The group was formed in the year 2000.

Moviemaking. The challenge, the excitement, the collaboration, the audience, the satisfaction, and most importantly: the opportunity. The opportunity to relate stories and experiences with other people. Film is the ultimate medium for storytelling.

I’ve had a camera in my hand pretty much since I was eight years-old. In those days my films centered around my little sister and a disappearing act, and in some cases my stuffed animals. Somewhere along the way my attention wavered, like that of most kids. I wanted to be a fireman instead, or rather, and this is sadly the truth, an astronomer. But I was reinspired in 2000 by a genre of short films called “fan films,” which originated on the internet. These were short films, usually spin-offs or parodies, that were based upon an existing popular movie.

After purchasing a Sony handycam and learning a lot about this “firewire” business, desktop editing software, and of course watching a lot of movies… a mishmash of 16 year-olds were finally ready to start their own film company… so to speak. In April 2001 we were assigned a video project for our 10th grade English class. Our mission: produce a short video clip based on a book read during the school year. Simple enough, but we saw this as our chance to make something amazing. Not just any old video project, but an actual movie.

“Macshaft” was our first short film, a ‘fan film’ based on the movie “Shaft” and the Shakespearean tragedy “Macbeth.” Our classmates seemed to like it and so did we. But this was only the beginning. Since then we’ve produced upwards of 20 short films and video projects in and around the Fresno area, and we’ve won awards and screened in festivals from Toronto, Canada, and Rapid City, South Dakota, to New York City and Los Angeles! And we aren’t done yet…