John Parenteau was born in Southern California, but moved to Oregon when he was 2 (not on his own, with his family). Country life suited John, and soon he was living a Tom Sawyer-esque lifestyle which included tromping through the woods, looking for Bigfoot and shooting “crawdads” with his bb gun.
Somewhere along the way, probably due to his brother’s inspiration (as was the case with most things in John’s life), he decided he either wanted to be a filmmaker or a Navy pilot. Sitting with two applications in front of him, he realized he could always make films about being a pilot. Thus, film school had another victim.
After four years in U.S.C. School of Cinema/TV’s undergraduate production program (1983-87), John ventured out into the real world, first as a cinematographer, then 3D artist (seaQuest DSV, Star Trek: Voyager) and Visual/Digital Effects Supervisor (Spy Kids 3D, Sin City). During most of that time, he worked hard at trying to understand how to talk to actors and write dialogue. It wasn’t until around 1999 that he realized that somewhere along the way, probably in his sleep, he figured those two things out, sort of.
John now works as a production and development consultant, assisting productions in a variety of capacities including production, story and visual consulting. He continues to guide Sententia Entertainment, a production company formed out of feature visual effects house Cafe FX, while spending time on his own career as filmmaker. John recently completed principal photography on a 35mm festival short film, and hopes its success will assist with his goal of directing his first feature before global warming makes it impossible.
