It is with sincere regret that I write this article. After recovering from a falling out with a close filmmaking friend, I have decided to end it all with this: an expose on Todd Ernest Braley, the award-winning director of “Liar”. Before I hit my main points, let me start off with some background information.
Here is Braley’s thorough autobiography: “Todd E. Braley was born in Bay City Michigan in 1965. His interest in filmmaking began at about age 8 after his family had moved to Diamond Bar, California. He wanted to make movies, but his family could not afford to purchase any kind of movie camera. He would lie on the ground, staring into the sky making movies in his head. Todd was first interested in Animation, but as he got older his love for TV shows like STARSKY & HUTCH, SWAT, ADAM 12 and horror, action movies made him go to the actors to get his movies made.
During this time his Grandmother gave him his first Super 8 camera. His first movie (with actors) was a spoof on JAMES BOND was called "GOLDTOE". His art teacher saw Todd's talent and nominated him for weekend classes for film directing at the ART CENTER COLLEGE of DESIGN in Pasadena, Ca. "I learned a lot at these classes. My teacher (I can only remember his first name, John) loved the fact that I always had my projects done on time and I always went above and beyond the assignment." His first BIG filmmaking project came with DARK SIDE OF THE MIND which was written with his best friend Tim Piantadosi. Following that Todd was introduced to Jim Pastornek. Jim has been teaching Filmmaking/Directing classes for many years. Todd learned more about Filmmaking & Directing in the few short weeks than he ever had. Since then Todd has over 600 Local TV Commercials to his credit, 2 Feature length films, 14 short films, 150 News Magazine shows and 105 Episodes of a local Cooking show. In March 2011, Todd's short film "SILENCE" was accepted at the New Hope Film Festival in New Hope, PA. and in 2012 Todd's short film "ME, A RAPIST?" was awarded BEST DIRECTOR & BEST ACTOR at the YUMA FILM FESTIVAL.” (Sourced from: MyPRGenie.com)
I met Braley in 2012 through two very close friends of mine who hosted a radio program. I had listened to their interview with him and asked them how I could contact Mr. Braley. Upon meeting him via Facebook, we became good friends. It was clear Braley had a passion for filmmaking. He lived it, breathed, and loved it. Fast forward to August 2012: we’re at JawsFest hanging out, talking about “The Shark”. What is “The Shark”, you ask? It’s a script that I wrote over the course of two years. Braley and I had been toying with the idea of working on the film together during another summer. I thought it would be a great idea! Being a young filmmaker, I felt confident having Braley on set would help things run smoothly.
Here we are: June 2014, one month away from the production of “The Shark”. Braley and myself were always in contact to make sure I was doing everything correctly. I had just finished casting the core characters and confirmed some key locations. All was looking very well! Once July came along, we were almost ready to go. I was finishing getting PR done for the film while Braley was loading his van with his equipment. However, as he embarked on his journey to North Carolina (state of production), his van continuously broke down. He relayed the news to me via text and Facebook; I was beginning to panic. With shooting not too far away, I couldn’t let one thing screw up the production. I kept my fingers crossed and remained positive. It wasn’t until the weekend that I received the news that Braley could not make it down to North Carolina. He offered to help out next summer if I wanted to shoot then. Devastated, I told the actors and crew of the news. Braley saw what the actors had said to me and encouraged me to not let them pressure me into shooting without a proper DP (director of photography). His words, while encouraging, weren’t effective. In fact, the actors weren’t pressuring me at all, they were just giving alternative suggestions. It was too late to find another DP, so I called off the shoot.
I didn’t talk to anyone for days. I was too upset to think about “The Shark” at all. The actors understood my plight, but Braley didn’t. In fact, he took it personally. He thought my lack of communication after his encouragement was insulting. After he sent an email stating this and many other claims, which some were spot on, I responded telling him that he acted unprofessionally in pressuring me to wait, not checking his van beforehand for issues, and not understanding that I was grieved by the cancellation of production. He didn’t take kindly to the email, either. He blocked me on Facebook and went onto tell me that the film “had been a pain in the ass anyways” and insulted me. For a man who claims to be professional, he sure doesn’t act like it. I brushed my shoulders off and got back on my feet after a week of being disappointed. With Braley out of the picture, I wasn’t sure where to go. I knew I could do the film without him, but I was still saddened to lose a close friend.
