SPARK Animation Festival Vancouver

[Tami]

[url=\"http://siggraph.ca/events/20080910_spark.html\"]SPARK Animation '08[/url]
Celebrating Inspiration and Innovation
September 10 – 14, 2008

[url=\"http://www.siggraph.ca\"]Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH[/url] and the Vancity Theatre proudly present the first annual SPARK Animation Festival, September 10 to 14, 2008. Don't miss your chance to get a seat at this fabulous 5-day animation festival with premiere screenings as well as panels and presentations from a world-class line-up of directors, animators and film-makers.

Featured guests include: Ed Hooks (Animation Pioneer), Jimmy Hayward (Blue Sky Studios), Paul Topolos (Pixar), Paul Harrod (Bent Image Lab), Markus Manninen (DreamWorks) & Alex Parkinson (DreamWorks).

Limited seating is available at this uniquely intimate opportunity. All sessions are "A la Carte" so you can mix and match but be sure to book your seat early!

Brought to you with the financial support of the BC Innovation Council.

DAY 1
Wednesday - September 10
Empire Granville 7 Cinemas

[b]Feature Presentation 1: A Night with DreamWorks[/b]

6:30 pm Mixer
7:30 pm "The Pursuit of Awesomeness" with directors John Stevenson & Mark Osborne
9:00 pm Intermission
9:30 pm Screening of "Kung Fu Panda"

Kung Fu Panda
USA 2008 // Directors: John Stevenson, Mark Osborne // 92 min // 35mm

Po the panda (Jack Black) works in his family's noodle shop and dreams of becoming a kung-fu master. His dream becomes a reality when, unexpectedly, he must fulfill an ancient prophecy and study the skills with his idols, the Furious Five. Po needs all the wisdom, strength and ability he can muster to protect his people from an evil snow leopard.

Cast: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, David Cross, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, Dustin Hoffman, Ian McShane, Michael Duncan, Randall Kim, Dan Fogler

DAY 2
Thursday - September 11
Vancity Theatre
[b]
Feature Presentation 2: A Night with Blue Sky Studios[/b]

Chapter Members: $15 // Regular: $25 // Groups (5+): $20 (online only)
6:30 pm Mixer
7:30 pm "Creating a New Kind of Classic" with directors Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino
9:00 pm Intermission
9:30 pm Screening of "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!"

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!
USA 2008 // Directors: Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino // 88 min // 35mm

Horton the elephant's friends and neighbours think he has gone crazy when he claims that a tiny community lives on a speck of dust.

Cast: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Jesse McCartney, Isla Fisher, Dan Fogler, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Carol Burnett, Jaime Pressly, Laura Ortiz, Josh Flitter

[b]DAY 3[/b]
Friday - September 12
Vancity Theatre

8:30 am Registration
9:00 am "The Making of Kung Fu Panda" with Alex Parkinson & Markus Manninen
12:00 pm Mixer
1:00 pm "Animation in Games" with Brett Pascal (Propaganda) & Wayne Gilbert (EA Blackbox)
2:45 pm "Directing Animated Features" with Jimmy Hayward, John Stevenson, Mark Osborne & Steve Martino
4:30 pm "The Best of the Web" with Andrew Doucette, Andrew Duncan, George Samilski, Johnny Darrell & Ken Priebe
6:30 pm Mixer
7:30 pm Screening of "The Pixar Story"
9:30 pm Screening of "The Best of SIGGRAPH '08"
11:59 pm Screening of "Allegro non Troppo"

The Pixar Story
USA 2007 // Director: Leslie Iwerks // 87 min // 35mm

The Pixar Story takes audiences behind the scenes of the groundbreaking company that pioneered a new generation of animation and forever changed the face of filmmaking. Using never-before-seen footage from the Pixar library, along with historic archival animation and first hand accounts by animators, studio executives, directors, producers and voice performers, Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks tells the riveting story of the Bay Area start-up that revolutionized Hollywood.

