Director/animator Jason Carpenter has won The Walt Disney Studios Prize for a Student Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival for his film “The Renter.” The prize was announced in a ceremony in Ottawa on Sunday September 25. Jason teams with his brother Michael in their boutique Carpenter Bros. Animation which is represented by 6 Point Media for commercial spot-making. The team is best known for promo, title and theme park work for a range of clients including Warner Bros. and Disney.
Jason’s winning project was started when he was a student in the CalArts Graduate Program in Experimental Animation. It tells the story of a young boy who is babysitted each day at the farm-surrounded home of an elderly woman. In addition to watching the boy (that is when she’s awake), the woman also rents a room out to a mysterious man. The film focuses on the confusing and odd activity the boy observes in the strange behavior of the distant figure in the rented room. The screenplay is based on his own childhood experiences during the time his parents arranged his day care with Mommy Eldridge, an elderly Greensboro North Carolina woman who ran a day-care in her home.
Jason feels that the topic allowed him to stretch the animation genre into more serious and adult character portrayal than is typical in cartoons. Quoted in his college alma mater NC State’s alumni paper, he said “Animation can do a lot more than tell silly stories and funny jokes,” says Carpenter. “Animation is a really deep art form. I think in other countries it’s a little easier to find animation that’s not slapstick. Animation can do anything.”
“The Renter” has been nominated for other major awards, including the Annie Award, the animation industry’s highest honor, and the Student Academy Award. Recently Jason has been busy on the festival circuit. So far the film has traveled to Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Australia, and South America and has played extensively in the US and Canada. It also won the jury award at the Atlanta Film Festival for Best Animated Short. That makes it a qualifier for Academy Award nomination here in the US.
About 6 Point Media
6 Point Media is the commercial division of Hollywood animation studio Six Point Harness. It has a roster of over 20 directors in a variety of styles of animation, live action and mixed media with a specialty in comedy. The Carpenter Brothers and the rest of 6 point’s roster are available for commercial projects. Contact Executive Producer John Andrews through the company website www.6pointmedia.com or call him directly at 213 590 9019 or through the 6PH main number (323) 462-3344.
