Directors/designers Dan Yaccarino, Stacey Steers and Cathy Joritz, director Bill Kopp, and designers Aaron Augenblick and David Zweig have joined Denver-based animation/effects house, Celluloid Studios. They come aboard a roster consisting of director and Celluloid co-founder Jeff Jurich, director/designer Bill Davis, and animator/director Brian Larson.
Celluloid executive producer Jan Johnson noted that the influx of talent comes from varied disciplines, including design, childrens storybook illustration, the independent festival circuit, as well as film and television. Our hope is that each of these influences will bring a novel perspective to the genre of television commercials, related Johnson.
In addition to taking on spots, the Celluloid roster will have a ready-made venue for its other creations, including animated cartoons and games. The company has teamed with syndicated cartoonist Rich Moyer to create the Internet entertainment portal www.bunnygrenade.com. The site will soon debut self-coined web-esodics with an irreverent style that appeals to next-generation audiences. Celluloid executive producer Olivier Katz will serve in the same capacity for the new venture; Moyer is creative director. All creative content for bunnygrenade.com will be developed and completed by Celluloid.
Moyer recently discontinued his one-panel daily cartoon strip Ick-which had been nationally syndicated since 95 by Tribune Media Services-in order to focus on Web fare. He is also currently developing a primetime animated program, Space Kat, with Celluloid.
Talent Infusion
Yaccarinos work has been featured in magazines, newspapers, books, ad campaigns and animated television commercials worldwide. Over the years, he has written and illustrated many childrens books and has exhibited his large-scale paintings and sculptures in galleries in New York, Tokyo and Rome. He has also created and is producing Oswald the Octopus, an animated series for Nickelodeon, which is slated to soon be in production. Yaccarinos ad credits include designing and co-directing three Garden Burger spots produced by Passion Pictures, London, for Hal Riney & Partners, Chicago (now Publicis & Hal Riney). Celluloid is the first shop to formally represent Yaccarino for commercials.
Director/designer Steers is known for her distinctive style in which graphic representations of people, plants, and animals continually metamorphose. She has won numerous awards for her short films (i.e. The Blacksheep, Watunna, Totem), which have received screenings at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., the Museum of Natural History, New York, and the Anthology Film Archive, New York. Watunna was broadcast as part of the PBS program Alive TV. Steers signing with Celluloid marks her first foray into TV spots.
Previously represented by Duck Soup Studios, Los Angeles, and prior to that Acme Filmworks, Hollywood, director/designer Joritz has a funky style involving scratch animation, mixed media and collage. Based in Dortmund, Germany, Joritz has been active in animated shorts and commercials; her work has been screened at Spike & Mikes Animation Festival and the Ann Arbor Film Festival, among other venues. She was educated at the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College/Chicago and the College of Fine Arts in Braunschweig, Germany.
Director Kopp is experienced in traditional character animation, as well as in producing and writing for animated series. While attending the California Institute of Arts, Valencia, Kopp received two student Academy Awards. He has since produced a number of animated cartoon series. His prime focus at Celluloid will be commercials.
Designer Augenblicks credits include animated shorts The Midnight Carnival and The Wire. Prior to joining Celluloid, Augenblick worked at MTV Animation, New York, on such television shows as Daria, Cartoon Sushi and Downtown. He is currently involved in an animated feature, The Robots Song, which he wrote and is directing.
While attending college at CalArts, Valencia, Calif., designer Zweig saw his films selected for three consecutive Producers Shows, a venue for the years finest work from character animation students. After graduating from CalArts in 98, Zweig worked as a designer at BRC Imagination Arts, a theme park and museum design firm in Burbank, Calif. While there, he designed work for theme parks, shows, and museums in Taiwan, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and the U.S. Zweig left BRC last year to work as a freelance designer and art director on several animation series for the Internet.
Since its inception in 84, Celluloid has created animation for commercials and television. The company was instrumental in developing the animated series South Park with its creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Celluloid produced the shows precursor, The Spirit of Christmas, as well as the pilot. Recently, the company completed a multi-spot package for Budweiser featuring Wayne Gretzky and the animated Bubble Boys via Chicago ad agency Fusion Idea Lab. Live action for the campaign was helmed by James Wahlberg of Santa Monica-based Visitor. (Wahlberg is a co-founder of Celluloid.) Animation directors on the Bud campaign were Celluloids Larson and Jurich.