I’m not the only one who’s been affected by Braley’s ignorance and inflated ego. In early 2013, Braley went off to shoot the film “Liar”, a drama-suspense film. Before shooting, he drafted a contracted the stated that the actors, while working for free, would receive a percentage of whatever profits Braley made in the end. It also stated that they would receive a free DVD copy of the film for their efforts. Once the film was finished, Braley went to me for distribution. Having experience in the DVD distribution business, I authored a DVD for him and paid for replication of 1000 DVDs. Upon asking how to split the DVDs profits, he said we would split it 60 (my percentage) to 40 (Braley’s percentage).
With a released DVD in hand, Braley went on to show the film in local theaters and in California. His actors accompanied him and enjoyed the attention the film was getting. However, while premiering the film in California, the cast had to pay for Braley to get out to the premier of his own film. He didn’t even show up for one of them, despite the planning and money the cast had put into it to have him out there. He requested that that the actors lie and tell people that Braley had received funding for a feature film and was currently making a film, when in fact he was back in Colorado, doing nothing.
Also at that time, there was an investor interested in turning “Liar” into a feature film. It is said from one of the actors that the investor got word of Braley’s laziness and backed out of the impending deal. Braley, furious about his loss of the investor, cut ties with his actors. He then went onto to tell me that he didn’t want to make a dime off of the “Liar” DVD release. Having no knowledge of the contract with his actors and the current situation, I respectfully acknowledged his decision. Something seemed fishy though.
His actors had come to me asking about the DVD and when they would get one. I told them they could buy it through my site: retrovisionfilms.com. They were confused! Braley had promised them both money and a DVD copy of the film in his contract, and they got nothing. I asked Braley about why the actors were displeased, and he claimed that their egos were out of hand and that he wanted to teach them a lesson. I didn’t bother getting involved with it, as I don’t care for any sort of drama. So, I went on with profiting from the “Liar” DVD, not knowing that the actors were being cheated out of their hard earned money and DVD.
For clarification, it wasn’t until late August 2014 that I found out about the terms of the contract and the reckless behaviour of Braley at the premier, thanks to some of the “Liar” actors showing me the evidence and bringing his childish behavior to the light. Upon this realization, everything that seemed fishy, now made sense. Braley had breached his contract illegally. His actors egos were not inflated, it was Braley’s own ego that was inflated. He was too busy basking in the fame of “Liar” to care about his actors. Braley alienated himself from the investor and many professionals due to his immature behavior. I remember when he told me about the investor backing out; he claimed he was going to quit filmmaking. All I saw on his Facebook for the next couple weeks was him badmouthing his cast and whining about how people need to keep their egos in check. A man who claims to be professional is not even near that title.
Beware of Todd Ernest Braley, he is not trustworthy, as you can see from my claim and the claims submitted on ripoffreport.com/ (these claims have to do with breach of contract as well). He has stabbed too many people in the back and must realize that no one will allow him to do so anymore. While you may not believe this post or you might be Braley, wanting to sue me for libel, please understand that this is all fact and I have the evidence to prove it as well. It’s time to put an end to Braley’s deceitful actions.
Todd Braley - or "Award Winning Director Todd E. Braley", as he always introduces himself - has been a producer, writer, director, editor, and art director of several "films" over the years - that being said, you can't really call them films. They're basically all about depressed women with men beating them senselessly. Not to mention they all look like high school projects filmed on a cell phone, and most of the artwork is composed of stock pictures from the first page of Google Images.
Anyways, Braley has proved to be an incredibly unoriginal, unreliable, selfish, and unprofessional man. As experienced by myself and several others over the years, some of which can be seen in other peoples' reports on this website. His camerawork is shaky, his photography blurry, and his editing and artwork skills mediocre.
He has also treated his actors and crew members horribly - he seldom pays anyone, and when it's time for a film to go public, the spotlight must always focus on himself, not the actors or crew members. His unreliable transportation and communication tactics also have a great lot of room for improvement.
Braley seldom hides his enormous ego, and will often go to great lengths to cause distress to those who don't agree with him by posting awful and incredibly unprofessional posts on Facebook, or sending them vulgar e-mails. He constantly claims himself to be a film professional, when in reality, he's far from that. If anything, he's rather immature for being a middle-aged man.
Braley works as a DJ as well as a producer - I wouldn't recommend going with him. He demands payment upfront beforehand, and refunds for unsatisfied customers are simply out of the question. Not to mention, he is rude, selfish, and as I said, an "Unprofessional Professional".
