About Us

ParaLumen Productions is an Atlanta based full-service production company founded by Tara Ackermann and Cas Swope, who met through the course of their work in the interior design industry.  Both have Bachelor’s Degrees in Interior Design, Tara from the University of Florida and Cas from Art Institute of Atlanta.  Cas also holds certificates from the Academy of Arts in San Francisco in Film Studies, Animation, and Graphic Design, and has been Assistant Director on the short film “6pm in Paris.”  

Are you wondering how two interior design professionals end up with a production company?  (It’s a valid question.)

Early in their friendship, Cas and Tara began working together on the leadership team of a highly theatrical design industry fashion show that was presented annually at The Tabernacle in Atlanta.   Their work on the show offered them the creative freedom to experiment with script-writing, video-production, and sets/staging.  They also were able to  hone their skills in producing a live-action show with integrated video and digital mapping.  Roughly nine months out of each year was spent in conceptual development, budgetary development, pre-production, video-production, and live-show planning in order to bring the show to fruition.  Over the course of their seven years working side by side, the duo discovered a fantastic synergy in their creative processes, as well as a shared aspiration to write fiction. 

In a classic silver-lining scenario, it was the COVID Pandemic that offered Cas and Tara the much-needed gift of time to start writing.  Over the course of 2020, the pair created multiple teleplays that range from drama to comedy and from live-action to animation.  They have also filmed commercial video projects spotlighting the design work of award-winning Atlanta designers.  In addition, they created a video blog / podcast called 2¢/sqft that focuses on careers in the Contract Interior Design profession.