Staff and Bios

Don Snellgrove is President of Sunrise Recording and Film Productions Inc. and is a developer of financial resources for business opportunities with the music and movie industry. His primary objective is to raise funds for faith based movies as an outreach ministry.

As a graduate of Florida State University, Don has been involved in the music industry for over 40 years working in South Florida as a studio musician, and also providing music for commercials and movie sound tracks. He also has successfully been involved in the foreign currency exchange markets over the last 14 years which has provided Don the opportunity to financially join the film industry. His business experience and savvy approach to the development of financial prosperity , has attracted a team of movie professionals to Sunrise Pictures who are far beyond what anyone could dream of. In fact, this is truly the “Dream Team” that has gathered together with Don to produce quality movies for all to enjoy.

Barbara Snellgrove, a novelist, authoring Trading Vengeance and co-authoring Witness in the Swamp is also a screenwriter, participates in the funding and promotions of movies that are faith based. She works closely with her husband with his objectives to raise funds as well as with churches on projects to coordinate sponsorships, public relations, advertisements and media development. Barbara provides critical ongoing communications to investors as they are guided through each level of the movie production. This action maintains a level of confidence for those who have invested monies into the film industry.

David Vercruysse has a combined experience of thirty years in the music and television industry and was also the Executive Producer on the Faith based films Broken Faith, and Surrender. David has worked as Chief Executive Officer for celebrities such as Mickey Gilley, Moe Bandy. He has also worked with entertainers such as Eddie Rabbit, Johnny Lee, and Mel Tillis to name a few. He was the C.E.O for Mickey Gilley Entertainment with a staff of 261 employees and 10 managers. David now is the Managing Member of VSaR LLC and A102 Studios which owns the concept television show “America is it a Hit?”, represented by Evolution Talent Management. He has won a gold Telly Award along with an Aurora Award, for a Music Television show production, which was aired on ABC, NBC, and CBS syndication. With Music and Television as well as managerial and financial experience David offer balanced credibility to the company.

Sharon Wehr is a former corporate executive for AT&T Communications and co-owner in a multi-million dollar amusement park and entertainment theater, which produced weekly television programing for Network syndication. Sharon is an investment partner for VSaR, LLC and Hit Song Holdings, which own the Television show America is it a Hit?

Steve Whitney began his career in entertainment as a literary agent at Century City-based The Agency, where he represented more than 20 writers and directors. Steve has never lost investment money in any production he has been a part of. In 1999, Whitney was instrumental in developing and packaging “Girl, Interrupted” which garnered Angelina Jolie the Academy Award. In 2005, Whitney executive produced the remake of The Amity-ville Horror, which has an overall gross box office income of 500 million dollars. In 2009, Whitney executive produced “Haunting In Connecticut,” for Lion’s Gate/Gold Circle. This entire production cost 8 million dollars. The box office grossed $55,325,526.00 in three months and DVD sells exceeded 1 million units in the first week. Together with Simon Cowell, Whitney is developing and producing “One Chance,” the true story of opera singer Paul Potts; the best selling novel “Escape,” starring Katherine Heigl; and a bio of Edgar Allen Poe starring Noah Wyle from “ER”. Steve Whitney now has a new commitment to faith based movies.

David Garland is a successful independent-film producer with more than 30 years’ experience in the studio system and other parts of the motion pic-ture industry. Serving as vice president for marketing at Paramount, Dis-ney and Fox, Garland was responsible for advertising, publicity, promo-tion, licensing and product placement. He played a key role in the market-ing campaigns of some of Hollywood’s biggest franchise hits, including STAR WARS, THE GODFATHER, STAR TREK, ALIEN, RAIDERS series and Disney’s animated classics.

As a senior publicist at Paramount in the mid-1970s, he handled the world publicity tours of John Wayne’s last film, THE SHOOTIST, and Jessica Lange’s first film, KING KONG. Together with a group of friends, Gar-land started the cable network, MOVIETIME, which changed its name to E! Entertainment Television and eventually sold to HBO and Disney.

Michael Johnigean was born and raised in Jacksonville Florida, developed MJ Investments and has bought, sold and developed over 2,000 properties. At the age of 38, he started Empire Development Group, which has been responsible for starting several successful multimillion dollar projects throughout Northeast Florida. In 2006 Michael started HealthyWay Supplements and HealthyWay Café and is selling franchises, area development and supplements. Today, Michael is running his very successful Investment and Development Company, Fortress Investments and Development. Fortress is a full service investment and development company with over 25 years’ experience. Throughout Michael’s career, he has raised more than $200,000,000.00 for Real-estate investments and Business opportunities and plans to support the movie industry with the same success

Perry VanKeulen has been self-employed for twenty years owning a finan-cial firm since 1989. Perry has been responsible for the life coverage of cli-ents with over 100 million dollars of Insurance. He has qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table numerous times and has successfully con-trolled over 30 million in asset management. His transition to the movie industry in 2011 is already revealing success with his assistance in the fund-ing of a faith based movie currently being filmed in Jackson, Mississippi as well as Springfield, Missouri; entitled BROKEN FAITH.

Boaz Dvir is an award-winning filmmaker who produced and directed “Jessie’s Dad.” As a screenwriter he specializes in bringing true stories to the screen. Dvir teaches storytelling and documentary filmmaking at the University of Florida and in Reid Hall, the Ivy League academic hub in Paris.
Dvir has written for several publications, including the Jerusalem Post, New York’s Newsday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the St. Petersburg Times, Scripps Howard’s Treasure Coast Newspapers and Explore magazine.
Dvir has won six Florida Magazine Association awards and numerous awards from the Florida Press Association, including first place for his Business Journal column.

Frank Foster began his career at CBS Studio Center which led him into motion pictures. At Universal Studios he worked on “Knight Rider” and “Airwolf.” A move to Stephen Cannell Productions put Frank into pyrotechnics for shows such as “The A-Team,” “Hunters” ‘Riptide” and “Hardcastle & McCormick.”

Paramount Studios invited Frank to work with the Star Trek series and movies. Frank worked on “Deep Space Nine,” “Voyager,” “The Next Generation” and First Contact, The Undiscovered Country and The Final Frontier. Frank worked on the special effects for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Poltergeist. Fantastic Voyage. Patriot Games and Panic Room to name a few.

Frank enjoys writing scripts and stories exclusively for Sunrise Recording and Film Productions. Inc. in his semi-retirement.

Danny Rodgers is the video director, editor, motion graphics, designer, audio engineer, and sound designer. Danny has spent twenty years in the music and television production industry. He is a six-time Telly Award winner for producing and/or directing various television productions. He is also an Aurora winner for music video television production that aired on ABC, NBC and CBS.

Danny demonstrates the expertise, caring and quality that is needed in the film industry as he seeks in each production which is obvious due to the feedback from actors that have worked with him in the studio and on film sites. Actors have comments such as, “please include me on future films if Danny is involved”. This is one of the greatest compliments a director or producer can receive.