Weirdsmobile Productions was created in 2005 by John V. Knowles & Lotti Pharriss Knowles.  We offer a wide range of services for clients in the entertainment industry, including directing, editing, graphic design, writing, copyediting and research. Weirdsmobile is also a production company which brings our creative visions to life. So far we have produced the world premiere production of Ovation-nominated play Because They Have No Words, award-winning short films SHADOW.NET and Weak Species, and the inaugural VAMPIRE-CON. Our first feature film, Chastity Bites, is currently in development.

Bios

John V. Knowles grew up on exotic military bases all over the world (South Korea, Italy, New Jersey) and earned his BFA in graphic design from Drake University in Des Moines. After moving to Chicago he worked for five years as a designer and art director at Essex Two, Inc. Feeling the need to try something new and take a risk, he enrolled in local filmmaking workshops and rediscovered his passion for storytelling. After a couple years in the trenches on commercial and film productions in the Windy City, he set sail for Los Angeles to pursue directing full-time.

Since making the transition from graphic designer to filmmaker, John has directed six short films, most notably the award-winning SHADOW.NET, which has appeared in film festivals such as Dragon*Con (1st Place, Thriller), Cleveland International, Lake Arrowhead, Dances With Films, NewFilmmakers NYC, Taos Shortz, Action/Cut Short Film Competition (Semi-Finalist) and The Film Series at CineGear Expo (Finalist). He has also directed music videos for French techno artist Lewsor, L.A. musician Woz, and 80’s pop star Deborah Gibson. Clients for his directing, editing and design services have included Walt Disney Feature Animation, BellaPierre Cosmetics, Playboy Entertainment, and John Wells Productions, among others.

Lotti Pharriss Knowles grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She earned her degree in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and an MA in Theatre from University of Illinois at Chicago. Her solo performance work was produced in Chicago by Tellin’ Tales Theatre, Field Trips, Estrogenfest, Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins at Mary-Arrchie Theatre, and the Fillet of Solo Festival at Live Bait Theater. She also served for two years as managing director at Live Bait, helping to produce such world premieres as Luther Goins’ Love Child and Edward Thomas-Herrera’s Death On A Pink Carpet.

Since moving to Los Angeles, Lotti has produced the short films SHADOW.NET (Winner, Best Thriller – Dragon*Con Independent Short Film Festival) and Weak Species (Winner, Best Short – FilmOut San Diego and Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival). She also produced the original run of her play Because They Have No Words (co-written with Tim Maddock and nominated for an LA Stage Alliance 2007 Ovation Award for World Premiere Play), which was subsequently produced in 2008 by the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, IL and as a celebrity benefit reading for In Defense of Animals. The play will be published in 2011 by Northwestern University Press in an anthology titled Katrina On Stage: Five Plays Exploring Hurricane Katrina.  Lotti volunteers regularly as an adult artist/mentor with the Virginia Avenue Project in Santa Monica, is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., and is represented as a playwright by Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency in New York.

Lotti’s current project with Weirdsmobile is her original feature film CHASTITY BITES, which was a semi-finalist in the Acclaim Film & Television Screenwriting Competition. She is also currently co-producer of the annual event VAMPIRE-CON and the feature-length documentary ACTIVIST: The Times of Vito Russo (author of The Celluloid Closet and co-founder of ACT UP and GLAAD).