The Stones are Speaking Documentary Team
We are a team of seasoned professionals who enjoy collaborating on stories that matter. We pride ourselves on high production values and ethical storytelling. And we share a passion for this film.
Director / Producer / Writer
Olive Talley is an award-winning producer, writer and journalist with a career that spans documentary filmmaking, network television and news reporting for newspapers, an international wire service and radio stations in Texas. Her first feature-length film, ALL RISE For the Good of the Children, premiered at the 2019 USA Film Festival in Dallas and was nominated for a Lone Star Emmy. Olive’s work in New York as a producer at Dateline NBC and ABC’s Prime Time Live! news magazine shows won two Emmy nominations, a National Headliner Award for Outstanding Network Documentary, a Du-Pont Columbia Award for Hurricane Katrina team coverage, and a CINE Golden Eagle Award. Her investigative reporting in radio and newspapers earned dozens of state and national awards, most notably a citation as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a George Polk Award, and two Texas Headliner Awards. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Olive also attended Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship. She lives in Dallas.
Narrator
John McCaa is a familiar and trusted face in television news in North Texas and beyond. During a 40-plus year career in broadcast news at WFAA in Dallas and WOWT in Omaha, John has produced or participated in the production of countless pieces of award-winning Journalism as a News Anchor, Reporter, Writer, Producer, and Researcher. He holds a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications from Creighton University, a masters in Politics from the University of Dallas and a PhD in The History of Ideas from the University of Texas at Dallas. He and his wife, Nora, live in Edinburg, Texas.
Editor
J Hutton is an award-winning creative collaborator with a passion for telling stories that touch the heart and motivate the mind. He elevates storytelling by working closely with producers and directors to conceptualize visuals and storylines. He edited a series of mini documentaries for the Associated Press (What Can Be Saved: Living with Lions, Ghosts of the Past and Fight for Survival) that won a Webby Award in the documentary category. He was nominated for a Lone Star Emmy for ALL Rise For the Good of the Children, and he worked closely on a nationally syndicated documentary, Lube Job: How Louisiana Got Screwed with Emmy-winning photographer, Guy Hernandez. J has also edited music videos; marketing videos for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and USC Annenberg Center for Third Space Thinking; and educational videos for the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University. Corporate and commercial clients include Ford Motor Co., AT&T, Frito Lay, the Dallas Cowboys, Mazda, HP, NTT Data, Genoa Healthcare, Six Flags, and 7-Eleven, The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. For four years, he edited the nationally syndicated news segment, An American Moment, hosted by James Earl Jones and Charles Kuralt, and various episodes for the television series, Small Business Today and Walker, Texas Ranger. J works with independent producers and agencies. He lives in Dallas.
Post-Production Editing and Compilation
David Maddox is a screenwriter, director, editor and founder of his own company, IdeaMan Studios, in Dallas. He made his first film at age 12 and turned his passion into a career. Dave’s credits include multiple award-winning short films, web series and commercials. One of his popular shorts, Alternative Math, won acclaim at many festivals, and was among 100 finalists for an Oscar nomination. It has received more than 12 million views on You Tube. He produced the 2017 Sundance hit, A Ghost Story, starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara. Recent work includes national sports commercials for the Big 12 and a campaign for the HCA hospital system. He enjoys making his own films and takes pride in helping others realize their visions for their films. His latest film project, In the Dark, is in development.
Directors of Photography/Cinematographers
Matt Franklin has worked on every continent except Antarctica, primarily as a sports and documentary photographer. His coverage of the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Camera Work in Sports and two other Emmy nominations. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero for NBC sports, and more recently shot sports features throughout the US for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). His 25-year career includes cinematography featured on National Geographic programs and national newsmagazine shows, such as Dateline NBC, and reality-based programs. Matt is an athlete himself, once ranked as the third best amateur in the world in slalom skateboarding. He lives in Austin, TX.
Chris McCaffrey is an Emmy-Award-winning Director of Photography who has lived life behind and through the lens for 28 years. Chris has crisscrossed the globe filming everything from mounds of pasta in Bologna to mountaintop Cholitas in Bolivia, and just about everything in-between. Chris has a true love of documenting the world and the unique people and stories in it. His clients include: National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, History Channel, TLC, HGTV and national news organizations. He is based in San Antonio, TX.
