By Madalyn Paltzik | Rose Law Group Intern
A graduate from University of Phoenix with an MBA and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from SUNY Brockport, Keith Walther was a Finance Manager for over 12 years before joining Rose Law Group as Billing Manager in 2016. He has a passion for efficiency and is always looking to put his Lean Six Sigma training to good use.
In his spare time, Keith has been a stage and film actor, a published journalist, and currently a devoted father to a wonderful twin son and daughter while attempting to write his great American novel. Keith also enjoys following his favorite sports teams, the New York Yankees and the Buffalo Bills. However, what he loves most is writing movie reviews.
It all started with his high school newspaper. With his first job being at a local movie theater, there was nothing Keith knew better than movies. When tasked with what to write, the only viable option that came to mind was to review the movies shuffling in and out of the box office. What began as no more than an attempt to strengthen his National Honor Society portfolio grew into a lifelong passion and appreciation for the art of filmmaking.
He continued his writing career through the rest of high school and into college, taking electives in film studies, filmmaking, and anything else he could find, furthering his expertise with each review published. Soon enough, Keith was promoted to entertainment editor for his college paper, a title that would soon help establish numerous connections with other nationally known movie critics and allowed him to begin being published beyond the college forum.
However, as college came to a close, so did his movie review career–or so it seemed. After moving to Arizona, Keith met a man preparing to produce and direct his first independent feature film: Cactus Fields, a psychological suspense thriller. They started to, after work, go to a local Tempe bar and just “hash out some storyboarding ideas” for the film. Keith’s ideas were so popular, that he was invited to join the production as cinematographer.
A few weeks later, the cast did a read-through, to which the director’s brother, who he had intended play the lead role in the film, couldn’t attend. Asked to read the role in his place, Keith amazed the director with how well he adapted to the role, so much so that he was invited to take the lead and star in his first film.
After three years working on Cactus Fields, sacrificing every single weekend, driving out to “who knows where, Arizona”, and including a year and a half in the editing room, the film was finally ready for submission into film festivals–with an end goal of securing a distribution deal. Right before receiving replies from the film festivals, Blockbuster Video offered to distribute the film in their stores. Despite such an enticing opportunity, the cast and crew of Cactus Fields couldn’t accept, knowing distribution would negate the possibility of theatrical release. Unfortunately, that theatrical release never came, and Cactus Fields came to a close.
“But I tell you what, even though we never got a deal or a theatrical release, we still finished this movie. And it was one of the greatest accomplishments of my entire life–seeing that through from start to finish,” Keith states.
Years later, Keith found himself right back on set, with the same director, working on a short film competition–a series of film challenges where you complete a short film of three minutes in a specified amount of time (~24 hrs), given nothing but a prop, a single line to include, and a genre. When Keith’s team’s three submissions were all complete, they held a celebratory screening in Scottsdale.
“That was the first time I got to see myself on the big screen, another incredibly thrilling thing to check off the bucket list,” Keith recalls.
One of his films received a nomination for ‘Best Ensemble Cast’ at the Phoenix Film Festival.
As his time in front of the camera came to a close, Keith was reminded of his love for movie reviews. It was then that he was first approached by Jordan Rose, founder and president of Rose Law Group, hoping to convince Keith to write for her publication, the RLG Reporter. After months of deliberation, he gave in, returning to his movie reviewer status–full circle. Now, Keith is excited to officially have applied to become a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, taking what started as simple reviews for the high school paper to the next level.
