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Benson Shum

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
Benson Shum. Animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 

Mmm, I don’t know if its crazy haha, but I was a sweeper at the local fair during the summer, griller/cook at a restaurant and burrito maker 🙂

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 

Some of my favourite projects are most recently Frozen and Wreck-it Ralph.  I feel very fortunate to be able to work on such compelling stories and characters.  Hotel T and the Smurfs were also something I loved working on.  oh, and Harry Potter and the goblet of fire, because I’m such a fan of the books!

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born and raised in Vancouver, BC.  When I was starting to do research on Animation, Capliano College just opened up a Commerical Animation program in North Vancouver.  I remember seeing Continue reading

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Oliver Simonsen

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Oliver Simonsen, President of What Comics Entertainment -currently in co-production with “Pink Slip Animation” Directing “Cerebus the aardvark -tale of a fractured destiny“, based on the Graphic Novel that started the independent comic book market.
and in pre-production: “Bug Juice” based on the hit indie Graphic Novel series “Bug House”.  The idea is we’ll focus on productions based on independent/alternative comics. A Miramax of cartoons, if you will:)
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Trying really hard to erase those from my memory lol.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
“The Hooligans” -a sorta adult swim type show…basically i learned computer graphics and computers in general while working on it, something i had barely touched upon till that point.


It was during the dotcom boom and the sky was the limit: heady days and a lot of fun and learned so much. The final outcome wasn’t maybe the best -but it was a great learning experience.

How did you become interested in animation?
Anybody who knew me as a kid knew that animation, comicbooks and film was the only thing i ever wanted to do. Not sure why. I’ve asked myself that same thing many times:)  One thing was moving to Norway when 9 and they really didn’t have much in the way of cartoons on TV overthere at the time, this was mid to late 70s. This in turn Continue reading

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360 Google Spotlight Story: On Ice

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Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Shannon Tindle (Go Goo Go) and Google ATAP’s Spotlight Stories have released ON ICE to YouTube TODAY. “On Ice,” is viewable in the Google Spotlight Stories YouTube channel app on many Android devices, and also with Google Cardboard. We’ll also bring “On Ice” to the Google Spotlight Stories apps (on iOS and Android) soon.

ON ICE is about an over-the-top, sci-fi themed ice show and its star (a la Flash Gordon), who suddenly finds he has competition for the spotlight from an unlikely rival…a bear.

ON ICE was directed by Shannon Tindle, and created in collaboration with Evil Eye Pictures. There are hidden surprises, both audio and visual, that occur on stage and off, including one musical surprise that pays homage to Queen! Ice skating techniques are drawn from both accuracy and creative liberties – and you can also catch the highlights you missed on the MainStage on the Jumbotron, just look up!

Google Spotlight Stories is a new form of storytelling made specifically for mobile and VR. In these 360-degree, interactive stories, your phone becomes a window to a world all around you. The sensors on your phone allow the story to be interactive; when you move your phone to various scenes, you are able to unlock mini-stories within the story.

In addition to ON ICE, we’re bringing Justin Lin’s HELP to YouTube later this week as well. HELP was released last year on our Android and iOS app, is our first live action piece, and received a nomination for a Visual Media Experience Award at this year’s SXSW.

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Funimation launches its all-in-one anime destination site

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dragon-ball-super-episode-3

Engadget is posting that Funimation Entertainment announced today that its FunimationNow platform is now live.

The site, which we first saw back at CES, will make the studio’s expansive archive of shows — including DBZ, Attack on Titan and Assassination Classroom — available to subscribers without ads or viewing restrictions. The new service will initially be available on iOS, Android, Kindle and Windows 10 devices while support for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Roku devices is expected by May.

Pricing for the service will be tiered. Free accounts will have to deal with ads and have access to a limited portion of the archives. For $5 a month, viewers will get full access to the entire HD library of shows but they’ll all be subtitled (which is how they’re best viewed anyway). The $8/month tier gives you everything from the lower tiers plus access to dubbed versions of shows and bonus content.

