About Over the Sun

The OTS Team

Jake Fedie, Fort Collins, Colorado
Jake and Kai have worked together since 1998 when Kai's first company Terra Firma Design conducted website development and marketing consulting for businesses in Northern Colorado, including New Belgium Brewing whose website Jake and Kai maintained for six years.

Jake worked closely with Kai's Terra Soft Solutions and developed the renowned "Yellow Dog Linux" logo, as well as ten years evolution of the corporate website. Jake has since the mid 2000s maintained a diversity of web and design clients, bringing his creative talents to the Internet media.

Dan Heim, New River, Arizona
Dan has been writing about science for over 30 years, the first 20 while employed as a teacher of science and mathematics. He earned degrees in Physics and Ecology from UW Green Bay in 1974, and secondary education certificates in Physics, General Science, and Mathematics. Seeking to share his accumulated wisdom, Dan retired from formal teaching in 1999 and founded Heimhenge Enterprises. Its mission is to provide innovative and effective multimedia content that helps teachers communicate difficult science concepts.

Dan has worked closely with OTS founder Kai Staats since early 2010 for various professional writing and editing projects, including iConji.

Jae Staats, Phoenix, Arizona
At a young age Jae worked for the Phoenix Suns NBA team, moving from volunteer ballboy to Assistant Video Coordinator where he learned off-line video editing on an Avid and gained invaluable skills behind a camera. Jae went on to found award winning BallBoy Productions, a Phoenix based creative firm whose clients range from the Desert Botanical Garden to the Phoenix Childrens' Museum to Toyota and the Phoenix Suns. In 2010, BallBoy took 2nd and then 4th place in two consecutive GoDaddy! commercial contests, beating out more than 800 teams nationwide. Jae is also the founder of the Almost Famous Film Festival, the Nation's largest 48 hour short film challenge for eight years running.

Jae brings to Over the Sun an expertise in telling story through film.

Scott Frankel, Berkeley, California
Scott has worked in the visual effects and motion graphics design industries since 1992. He is credited on more than 25 feature films, including the Matrix sequels, Synecdoche New York, Planet of the Apes, The Mummy, and Star Trek. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Association for Computing Machinery, and the Visual Effects Society, Scott pursues a life-long fascination with creative imaging, having earned a reputation for perceptive clarity, exacting quality, and a wry sense of humor.

Scott worked closely with the Terra Soft Solutions team during his design and development of Sequoya Workflow (then called "Y-Film"). Kai now calls upon Scott's expertise in color and visual acuity in film.

Christopher Leps, Los Angeles, California
For over twenty years, Christopher Leps has played an active role in cinema. His diverse career in entertainment began at the Walt Disney Company in 1989, but his zeal for film originated long before then; sparked by the movies of his childhood. His passion for motion pictures, combined with his athletic background, led Chris to stunt performances in more than 130 episodes of television and over 30 feature films, including 24, Alias, CSI, the Pirates of the Caribbean saga, Avatar, and The Adventures of Tintin.

As a storyteller, Chris has written, edited, produced, and directed a number of indie shorts and spec commercials, as well as Golden Trailer Awards nominee - Shadow, and Ed & Vern's Rock Store - winner of six Best Documentary awards. Chris' latest project, Century of Light is currently screening at film festivals nationwide. A member of the Screen Actors Guild, the American Film Institute, and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, Chris is a nominee and winner of a Screen Actors Guild Award in recognition of his performances in both television and film.

Lenny Roach, Shenzhen, China
Lenny brings to OTS an exhaustive background in the management of manufacturing and electronic packaging design, from Multi Chip Modules to cabinet size systems. He is an industry expert in Manufacturing Processes, Activity Based Modeling, Virtual Prototyping, Cost Reductions, Target Costing, New Product Introduction, Electronic Packaging Design, Miniaturization, Project Management, and Trade-Off Analysis.

Lenny holds multiple patents, was founder and chairman of the PC-2224 PC Card Design/Assembly Standard, and has served on NEMI and NIST committees.

Technical consulting, authoring and teaching for various global factories in Manufacturing Processes, Virtual Prototyping, Target Costing, Printed Circuit Board Design, Supply Chain Analysis and Supplier Management Programs. Analyzed, specified and set up several SMT and top level assembly lines in various global factories in China, Mexico, Germany, Canada and the United States.

Kai and Lenny worked closely on the design and development of both the original and follow-up patents for Sketchbox.