In the mid 1980s, an inspired and inspiring trio of innovators combined their gifts in art, science and business to launch a new way to make 3-D animated films and changed the face of filmmaking forever. Ed Catmull, John Lasseter and Steve Jobs overcame years of creative struggle and financial loss to launch an entirely new animation industry. Starting with the first full length CG film Toy Story, Pixar has entertained millions of people worldwide, and established an unprecedented and as yet unparalleled record of box-office success. Iwerks takes viewers on a dramatic journey filled with personal sacrifice and fueled by passionate belief in the possibilities of a new medium as Pixar Animation Studios is born.

The Pixar Story features exclusive interviews with some of the key players in the Pixar story including John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs, George Lucas, Michael Eisner, Bob Iger, Tom Hanks, Billy Crystal, Tim Allen, Brad Bird and more.

Best of SIGGRAPH '08
2008 // 120 min // HD-CAM

Come experience the world's best animation and visual effects in a special showcase version of the SIGGRAPH Conference's Computer Animation Festival. This primo special edit reel of feature work, art, science, broadcast and games is brought to us by Computer Animation Festival Chair, Jill Smolin.

Allegro non Troppo
Italy 1976 // Director: Bruno Bozzetto // 85 min // Digibeta
In Italian w/ English subtitles

Allegro non Troppo is a feature film made up by stories, in which famous classical musical pieces are visualized by means of a modern, ironical and highly qualified animation. Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Dvorak's Slavonic Dance N.7, Ravel's Bolero, Sibelius' Valse triste, Vivaldi's Concerto in C-Dur, Stravinsky's The Firebird are the six musical pieces which have inspired stories and animated characters. The stories are presented and connected by a live-action story, in which hilarity results from the same comical mechanisms used in usual cartoons, only in this case applied to human characters and situations. This film technically structured like Walt Disney's famous Fantasia, is prominent for the original way in which it deals with current social themes and motives, using a modern and up to date style. It's a movie for all audiences, whose themes satisfy adults, whose images fascinate even the very young.

[b]DAY 4[/b]
Saturday - September 13
Vancity Theatre

10:00 am Registration
10:30 am "Wall-E for a Year" with Paul Topolos (Pixar)
12:00 pm Mixer
1:00 pm "Moving Forward in Animation by Looking at the Past" with Ed Hooks
2:45 pm "Braving the Waters of Independence While Staying Small, Adaptable & Creative" with Paul Harrod (Bent Image Lab)
4:30 pm "Surviving as an Independent Animator"
6:00 pm Mixer
7:00 pm Screening of "Worst Cartoons Ever!" with Jerry Beck
8:30 pm Reception
11:59 pm Screening of "The Pixar Story"

Worst Cartoons Ever! with Jerry Beck
USA 2007 // 90 min // DVD

Some of the most mind-numbing cartoons ever produced, animation historian Jerry Beck has unearthed the funniest crap-tacular animation originally created for TV in the 1950s and 60s, when budgets were low and production values were lower. You cheer and jeer the antics of Super President, a one man weapon of mass destruction, Sir Gee Whiz, a dirty old man from the moon and Mighty Mr. Titan the physical fitness super hero.

The Pixar Story
USA 2007 // Director: Leslie Iwerks // 87 min // 35mm

The Pixar Story takes audiences behind the scenes of the groundbreaking company that pioneered a new generation of animation and forever changed the face of filmmaking. Using never-before-seen footage from the Pixar library, along with historic archival animation and first hand accounts by animators, studio executives, directors, producers and voice performers, Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks tells the riveting story of the Bay Area start-up that revolutionized Hollywood.

In the mid 1980s, an inspired and inspiring trio of innovators combined their gifts in art, science and business to launch a new way to make 3-D animated films and changed the face of filmmaking forever. Ed Catmull, John Lasseter and Steve Jobs overcame years of creative struggle and financial loss to launch an entirely new animation industry. Starting with the first full length CG film Toy Story, Pixar has entertained millions of people worldwide, and established an unprecedented and as yet unparalleled record of box-office success. Iwerks takes viewers on a dramatic journey filled with personal sacrifice and fueled by passionate belief in the possibilities of a new medium as Pixar Animation Studios is born.

The Pixar Story features exclusive interviews with some of the key players in the Pixar story including John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs, George Lucas, Michael Eisner, Bob Iger, Tom Hanks, Billy Crystal, Tim Allen, Brad Bird and more.