Charlie Pearce is a freelance Cinematographer and Director of Photography based in Austin, TX. With over 10 years’ experience with many different types of photography and production roles, he specializes in long and short form narrative, documentary, and commercial cinematography centered around evocative imagery and a 'story first' mentality. Charlie has hung from cables and speeding cars to get compelling, dynamic shots. His clients include Yeti, Hilton, The Innocence Project, and various production companies.
Director of Still Photography
Kenneth Garrett is a renowned independent photographer specializing in Archaeology, Paleontology and ancient cultures worldwide. His editorial work has graced 14 covers of National Geographic Magazine and 60 articles, including a 1999 story that involved the Gault site; 15 books; and other magazines including Smithsonian, Air and Space, Archaeology, Fortune, Forbes, Time, Life, Audubon, National Wildlife and Natural History. Corporate clients include IBM, Marriott Corp., UNC Aviation and Starbucks Coffee. His imagery emphasizes sites of major discoveries worldwide. With an education and keen interest in the origins of civilization, Ken has formed long-standing relationships with the foremost authorities in the field of Egyptian, Mayan and Pre-Columbian archaeology, and Human Evolution. His work is currently featured in the National Geographic Tutankhamun and Cleopatra traveling exhibits and previously in exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum in NY, the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, among others. Ken lives in Virginia.
Sound
Chris Montefiore — Plano-based freelance sound mixer with more than 25 years of extensive studio and field experience. Clients include: Dateline NBC, Fox News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Clinton Anderson Downunder Horsemanship, the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at TCU, and numerous network, cable and reality shows.
Scott Snyder — Austin-based freelance sound mixer who has worked on many reality shows and feature films, including Richard Linklater’s Boyhood.
Pablo Veliz — Founder of CineVeliz Media Group, a San Antonio-based production company. Pablo is an award-winning filmmaker himself, whose first feature premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Composer
Ray Sharp is a gifted and passionate composer who tells stories through music. He is the musical director for the acclaimed Four Day Weekend improv comedy group, a Fort Worth institution. A versatile talent, Ray has been composing original songs, mostly for piano, but also a wind symphony, since he was 13. He has performed for a wide range of live audiences. He has written music for national commercials, television shows, short films and directed and composed his own film. In the Spring of 2023, he scored and recorded two original symphonies with an orchestra in Macedonia and wrote an original score for a UK-based film. He’s recently joined an elite group of international composers whose clients include Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney, Lifetime, Hallmark and ABC.
Click here to listen to Ray Sharp's soundtrack to the film on YouTube
Associate Producer
Kate Costanza is a director/producer with experience in nonfiction features, narrative shorts and television. Her clients include ESPN, The Academy Awards and non-profits. She is a frequent collaborator at the Emmy-nominated Words + Pictures production company. Her independent work has been featured in international film festivals, winning Best Documentary Film in Short Film Breaks (2022) and Audience Award at Nitehawk Shorts Festival (2023). She brings curiosity, empathy and operational expertise to every project she touches. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, and is co-founder of Lotus Eater Productions.
Colorist
Steve Franko is most widely known as a top commercial colorist, with deep experience with advertising agency creatives to enhance the color for national, regional and local TV commercials, and video content for websites and social media. He’s also worked with award-winning producer Ron Mann on several documentaries including Grass, Go Further, Tales of the Rat Fink, as well as the TV documentary series: Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story, starring Sean Astin. His painstaking attention to detail and ability to enrich the true colors of videos and photos make images come alive on the screen. Steve loves the artistry of movies and adds his technical and artistic skills to add beauty to everything he touches. Steve lives in Dallas.
First Assistant Camera / Grip
Ryan Goodrich
Heather Grothues
Drone Footage
Sean Zook
Chris McCaffrey
Charlie Pearce
Website Design & Creation
Randall Hill
Frank Miller
Website Hosting
Jim Wieck
Tim Roberts
Bobby Warren