Ad agency queries regarding who directed and designed the end title sequence for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events can now be referred to Los Angeles animation studio Duck. Director Jamie Caliri, whose Lemony work is generating quite a bit of positive industry feedback, has returned to Duck for commercials.
According to Duck executive producer Mark Medernach, the identity of the director/designer behind the piece isn’t widely known although the sequence itself has attained a high profile via word of mouth, fueled in part by movie reviewers’ critical acclaim of the end titles. For instance, the Boston Globe referred to the sequence as “the purest example of visual elegance on the big screen in 2004.”
Caliri is one of six directors to recently join Duck–the others being Jorge Gutierrez, Nina Paley, James Patterson, Tod Polson and Kathy Smith. Caliri began his career at Acme Filmworks, Hollywood, and then joined The Front, a subsidiary of Duck Soup Studios (now Duck), where he helmed music videos and some spots. In ’97, Caliri moved over to bicoastal/international MJZ. There he directed Morphine’s “Early To Bed,” which was nominated for a ’98 Grammy Award for best short-form music video. The black-and-white clip featured the band members as puppets performing in a show for children. In ’99, Caliri took a hiatus from videos and commercials, working on varied projects encompassing such disciplines as still photography, cinematography and design. In ’03, he linked with Windmill Lane, Santa Monica.
Caliri had most recently been freelancing as a director and designer. His credits include commercials for HBO and public radio station KCRW, Los Angeles, as well as music videos for such artists as Marcy Playground, Soul Coughing, Eels and Black Lab.
Also coming aboard Duck is director Gutierrez whose endeavors span films, cartoons and paintings that explore his penchant for Mexican culture. While studying at CalArts, Valencia, Calif., he created Carmelo, winner of a student Emmy in animation. Carmelo went on to hit the festival circuit, including being screened as part of Kodak’s Emerging Filmmakers Program at the Cannes Film Festival. After graduating from CalArts, Gutierrez worked under animation legend Maurice Noble for the art direction of Chuck Jones’ Timberwolf for Warner Bros. Soon afterwards Gutierrez created El Macho, an animated Web series for Sony Pictures.
Additionally, Duck signed director Paley who made her first mark with the alternative comic strip “Nina’s Adventures,” which ran in American news weeklies from ’88 to ’95. She has since been involved in varied forms of animation, including CGI and clay animation. Paley’s animated films have been screened at festivals around the world and include Luv Is (’98), Cancer (’98) and Fetch! (’00). Her clay animation film I Heart My Cat won the Audience Choice Golden Oly award at the ’99 Olympia Film Festival.
Director Polson comes to Duck with 15 years of experience, which includes extensive work in Thailand and Taiwan. Most recently, Polson has served as the director at Thailand’s Kantana Animation; there he was supervising director on the feature Khan Kluay. He also taught animation design at the Kantana Animation School.
Earlier Polson’s short Al Tudi Tuhak earned an Annie Award nomination from the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood). Over the years, Polson also worked at several studios worldwide, including such U.S.-based houses as Wild Brain, Walt Disney TV Animation, Film Roman, Hyperion, Chuck Jones Film, and Kroyer Films.
Duck has also added directors Smith and Patterson. Among the latter’s clients have been VH1, Nickelodeon, Apple and Target. Smith meanwhile has created and produced 11 animated films, all of which have toured internationally at such festivals as Anima Mundi and Ottawa. Smith’s film, Indefinable Moods, was screened at SIGGRAPH ’01 and at the ’02 Sundance Film Festival.
Patterson, Smith, Polson, Paley, Gutierrez and Caliri join a Duck directorial roster that also includes company president Roger Chouinard, Erik Deutschman, Nicolas Kang, Brooke Keesling, Steve kirklys, Peter Ko, Evil Cat Land, Graham Morris, Lane Nakamura, Maureen Selwood, Jeong A. Seong, Charlene Shih, Steve Sonnenleiter and Paul Vester.
Duck offers such services as character design, film title design, 2-D and 3-D animation, digital compositing, digital/traditional ink and paint, and live-action integration. For commercials, Duck is handled by independent reps Andrew Halpern on the West Coast and Arthur Portnoy on the East Coast.
