About
Paladin Communications
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Robert and Mary Matzen of Paladin Communications are Friends of Mount Vernon
and members of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Robert sits on the board of the Braddock Road Preservation Association;
he is a member of Pittsburgh Filmmakers.
 At left, Paladin's production team coordinates more than 110 French & Indian War reenactors on a location shoot at Raccoon Creek State Park in Hookstown, Pennsylvania. Paladin worked closely with park staff to assure a successful experience for all.
Paladin's production team has
created hundreds of programs and shot in locations all over
the world. We take projects from original concept
through scriptwriting, production, editing, creation of animation, graphic design,
and release to broadcast, videotape, and DVD.
Paladin also partners with outstanding educators and organizations to create accompanying teaching materials that
meet national educational standards and serve both classroom and home-school environments.
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Mary Matzen, Principal
 Mary serves as Paladin's main point of contact and film producer. In addition to making certain the organization runs smoothly day to day, she tackles all the tough logistical issues inherent in film production. Maybe as a child she didn't see herself getting caught in the middle of an 18th century war, with cannons going off unexpectedly by her ear, but that's the way it turned out. Mary served as associate producer of WHEN THE FOREST RAN RED: WASHINGTON, BRADDOCK & A DOOMED ARMY and produced both GEORGE WASHINGTON'S FIRST WAR: THE BATTLES FOR FORT DUQUESNE and the 2004 WHEN THE FOREST RAN RED Special Edition DVD. In addition, she managed the creation of the nationally recognized education kit, GEORGE WASHINGTON'S FRENCH & INDIAN WAR (2005). Her greatest career challenge to date was overseeing production of the 2006 Paladin release, PURSUIT OF HONOR: THE RISE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, which was shot over several states and involved the coordination of complex shoots and scores of actors and living historians.
A graduate of Ohio University with a degree in Government, Mary was instrumental to the quality that has earned Paladin 12 major awards; her work has also received three Distinguished Technical Communication awards from the Society for Technical Communication. For more than 10 years she has served as senior editor for a leading human resources training and development company, where she has written and edited all types of corporate materials.
No one manages projects better than Mary. She has spearheaded important corporate communication efforts in a number of venues. She has also edited all types of print materials, including marketing and public relations, training, CD-ROM and Web copy, magazine articles, and book-length fiction. She has worked with organizations including Aetna Life and Casualty, Amoco, Bayer Corporation, Chase-Manhattan Bank, Texas Instruments, Tropicana, and Wachovia Bank.
Mary's pro bono work was instrumental to the success of the Big Brothers Big Sisters 1999 and 2000 Celebrity Roast campaigns. Her eye for detail has resulted in consistency of style for Paladin projects, and for the ever-more-complex paladincom.com.
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Robert Matzen,
Principal
 “I want the audience
to connect with whatever I’ve written,” says Robert Matzen, “whether it’s the passion of a military officer leading troops in battle or the passion of a physicist leading a team
of researchers. And I’ve
explored both extremes.” In his career Robert
has connected with audiences through books, magazine
articles, marketing materials, annual reports, and screenplays. Most recently, he has turned his attention to producing
and directing motion pictures.
Robert received his degree in history from California University of Pennsylvania--which also produced Bryan C. Cunning, who portrays young George Washington in Paladin's films.
Robert wrote WHEN THE FOREST RAN RED and co-directed with his mentor in filmmaking, Mike Foster. This 2001 French & Indian War film
documentary earned six national awards, including
a Bronze MUSE Award from the American Association of
Museums, a Bronze Telly Award, and a Golden Eagle Award
from the Council of International Nontheatrical Events
(CINE) in Washington, D.C, and a Platinum Best of Show Aurora Award. It continues to aire on more than 70 PBS affiliates
around the United States. His past works as writer include WILDE IN PITTSBURGH, a biographical
featurette on Balanchine ballerina Patricia Wilde commissioned by the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and THE STORY OF PIONEER, a corporate drama shot
on Super 16mm. He also wrote and produced a television special
for PBS/The Business Channel.
In 2002 , Robert wrote and directed the feature documentary GEORGE WASHINGTON'S FIRST WAR. This sequel to WHEN THE FOREST RAN RED has brought six more national awards to Paladin. In November, 2006, PURSUIT OF HONOR completed Paladin's Washington trilogy. Robert wrote and directed this motion picture as well, working from a story conceived with creative consultant John Metzger.
As a senior writer at a Pittsburgh PR firm, Robert works with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). His two current projects are THE SPIRIT OF EXPLORATION for the Johnson Space Center and RETURN TO THE MOON for the Exploration Directorate at NASA headquarters. In 2005 he wrote and directed the award-winning DREAMS OF AVIATION as part of a three-year ongoing NASA project. Robert also wrote Unifying America, the 2002 Federal Highway Administration Report to the American People, as well as print materials for the National Academy of Sciences, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Advanced Technology Program. Earlier in his career he wrote feature articles for a number of local and national periodicals.
Robert’s print career includes authorship
of a mass-market how-to paperback on the art of research (Bantam
Books, 1987), a biography of actress Carole Lombard (Greenwood
Press, 1988), and co-authorship of the business book, Organizational
Change That Works (DDI Press, 1997), now in its third
printing. He also edited the landmark work, Empowered
Teams (Jossey-Bass, 1992), which has sold more than 100,000
copies in hard and soft cover. Robert has made presentations in a number of settings, including annual meetings of both National Park Service superintendents and the Daughters of the American Revolution, and also at national and regional educational seminars.
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Michael
S. Foster, Consulting Producer/Director
A graduate of the USC Film School, Mike Foster has worked
within the discipline of film and also in top television
markets. He has produced and directed several
national TV spots, and is a past recipient of a New
York Festivals Gold Medal, two Platinum Aurora Awards,
Gold, Silver, and Bronze CINDYs, three CINE Golden Eagles,
the International Monitor Award for film direction,
and many others.
In 2000 Mike helped to conceive When
the Forest Ran Red and worked with Robert Matzen
to establish the creative vision for a documentary that
went on to broadcast in top markets while earning five
national awards. Mike directed interviews with
top historians, and produced and directed large-scale
French & Indian War battle reenactments. His
production work led to action-packed footage on several
intense location shoots involving multiple 16mm packages
and crews in combat-style photography.
Mike has directed and produced in
locations around the world. He has worked in the
shadow of the Sydney Opera House and at Stonehenge,
at the pyramids of Egypt and atop the Andes Mountains.
His creativity extends from the field to post-production,
where he often comes up with the final little touch
that makes a good motion picture great.
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Support
Staff
Paladin maintains an on-call
staff of highly qualified communications specialists that help us to make great movies.
Every one of these enthusiastic, hand-chosen professionals
embodies the Paladin spirit of quality and customer
service. All are committed to our goal of making history with every production.
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