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About The Company

Swords & Circuitry Studios is a multimedia development company based in sunny San Diego, California, specializing in the development of entertainment properties for television, film, radio, the web, computer gaming, comics and other publishing outlets. Founded in 2001 by Executive Producers Neal Hallford and Jana Hallford, it began as a publishing service for their joint writing efforts, but has since grown into a broader entertainment entity with numerous internally and externally produced projects currently in development.

Neal Hallford

Jana Hallford

Jana earned her entertainment credentials early, covering rockstars of the art world like Andy Warhol, Christo, and Robert Rauschenberg for her college newspaper and the La Jolla Light. She also wrote features about the still-developing San Diego Comic-Con before it became the cultural phenomenon that it is today. Parlaying her art writing into public relations work, she went on to do direct marketing and trade show exhibits for a book publisher. In 1994, she provided background material to the SciFi Channel for their marathons of the original Beauty and the Beast TV series, and in 2007 co-directed an independent web series which provided more history and insights in Beauty and the Beast: 20 Years of Remembering. Along with Neal, she co-authored the book Swords & Circuitry: A Designer's Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games, which became the foundation upon which the studio was originally built. In addition to her producer's responsibilities for Swords & Circuitry, she is an award-winning artist and photographer, has had her work shown in national and international juried shows, and she is a Diamond Level CTSM, making her one of the most highly certified trade show marketers in the United States. She teaches annually at the ExhibitorLIVE trade show in Las Vegas.

Armed only with a Super8 movie camera and a stack of CINEMAGIC magazines, Neal delved into the world of indie filmmaking at the tender age of thirteen (even though no one had yet coined that term). At seventeen, he wrote, produced, and directed the first iteration of Uncharted Regions, a Twilight Zone-like radio drama series which aired on a radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After getting a degree in radio, television, and film production from the University of Oklahoma, Neal leapt into the world of computer gaming development where he was involved in the creation of several role-playing games including Betrayal at Krondor, Dungeon Siege, Champions of Norrath, and others. In 2007, he returned to his filmmaking roots to shoot the online documentary series Beauty and the Beast: 20 Years of Remembering. He continues to work as a game designer, film producer, media consultant, and fiction writer.

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