Michael Risner

Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

Michael Risner in 2014

Michael Risner is an assistant director and producer who worked as DGA Trainee and Second Second Assistant Director on Star Trek: Voyager and as Second Second Assistant Director and Second Assistant Director on Star Trek: Enterprise.

Between 1979 and 1984, Risner attended the University of Florida and earned a BA in English and Film History. The following year, he worked as news cameraman for the nightly news on WCJB TV-20 in Gainesville, Florida. In 1985, he became Bureau chief photographer for the WPTV News. He participated in the creation of travel series and news until 1990. Until 1994, he worked as freelance video photographer for production companies based in Florida and since 1994, he has been working as freelance assistant director, producer, and unit production manager in the entertainment industry.

Risner joined the Director's Guild of America in 1994 and started to work as DGA Trainee on the television series Models, Inc. (1994, with semi-regular actor Robert Beltran), Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1995, with regulars Joe Lando and Chad Allen), Murder, She Wrote (1995), and 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996), The Net (1995), Twister (1996), the comedy House Arrest (1996), and Mary & Tim (1996).

The next years, he worked as second assistant director on Cybill (1997), NewsRadio (1996-1999), Judging Amy (1999-2000), and the movie A View from the Swing (2000), as first assistant director on Robert Duncan McNeill's short films The Battery (1998, with Ethan Phillips, Karen Austin, and editor Daryl Baskin) and 9mm of Love (2000, with Ethan Phillips, Liz Vassey, Patricia Tallman, editor Daryl Baskin, second assistant director David Trotti, and special effects artists Dick Brownfield and Mark Stimson), and as second second assistant director on the drama series ER (1999-2000).

Following the end of Enterprise in 2005, Risner worked as first assistant director on the short science fiction thriller Transgressions (2006), as second assistant director on the television drama Wanted (2005) and the comedy series Crumbs (2006), as assistant director on the short comedy Paris in Jail: The Music Video (2007), the news programs Access Hollywood (2007) and Showbiz Tonight (2007), and the short comedies Harry Potter in the Hood (2007) and Lindsay Fully Loaded (2007), and as second second assistant director on the television series Less Than Perfect (2003-2006, starring Andy Dick), Rules of Engagement (2007), and Moonlight (2007, along with fellow assistant director Babu Subramaniam and stunt director/second unit director Noon Orsatti).

More recently, Risner was the second assistant director on the comedy series Accidentally on Purpose (2009).

Star Trek credits

(This list is currently incomplete.)

• As DGA Trainee
  • VOY:
    • "Parallax" (uncredited) (Season 1)
    • "Time and Again" (uncredited)
    • "Phage" (uncredited)
    • "The Cloud" (uncredited)
    • "Eye of the Needle" (uncredited)
    • "Ex Post Facto" (uncredited)
    • "Emanations" (uncredited)
    • "Prime Factors" (uncredited)
• As Second Assistant Director
  • ENT:
    • "Oasis" (Season 1)
    • "Detained"
    • "Vox Sola"
    • "Fallen Hero"
• As Second Second Assistant Director
  • VOY:
    • "Unimatrix Zero, Part II" (Season 7)
    • "Imperfection"
    • "Drive"
    • "Repression"
    • "Critical Care"
    • "Inside Man"
    • "Body and Soul"
    • "Flesh and Blood"
    • "Nightingale"
    • "Shattered"
    • "Lineage"
    • "Prophecy"
    • "The Void"
    • "Workforce"
    • "Workforce, Part II"
    • "Human Error"
    • "Q2"
    • "Author, Author"
    • "Friendship One"
    • "Natural Law"
    • "Homestead"
    • "Renaissance Man"
    • "Endgame"
  • ENT:
    • "Broken Bow" (uncredited) (Season 1)
    • "Fight or Flight" (uncredited)
    • "Strange New World" (uncredited)
    • "Unexpected" (uncredited)
    • "Terra Nova" (uncredited)
    • "The Andorian Incident" (uncredited)
    • "Breaking the Ice" (uncredited)
    • "Civilization" (uncredited)
    • "Fortunate Son" (uncredited)
    • "Cold Front" (uncredited)
    • "Silent Enemy" (uncredited)
    • "Dear Doctor" (uncredited)
    • "Sleeping Dogs" (uncredited)
    • "Shadows of P'Jem" (uncredited)
    • "Shuttlepod One" (uncredited)
    • "Fusion" (uncredited)
    • "Rogue Planet" (uncredited)
    • "Acquisition" (uncredited)
    • "Desert Crossing" (uncredited)
    • "Two Days and Two Nights" (uncredited)
    • "Shockwave" (uncredited)
• Key Second Assistant Director
  • ENT:
    • "Broken Bow" (uncredited) (Season 1)
    • "Fight or Flight" (Photo shooting only) (uncredited)
    • "Terra Nova" (uncredited)
    • "The Andorian Incident" (uncredited)
    • "Breaking the Ice" (uncredited)
    • "Civilization" (uncredited)
    • "Cold Front" (uncredited)
    • "Silent Enemy" (uncredited)
    • "Dear Doctor" (uncredited)
    • "Shadows of P'Jem" (uncredited)
    • "Shuttlepod One" (uncredited)
    • "Rogue Planet" (uncredited)
    • "Acquisition" (uncredited)
    • "Two Days and Two Nights" (uncredited)
• As Second Unit Assistant Director
  • ENT:
    • "Fallen Hero" – First and Second Assistant Director (uncredited)
    • "Two Days and Two Nights" – Second Assistant Director (uncredited)

External links

• Michael Risner at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Risner at LinkedIn.com