[b]DAY 5[/b]
Sunday - September 14
Vancity Theatre

12:00 pm Registration
1:00 pm "Women in Animation"
2:45 pm "Building an Animation Studio"
4:30 pm Screening of "The Best of SIGGRAPH '08"
6:30 pm Mixer
7:30 pm Screening of "Marv Newland Retrospective"
9:30 pm Screening of "Idiots & Angels"

Best of SIGGRAPH '08
2008 // 120 min // HD-CAM

Come experience the world's best animation and visual effects in a special showcase version of the SIGGRAPH Conference's Computer Animation Festival. This primo special edit reel of feature work, art, science, broadcast and games is brought to us by Computer Animation Festival Chair, Jill Smolin.

[b]SPEAKERS' BIOS[/b]

Alex Parkinson
(Kung Fu Panda, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets...)

Ed Hooks

Ed Hooks pioneered acting training specifically designed for animators instead of stage actors. His books, Acting for Animators and Acting in Animation: A Look at 12 Films are standard texts at animation schools all over the world, and he is in demand as a guest lecturer.

Ed, a theatre professional for three decades, has taught for most major animation studios including Disney Feature Animation, DreamWorks/PDI, Animal Logic, Tippett Studio, Scanline Studios, BioWare, Valve Software, OddWorld Inhabitants, Sony, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Rockstar and Midway Games. He has taught at Ringling School of Art and Design (Florida), Ohio State University, Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), Vancouver Film School (Canada), Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Germany) and HFF (also Germany). He is on the Board of Advisors of the FMX Animation Festival in Stuttgart. In addition, he has conducted workshops for Swansea University's Swansea Animation Days in South Wales, Animex (Teesside England), The National Film School (England), Victorian School of Film and Television and Griffith University (both in Australia) and Nanyang Polytechnic Institute (Singapore). He has twice been a featured speaker at SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles, The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and the FMX Festival in Stuttgart Germany. This past year, he taught classes in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

In addition to his extensive work with animators, Ed Hooks has taught professional level acting classes for stage actors in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, where he resides now with his wife, Cally. Ed's personal acting credits include many stage plays, television commercials and more than one hundred television shows, most often in guest-star and co-star billing. He is also the author of The Audition Book (Winning Strategies for Breaking into Theatre, Film and TV), Acting Strategies for the Cyber Age, The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook and The Actor's Field Guide - Acting Notes on the Run.

Jericca Cleland-Hura
(Escape from Planet Earth, Space Chimps, Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2...)

Jericca Cleland is a writer/director/cinematographer working out of her home studio in Vancouver. Raised as a filmmaker in the story-centric environment of Pixar Animation Studios, she pursues the creation of independent films of high caliber and narrative depth. An experienced cinematographer in computer animation, Jericca designed the filming and staging of feature films such as Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, Space Chimps, and the in progress Escape from Planet Earth. She also writes and directs in live-action and teaches various aspects of both live-action and animated filmmaking.

Jerry Beck

Jerry Beck is an animation historian, cartoon producer and co-writer of the popular animation blog Cartoon Brew. His twelve books on the subject include The Hanna Barbera Treasury, Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide and The 50 Greatest Cartoons. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney, and is currently a consulting producer for Warner Bros. Animation.

Jimmy Hayward
(Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who!, Robots, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Toy Story...)

Jimmy has been a feature animator and filmmaker for more than a decade. Most recently, he directed the whimsical film Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! for 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. At Blue Sky, Jimmy also worked as a sequence director and story consultant on hits such as Ice Age: The Meldown (2006) and Robots (2005). Prior to joining Blue Sky, he was a feature animator at Pixar on Finding Nemo (2003), Monsters Inc. (2001), Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story (1995). His early beginnings were in Vancouver making short animated and live-action films and commercials, and working on Mainframe Entertainment's now well-known animated television series Reboot.

Joanna Priestley
(Dew Line, Andaluz, Kali Yuga, Surface Dive...)

John Stevenson
(Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Father of the Pride, Shrek 2, Shrek...)

A veteran of DreamWorks/PDI who got his start in the entertainment industry via Jim Henson's The Muppet Show, Stevenson worked for many years in the art department on many films at DreamWorks before helming a number of episodes of their animated primetime show Father of the Pride. He just recently completed work as Director of Kung Fu Panda for Dreamworks.

