Frankie Cordero has built and performed puppet characters for Sesame Street, The Muppets, and projects with Fred Rogers Productions, often directing and storyboarding the work before it reaches the camera. His job lives in the physical construction of performance, where choices about movement, gaze, and limitation quietly determine whether a character feels real once it’s on screen.

Bulent Gurcan spent years as a federal agent, war veteran, and pilot before turning to filmmaking and on-camera survival work. We talked about timing, subtext, the small adjustments that redirect a scene, and why every choice matters when you’re working in conditions that don’t forgive mistakes.

Mark Simon is the storyboard artist behind Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, Dexter, Lioness, and a few thousand other moments people know without ever knowing who shaped them. He’s the one translating a director’s early ideas into something the crew can actually shoot.

Mitch Burman has spent three decades shaping unscripted worlds where nothing can be faked twice. His track record runs from Old Enough! Canada to Brother vs Brother to the hidden-camera and competition shows that built his reputation for engineering real reactions.