Chris's career in animation has included stints as Executive Producer and Director at Hanna Barbera Studios, Vice President of Motion Picture and Television at Alchemy II Productions, and Executive Producer at DIC Studios.
Chris has been responsible for many innovative, ground-breaking film and television projects over the years. He was Executive in Charge of Production on Imagine, the world's first conceptual music video motion picture, which featured the music and imagery of John Lennon. He then went on to the rock feature film Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones, which covered the Stones on their hugely successful 1973 World Tour. Staying in the newly created rockumentary field, Chris then produced the feature Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper, which was the first of many rock and roll films that wove concept-driven concert footage with old feature film footage - the montage rock and roll movie.
Chris' extensive experience in the TV industry also included his involvement in projects as varied as Skateboard Mania, a live action multi-media spectacular and Sports Stop, a series of 13 half-hour shows with live action coverage and celebrity interviews. He also worked on The Time, Rhythms and Rhymes, a prime time 60-minute black music history special and The Invisible Children, a multi-award winning half-hour documentary focusing on the future of handicapped children in America. Chris has produced several feature films, including The Break, starring Martin Sheen and Kleptomania, starring Amy Irving and Patsy Kensit.
Chris has also been responsible for producing prime time series and animated specials. Teddy Ruxpin, which Chris co-created, held six top ten positions in Billboard's Home Video charts and won a VSDA Award for the Best Non-Movie Children's Program in 1987.
Chris was Executive in Charge of Production on The Super Mario Bros. Supershow, which was comprised of 65 half-hours of live action/animated fantasy adventures for the Viacom Syndicate and DIC Enterprises. Chris was also the sole creator of The Adventures of Ronald McDonald - McTreasure Island, which was the first of the series of McVideos, a worldwide home video television special featuring the animated antics of Ronald McDonald and his friends.
As President of Vancouver-based BLT Productions, Chris was introduced to ReBoot four years before its first airdate, a tribute to his dogged determination to make this remarkable show a televised reality.
Crossing the pond to Sullivan Bluth Studios in Dublin, Ireland, Richard directed five animated television commercials, including two that were a challenging combination of animation and live action.
Turning his attention to Don Bluth's prolific feature film efforts, Richard supervised the storyboarding, character design and layout for A Troll in Central Park. Richard directed the animation for three characters, including the celebrated lead mouse, Fievel, for Steven Spielberg's first animation project, the classic feature film An American Tale. He then went on to direct the animated antics of four memorable dinosaurs in the Land Before Time.
Richard graduated from dinosaurs to dogs. He directed the animated tale of two classic canine characters, Charlie and Itchy, in the much loved feature All Dogs Go To Heaven. For the ambitious animated musical feature, Rockadoodle, Richard directed the animation and layout, acted as sequence director and live action reference director.
Moving from Ireland to London, England, Richard joined Amblimation to work on Steven Spielberg's most recent animated feature, We're Back, where he directed the storyboarding, character design and layout, in addition to his role as live action reference director for the film.
In Richard's experience as a live action reference director for traditional animation, he ensured animated characters emulated the natural movements of people and animals. ReBoot provided him with a high tech directorial challenge - with inspiring results.
On leaving CAL, Ian joined Rushes Post-Production where he was intrumental in expanding the company's graphic facility to encompass special effects compositing using the first Quantel "Harry" in Europe.
While at Rushes, Ian animated the first computer-generated characters ever seen by most television audiences for the music video classic Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. He was later appointed to the Board as Creative Director.
In left Rushes to join a group of liked-minded creative people to found the world's first fully digital facility, The Mill, where he was named Creative and Technical Director.
Ian and the The Mill parted company when he decided to devote his attention to the development of his pet project, ReBoot. During this time, Ian was animation director on the award-winning innovative music video Let's Get Rocked for Def Leppard. Much of the technology Ian used in this acclaimed video served as tests of applications that he would later perfect and use in the successful production of ReBoot.
In May 1985, Gavin joined Rushes Post-Production as a runner and within two months he was promoted into their Computer Graphics Department and was trained to operate the Quantel Paintbox and the BTS Elite Computer Animation System. He worked as an assistant computer model maker for 18 months before becoming a full operator/animator, working on more than 200 commercials. During this period, Gavin won a Creative Circle Award for a successful Honneywell/Bus commercial.
Gavin moved into the Mill in January 1990, where he continued to work as an operator/animator. He worked on the BTS Elite Computer Animation System, the Alias Computer Animation System and the 5D Solutions T-Morph morphing package. As an operator/animator, Gavin executed animation sequences for over 150 large scale commercials, and won many respected industry awards.
Along with Phil Mitchell, he worked on numerous award-winning projects including Glassex's Clean With Care (winner, SpotItalia Silver Award, Milan 1991), Toblerone's Madame (winner, Silver Medal, Imagina Pixel-INA, Monte Carlo 1993), Nationwide Building Society's Doorbells (winner, BAFTA, Best Animation Effects, London 1993) and John Smith's Bitter (winner, Bronze Arrow, British Advertising Awards, London 1993).
Gavin is a member of The Hub, the team responsible for the creation an development of ReBoot, the first computer generated animation series.
After graduating, Phil worked as a special effects director and animator/special effects co-ordinator on commercials and title sequence design, while also storyboarding commercials.
In 1985, Phil joined Electronic Arts in London as a computer animator and worked on all in-house character animation projects with conventional animators. Among his many projects was the Smarties commercial Wembley Stadium, which went on to win the Golden Arrow at the British Advertising Awards in 1986.
Phil moved on to Array Productions in London in 1987 as a computer animator, Phil's award-winning projects included the widely respected commercial for Smarties, Classroom (winner CG On-line Best Commercial, London 1989) and the ground breaking commercial for Nintendo Super Mario 3 (winner, CG On-line Best Commercial, London 1990). In March 1990, Phil was voted Best Computer Artist in Direction Magazine in London.
Phil was then taken on board by The Mill in London as a senior animator in 1991 where he was responsible for introducing the company to 2D morphing, making them the first post-production facility in London to have the technology at the time.
With Gavin Blair, Phil worked on numerous award-winning projects including Glassex's Clean With Care (winner, SpotItalia Silver Award, Milan 1991), Toblerone's Madame (winner, Silver Medal, Imagina Pixel-INA, Monte Carlo 1993), Nationwide Building Society's Doorbells (winner, BAFTA, Best Animation Effects, London 1993) and John Smith's Bitter (winner, Bronze Arrow, British Advertising Awards, London 1993).
Phil is a member of The Hub, the team responsible for the creation an development of ReBoot, the first computer generated animation series.
Born in Grenoble, France, Reichel moved to Montreal, Canada with his parents in 1956. He studied Electrical Engineering at McGill. He left the university to become a photographer's agent for a year and entered the film industry in 1972 beginning his career in the art department where his credits include In Praise of Older Women, Popeye, and First Blood. He subsequently became a Production Manager on such films as Children of a Lesser God, Quest for Fire, and Bay Boy to name a few of the more than 100 film and television projects he has worked on over the years.
Steve's significant talents won him many more awards and accollades for prestigious advertising campaigns he created and directed for British and American interests.
His networks television debut garnered him an Emmy for the pilot of his Storyteller specials for NBC. Two subsequent films in the series met with reverential critical acclaim.
More awards followed when he directed his first feature film, Electric Dreams. Steve stunned the world with the success of his second feature, Teanage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the first and only independent feature to break the $100 million theatrical barrier in the US. He recently directed Coneheads for Paramount and is currently working on an upcoming feature.
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