John P. Aguirre – Accomplished Director, Producer and Visionary
Behind "My First Day at Preschool"
John's Bio and Filmography
John Aguirre is the founder of My First Day Productions, a Los Angeles film creation and production boutique that specializes in producing feature films, television programs and pilots and children’s entertainment and educational (“edutainment”) films.
John Aguirre is multi-award winning film producer and director who joined the Directors Guild Of America in 1987. He has consistently worked in the feature film and network television programs as an Assistant Director, Director, Writer and Producer for over 20 years.
John has worked with some of the most accomplished producers and directors in the motion picture industry including, Oscar winner, Paul Haggis (“Million Dollar Baby”, “Crash”), Oscar Winner Tom Schulman, (“Dead Poets Society”, “8 Heads In A DuffleBag”), Ron Underwood (“City Slickers”, “Mighty Joe Young”), Mel Gibson (“Passion of The Christ”, “Braveheart”), Joss Whedon (“Buffy”, “Angel”), and Barry Sonnenfeld (“Men In Black”, “Wild Wild West”).
John’s film career began while attending Cal State University Fullerton as an intern at Bar Films, Pasadena, California under the stewardship of acclaimed director Ron Underwood (“Tremors”, “City Slickers”). After graduating from college, John worked for Barbara Walters to work on a number of Barbara Walters television specials. He was later recruited by Carson Productions, as a production assistant and later promoted to multi-camera stage manager for Ed Weinberger, legendary sitcom creator and producer.
John spent the next several years honing his film production skills as a stage manager and assistant director, working on a myriad of television series including, “Amen”, The Mickey Mouse Club”, “Hunter”, “Melrose Place”, “The John Larroquette Show”, “Nash Bridges” and “Family Law” plus feature films “The Hot Chick”, “Campus Ladies” and “Men In Black”, to name a few.
John Aguirre has produced several widely distributed independent films including “You Did What?” (Mar Vista and Lionsgate), "The Utopian Society" (Warner Brothers) and "My First Day at Preschool” (Think Films) and he wrote, produced and directed "Women On Top", a television pilot which he is trying to get on the air.
As a film director, John has directed three feature films including "Peppersteps", "Lucky Stroke" and "Marine Corps Warrior". During the Spring 2009, John hopes to produce “Frail” for Gynormous Pictures starring Catalena Sandeno Moreno who starred in “Maria Full of Grace”, and is discussions with Collin Firth and Alan Arkin.
John's first feature film, “The Utopian Society” , distributed by Warner Home Video and Scanbox International, starring Malin Akerman of "Watchmen", was shot in an unprecedented 11 days. It was selected in over 30 festivals nationwide and went on to garner a myriad of awards including “Best First Feature”, “Audience Choice Award” and won other accolades.
My First Day at Preschool
I was first introduced to John about five years ago when he approached me about producing a series of children’s educational films based on his award-winning “My First Day at Pre-School” video which targets preschool-aged children, and has won Parenting Magazine’s “Video of the Year Award” in 2003, Scholastic’s Parent and Child Magazine’s “Best Children’s Videos for 2004” and garnered a Telly Award in 2003 for original songs and musical score.
The leading star in “My First Day at Preschool” is Buddy Bear a funny and adorable bear character, who is experiencing his first day at a preschool, hence the title. Buddy Bear is now a well recognized and popular brand name and “My First Day at Preschool” has been distributed to preschools, day care centers, public libraries and schools, and sold through big box retailer’s Target, Circuit City, Best Buy, Blockbuster, Border’s and Barnes & Noble plus online retailer’s Amazon.com, Buy.com and DVD Empire, to name a few.
The My First Day Productions’ children’s entertainment and educational concept is embodied in My First Day Production’s Mission Statement:
“My First Day Productions is dedicated to the education of young children during their formative preschool years. We combine education and entertainment, ‘edutainment’, if you will, by teaching children about the real world through a series of ‘first day’ or ‘first time’ life experiences. We believe that learning should be a fun and interactive experience for children that combines unique characters, music, song and humor. It is our goal to combine all these elements into our films, videos and branded products to illuminate and enhance a child’s learning experience”.
Commentary
I have known and consulted for John Aguirre for nearly five years on a number of different projects and John is in the process of re-releasing “My First Day at Preschool” and currently talking with investor’s about producing a series of children’s edutainment videos based on the “My First Day at Preschool” children’s edutainment concept.
We believe that the My First Day edutainment series has the potential to become a blockbuster in the fast growing children’s video or KIDVID sector and Buddy Bear, the star of the My First Day series, could become as recognizable and popular as Winnie The Pooh, Dora The Explorer, Baby Einstein, Teletubbies and Barney the purple dinosaur, with the potential to become a bankable global brand with licensed merchandise from books-to-games-to-apparel.
CLICK THE LINK to view John Aguirre's film trailers
My First Day Productions seeks capital to produce six children's edutainment videos based on the highly acclaimed and award-winning “My First Day at Preschool”, winner of Parenting Magazine's children's "Video of the Year" award for 2003. Term sheet pending to pay for production, but we need additional funding for marketing and distribution. Huge upside for potential investors in the exploding market for children's videos. Offering revenue participation with an ROI of 30%. Interested investor’s are urged to contact Tommy Toy, PBT Consulting for further information. Serious inquiries only.
[this is good] As an early childhood educator working as a preschool teacher
Posted by: barbra stephens | 11/13/2009 at 11:32 AM