About Fat Chance Films & Beats By the Bay

FAT CHANCE FILMS is a production company formed in 1989 to develop and produce motion pictures, television commercials, infomercials and electronic press kits. Bobby Mardis is an award-winning Producer, Writer and Director. His film “Why Colors” got rave reviews and won numerous awards around the world. His suspense thriller, “One Last Time,” and drama, “Circle of Pain,” have won honors in over eighteen film festivals nationally and internationally. He also received an award for his film, “Keeping the Faith” about Hurricane Katrina at the 2009 Hollywood Black Film Festival.

Bobby Mardis was a part of the production team of “Way Past Cool” which also included Norman Lear, Milos Forman and Ira Deutchman. He has produced four commercials for Master P of No Limit Records and three commercials for Hallmark starring Maya Angelou. Bobby worked in the capacity of Post Production Supervisor of the Miramax film, entitled, “I Got the Hook Up” and most recently directed the Image Production of “Are There Any Questions.” Bobby and his company have just completed the pilot presentation for “Never a Dull Moment” which features the famed R&B singing sensation, “The Emotions” and Wayne Vaughn of the world-renowned group, “Earth, Wind and Fire.” The company has been involved in over 300 productions in the capacity of producing, directing, writing, editing or various production capacities.

Steven Ashford is not only a schoolteacher with the Palo Alto school system, but he has been instrumental in promoting BARC (Bay Area Rappers Who Care). His philanthropic efforts have been recognized not only in Bay Area but have even reached Washington, DC where the White House has applauded his efforts with helping raise money for the educational communities. Steven has caught the attention of Bill Cosby who personally came to town to meet with him and inspire him to go even further with his plight to help the kids develop a progressive perspective.

One of his first projects was to implement a CD entitled, “All Rap Ain’t Bad.” His personal mandate was to change the perception of the rap community. He has placed a positive voice in the songs so that the words, music and the intent uplift the kids in a positive way. He has produced the, “Stay in School” project so that the children use the music to be inspired to educationally move to the next level. The sale of his music projects have funded and given thirty-five young students the ability to take trips to Washington, DC to learn about the political structure of our government. The moneys have also been able to purchase physical education and recreational supplies and equipment. Even on the level of classroom upliftment, his donations have be used to
purchase computers, supplies, books and other learning tools. His project, “Learning in Motion” was equally as successful as well as making a positive impact with kids.

Bobby Mardis and Steven Ashford have brought together over eighty rappers from all over the Bay Area including MC Hammer, E-40 and Too Short for a one time accumulative project entitled, “Somethin’ to Say, “The Independent Game,” and the “How To.” This project still keeps in line with the education element of Steven’s ongoing agenda. This project gave a voice to people who would not have typically had one. He has just completed a series of songs for the American Dental Association geared towards influencing children towards good dental hygiene. Steven is also in the process of completing a series of forty songs that will be placed in a full campaign, which will be in line with First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s move” campaign to get American children healthy.

Bobby Mardis - Director

Bobby Mardis of Fat Chance Films and B. Story Pictures has produced film, television and various industrial projects for the last thirty-one years. Showtime Network has aired Bobby’s “Why Colors?” which starred notables like Regina King, Ice–T, Barry White, Anne Marie Johnson and a number of his Robert Townsend’s Partner’s in Crime friends. He also produced and directed “Circle of Pain” for Showtime, which starred Glynn Turman, Anna Marie Horseford, Todd Bridges and was Rosalind Cash’s last film before she passed away. Bobby Mardis has received awards for his films in numerous film festivals around the world. A Comedy made-for-television entitled, “Midnight Blue” was scripted and directed by Bobby and achieved the highest rated standing in the series of B.E.T. Arabesque films.

