The goal of Shade 2 Sunshine is simple—shedding light on original stories by getting them onto screens, big, small and in-between.
What’s original?
We’re not doing police procedurals, buddy and gal pal sitcoms or other standard fare.
The focus is on stories with unique premises and strong characters often with an e-fi (economic fiction*) bent.
IS It risky? Yes. IS it more rewarding? Yes!
*Think sci-fi but about the force of money plays in our lives.
PRINCIPAL
Ian Keldoulis
Writer, Producer
Ian Keldoulis is an Australian writer who prefers shade to sunshine and crowded sidewalks to the outback. His favorite sport isn't cricket or rugby but people-watching. So it's just as well, he’s been transplanted to New York City for over three decades.
Writing has been the one constant in his life, beginning with underground magazines while studying at Sydney University. Then he traveled to Tokyo and wrote for a local production company, Twenty-First City and Japanese kid’s TV. Work for PBS and Showtime followed when he moved to New York.
A stint in publishing led to stories in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, and other media outlets before he was lured into advertising, eventually running his own agency and winning ten awards for multi-million dollar campaigns for clients such as Barclays Bank and Wine Australia. That period, along with a lot of animated dog commercials, included ghostwriting the chairman’s letter for the company at the top of the World Trade Center—after hundreds of his employees were lost on 9/11.
Following his career in advertising, Ian studied TV writing under the guidance of Columbia University Professor, Alan Kingsberg, (now the head of Stonybrook University’s TV writing program). It’s good to know the rules—before you break them.
The Sinking of America, his dark comedy TV pilot about sinkholes in Florida, won Best Short Script in the Oaxaca Film Festival (aka Sundance South of the Border). His feature-length screenplay, Toyz On Demand!, about Santa’s life when the North Pole melts, placed in the top 16 finalists in Stage 32’s Happy Writers Comedy Contest out of thousands of entries. The pilot episode of Candy Train, gained notable mentions at the Big Apple Film Festival and the Hip Hop Film Festivals in New York.
Ian is now combining his years as a storyteller with his experience producing advertising to bring a slate of productions to life. He also serves on the board of the Bronx Independent Cinema Center, a non-profit dedicated to bringing a movie theater and incubator space to New York’s most cinematically underserved borough.