Classical Animation grad Matthew Wade has seen his student film, Krawll, pop up in a number of festivals, from Expotoons in Argentina to Tromadance in New Jersey to PISAF in South Korea.

Krawll has also been featured by Toon Boom animation software in their online showcase. It even won a spot in the Computer Arts magazine 2010 Graduate Showcase.

The film has helped open doors for Matthew as he’s relocated to Los Angeles and set up a home studio where he does everything from “animatics to production to final editing and sound mixing for a variety of animation styles.”

We caught up with Matthew to ask him more about his recent and upcoming projects.

As a freelancer, your schedule probably varies from day-to-day. Can you give us an idea of what your main focus is lately?

Matthew: I’ve been doing everything from t-shirt designs for bands, to artwork for a restaurant billboard, to working on an animated/motion graphics music video for a yet-to-be-released album by Astronaut in the Aftermath. It’s a musical project I recorded while living in Vancouver, which is being mixed by VFS [Sound Design] alumni and my best buddy, Jacob Kinch.

I also do a lot of my own illustration work and life drawing lately in order to stay sharp on the stuff I began to learn while at VFS.

I spend a lot of the day doing very glamorous things as well, such as emailing, pricing, follow-up calls, reading magazines, Skype meetings, digging through the couch for coffee money, and driving around for creation supplies and such.

What kind of work are you doing for TV?

Matthew: I’d love to say I was working on something with a big name, but so far just pilots.  One is for a company out in New York called Dark Matter Video.  The show is called “Rouge Wing” and is basically a comedy series made for an Adult Swim-type of demographic.

Additionally, a short film I made called Tinkermen is being shopped around for interest by one of its producers to be made into an animated pilot.  We’re seeing where that goes, fingers crossed.

Can you tell us a bit about the feature film you’re working on?

Matthew: It is a kind of playful horror/melodrama/puppet/animated/gore/sing-a-long thing.  The story is hard to sum up, but basically follows a boy and goblin (who lives in a giant piano) and the goblin’s father, who is made of glass and lives on children’s brains.  There’s also a girl who controls citizens’ minds to include them into a traveling musical act.

A lot of it is an excuse to build extensive props, use cool makeup, write a sweet soundtrack, meet a variety of artists, and do a lot of building and design with the excuse that we are “making a movie.”

My former classmate Yong Jin Kim is an insanely talented cinematographer who worked on some really brilliant stuff in South Korea.  We became big fans of each other’s styles and stories and it kind of clicked that he and I could make this film idea come alive.

What about the project you’re working on with Film Production grad Gregory Bayne? What can you tell us about that?

Matthew: It’s a documentary project, which is currently in development, recalling the events around Kirk Bloodsworth.  He was the first individual [sentenced for execution] in the US to be exonerated by DNA evidence.  I’m pretty happy to be part of it.  I think it is a really important, really crazy story.

Greg made a great film called Jens Pulver: Driven which has been really well received.  I was sold on his style as a documentary filmmaker after seeing it.  When the opportunity came for this next project, he was kind enough to invite me onboard in a very creative, involved role.

Thanks for the update, Matthew! Best of luck with everything!

Check out Matthew’s student film, Krawll, on the VFS YouTube channel.