Rob Coleman and Randal Shore have rejoined Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Coleman returns as a key creative for feature animation at ILM’s Sydney studio. Shore comes aboard the company’s Vancouver studio as an executive producer in feature animation.
Both Coleman and Shore are joining at a crucial chapter of innovation at Industrial Light & Magic, overseen by Janet Lewin, who now helms ILM as both sr. VP and general manager, alongside Rob Bredow, ILM’s sr. VP and chief creative officer. Coleman and Shore arrive at a time of recent expansion for ILM’s virtual production and StageCraft technology, as well as the accelerated growth of the company’s studios around the world.
“Rob Coleman has a long history at Industrial Light & Magic, having worked alongside George Lucas on the prequel trilogy, and Dave Filoni on The Clone Wars,” said Bredow. “With a 35-year tenure in the industry, he is a terrific mentor and powerhouse animation supervisor, with endless enthusiasm for the craft. In his new role, he will continue to deliver the unparalleled creativity that has continued to define him as a leader. Rob’s many years of creative supervision in animation make him the ideal fit for our upcoming projects, rejoining us at the perfect time as we work on multiple animated features in addition to a large number of visual effects shows.”
Coleman has had a long and celebrated history at ILM as an animation supervisor before focusing on work within Lucasfilm Animation. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for his work on Attack of the Clones and The Phantom Menace, and received two BAFTA Awards for his work on Men In Black and The Phantom Menace. Prior to this, Coleman worked as an animator on projects such as The Mask, The Indian in the Cupboard and Dragonheart to name a few. He moved to Lucasfilm Animation in 2005 providing development leadership on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Most recently, he worked as an animation director at Dr. D. Studios on Happy Feet Two, and as head of animation at Animal Logic, supporting The LEGO Movie, The LEGO Batman Movie, and Peter Rabbit.
Coleman said, “In my time in animation, I’ve been lucky enough to work on some truly industry-defining films, but the pipeline of projects that ILM has ahead of it is exhilarating, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
During his tenure at Industrial Light & Magic, Shore was the executive in charge of ILM’s Vancouver studio, playing an instrumental role in both launching the studio and managing its growth over the years, as well as providing executive leadership on No Time to Die, Jungle Cruise, Black Widow and The Mandalorian. Prior to joining ILM, Shore held high-level positions at two other Canadian visual effects houses: The Moving Picture Company (MPC) and Prime Focus. At MPC, Shore was head of production overseeing films such as Life of Pi, which was awarded the Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects in 2013. During his tenure at Prime Focus as executive producer, he oversaw the company’s expansion from 45 artists to over 150, and worked on such films as Tree of Life and Tron: Legacy.
“Every project Randal oversees benefits from his collaborative stewardship, and we’re thrilled that his journey has brought him back home to ILM,” said Lewin. “Randal’s wide breadth of executive leadership and animation experience make him the perfect person to step into this new role. He will be developing and growing our feature animation strategy while partnering with our clients to guide their projects through to completion.”
Most recently, Shore was head of production for Tangent Animation where he oversaw the upcoming Maya and the Three for Netflix, bringing him back to his creative roots of producing animation. With Coleman’s and Shore’s return to ILM, they will both play a key role in the company’s continued push into animation.
Shore said of ILM, “We have some incredible feature animation projects in production, and I’m looking forward to both expanding our portfolio, and leveraging our best-in-class global studios.”
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More