I’ve fallen and I can get up!
WOW! The past few weeks have been crazy. Probably the craziest in my life. It started about a day after my last post when I was involved in a serious motorcycle accident on my way to work. I wont say much about it here other then to mention it hurt a lot and I am doing my best to recover from my injuries. I’m extremely happy to be alive and be there for my wife and kids. Sadly, my classic Vespa didn’t fair as well. It was damaged pretty badly but from what I am gathering from discussions with my mechanic who specializes in classic Vespa scooters, it can be restored to it’s pre accident condition, which was almost perfect (I took really good care of my pride and joy). It wont be cheap but insurance should cover the costs. No matter, my wife and kids do not want me back on the scooter so it will probably have to sit in storage or sold after it is fixed. That’s sad for me. The Vespa was my first vehicle I ever bought when I moved to L.A. I brought it back to Toronto when I moved back and I have owned that “work of art” for about 15 years now.
Anyhow, accident and all I still had a very demanding and serious role to play at March Entertainment and I couldn’t just sit back, not even for a day. I am responsible for building up the core animation crews and support staff and I really needed to be as fully available as possible these past few weeks. The accident itself could not have come at a worse time. I took the pain as best as I could and moved forward with the plans already set in motion. I had too! There’s too much riding on all of our plans for me to be sick or hurt and I really had to do everything in my power to get things done. Thanks to the great team at March Entertainment, things moved along as best as it could and we all managed to pull together in order to get through the past few weeks.
Speaking of the team at March Entertainment, I must say we have come a long way this past year. We have some super talented people leading all of the major departments in our studio. It really started over a year ago when I was first hired to lead in the development of the “new” March Entertainment and re-focus the studio into CG feature film production. It’s not a small task but one I was more then willing to partake in. We hired a great guy by the name of Todd Jahnke. He’s one the best people to build a studio pipeline and he joined us as Head of Production/Pipeline. It helps that he’s a talented artist too with many years of experience in animated feature films, VFX work and TV series. He’s also one of the Directors on our TV series (tentatively) called “Yoko, Mo and Mia”. There’s also Bill Speers. He’s one of Canada’s animation legends and he has been in the industry for a long, long time. He’s super smart and very good at art direction and visual story telling. His experience is awesome and we’re learning a lot of valuable things from him. He’s our Senior Director on “Yoko, Mo and Mia”.
Most recently we’ve acquired several other key talents to keep building the foundation and we’re super stoked to have these folks join us at March. I’ll start with Roja Huchez. He joined us approximately 2 months ago as our Head of Modelling and Rigging and the stuff this guy spits out in no time is breathtaking. If only I could show you all (but I can’t so you’ll have to wait). Just to give you an idea of his calibre, you may have seen examples of his work in James Cameron’s “Avatar”. He was one of the key members of the facial modelling and rigging team. His work is…. Well I said it before and I’ll say it again… BREATHTAKING!!!
We also have Jordan Thistlewood. He’s joined us to help build up our Rendering systems as well as our network. He’s an extraordinary Lighter/vfx dude with lots of experience under his belt. He’s a smart, smart, smart fella. We were lucky to get him after the recent C.O.R.E. closure.
Shawn Colbeck is arguably one of the most modest and humble artists I have ever known. He’s just great at everything he does and you’ll never hear him say anything about it. That’s why I do it for him! He just loves doing what he does so much that it inspires everyone around him. I am lucky to have him as a friend. He’s joined us at March as our Head of Layout and will be an awesome key member of our future developments. He can draw real well and his “eye” is impeccable. No worries if you’ve never heard of him, I’ll be sure to promote his talents as we move forward. I am a big fan of his work. Probably the biggest fan.
There’s plenty more talent we’re acquiring and much more to discuss but I have to cut this post short now. It’s getting too long and I have to take my son to his drum lessons. More news to come.
Cheers!
