Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/639267
42 cgw j a n u a r y . f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 6 T he Arctic is home to an abundance of living creatures: polar bears, wal- ruses, narwhals, beluga whales, reindeer, caribou, lemmings, and more. However, it is not a place for humans. At least that is the opinion of Norm, a polar bear of many words, especially on the subject of tourists invading his home in the Arctic. When a maniacal developer threatens to build luxury condos in his backyard, Norm heads south to New York City on a hero's journey in an attempt to put a halt to those plans and save his homeland in the 3D computer- animated adven- ture-comedy Norm of the North, directed by Trevor Wall in his feature-film directorial debut. Norm is produced by Splash Entertainment, in partnership with Assemblage Entertain- ment, and distributed by Lionsgate. Splash (formerly Mike Young Productions and Moonscoop US) specializes in children's entertainment, encompassing a wide spectrum of productions, from television to now feature films with the debut of Norm. With their respective expertise in broadcast, Wall and Splash turned to what they knew best, approaching the feature's workflow as they would a television production. "We had a short schedule and a modest budget, and this was the fastest, most efficient way to do things," says Wall. At a feature animation studio such as Disney or DreamWorks, for instance, storyboarding starts with a scratch track, a sound recording used as a temporary placeholder until the animatic is locked down for the voice actors. For Norm, the crew followed more of a TV approach, moving from script to recording the voice talent, and then storyboarding from the actors' track. However, unlike broadcast, there was no juggling of mul- tiple scripts and productions, affording the crew the luxury of focusing solely on the movie. Work on the film was divvied up among coproduction partners across the globe. The storyboarding occurred at Splash in California. The post sound effects and pre-mix were done at Telegael in Ireland, as were preproduction of original backgrounds and orthographics for the characters based on concept designs developed at Splash. Animation was handled FOR NORM OF THE NORTH, SPLASH ENTERTAINMENT PROVES THAT INGENUITY AND DETERMINATION CAN LEAD TO SUCCESS BY KAREN MOLTENBREY Arctic Blast ©2016 Splash Entertainment