DISSONANT MEDIA is a film, music and multimedia production company committed to creating original content for the screen, producing stories and recording projects of social and cultural import. While our main focus is making documentary and scripted film & tv projects, we also offer a spectrum of other professional media services and years of experience for our collaborators and clients.
DISSONANT MEDIA is a music & film production company founded by the McGarry Brothers in 2020.
Our mission is to provide a strong and clear vision to our collaborators and co-conspirators so that they/we are able to produce the most quality film, tv and music projects around. Whether you need help digitizing or archiving any media collecting dust in an old shoebox or on an old hard drive, editing a story so a project can really sing, making your company or campaign a promotional video or commercial, we provide the know-how and professionalism needed to do these things. In other words, we can help you, or at least get you headed in the right direction with creating some great looking and sounding media. Want to explore the idea of making a beautiful film, video project or commercial? How about recording an album of songs you’ve written over a long period of time but never got around to recording them properly in a professional studio with an engineer and producer? We are here to help with projects like these and more.
The ARCHIVE ROOM is the documentary film company started by Casey McGarry around 2010 that is now part of Dissonant Media.
CASEY MCGARRY (Writer / Director / Producer) studied film and creative writing at Fordham University at Lincoln Center in New York City graduating in 2010. He got his start in documentary film there while working for Sundance award-winning filmmaker, Jennifer Fox. He's worked in scripted TV on such shows as, "South of Nowhere" and "New Girl" among others. McGarry started his own documentary production company THE ARCHIVE ROOM in 2010 with the idea of producing personal portrait-style human interest stories that could reach and inspire a more universal audience than your average short documentary. Since then, he’s had 6 documentary films premiere at SBIFF, including GRASSHOPPER FOR GRANDPA (2015), THE BOATMAKER (2017), CASCARÓN (2018), FROM WATER TO WIND (2019), VUJA DE (2021) and ELECTRIC LADY (2021). McGarry won best documentary film for THE BOATMAKER at San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, Jacht Film Festival (Warsaw, Poland), and at the International Maritime Film Festival in Bucksport, Maine. He continues to have his work shown at film festivals and colleges around the country and is currently working on a couple feature-length documentary projects and developing multiple narrative film and & tv projects.
“McGarry’s slices of Santa Barbara life are more than just trivial pursuits, but valuable and well-crafted tributes to niches of local life extending beyond and beneath the shimmery tourist bait profile of what this city is about.” - Josef Woodard (Writer, Santa Barbara Independent)
KEVIN MCGARRY (Producer / Researcher / Writer ) is an educator and historian on many different levels. Kevin has worked with age groups ranging from grade school kids all the way up to senior citizens who survived the Holocaust. He is a published writer and editor who seeks ingenuity in individuals and organizations who encourage the telling of culturally sensitive stories with strong historical context aiming to make change. McGarry holds advanced degrees in history and education from prestigious schools including Fordham University, Loyola Marymount, and the London School of Economics & Political Science. He has worked in the field of education for 15+ years, first as a high school history teacher, and later as an Education Director at the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles. Now serving as Associate Director of Public Engagement at the SANTA BARBARA TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION (SBTHP), he oversees all visitor experience, programs, and curatorial departments there, as well as the Presidio Research Center’s archives and library. He is managing editor of the SBTHP’s bi-annual publication, LA CAMPANA and has been a producer on multiple film/video projects, including some of Casey’s documentary films.
Brothers Kevin & Casey McGarry have naturally been collaborating in one way or another their entire lives. Whether it began playing rock ‘n’ roll music in the garage with dad or producing skate videos out in the street with friends, they’ve always been creating together… since day one.
Below are some of the services we provide:
DIRECTING & PRODUCING SERVICES
Documentary Film & Video Production
Documentary Storytelling
Cinematography
Music Videos
Commercial Video
Legacy & Memorial Videos
Misc. Event Filming (mostly reserved for friends)
EDITORIAL SERVICES
Film & Video Editing
Film & Video Transfers & Digitizing
Photo Scanning & Editing
Script Editing
Copy Editing
MUSIC SERVICES
Music Supervising
Record Producing
Musical Performance & Recording
Recording Studio / Audio Engineer Referrals
PLEASE NOTE: Whatever we might not be able to help you with above for any reason or immediately, i.e. lack of availability, a scheduling conflict, we simply do not offer that service and/or the project isn’t the right fit for our company… we should be able to direct you in the right direction to another working professional and/or company that hopefully will be able to assist you further.
AWARDS and FESTIVALS (2015 – Present)
THE BOATMAKER, a documentary written and directed by Casey McGarry
"Best Documentary" - at San Luis Obispo International Film Festival
"Best Film - Audience Award”- Jacht Film Festival in Warsaw, Poland
"Best Documentary Film" - International Maritime Film Festival, Bucksport, Maine
"Best Documentary Short" - Ramsgate International Film & TV Festival, England (UK)
Best Cinematography - Short Documentary at the Marina Del Rey Film Festival
Hollywood International Independent Documentary Award
“Semi-finalist” at Alanta Docufest
“The Boatmaker” was featured at these festivals (2017 -2019):
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Ojai Film Festival
Santa Barbara Surf Film Festival
Marina Del Rey Film Festival
Newport Beach Film Festival
Ramsgate International Film Festival
Paradise Film Festival
Catalina Film Festival
Carmel International Film Festival
Jacht Film Maritime Festival (Poland)
International Maritime Film Festival
AMDOCS - American Documentary Film Festival
Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum - Lecture Series Official Selection
Santa Barbara Yacht Club – Friendship Dinner Film Series
Other Film Festival Selections -
Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) Films: GRASSHOPPER FOR GRANDPA (2015), THE BOATMAKER (2017), CASCARÓN (2018), FROM WATER TO WIND (2019), VUJA DE (2021), and ELECTRIC LADY (2021)
Ojai Film Festival Films: GRASSHOPPER FOR GRANDPA (2015), THE BOATMAKER (2017)
San Luis Obispo International Film festival Films: THE BOATMAKER (2017), CASCARÓN (2018)
Asian American Film Series - (SBTHP) Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation Film: GRASSHOPPER FOR GRANDPA (2015)