Bobby’s has written over thirty scripts and his library of projects include producing an all Latin Urban project, entitled, “Neighborhood Kings” directed by Bernie Deleon. In the commercial arena, he produced a set of Hallmark commercials spotlighting the poetry of our national treasure, and icon, Maya Angelou. His body of work also includes collaborations with companies such as, Nike, Infiniti, Axa Financial, The Limited, Household International and a number of other fortune five hundred entities. Bobby Mardis, along with Stan Foster produced a comedy pilot for Comedy Central called, “In the Cut.” His first Latin sitcom pilot entitled, “X & L Customs,” is currently on the market hoping to fill a programming slot. His comedy, “Against All Odds” starring TK Kirkland is slated for Comedy Central to be distributed by Image Entertainment. Beside industrials and commercials, he has also produced and directed music videos, electronic press kits and documentaries.

Bobby’s main focus is writing and directing narrative projects. He has gone on to produce straight to video projects, like the thriller, “One Last Time.” His previous documentary is called, “Beats by the Bay.” This project is about the independent hip-hop and rap scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. “Beats by the Bay.” is a Five DVD, feature length set which also includes two sound track CDs and a book. Bobby Mardis’ “Passing the Torch” is a Jazz project that is currently in post-production. This is a jazz documentary about passing down the art form of jazz from one generation to the next. He has captured over 206 legendary jazz musicians from all over the world in various venues. Some of the artists include Nancy Wilson, Freddie Hubbard, Lionel Hampton, Stanley Turntine, Illinois Jacquet, Arturo Sandoval, Winton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock,
Grover Washington and the list goes on… This is a project that will give jazz enthusiasts a closer insight of the inter-workings of the jazz mind. His film, “Keeping the Faith,” will be distributed nationwide by one thousand participating churches, and via the website Katrina500.com. The film spotlights the heroes of Hurricane Katrina and one hundred percent of all profits are donated to the rebuilding of one thousand structures in the Gulf Coast. This project features one hundred celebrities who gave heartfelt words of inspiration. In Bobby’s Documentary and EPK work, he has conducted over 500 interviews.

Bobby directed the DGA tribute to Richard Pryor with Sidney Poitier, Whoopie Goldberg, Eddie Griffith, Robin Williams and David Chapelle. The previous year, he directed and edited the tribute to Maya Angelou and then went on to complete the F. Gary Gray tribute, which also had a host of celebrity supporters. He has just completed directing two more straight to video multi-camera Gospel comedy and straight comedy shows; “Shout” and “I Got Problems.” He edited the pilot for TVOne entitled, “In the Company of Friends” with Vanessa Bell-Calloway, Sinbad, Shante Moore and a host of celebs.

You can find his three films he recently produced for AXE. He has just completed a reality show pilot featuring Wayne Vaughn from the world famous Earth, Wind and Fire. His film that he is still in production on President Obama is entitled, “Obama:Tears of Joy,” a trailer can be seen on www.obamatearsofjoy.com. In August 2010 Bobby completed the script for the World Basketball Association and Nike for the show presented at Radio City Music Hall hosted by Anthony Anderson and E.T.’s Kevin Frasier. Bobby has just finished a “Be Well” campaign directed towards Black women for the State of California regarding health issues. He is currently producing and directing, “Behind the Smile” which is the true story of Fauna Hodel. This is about an amazing woman who grew up thinking she was half Black, but later found out she was all white. She was given away at birth to a Black family. Her grandfather was the alleged “Black Dahlia” killer. The doc is in development. One of Bob’s socially conscious projects is “The Silence is Broken” which is a concert benefit featuring a sixty piece orchestra and some musical stars all donating their time, energy and talent for AIDS prevention. He just finished a music video, “Peace on the Streets” to help bring light on the violence in the streets issue. Bobby is currently negotiating financing for a slate of twenty films in various genres, which will make great strides in the motion picture industry for African American independent filmmakers.

Bobby is a "Directors Guild of America" director and a “Writers Guild of America” writer. He also directs and edits industrials as he just completed a project for Sun West Mortgage, which will be available in ten thousand banks across the U.S. He is a product of UCLA, USC and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In the years that Bobby has been in the business, he has worked on over three hundred jobs. Bobby is a diversified filmmaker who is on the move and who will make greater strides in the motion picture industry in years to come and his ultimate goal is to create a project that promotes cultural and life changing affects.