Team

Richard Matson is a film distributor with more than 15 years of experience in the independent film industry. In 2002, Richard co-founded Transmission Films, an online film distribution for American independent and foreign films. Transmission grew to become the third largest online film distributor in the world with a userbase of 70,000 and monthly visitors in excess of 2 million. Richard acquired the online rights for 70 feature films and sold the company in June of 2004. Prior to starting Transmission Films, Richard served as President of Production and Distribution for Palisades Pictures Entertainment Group. At Palisades, Mr. Matson supervised marketing and distribution of the feature films RESTAURANT (Adrien Brody, Lauryn Hill and Malcolm Jamal Warner), TEN BENNY (Adrien Brody, Sundance entry 1998) and production on THE PARTY’S OVER (Philip Seymour Hoffman) as well as production of various film, commercial and television projects. Richard also served as the Director of Acquisitions for the company. Mr. Matson has also worked as a director and producer on a variety of short films and commercials. In 2004, his short film, THE DUKE OF GOO, played in 24 international film festivals. Richard is a regular festival panelist and film school lecturer on the subject of film distribution. He attended Hampshire College, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and graduated summa cum laude from Columbia College.

Prior to joining Matson Films, Mr. Lai was a partner in Transmission Films, serving as the Chief Technology Officer for the company. At Transmission Films, he was in charge of site design, implementation, and operations for a site with 70,000 users that updated content daily. Mr. Lai managed all aspects of the site and third party technology relationships. Prior to Transmission Films, Mr. Lai held management and senior technology positions at Arsin Corporation and iVendor, providing digital media, e-commerce, and Internet-based solutions to customers such as ABC, A.M.P.A.S. (The Oscars), BMG, CBS, FOX, and Lucasfilm. His focus included the convergence of traditional offline media (TV, film, and music) with online technologies (e-commerce, wireless, and digital music). Mr. Lai spoke on the “New Innovations in Film Distribution” panel for the Global Entertainment and Media Summit about the interplay of independent film and technology for distribution of feature films. Mr. Lai founded a wireless e-commerce startup that developed group planning solutions for mobile and Internet-based devices. He has also held engineering positions at Apple Computer, NEC Systems Laboratory, AOL, and Trilogy Software. Mr. Lai graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Computer Science.

Mr. Severini began his career in advertising in 1978 working at a number of agencies including Grey Advertising. In 1987, Mr. Severini started his own integrated marketing communications company called the Gramercy Group. The Gramercy Group was acquired by Publicis Group, S.A., the fourth largest advertising and media conglomerate in the world, and was assimilated into Publicis Dialog in October of 1999. Mr. Severini remained as a consultant for two years, after which he established Media Plus Advertising, a branded entertainment company. While owning the Gramercy Group, Mr. Severini started a separate division, Palisades Pictures Entertainment Group, to produce, market and distribute independent feature films. Mr. Severini served as Executive Producer on TEN BENNY and RESTAURANT which cast then little-known Adrien Brody, into his first leading role. Mr. Severini also Executive Produced THE PARTY’S OVER (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a documentary released theatrically in October 2003. Mr. Severini left Palisades to join Matson Films in September of 2004. In addition to his responsibilities coordinating brand partnerships with Matson, Mr. Severini continues to work with a number of clients who are actively co-producing and distributing television shows and feature films that integrate brand messages into the programming through Media Plus Advertising.

Hannah’s background in film distribution comes from a grassroots organizing perspective, specializing in cause-related marketing for documentary and independent film releases. Prior to joining the Matson Films team, she headed Business Development for Gathr Films, and oversaw new partnerships and development of co-branded, crowd-sourced film series. While with Gathr Films, Hannah built out an Ancillary Sales department from ground up and oversaw numerous successful campaigns. She also participated in film acquisitions. Hannah developed impact-driven marketing best practices, establishing and implementing data analysis processes and strategy for the company’s content marketing. Prior to Gathr Films, Hannah worked in the University of Southern California Office of the Alumni Association with event marketing for Special Interests Groups. During her time there she worked extensively on community outreach and operations for the annual USC Women’s Conference. She has also edited a variety of short form and documentary content for non-profits including Los Angeles’ Hollenbeck Police Business Council.