John Wellington Ennis

Filmmaker, Some Dude

John Wellington Ennis attended the USC and NYU Film Schools. He has worked as a director, producer, director of photography, and editor on Documentary films, Reality TV, Comedy-Reality Hybrid, and New Media platforms. His production company, Shoot First Inc., specializes in non-fiction entertainment (www.shootfirstinc.com).

In Documentary, Ennis has made films dealing with pharmaceutical companies’ impropriety (the award-winning Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety), and has been a long-time documentarian of the sport of competitive eating (Major League Eaters; Red, White, & Yellow) His current film, Buy Ohio, follows how corruption and election fraud impact the 2006 elections in Ohio. He co-DP’ed A/K/A Tommy Chong, chronicling the comedian’s federal prosecution, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Ennis’s music documentary experience has allowed him to tell the stories of rock bands forming (Madison Rose, VH1), breaking up (Next Big Thing: The 2 Skinnee J’s Farewell Show), and reuniting (Exposure: Jane’s Addiction, MTV).

Ennis has produced Reality TV for the major production companies FremantleMedia, Rocket Science, RDF Media, and Nash Entertainment, and his work has been seen on NBC, FOX, CBS, ABC, TLC, BBC, and elsewhere. He has also worked extensively in reality and comedy development at FremantleMedia, producing and editing numerous show proposal videos, or “sizzle reels.” His episode of the award-winning U.K. show Faking It earned the series’ top rating on TLC and was featured on Oprah.

In Comedy, Ennis’s New York City television show Toolz of the New School was a cult hit in the late 1990’s. A combination of sketch and stunt comedy blended with political documentary and live Hip Hop, the show was developed with Howard Stern Productions, worked with Lorne Michael’s Broadway Video, won awards, and screened in top art galleries around the world.
His feature directorial debut was an improvised comedy, Wild Girls Gone, written by and starring the original Upright Citizens Brigade (Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, and Matt Besser) and comics from Anchorman, Arrested Development, SNL, and MAD TV.

In Music, Ennis has interviewed and shot major recording artists. Some of the performers Ennis has worked with are Weezer, Fall Out Boy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, My Chemical Romance, Sean Paul, The Killers, Taylor Hicks, Fergie, Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park, and many more.

In New Media, Ennis combined his documentary ability with civic involvement and co-founded Video the Vote (www.videothevote.org), a non-partisan video watchdog group that documents issues at polling places on Election Day, and uploads voting problems on YouTube. The 2006 launch of Video the Vote a week before the November elections earned international media coverage, recruited over 1200 volunteers in 48 states, and was cosponsored by the NAACP, People for the American Way, and the Lawyers Committee on Civil
Rights. Video the Vote continues to document and report on election problems across America.