Character animator Anders Beer has teamed up with Brickyard VFX co-owners Dave Waller and Geoff McAuliffe to launch General Gau, a hybrid animation/production company dedicated to creating custom character-based content. Based out of Brickyard’s Boston office, General Gau offers a specialized talent pool and customized internal pipeline to leverage in-depth, high quality character animation.
Beer, a Boston native, has a background in computer graphics and has focused on character animation throughout his career. He got his start at DreamWorks on character development for Shrek, and has since worked at such studios as Disney, Digital Domain, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Double Negative on character animation for video games and feature films. Beer recently moved back to Boston after working in London as animation supervisor on both Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and Greg Mottola’s Paul.
Brickyard just wrapped its first project with General Gau, a :30 titled “Goodnight” for Progressive Insurance. Directed by Jeffrey Fleisig of Uber Content for Arnold Boston, the spot showcases Beer’s character animation with a dream sequence cameo featuring a family of festive chipmunks and a feisty thieving squirrel. Beer served as animation director and CG supervisor on the job.
“We always used to turn character animation work away because it was something we just couldn’t do as well as we do visual effects,” said Brickyard’s Waller. “But we always knew if the right person came along, character animation would make perfect sense for Brickyard–and when we met Anders, and saw his body of work, we knew right away that he was our guy.”
Beer noted, “Character production has always been my focus but in big studios it can sometimes get tied up in bureaucratic logistics. With General Gau I can just really let the artistry drive it and have much more creative freedom. And being able to work with Brickyard as a partner in this effort is great because with the quick timeline of commercial projects, the type of work you can do is always changing and it keeps everything fresh.”
Brickyard maintains studios in Boston and Santa Monica.
Directing Duo Mindcastle Joins Farm League For Commercials and Branded Content
Film company and certified B Corporation Farm League has added directing duo Mindcastle--consisting of Casey Warren and Danielle Krieger--to its roster for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Mindcastle has spent a decade building a body of work that takes viewers from energetic anthemic sports campaigns to emotional narrative stories to big worlds layered with CGI and VFX. The common link through each genre is their crafted, highly cinematic visual language and grounded performances from believable heroes.
After developing their cinematic eye through photography, they first began directing when ESPN approached them to create a piece from the NFL draft. This snowballed into travel across the globe for numerous films, commercials and TV shows, and collaborations with talent including Derek Jeter, Floyd Mayweather, and Guillermo del Toro. Mindcastle’s work for Adidas, Questrade and Patron shows the spectrum of their worlds and themes.
In a joint statement, Mindcastle shared, “Farm League’s work has an energy and dynamism to it where it’s not only defined by a strong visual style, but it also captivates your heart. We love the passion and mindset that the Farm League team brings to each project, including their drive to infuse a creative-first ethos into each project. We are incredibly excited to dig in together to continue expanding our roots of memorable and dynamic narratives.”
Tim Lynch (TL), Farm League Founder and EP, commented, “Mindcastle’s passion for telling big, crafted stories struck me immediately. They create worlds that are visually intriguing and grounded in humanistic performances, exactly the balance we seek at Farm League. We can’t wait to see where their vision can go... Read More