|
|
Film
|
|
If anything is to blame for my love of animation, it's the Chuck Jones era Looney Tunes produced at Warner Bros. in the 40's through 60's. The irreverence of characters like Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny, not to mention the loveable Marvin the Martian, has driven my life-long love of the craft.
National Film Board :: Blowhard Much like the director behind many of those cartoon masterpieces, Chuck Jones, I started in animation almost at the bottom. While Chuck's first job was washing ink and paint from animation cels for reuse, mine was to put ink and paint on them for the National Film Board's "Blowhard" animated classic. It was produced by Credo Group [later Credo Entertainment Corporation], the same people who brought us such animated classics as "The Cat Came Back" and "The Big Snit." Needless to say, this gave me an unparalleled opportunity to be in the epicenter of an active animation production in his then middle-of-nowhere-prairie-town home [folks moved around a lot]. It was during this period I learned the basics of the animation craft that propelled me onward. Hanna-Barbera :: Godzilla Power Hour, Jana of the Jungle Relocating to birthplace Vancouver BC in 1977, I immediately found work with the only animation studio in the city at the time, Norm Drew Productions. During that era Vancouver was to LA what Asian countries later became - a place with skilled artists to do the animation for the Saturday Morning cartoon industry cheaper than LA. Norm had contracts with Hanna-Barbera and scooped me up as soon as I hit town to produce animation for Hanna-Barbera's "Godzilla Power Hour," "Jana of the Jungle" TV series. International Rocketship :: Sing Beast Sing My next professional involvement came through Marv Newland's International Rocketship [Marv created the infamous "Bambi meets Godzilla"]. I helped with ink and paint on Newland's "Sing Beast Sing" animated featurette as well as storyboards for some Clamato Juice TV commercials for New York advertising agencies. With the winding down of that production came the end of an animation era for Vancouver, no other productions were in the offing. I recall walking into Rocketship one day to find a note on the notice board - Atkinson Film Art's in Ottawa needed animators for their "Heavy Metal" feature. After a quick confirmation phone call, I had my bags packed and headed east to Ottawa. Nelvana :: Rock & Rule feature Life, as so often happens, had its own plans. A weekend stop-over in Toronto turned into seven years after Nelvana director Clive Smith hired me on the spot during a portfolio review. Nelvana, as it happened, had turned down producing "Heavy Metal" to focus on their own animated feature film, "Rock & Rule" [then called Drats], and got me busy in their story department producing storyboards, layouts, designs and animation. "Rock & Rule" brought me to the forefront of the animation state-of-the-art of the early 80's. With the goal of producing "Disney quality adult animation," Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson, two of Walt Disney's 9 "wise men" were also part of the team. I worked closely with them over course of the production, literally sitting at the feet of two of the greatest animation masters there have ever been. As the name implies, "Rock n Rule" is a film all about music with songs by such noteables as Earth Wind and Fire, Cheap Trick, Iggy Pop, Blondie and Lou Reed. I was lead designer and layout artist for one of the film's most famous tracks, "My Name is Mok," by the late Lou Reed. Film-making in the 80's was still technology based on film and optical techniques. To achieve the then leading-edge visual effects used, Nelvana contracted Industrial Light and Magic. I worked closely with the camera and effects departments designing and planning the intricate setups and computer-controlled camera-moves necessary to bring that film to life. It was these interactions that lead me to pursue computer sciences after the film, a skill set that came in very handy as entertainment industries have transitioned to digital almost exclusively since. |
|
Nelvana Animated Commercials :: Philishave Lift and Cut
It was while at Nelvana that I created my most famous animation to date - the Philishave Lift and Cut animated simulation. The spot has played around the world on heavy rotation for years, at one point making it instantly recognizable to a large swath of the world's population. Computers, TV Production, Live Action As noted, with the wrap of Rock & Rule came a slight change of direction. Recognizing the emerging import of computer technology on film-making, I went back to school - Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology - graduating a computer systems analyst with honors in 1984. The college was so impressed with me they asked me to stay on and teach, which I did, lecturing on a range of computer and systems related subjects over a five year period. Humber, the largest college in Canada, has a first class TV production program complete with 3 broadcast studios equipped for live switching. While I was teaching I was also a student, adding honors in TV Production and Operation to my credentials. I became expert producing and directing live-action, either ENG/EFP or live, in addition to my film and animation experience. Virtual Access In 1987 I moved back home to Vancouver with a plethora of new skills, all professionally honed in the super-competitive Toronto market. Merging my creative, business and computer skills, I set out to fulfill a lifelong ambition, opening Virtual Access Corp.'s studios in the Yaletown area of Vancouver. As company President/CEO, I made Virtual Access Vancouver's leading marketing/design firm for high-tech companies during the 80's/90's tech boom. Under my guidance, Virtual Access evolved into a leading boutique post-production facility. The company provided pre and post-production services to a range of TV, film and retail clients. NOA - Network Of Animation :: Mutant League / Billy The Cat I worked with the crew over at NOA [Aeon Flux fame] on a range of projects. Starting with backgrounds for DynoBlaze , a 2D scroll game, his management skills were put to good use managing the team creating color styling for a seasons worth of animated TV shows for the Mutant League and Billy The Cat series. To streamline a process that, up until that point, required artists to hand watercolor each design, me and my team turned to computers with Photoshop. Even version 1 of the software was more than enough to expedite the work pipeline ensuring the backgrounds were not only artistically creative, but came in on time and budget. The biggest difficulty was convincing the series producers to accept computer generated images, something that had not been done prior to that time. BC Film Commission The internet started changing the way the film business ran around 1995. One industry segment hit early were local Film Commissions [there are lots and lots of them]. They were feeling pressure from directors and location scouts to make it easier for them to access their location libraries remotely. When the BC Film Commission decided to act, with no clear way forward, they contracted me. I spent a number of months performing the systems analysis and design work necessary to transition their library of thousands of location photographs into a searchable database. Ikea Kid's Club Ikea Seattle came to me with an interesting project - bring one of their cuddly toy's to life as a pitch-parrot for their Kid's Club. I created two spots - 30 and 8 second versions of the most manic parrot to hit the screen. The campaign was a huge success. Johnny Appleseed When Susan Debeck needed someone to bring her version of the Johnny Appleseed to life for her award-winning children's educational videos, she turned to me. I created the images that captured this delightful piece of Americana as well as providing post-production services for the entire series. A few other notable projects I contributed to include:
By the early 2000's the world had fundamentally changed and I was a single-parent. I wound down my corporate activities and have been busy advancing my own screenplays while raising my child. I looks forward to continuing to bring new and exciting stories to people around the world. |
Verne's YouTube channel [youtube.com/verneandru] |
|
|
|
|