About Us
Finding Inspiration in Every Turn
Spiderking Studios LLC, officially created November 16th, 2020, is a small, veteran owned, film production company in Douglas County, Oregon. Our goal is to give southern Oregon more film opportunities while essentially functioning as a community theatre but for film.
Our Story
Spiderking Studios is very community driven. We’ve worked for causes such as the Human Trafficking Coalition, Battered Person’s Advocacy, Up2UsNow Youth Media Projects, and more.
We stick to our roots of working with the community and filming events, presentations, seminars, etc., but we also love to work on narrative filmmaking and other creative projects like music videos and promotional videos, using nothing but our own means of filming with a team of like minded creative minds who have been there from the beginning.
Meet The Team
Jake Tranter
Jake Tranter, born in Desert Hot Springs, CA, moved to Roseburg Oregon where he spent the rest of his schooling. During school, he grew a passion for the performing arts and participated in various theatre productions. Jake graduated from Roseburg High School in 2018 then went on to serve in the Army as an infantryman before he was honorably discharged. Now, Jake has continued to peruse the arts and owns a film production company called Spiderking Studios, based here in Roseburg, OR, while also expanding his knowledge in other aspects of the performing arts such as music, vocals, and talent representation. Fun fact about Jake is that he loves spending quality time in the gym!
Taylor Smart
Taylor Smart was born in Roseburg Oregon in 1995. He participated in community theater and local film projects throughout his life. In 2018, Taylor met Jake Tranter and joined Spiderking Studios, where he has been located since. He has a passion for acting and film making and hopes to someday make a living with it.
Renee Dick
Peyton was born and raised in Roseburg, Oregon and has been in love with the talent/film industry for as long as she can even remember. Some of her earliest memories involve films such as Titanic and Harry Potter, and she would frequently act out scenes from her favorite movies for her family. Peyton’s childhood dream was to act in movies, a dream which has now become a reality multiple times over. Peyton joined Spiderking Studios in early June of 2021 and has been the Social Media Manager since the beginning of her time with the company. In addition to manning the Facebook, Instagram and TikTok pages, Peyton also acts (as well as produces soundtrack music) for projects within the company. She loves volunteering amongst this amazing group of people and considers this to be one of her many lifelong passions.
J.T. Smith is our script supervisor who has been with the company since the very beginning! He loves movies, history, paintball, laser tag, TV shows as well as trivia games and comic books!
J.L. Graves, born in Roseburg, OR, is a music composer, actress, and writer who has been with Spiderking Studios since the beginning. During middle school and high school, she participated in band and theater, starting her journey into the performing arts. She graduated from UCC with an Associate of Arts degree in music and is attending OSU to earn her Bachelor of Arts degree. J.L. joined Spiderking Studios in 2017 during the production of “Dead Man Walking”. She directed her own short film, “Runner”, in which she wrote the end title. Doing so earned her the resident music guru of the group. From then on, she became the music supervisor of the board. She prides herself in creativity and wants to impact the performing arts industry by inspiring others regardless of limitations. Fun fact: She has played Dungeons and Dragons since age 12 and became a Dungeon Master at age 18.
Renee is a writer and actress with a career starting in the mid 1980’s. She has recently began adding directing to her skill set producing short films for Spiderking Studios. She loves the chance to travel for productions and has roamed as far afield as Estonia and Lithuania to be on set.
Michael Wheeler holds a Doctor of Sacred Music from the International Theological Seminary, a Master of Fine Arts in Music Composition from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts in World Music Studies from the University of Sheffield U.K. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (with Honors designation) in Music History from Charter Oak State College as well as a Master Certificate in Music Theory, Harmony and Ear Training from Berklee College of Music. During his undergraduate education Michael was awarded both a music department vocal scholarship as well as the prestigious Bill Cosby Celebrity scholarship for Berklee’s extension program. He also currently enrolled in the Gurmat Sangeet Outreach program from Raj Academy U.K. as a student of Dilruba, for the preservation and promotion of Sikh music. Dr. Wheeler is also a member of many professional organizations including; Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA), American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and National Association of Composers USA (NACUSA). As a performer, Dr. Wheeler has appeared in over 20 independently and commercially released albums in addition to having logged hundreds of studio hours. He has also appeared in well over 300 stage performances as a singer (musical theater), pianist (classical and jazz) or keyboardist (dance music). As a composer, Michael’s works are published through the German internet publisher Copy-Us (under his pen name “Misha Kolesoski”) and has written scores for commercial as well as amateur film. Also a composer of concert music Michael has written pieces for electronics and Baroque instruments, the Talujon Percussion Ensemble, and a piece for Harp-Trio plus Dilruba. In May of 2009 his “Adagio for Erhu and Chamber Ensemble” was premiered at Edinburgh University in Scotland, featuring the Erhu virtuoso Peng Yeuquang. He is also a regular contributor to HowCast Media videos and has music featured in the motion picture “Dirty Step Upstage.” Dr. Wheeler is also very well versed in PC related music software such as Sonar, Reason, Kontakt, Sony, Vocaloid and Finale programs. As an author on musical subjects, Dr. Wheeler maintains two blogsites; Tools for Learning Music, and Pondering Music from a Global Perspective. He also hosts a YouTube channel which details diverse information such as instrument purchasing, methods for self-study and advice for college music students.
Peyton Burnett
J.L. Graves
J.T. Smith
Michael Wheeler
And More!
The team members listed above are just the primary production team members for the company. There are a multitude of others who have helped with Spiderking Studios, far too many to list. We wouldn’t be where we are without everyone who has helped us along the way and we are very grateful.