Todd E. Braley Reviews
It is with sincere regret that I write this article. After recovering from a falling out with a close filmmaking friend, I have decided to end it all with this: an expose on Todd Ernest Braley, the award-winning director of “Liar”. Before I hit my main points, let me start off with some background information.
Here is Braley’s thorough autobiography: “Todd E. Braley was born in Bay City Michigan in 1965. His interest in filmmaking began at about age 8 after his family had moved to Diamond Bar, California. He wanted to make movies, but his family could not afford to purchase any kind of movie camera. He would lie on the ground, staring into the sky making movies in his head. Todd was first interested in Animation, but as he got older his love for TV shows like STARSKY & HUTCH, SWAT, ADAM 12 and horror, action movies made him go to the actors to get his movies made.
During this time his Grandmother gave him his first Super 8 camera. His first movie (with actors) was a spoof on JAMES BOND was called "GOLDTOE". His art teacher saw Todd's talent and nominated him for weekend classes for film directing at the ART CENTER COLLEGE of DESIGN in Pasadena, Ca. "I learned a lot at these classes. My teacher (I can only remember his first name, John) loved the fact that I always had my projects done on time and I always went above and beyond the assignment." His first BIG filmmaking project came with DARK SIDE OF THE MIND which was written with his best friend Tim Piantadosi. Following that Todd was introduced to Jim Pastornek. Jim has been teaching Filmmaking/Directing classes for many years. Todd learned more about Filmmaking & Directing in the few short weeks than he ever had. Since then Todd has over 600 Local TV Commercials to his credit, 2 Feature length films, 14 short films, 150 News Magazine shows and 105 Episodes of a local Cooking show. In March 2011, Todd's short film "SILENCE" was accepted at the New Hope Film Festival in New Hope, PA. and in 2012 Todd's short film "ME, A RAPIST?" was awarded BEST DIRECTOR & BEST ACTOR at the YUMA FILM FESTIVAL.” (Sourced from: MyPRGenie.com)
I met Braley in 2012 through two very close friends of mine who hosted a radio program. I had listened to their interview with him and asked them how I could contact Mr. Braley. Upon meeting him via Facebook, we became good friends. It was clear Braley had a passion for filmmaking. He lived it, breathed, and loved it. Fast forward to August 2012: we’re at JawsFest hanging out, talking about “The Shark”. What is “The Shark”, you ask? It’s a script that I wrote over the course of two years. Braley and I had been toying with the idea of working on the film together during another summer. I thought it would be a great idea! Being a young filmmaker, I felt confident having Braley on set would help things run smoothly.
Here we are: June 2014, one month away from the production of “The Shark”. Braley and myself were always in contact to make sure I was doing everything correctly. I had just finished casting the core characters and confirmed some key locations. All was looking very well! Once July came along, we were almost ready to go. I was finishing getting PR done for the film while Braley was loading his van with his equipment. However, as he embarked on his journey to North Carolina (state of production), his van continuously broke down. He relayed the news to me via text and Facebook; I was beginning to panic. With shooting not too far away, I couldn’t let one thing screw up the production. I kept my fingers crossed and remained positive. It wasn’t until the weekend that I received the news that Braley could not make it down to North Carolina. He offered to help out next summer if I wanted to shoot then. Devastated, I told the actors and crew of the news. Braley saw what the actors had said to me and encouraged me to not let them pressure me into shooting without a proper DP (director of photography). His words, while encouraging, weren’t effective. In fact, the actors weren’t pressuring me at all, they were just giving alternative suggestions. It was too late to find another DP, so I called off the shoot.
I didn’t talk to anyone for days. I was too upset to think about “The Shark” at all. The actors understood my plight, but Braley didn’t. In fact, he took it personally. He thought my lack of communication after his encouragement was insulting. After he sent an email stating this and many other claims, which some were spot on, I responded telling him that he acted unprofessionally in pressuring me to wait, not checking his van beforehand for issues, and not understanding that I was grieved by the cancellation of production. He didn’t take kindly to the email, either. He blocked me on Facebook and went onto tell me that the film “had been a pain in the ass anyways” and insulted me. For a man who claims to be professional, he sure doesn’t act like it. I brushed my shoulders off and got back on my feet after a week of being disappointed. With Braley out of the picture, I wasn’t sure where to go. I knew I could do the film without him, but I was still saddened to lose a close friend.