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“Coda” by And Maps and Plans

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A lost soul stumbles drunken through the city. In a park, Death finds him and shows him many things.

andcodafilm.com
andmapsandplans.com
twitter.com/andmapsandplans
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Contact: hello@andmapsandplans.com

Director: Alan Holly – qlqn.ie
Producer: Ciaran Deeney – elzorrerofilms.ie
Writers: Alan Holly and Rory Byrne – rorybyrne.ie
Art direction & backgrounds: Ronan McMeel – ronanmcmeel.blogspot.ie
Music: Shane Holly – shaneholly.ie
Animation: Alan Holly, Rory Byrne and Eoghan Dalton – studiopowwow.com
Colouring and shadows: Eimhin McNamara – paperpanther.ie
Backrgounds: Áine McGuinness – ainemcguinness.ie
Starring: Brian Gleeson, Orla Fitgerald, Donie Ryan and Joseph Dermody
Music recording: Paul Finan
Voice recording: Tony Kiernan
Sound design: Michelle Fingleton
Sound editing: Andy Kirwan
Sound mixing: Garret Farrell – screenscene.ie
Musicians: Shane Holly, Aoife Dowdall, Katie O’Connor, Larissa O’Grady, Jenny Dowdall
Emma Scott: Production Executive for the Irish Film Board
Pauline McNamara: Executive Producer – RTE
Fionnuala Sweeney: Film Specialist – Arts Council
Jill McGregor: Schemes & Applications Co-ordinator for the Irish Film Board
Thanks to Sean McCarron & Jennifer Evans

Funded under the Irish FIlm Board’s Frameworks scheme
irishfilmboard.ie/funding_programmes/Frameworks/65

AWARDS

Shortlisted for the 87th Academy Awards
Nominated for the 42nd Annual Annie Awards

Great Animation Award – Mecal 17th Festival International of Short Film & Animation of Barcelona, Spain, Mar 2015
Bronze Statue for the third animation – 9th Tehran International Animation Festival, Iran, Mar 2015
Jury special mention Р6th Roanne animation film festival Cin̩ Court Anim̩, France, Mar 2015
Best Animated Film – Fargo Film Festival, Fargo, USA, Dec 2014
Young Peoples Jury – Marcin Prize for best short film for young people, at Inernational Young Audience Film Festival Ale Kino! PoznaÅ„, Poland, Dec 2014
International Special Jury Prize at Animpact Animation Festival 2014, Seoul, South Korea, Nov 2014
KuanDog Prize: International Short Film Special Mention at KDIAF, Taipei, Taiwan 2014
Jury’s Special Award at Cinanima 2014
Best Animation & Best of Fest at Aesthetica Short Film Fest 2014
Silver Hugo for Best Animated Short at 50th Chicago International Film Festival 2014
2nd Place for the Audience Choice Award at the 3rd Annual Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Invitational, Baltimore 2014
Joint Best Irish Short Film prize with ‘The Ledge End of Phil’ at the Dublin Animation Film Festival 2014
Winner Best Short Animation at SXSW – Austin, USA 2014
Best Animation at Kino Fest – Bucharest, Romania 2014
Audience Choice SICAF – Seoul, South Korea 2014
Best in Show at Animation Block Party – New York 2014
Joint Best Animated Film Award with ‘Pandas’ at Kratkofil Plus – Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina 2014
Winner of the Anča Award, Fest Anča – Zilina, Slovakia 2014
Most Creative Short Award, Edinburgh Short Film Festival – Edinburgh, Scotland 2014
FICC Don Quijote Prize +Special Mention Best Animation, Galway Film Fleadh – Galway, Ireland 2013

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Jennifer Ruiz

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
Jennifer Ruiz – Freelance Filmmaker/Photographer/Stop motion Animator.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? After graduating collage I had to work several summer jobs to save up for my move to California.  One job was a Digital Media Summer Camp.  I had to teach kids ages 7-12 how to write, shoot, and edit (on final cut) a movie.  Some children were so young they didn’t even understand what editing was!  Not just imagine explained final cut to a 7 year old.  I get a headache just thinking about it. What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?  I through a fake wedding for Polaroid in a backyard a few years ago.  They never ended up using it, but we spent months setting it up and it was a blast to make.  The day of the “wedding” people who wanted to be in the wedding party all were randomly assigned secret roles that only they knew (groom, father of the bride, drunk ex, bride, etc).   The rest of our friends were wedding guests who sat back and watched as someone was proposed to and “married.”  It was full of improvised speeches, vows, a live band, dancing, a bouncy castle, a photo booth, flame throwing, guitar smashing, you know…the usual.
How did you become interested in animation? 
A friend in high school did a simple stop motion with toys for a class project.  I was so impressed how Continue reading