Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/773214
BITS & PIECES LEFTCHANNEL'S ANIMATED SHORT FRED MAKES FILM FESTIVAL ROUNDS COLUMBUS, OH — Leftchannel's (www.leftchannel.com) animated short Fred, in which the studio com- pleted everything from story develop- ment through 3D character anima- tion, is currently making film festival rounds. Most recently, it was selected to screen at the prestigious Midwest Independent Film Festival in Chicago. Since its debut earlier this year, Fred has screened at the Animaze International Film Festival in Montreal; the Ojai Film Festival in Ojai, CA; the Route 66 Film Festival (garner- ing the "Best Animation" award) in Springfield, IL; the Great Lakes International Film Festival in Erie, PA and Fantoche in Baden, Switzerland. "The point of the piece was to essentially create a redirect. What appears to be a traditional cat and mouse story with the mice coming up with the device, which takes the story in one direction then a sudden switch where the piece becomes about the personality of the cat, Fred," says Leftchannel creative director Alberto Scirocco. "He has a mental fantasy where he fancies himself as a dancer. We liked the idea of developing a character that has a complete maniac approach. He's living an experience purely in his head with no process- ing of what's happening. He sees a chance to dance and hears the music and in his mind, it's an opportunity to merely go out and dance. Ultimately, we wanted to make a very traditional CG piece with a very traditional story that has an element of comedy play- ing on the subtleties of the charac- ters, implying the mental process of Fred in particular." According to Scirocco, the piece is very traditional for the studio, giving the team a chance to showcase the fact that they can create familiar, highly relatable work. "Much of our work is more artistic, intricate work often exploring more non-traditional media, so we wanted to show what we can do in the realm of more traditional media," says Scirocco. "Our passion in character animation is the development of the characters themselves and their personalities. We wanted to explore the breadth of the emotional spectrum of Fred. He is a hero in his own mind. He has a hapless mindset." Fred, which Scirocco describes as a passion project — a collaborative effort among the Leftchannel team — was created using Maya and V-Ray.