I’m not the only one who’s been affected by Braley’s ignorance and inflated ego. In early 2013, Braley went off to shoot the film “Liar”, a drama-suspense film. Before shooting, he drafted a contracted the stated that the actors, while working for free, would receive a percentage of whatever profits Braley made in the end. It also stated that they would receive a free DVD copy of the film for their efforts. Once the film was finished, Braley went to me for distribution. Having experience in the DVD distribution business, I authored a DVD for him and paid for replication of 1000 DVDs. Upon asking how to split the DVDs profits, he said we would split it 60 (my percentage) to 40 (Braley’s percentage).
With a released DVD in hand, Braley went on to show the film in local theaters and in California. His actors accompanied him and enjoyed the attention the film was getting. However, while premiering the film in California, the cast had to pay for Braley to get out to the premier of his own film. He didn’t even show up for one of them, despite the planning and money the cast had put into it to have him out there. He requested that that the actors lie and tell people that Braley had received funding for a feature film and was currently making a film, when in fact he was back in Colorado, doing nothing.
Also at that time, there was an investor interested in turning “Liar” into a feature film. It is said from one of the actors that the investor got word of Braley’s laziness and backed out of the impending deal. Braley, furious about his loss of the investor, cut ties with his actors. He then went onto to tell me that he didn’t want to make a dime off of the “Liar” DVD release. Having no knowledge of the contract with his actors and the current situation, I respectfully acknowledged his decision. Something seemed fishy though.
His actors had come to me asking about the DVD and when they would get one. I told them they could buy it through my site: retrovisionfilms.com. They were confused! Braley had promised them both money and a DVD copy of the film in his contract, and they got nothing. I asked Braley about why the actors were displeased, and he claimed that their egos were out of hand and that he wanted to teach them a lesson. I didn’t bother getting involved with it, as I don’t care for any sort of drama. So, I went on with profiting from the “Liar” DVD, not knowing that the actors were being cheated out of their hard earned money and DVD.
For clarification, it wasn’t until late August 2014 that I found out about the terms of the contract and the reckless behaviour of Braley at the premier, thanks to some of the “Liar” actors showing me the evidence and bringing his childish behavior to the light. Upon this realization, everything that seemed fishy, now made sense. Braley had breached his contract illegally. His actors egos were not inflated, it was Braley’s own ego that was inflated. He was too busy basking in the fame of “Liar” to care about his actors. Braley alienated himself from the investor and many professionals due to his immature behavior. I remember when he told me about the investor backing out; he claimed he was going to quit filmmaking. All I saw on his Facebook for the next couple weeks was him badmouthing his cast and whining about how people need to keep their egos in check. A man who claims to be professional is not even near that title.
Beware of Todd Ernest Braley, he is not trustworthy, as you can see from my claim and the claims submitted on ripoffreport.com/ (these claims have to do with breach of contract as well). He has stabbed too many people in the back and must realize that no one will allow him to do so anymore. While you may not believe this post or you might be Braley, wanting to sue me for libel, please understand that this is all fact and I have the evidence to prove it as well. It’s time to put an end to Braley’s deceitful actions.
Todd Braley - or "Award Winning Director Todd E. Braley", as he always introduces himself - has been a producer, writer, director, editor, and art director of several "films" over the years - that being said, you can't really call them films. They're basically all about depressed women with men beating them senselessly. Not to mention they all look like high school projects filmed on a cell phone, and most of the artwork is composed of stock pictures from the first page of Google Images.
Anyways, Braley has proved to be an incredibly unoriginal, unreliable, selfish, and unprofessional man. As experienced by myself and several others over the years, some of which can be seen in other peoples' reports on this website. His camerawork is shaky, his photography blurry, and his editing and artwork skills mediocre.
He has also treated his actors and crew members horribly - he seldom pays anyone, and when it's time for a film to go public, the spotlight must always focus on himself, not the actors or crew members. His unreliable transportation and communication tactics also have a great lot of room for improvement.
Braley seldom hides his enormous ego, and will often go to great lengths to cause distress to those who don't agree with him by posting awful and incredibly unprofessional posts on Facebook, or sending them vulgar e-mails. He constantly claims himself to be a film professional, when in reality, he's far from that. If anything, he's rather immature for being a middle-aged man.
Braley works as a DJ as well as a producer - I wouldn't recommend going with him. He demands payment upfront beforehand, and refunds for unsatisfied customers are simply out of the question. Not to mention, he is rude, selfish, and as I said, an "Unprofessional Professional".