Mark Osborne
(Kung Fu Panda, SpongeBob SquarePants, More...)

Mark Osborne is an Academy Award nominated director and Guggenheim Fellow (2004). His more well-known work to date, More, a stop-motion short film, has screened in over 150 film festivals worldwide and was the first IMAX animation film to ever be nominated for an Academy Award (1999). Osborne has also directed a majority of the live-action material for the popular animated TV series Spongebob Squarepants as well as all of the live action sequences for the feature film released in November of 2005. Most recently, he co-directed Kung Fu Panda (2008) for DreamWorks.

Markus Manninen
(Kung Fu Panda, Over the Hedge, Underworld...)

In 2003 Markus Manninen joined DreamWorks as Visual Effects Supervisor on the 2008 release Kung Fu Panda. Before joining DreamWorks, Markus was Head of 3D Commercials at Europe's largest visual effects facility Framestore CFC, where he worked on award-winning commercials as CG Supervisor and Animation Director. A M.Sc. graduate of Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, he discovered Computer Graphics at University of Massachusetts, USA. Markus joined Framestore CFC from award-winning animation studio Filmtecknarna in Sweden.

Marv Newland
(Hooray for Sandbox Land, Black Hula, Bambi Meets Godzilla...)

Marv Newland began a career making animated motion pictures in Los Angeles with the creation of the short Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969). He designed and animated television commercials until late 1970 and moved to Toronto, Canada, where he designed, directed and animated television commercials, IDs for Sesame Street and Educational Television. In late 1972, Newland moved to Vancouver. He spent two years freelancing for local animated film production companies and animation companies in Chicago and Los Angeles. In 1973 Newland created storyboards for the animated television series Barbapapa at Toonder Studios in Holland.

In 1975 Newland founded the animated film production company International Rocketship Limited in Vancouver. At Rocketship he produced and directed numerous animated short films including: Sing Beast Sing (1980), Hooray for Sandbox Land (1985), Pink Komkommer (1991), and Fuv (1999). The company also produced short animated films for other directors such as Danny Antonucci and J. Falconer. Newland also designed and directed the National Film Board of Canada vignette, Bill Miner (1978).

Rocketship also produced TV commercials, IDs for MTV, YTV, and Nickelodeon, and two films - Gary Larson's Tales from the Far Side (1994) and a sequel in 1996. The first of these productions won the Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animation Festival in 1995. Outside of Rocketship, Newland has freelanced for other animation companies, including directing episodes of the 3D stop motion series The PJs for Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon.

As a freelance designer, Newland created character designs for the animated television series Being Ian (2003-2004) at Studio B Productions in Vancouver. In 2005 he directed Tête à Tête à Tête, an animated short film for the NFB. Currently Newland is animating his own short film, Scratchy, at International Rocketship.

Paul Harrod
(Director, Bent Image Lab - Portland)

Paul Harrod has developed a sophisticated visual language over the past two decades working as designer, art director and director of animated and live action projects, with a special emphasis on stop motion. His career as a designer came to full blossom as the Senior Art Director of Vinton Studios in Portland, and ultimately as the production designer and director of five episodes of the Fox TV series, "The PJs" for which he was nominated for an Annie award in 2000. He went on to direct the first episode of UPN's "Gary and Mike" series and the pilot for WB's "Slacker Cats". Since then he has contributed his skills as both Director and Art Director at Bent Image Lab on numerous commercials including several Kelloggs Twistables spots, Office Max, Cartoon Network, Aflac, Always, ServPro and Quaker Chewy Bars. His commercials for Tractor Supply Company have received attention for their innovative design and dry, understated humor, with "Koi Pond" voted one of the 50 best spots of 2006 by Adweek.

Paul lives in Portland with his wife, the internationally acclaimed filmmaker, Joanna Priestley.

Paul Topolos
(Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Titan A.E. ...)

Paul Topolos has been at Pixar Animation Studios for 6 years as a matte painter and concept artist. Before that he worked at LucasArts and Lucasfilm. He studied fine art in Britain and California.

Steve Martino
(Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who!, Robots...)