-Dimos
I’M A SUCKER FOR GIZMOS
Well, just like the title states… I am a sucker for gizmos. I don’t usually write about products I have barely tested or used but I have to say I am REALLY impressed with a recent order. I heard about this device a while ago and ordered a “no money down, 100% satisfaction, 30 day guarantee” type thing and was very pleased with the device. It seemed like a “hoax” but I had to see if was real. I bought the MAGICJACK. It’s a little device that you plug into your computer, attach a phone and voila! Unlimited North American long distance calling for a nominal fee of about $20 US per year ($50 for the first year to pay for the little USB device). Sadly at that time they didn’t support Canadian (area codes and) numbers so I returned the device. I really enjoyed it and when I found out I couldn’t get a Canadian number I was very sad to return it.
Fast forward a few months later and MagicJack finally supports Canadian area codes! I received my new MagicJack a few weeks ago, registered my Canadian number and so far so good. I have called around town only and it sounds as good as (if not better then) my regular phone line or mobile phone. Next on my MagicJack to do list is call my family and friends in the US and catch up on some ol’times and fond memories. I also purchased a $10 credit limit for international calling outside North America so I can call overseas. I’ll be hitting up family in Greece and Italy as well as other countries where I have people to talk to.
Some of my friends ordered this a while ago too and they love it. One of my co-worker’s (and friend’s) father lives in India and ordered a US number to contact him in Canada and his brother who lives in the US. It’s just a great little device. Just putting a shout out for this little piece of coolness and letting anyone interested in this gizmo know how cool it is so far. Yup! It’s pretty cool.
Now, there are some draw backs but the price and overall cost savings are worth it (so far). The first is that it isn’t very clear how to set things up at first. It’s not as easy to initially set up but it aint hard either. It’s just a little confusing. I recommend reading all instruction carefully when registering your product and thoroughly go through the sites FAQs before attempting things as well. Also, I’m a Mac guy. I’d suggest to register the product on a PC then use it on a Mac if you’re like me. For some reason the registration process for the Mac is slightly different, which is beyond me. It looks the same but has less settings (like searching for Canadian numbers). Luckily I have Windows running in emulation on my Mac and I registered the MagicJack that way.
Oh, and I couldn’t just stop there. I also just purchased the NEW MacBook Pro with the i7 chips. I can’t wait for that to arrive! I am giddy with joy!
Until later….
Ta!Ta!
-Dimos
In: Life, Nothing Really Special
A Sad Day in the Canadian Industry
WOW! Just when you think it can’t get any worse in today’s economy…
CORE DP has officially closed it’s doors. After calling a studio wide meeting they announced to their current staff and contractors that they were shutting the doors and asked all to gather their belongings and leave the studio. It was a shocking yet weird day today in Toronto. I don’t know the ins and outs of the problems at CORE but early reports and rumours are suggesting that CORE DP could not secure appropriate financing to continue to pay it’s people and debt. The banks stepped in to take the company into receivership (CORE is bankrupt from what I understand). About 150 people were let go without pay and as I am sure they were all shocked and shaken by the sad news.
CORE DP thrived on service work but had very little IP to help them secure themselves a more solid foundation. The service market seems to be dying out in the North American markets. More and more, it seems that in order to make any real impression in this market, a studio MUST be able to build their own library of IP that could be profitable. The Banks are ceasing up on credit lending and government tax incentives don’t always pay off. If a bank or the government changes anything it could prove fatal to the future of a service company in this industry and I think this is just part of what has happened at CORE.
Go here for more news…
http://www.canadiananimationresources.ca/?p=1371
I’ve worked for CORE for a short stint when I returned to Toronto in 2004 to work on the feature film “The Wild”. Although my personal/professional experiences at CORE were less then pleasurable, this news still came as a shocking and unpleasant bombshell. There were a lot of good people there doing their best to do what they do and now they don’t have a job or work to go too. People with families, mortgages, bills and debt to pay, have lost their capacity (for the interim) to take care of their financial concerns. It is a scary time! Hopefully most if not all of these fine talents are able to get back into things really quickly.
Hopefully, now that March is building our foundation and are in need of some talents, we may be able to work on getting some folks into our place. Here’s to hoping that these events work out for the best. March has been built from the ground up as a production house and we do have a library of IP that we’re still building up as we go. We’re pretty confident that we’ll be able to weather this economic storm. I feel sad for my fellow animation professionals and I hope they all find more work soon.
My heart goes out to all of the CORE DP people who are (I am sure) in total shock.
-Dimos 
