Together we can make change

Greg Thomas

Greg brings his experience working with Start-Ups, Marketing, Social Media and Videography as the Executive Director of Public Films. After working in the Austin Start-Up scene for a few years (at a computer inside an office all day), he began to wonder, "What can I do that's fun, involves my love of film-making and story-telling AND brings something GOOD to the world?" Public Films became the answer.  Greg's energy, talent and problem solving skills have been the jump-start to getting Public Films off the ground here in Austin. 

Greg has been a photographer/videographer/editor for over ten years, covering a wide range of subjects from all areas of commercial work: from architectural photography to high-action sports, fashion to photo journalism. He has a diverse family of clients, from Osprey to Carnegie Technologies and GenXComm. In addition to his work in video storytelling, he has extensive experience with start-ups and marketing. He was the co-founder of a start-up, Iconicly, an app/web platform for photographers. Additionally, he was one of a team of three to create the photography department of one of the fastest growing start-ups, Main Street Hub (the only full-service marketing automation and CRM platforms that integrates social, reviews, mobile and email marketing to help local businesses thrive). Greg began at Main Street Hub with a Photos Team of only three members. In two years, they have created a network of over 1200 photographers throughout the US producing an average of over 40 shoots per day, capturing the stories of small, local businesses across the country.

Amy hovis

Amy has a long history of working with nonprofits and film. She began learning about film as a kid, working alongside her father, film-maker Micheal Hovis, who originally founded Public Films Inc in 1983 in Houston, Texas. Her entrée into film was as an actress in her father's first PSA for Cenikor, a rehabilitation center, at the age of 10. She often assisted her dad while he edited film on an old Steinbeck flatbed. Later she learned to edit on video and began working at Public Films as the "teen-expert" for her father's production of Baby Bound, an award-winning, teen pregnancy film produced by Public Films Inc. She later became a producer for Public Films, also writing, directing and editing, working there from high-school through college. During this time, Amy wrote and produced many addy-award winning PSA's for television, educational films, fundraising and promotional videos for numerous nonprofit organizations in Houston, Texas. During college she started a production company called Film Arts and produced films both for nonprofits and large corporations. Larger clients included the United Way, Shell Oil and Texas Southern University. She then moved to Paris, France and worked for the production company, Telema, producing television commercials for Asian companies like Daewoo and Daihatsu. In Paris, she co-founded a company called Sina Films, a film-service company for film production in Paris. (Clients in included American Airlines and Volkwagen). The production of high-end television commercials was fun at first, but the concept of: spending as much money as possible for as much profit as possible, was hard to swallow as the job at hand became more and more frivolous and ridiculous. Schedule a $1M+ shoot in less than two weeks? No problem! Find (and ship) a real kangaroo from England to Paris? No sweat! Commercial film production was long and far from the work of Public Films for nonprofits. After leaving the film business completely (and after a couple of other careers), Amy has come back to working with nonprofits to help her favorite organizations share their stories. 

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