With the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End upon us, it’s high time we touched base with Ben Sanders, a 3D grad who was a character animator on the film.
We last spoke with him in March, when he was just coming off the high of working on Oscar-winning Happy Feet. He gave us a Pirates tease then, but now we have him on camera with the whole story. Check it out!
Incidentally, Ben wasn’t the only VFS grad working on the film. Allen Holbrook was right there with him. It takes a hardy crew…
A group made primarily of VFSers (team name: What Cannes You Do In One Day) has won all-expenses-paid trips to Cannes 2008! This year’s Cannes Film Festival hosted two documentary contests: one for student filmmakers attending a filmmaking program at Cannes these past couple of weeks. The other, for teams of documentary filmmakers around the world, who submitted their made-in-one-week-or-less docs to the Reel Ideas Studio site. The short docs were then judged by Christopher Coppola of Plaster City, Dan Birman, professor of Journalism at University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication, and two-time Oscar-winning documentary producer Robert Epstein. The team made up of Film grad Aaron Beckum, instructors Megan Bodaly and Glen Tedham, and Glen’s wife Jeannie Tedham, turned in a funny and touching documentary, Documenting Charity (and the Art of Street Shaving), which screened at Cannes yesterday to cheering – and, we’re guessing, a few tears. Watch it for yourself: The best part of all this is how inspiring the doc itself is. Driven by the idea of “what can be done in one day”, the filmmakers decided to see how much money they could raise – even offering to shave various tender body parts – for ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease). In a single day, these guys raised $530.62. VFS is matching the donation. Judges singled the film out for using the documentary form to not only educate, but to effect positive change in the world as well. Giving something back and going to Cannes for free… doesn’t get much better than that! Also stay tuned for an update on the VFS grads – and bloggers – in Cannes, Dave Roncin and Robin Kupferman, and the docs they made (currently viewable on Reel Ideas Studio, team names: L’arc and Crea8iv).
Jim Mehsling, who did Classical Animation with us back in 2002, is one of the frontrunners in AtomFilms’ Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. His Flash piece, along with the other finalists’ movies, will be screened by George Lucas himself, who’ll pick the winner as part of this weekend’s Celebration IV in L.A. Jim’s Bounty Hunter: The Interview is a sly little Office-Space-Meets-Empire number, a comic ode to Boba Fett, Dengar, Bossk and the gang. He’s even got some local celebrityhood going on in his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska! Lucas makes the pick on Sunday. Good luck, Jim! Knock the bearded guy’s socks off!
The film was written by Andrew Kemp and Scott Dodds while they were students, produced by Nicholas Humphries, and directed by Jason Margolis. (With a very healthy amount of input from doc instructor Joyce Thierry.) Can’t make the screening? Check out the documentary here. Candemonium screens before the German doc Castells, about giant human pyramids. (As far as we know, the humans are not subsequently donated to the food bank.)
To mark the occasion, Rani was profiled by The Calgary Sun, and we’ll be speaking with him soon, so stay tuned. While you wait, check out Defective, the slapstick robot short Rani made at VFS, which still gets rave reviews on YouTube!
And if that’s not enough, they’re so over-the-moon happy with your work, they surprise you with a cool award at an IMAX screening of Spider-Man 3. Jealous yet? Well, say hi to 3D grad Samuel Tung, because he’s living your dream, and you can’t have it back.
Created by Rob Hlus through the Digital Character Animation program, Kiss That Frog is a retelling of the classic frog/princess fairy tale — with a modern twist on the climactic kiss. In related news, we have a whopping
The series will follow a young girl’s spiritual journey around the world. Oh, and it’s set in the future. VFSer Simon Haiduk was kind enough to post all the details to the Digital Design Blog, and it’s worth a look. The opportunity to work on such an ambitious project is one thing, but what really caught our attention was this description of the work environment: “A peaceful ranch overlooking the ocean.” Wow.
Our friends at the BC Chapter of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada are once again sponsoring the Salazar Awards, handing out cash money to students working in print design, advertising, and interactive design. There’s a celebration for the winners in June, and here’s the important part: there’ll be industry pros in attendance. You can’t put a price on that kind of exposure. (You can put a price on $500, though.) GDC’s got a handy entry form with all the details you’ll need, which is a good thing, because the May 31 deadline is fast approaching. Go to it!
Josh tells the paper about what led him into animation, and the road to where he is now: directing Ricky Sprocket, Showbiz Boy. Oh, and in 2006, Josh was one of many of current and former VFS students to accept CAEAA awards, for his work on Being Ian.
VFS Doc Team Wins Cannes Contest from Afar
Boba Fête
We couldn’t let them celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars without us. Good thing there’s a VFS grad right in the thick of it.Writing Doc at DOXA
Candemonium, a short documentary produced through the Writing program, is screening at DOXA Friday night! Candemonium explores the increasingly-popular Canstruction contest, in which teams across North America design and build huge, detailed scenes and characters out of cans of food. The cans are then donated to food banks in their city.Sharing in the Shrek Success
The big green monster set a box office record for animated movies over the weekend, and while Shrek the Third did its damage, 3D Animation & Visual Effects grad Rani Naamani was along for the ride.Grad Is Activision’s Mr. Fix-It
Here’s the dream: You get a great gig, you travel the world, playing with properties like Shrek and Spider-Man, and, oh yeah, you’re doing it all for Activision. You know, the Activision that made a little game called Pitfall! for the Atari 2600 back in the day, and has been a major player in video games ever since.VFS on Maddogza’s YouTube
Who knew mad dogs like VFS frogs? Thanks goes out to our video sharing friend Maddogza for putting Kiss That Frog up on the YouTube homepage today. 5987 5989 subscribers (as of this blog post) to the VFS Director’s Channel. Will we break 6,000 this week with Maddogza’s help?
Get Illuminated
Heads up, animators! Dreamberry, a new studio based on the Sunshine Coast, is staffing its very exciting anime project, Illuminated, and they’ve put the call out for new faces to add to the team.Salazar Student Design Awards Coming
The Real Showbiz Boy
Well, animation house Studio B is positively swimming in VFS grads, but it’s always nice to see that extra little bit of recognition. Josh Mepham, ex-Classical Animation, got some ink in the Vancouver Sun over the weekend for his work as a director with the studio.