Sunday, September 21, 2008

Pitch Night Meets Sept. 25th!

Happy September!

We had a very productive pitch night last month and critiqued lots of great projects. Let's keep up the enthusiasm this month! We have another awesome special guest, Rusty Mills, to help critique boards and provide a little insight into the world of animation.

Rusty has worked in the animation industry for over 23 years doing Storyboards, Timing, Animation and Directing. He's best known for his Directing and Producing for Warner Bros. on "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain" for which he won five Emmys and a Peabody. Most recently he has worked at Disney TV Animation and freelanced for Universal Animation Studios. Rusty has an extensive knowledge of digital animation software, and has taught digital storyboarding technique classes at the Animation Guild.

Sign up to reserve a spot in the audience OR for pitching. E-mail me at jesskreig@gmail.com to RSVP today.
Storyboard Pitch Night
meets Thursday, September 25th
7 pm to 10 pm at the
Animation Guild
4729 Lankershim Blvd.
North
Hollywood
91602

As always this event is FREE to WIA members, and only 5 dollars for non-members.

See you there!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

ASIFA's Student Animation Film Festival

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywoods' Animator Educator's Forum is hosting its first Student Animation Film Festival at Woodbury University located on 7500 Glenoaks Blvd. in Burbank, CA 91510 on October 18, 2008 from 10 AM to 7:30 PM. Students enrolled in professional academic programs throughout the United States including NYU Tisch School of the Arts; UCLA; USC; Woodbury University; Loyola Marymount University; CSU Fullerton; Bay and The Art Institute of California-Orange County have submitted short animations. The winners are to be announced at the festival in the following categories: Best Visual Storytelling, Best Character, Best Technical Achievement, Judges' Choice and The Emile Cohl Award for the Best Animated Short.

In addition to the competition portion of the event, a free demo reel and portfolio review will be offered to the public. Students and artists alike are encouraged to bring demo reels in DVD format and/or an organized collection of flat artwork to be critiqued by some of the competition judges and other industry professionals.

Judges for the competition include Jorge R. Gutierrez, Creator and Executive Producer of El Tigre; Robin Brigstocke, Director and Storyboard Supervisor at King of the Hill; Floyd Norman, Disney Legend and master storyman at Pixar, Disney, etc.; Tim Johnson, Director of DreamWorks's Over the Hedge; Aki Umemoto, Pioneer of CGI Commercials and Creative Director at Mattel for 25 years. The awards show and screening of winners will be held at 6 PM in the Fletcher Jones Foundation Auditorium.

Sponsors include DigiCel FlipBook, Creative Talent Network, VISUCATE (Autodesk Authorized Education Value Added Reseller) and Woodbury University. Prizes include generous software packages such as FlipBook, Maya, 3D Studio Max, Motion Builder, and Combustion Educational software in addition to prize money based on the category won.

For more information about the event visit http://asifa-hollywood.org/

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

36th Annie Awards: Call for Entries!

36th Annual Annie Awards Set for Friday, January 30, 2009 at UCLA's Royce Hall

BURBANK, Calif. (September 10, 2008) The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announces its Call for Entries for consideration for this year's 36th Annual Annie Awards. Current Categories & Rules as well as all entry forms can be found online at www.annieawards.org.

The Annie Awards honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 24 categories ranging from production design, character animation and effects animation to storyboarding, writing, music and voice acting. Entries submitted for consideration will be from productions that originally aired, were exhibited in an animation festival or commercially released between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008.

Key deadlines for this year's Annie Awards are as follows:

Entry Forms: Friday, Oct. 10
Nomination Judging Materials: Friday, Oct. 31
Deadline to become an ASIFA-Hollywood Member: November 30
Nominations announced: Monday, December 1
Ballot clips: Monday, December 8
Bios & Photos for Program Book: Friday, December 12
Advertising Reservations For Program Book: Friday, December 12
Artwork for Program Book: Friday, January 9, 2009
Ceremony Clips: Friday, January 9, 2009
Online Voting: Monday, January 12 - Friday, January 23, 2009

This year's ceremony will be held on Friday, January 30, 2009, at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA. The black-tie ceremony will feature a lively mix of animation luminaries, celebrity presenters and comedic talent to celebrate this year's best of the best.

The Annie Awards have long recognized pioneers at the forefront of animation through nominations, juried awards and certificates of merit. In 1972, legendary voice actor June Foray organized the very first Annie Awards. Today, supported by major animation studios and production companies, the Annie Awards have grown into a much-heralded industry event and are considered an important industry benchmark and a predictor of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

ASIFA-Hollywood is the largest of an international network of chapters and supports a range of animation initiatives through its membership . Current projects include an animation archive, library and museum, classes and screenings, and animated film preservation efforts.

For up-to-the-minute information on the 36th Annual Annie Awards, please visit www.annieawards.org, or email: Gretchen@annieawards.org or call: 562.209.9900. Media inquiries, please contact Gretchen Dixon, Dixon PR, at 562.235.0991 or email: Gdixonpr@aol.com.