Read our story and meet the team

The Scraping Bottom Productions Story

When an over-the-hill writer with a credit card, a cinematographer without a camera, a couple of kids too young to be taken seriously, and a group of Mexican filmmakers found each other wandering aimlessly through Los Angeles, California, only magic could result.

The team at Scraping Bottom Productions offers its own, unique voice to the world of independent filmmaking. We are a full-service, well-equipped production company, staffed with experienced creative and technical artists and committed to working in two distinct communication forms via digital video and multimedia.

The company serves all of Southern California with production facilities, editing labs, and sound studios in Burbank and Los Angeles. The company’s business office is headquartered in San Luis Obispo.

Independent short and feature filmmaking

Scraping Bottom Productions is committed to producing high quality, entertaining, innovative, and sometimes strange short and feature films. The company owns a library of original scripts and stories in-development. But, we are always looking for new ways to define and refine our storytelling through film.

To-date, Scraping Bottom Productions has produced seven original short films. We have another short and a feature film in development, a web series in production, and other projects in the works!

If you’re interested in becoming a motion picture producer, have unused credit or a blank check, contact us today! We’d love to work with you.

MJ Johnson, Producer, Writer, Boss

MJ wrote, produced, and directed his first stage play at the tender age of 15. Then, he took almost three decades off to regroup during which he graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, made, lost, and made money while jetting through several careers. Returning to the arts in 1999 with just enough money to make trouble, MJ graduated from UCLA’s Professional Program in Screenwriting, studied production, and in 2004 founded Scraping Bottom Productions. He has written six feature scripts, directed, written and/or produced six short films, numerous television and radio commercials, and a regional PBS series. 

Robert Van, Technical Management

Rob, along with Melissa Brooks (above), are among very few SBP veterans to have survived five years and at least three films. He must really enjoy the long hours, low pay, and MJ’s tyrannical ranting? No matter because SBP is much better for it! Rob also moved through the ranks quickly, from a Technical Assistant on Strangers to Sound Engineer on Home School Musical. Rob earned a degree in Broadcast Communications from Cuesta College and brings quiet strength and rock solid technical skills to the set. Either that, or he’s plotting a coup! 

Carol Gravelle, Graphic Design

Carol has been creating one sheet art, title and credit sequences for SBP’s films and other projects since 2009. For more than 25 years, Carol Gravelle Graphic Design has provided full-service design studio services specializing in branding/identity design and digital illustration. She has created dynamic logos, illustrations, brochures, packaging and ads for businesses, non-profits, and other organizations throughout the U.S. Past and present clients include Diamondback and Giant Bicycles, Toyota, Lexus, and Blue Cross of California, as well as many smaller companies.

Carol received her B.A. in Graphic Design from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. In the “little known facts department,” 30 years ago Carol painted a portrait of SBP founder M. J. Johnson on a wall at a well-known university – a portrait so controversial, the university later ordered it painted over! It wasn’t you Carol, it was the subject matter! Carol’s website can be found at http://www.carolgravelledesign.com/.