James Lay

Special Achievment in Local Production – 13th Annual LA Music Awards

Writer/Director and widely known as a Top Hollywood Sound Designer James was the Winner of the 2003 Los Angeles Music Awards “Best Producer of the Year” competing against Michael Jackson’s Producer-Rodney Jerkins and Led Zeppelin Producer Andy Johns, winning for his work with now infamous Rachelle Spector(wife of Beatles Producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector). Decedent of two of the oldest American Families, James’ family is portrayed in arguably one of America’s most famous Paintings by Norman Rockwell, see below.

With over 50 feature film credits including multiple #1 Box Office films, James has worked as a Sound Designer/Rerecording Mixer/Supervising Sound Editor for Director Michael Mann(ALI), Producer/Director Francis Ford Coppola (Jeepers Creepers). He has worked personally for Will Smith(WSE) as well as worked with: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kevin Kline, John C. Reilly and numerous other A listers.

He moved into the Writer/Directors chair in 1996 with his debut TV series “The Edge”. CEO of both Blue Voodoo Technologies(film production company) and Dreamlife Technology (a holographic technology company)James is in previsualization on his next film “Burden” which will debut never been seen before Dreamlife visual technology.

Raised in the cultural artistic tech savvy ground zero of San Francisco/Silicone Valley and heavily influenced by the teachings of Carlos Castaneda, James enjoys Writing and Directing quirky stylized commercial films with heart. He spent years in the music business as a Musician, Songwriter, Producer and Engineer training with world renowned Grammy Winning Producer Eric Valentine(Slash/Maroon 5/Smashmouth/Good Charolette/Third Eye blind)in the early 90s.

James’descends from two of the oldest American Families of notoriety; Tristram Coffin of Nantucket(A Royal from Devon England-see wiki) who arrived in America in the mid 1600’s and Thomas Pennell who arrived in 1708. Tristram Coffin was an original settler and owned Nantucket Island Massachusetts. The Pennell’s were one of most successful Ship Building families on the coast of Maine in “Pennellville” from 1760 to 1874. James’s great uncle, Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet Robert Peter Tristram Coffin was a close friend of Norman Rockwell, Rockwell utilized James’s grandparents and mother as models for Rockwell’s most famous paintings the “Freedom from Want” Painting in 1943 that was on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, the painting is more commonly known to most American’s as the “The Thanksgiving Dinner” painting.

The most interesting historical note regarding James Lay is the fact that his family owns one of America’s most important historical homes where literally the birth of the end of slavery would be born, the home where Harriet Beecher Stowe would pen one of the most important pieces of American literature, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: The Machine Management