Eric "e" PolinsBorn in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, but grew up in every state on the east coast due to his father's consulting career. As a young boy he turned out 8mm features spliced for home movies with such titles as Monkey on Fire (not to be confused with Man on Fire). The son of an engineer and illustrator, young Polins was trained for a career in art and became so proficient he was published by age 12.
Do to his families extensive moving, Polins begged his parents to send him to military school after seeing the movie Taps. During a move his family made in the 11th grade, his father died suddenly of congestive heart failure. Polins would return to Camden Military Academy in Camden, South Carolina for his senior year to graduate third in his class with honors. Polins attended The Pennsylvania State University as a journalism broadcasting major in 1987.
He tackled the arts vigorously both in and out of the classroom. By the age of 20, he had emulated Jackson Pollock, Mark Chagall and his third cousin Frederick Remington. While at Penn State he contributed to the campus radio and television station. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during the summer of 1990 and spent 13 weeks at boot camp. Do to a knee injury and surgery he would later receive an honorable/medical discharge within the year. He then left college in 1992 with three credits short of his B.A. in journalism broadcasting.
He moved to northern Virginia for a much needed job with his brother writing radio ads and press releases for his franchised weight loss corporation. Shortly after, his brother sold the business and moved to Florida. Jobless and confused, Polins would "try his hand" at several different careers. They ranged from radio stations to magazines, but he always remained in the arena of communication. It is at this time, the darkest of times, he would write various works of award winning poetry and write a children's book that would later be illustrated by his mother and published in 2004. He returned to Pennsylvania to complete his remaining three credits and graduated from Penn State with a B.A. in Journalism Broadcasting in 1993.
In 1995 Polins moved to Tampa, Florida and tried his talent as an actor for two years. He was an extra, stand-in and feature in everything from pilots and TV shows to mainstream blockbusters. He would eventually reach a few speaking roles in some "B" low-budget films; however, He remained unfulfilled.
After two years in the Florida film industry, Polins served as a senior member on the creative team of two Tampa-based advertising agencies. In 1999 Polins accepted a position with a Tampa-based Internet Incubator. There, Polins served as the Marketing Director and created the brand platform for The Agency Applet™, for which he was featured in Adweek Magazine. Polins also negotiated the Web site design and implementation of Nokia Latin America and was directly responsible for securing the first interactive Addys Web site project for the American Advertising Federation.
In early 2000, Polins co-founded Coniglio Polins, an interactive firm based in Tampa. Coniglio Polins would later merge with marketing consulting veterans Hill & Associates to form Hill, Coniglio, Polins & Associates in 2003. At HCP, Polins serves as a managing partner and a senior consultant for broadcast/film, IT solutions, and creative direction.
Polins is in the process of producing three films in the next four years with Gulf+Atlantic Films. As an offshoot of the Descansos project, he recently teamed with Director Joe Kipikash to launch RoadsideTributes.Org, a free posting service for friends and family members who would like to create tributes to lost love ones, not on the roadside, but on the Information Superhighway.
Sean ConiglioMr. Coniglio joined forces with Eric Polins and became partners in Gulf+Atlantic Films; an independent film company founded in Tampa in 1997 as a Macrocinema production company. Coniglio brings a wealth of experience both from managing production finances to supporting creative development. Coniglio serves as a producer and Chief Financial Officer for Gulf+Atlantic Films, currently in pre-production on two projects: "Descansos", a full-length feature film and a short film, "The Lost". He is also working on a television pilot with a Los Angeles-based creative group and continues to review several new projects. Previously, some notable commercial productions include Nike, RJ Reynolds, Gatorade, Sea Ray Marine, A.W. Root Beer, Busch Gardens, Adventure Island, Wet & Wild and Sears Roebuck along with countless print productions. His television credits include working at Universal Orlando on Sea Quest DSV and Swamp Thing. Beyond that he also worked on Second Noah while shooting in Tampa and the feature film Cop-and-Half.
He is a graduate of Andrew College with an Associate degree focusing on business management along with a Bachelors of Science in marketing and management from the University of Tampa. He held leadership positions in Student Government as a Senator and Treasurer along with being a Scholarship Athlete while attending Andrew College. After Andrew College he was offered an athletic scholarship to the University or Tampa and while there participated in Theater, spent time freelancing on productions as an assistant and acted on television productions in both Tampa and Orlando. He is a member of Leadership Tampa Bay and continues to be very involved in the community doing volunteer work.