Michael Hemschoot | |
---|---|
Born | Michael John Hemschoot 1972 Aurora, Colorado, U.S. |
Other names | Ffish; Ffish Hemschoot |
Occupation(s) | Director, animator, visual effects artist Founder, CEO Worker Studio |
Years active | 1996–present |
Website | Official profile |
Michael "Ffish" Hemschoot (born 1972, Aurora, Colorado) is a director, animator and has held a variety of roles as a visual effects artist in major Hollywood films. Since 1996, Hemschoot has worked on films such as Mars Attacks! , What Dreams May Come , The Matrix , Hollow Man , Black Hawk Down , Minority Report and National Treasure .
He was lead animator on the films Bless the Child and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World , which was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 76th Academy Awards. [1] Currently,[ when? ] he is CEO at the animation studio he founded, Worker Studio, and is also a partner in the live action production company, Travelin' Productions.
Hemschoot was raised in Parker, Colorado, but moved to California, where he attended California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in the early 1990s and graduated from their Character Animation program [2] in 1995. [3]
He has worked with visual effects companies such as Warner Digital Studios, Creative Visual Effects, Inc., Manex Visual Effects and Asylum Visual Effects.[ citation needed ] After his relocation to Colorado, Hemschoot was an adjunct professor of animation at Rocky Mountain College of Art and design.[ citation needed ]
He started his career in film in 1996 when he was "2D roto artist" for Warner Digital Studios on Mars Attacks! . He then was an animator in a number of late 1990s films. In the 1997 film Batman & Robin , he was the digital compositor. He had the same role in the 1998 film What Dreams May Come . [4] In 1999, he was also a character animator on The Matrix through Manex Visual Effects. [4]
Among other roles in the early 2000s, he was a CG artist for the 2001 movie Black Hawk Down . [4] After serving as lead animator for the 2003 film Master and Commander , in 2004, he was an animator for National Treasure . [4] He was the lead animator for the feature film Sky High in 2005. [4]
As producing, directing and writing partners, Hemschoot and actor Sean Bridgers formed the live-action production company called Travelin Productions, as well as an animation and visual effects company, Worker Studio. [5] [6] They soon completed two short films together: A Night at the Zoo in 2008, starring W. Earl Brown and Bridgers, then The Birthday Present in 2012, starring Joey Lauren Adams. [4] He first collaborated as a director with director Sean Bridgers on the short film A Night in the Zoo, which was nominated for Best Short at the Little Rock Film Festival, where it premiered in 2009. [3] He and Bridgers co-directed the 2012 short film The Birthday Present, which screened at the Little Rock Film Festival, Oxford Film Festival, and others. [3]
For the 2012 film The ABCs of Death, he served as visual effects supervisor for the "E" segment. [4] Sean Bridgers and Hemschoot also developed a live action feature film that is a dark western set during the Civil War in the South, titled Arkansas Traveler . Cast attached to the project included Garret Dillahunt and Angela Bettis. With Hemschoot both co-producing and co-directing, it was published as a webseries on June 19, 2017. [7]
In 2017, he directed and edited the three minute short animation Camping à la Bergman. [4] As of 2018, he and Bridgers were co-directing and producing the narrative documentary around the life of World War II hero and photo-recon pilot John H. Ross, John Ross: American, with Travelin' Productions and Worker Studio developing. He also edited the project, which is an animated documentary. [8]
In an interview with Oxford American , Hemschoot stated that his film sensibility was formed by the works of Hal Ashby, John Sayles, Sam Peckinpah, George Roy Hill, and Walter Hill, and his later influences include Alfonso Cuarón, Lars von Trier, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Walter Salles. [9]
For a 2014 article, Hemschoot selected five animated performances that influenced him creatively: Bill Tytla's "Chernabog" from Fantasia and Stromboli from Pinocchio , Milt Kahl's "Shere Khan" from The Jungle Book , Glen Keane's "Professor Ratigan" from The Great Mouse Detective and John Lounsbery's "Tony" from Lady and the Tramp . [10]
Year | Film | Director | Credit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1996 | Mars Attacks! | Tim Burton | 2D roto artist at Warner Bros. | |
1997 | Batman & Robin | Joel Schumacher | digital compositor | |
1998 | What Dreams May Come | Vincent Ward | digital compositor | The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects |
1999 | Baby Geniuses | Bob Clark | digital compositor | |
1999 | The Matrix | The Wachowskis | character animator | at Manex Visual Effects, Film Won Academy Award for Best Visual Effects |
2000 | Hollow Man | Paul Verhoeven | digital compositor | Film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Visual Effects |
2000 | Bless the Child | Chuck Russell | lead animator | |
2000 | Cast Away | Robert Zemeckis | bonsai compositor | |
2001 | Black Hawk Down | Ridley Scott | CG artist | |
2002 | Minority Report | Steven Spielberg | CG artist at Asylum Visual Effects | Film nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects |
2002 | Stuart Little 2 | Rob Minkoff | cloth dynamics | Film won Visual Effects Society's Best Character Animation in an Animated Feature |
2002 | The Master of Disguise | Perry Andelin Blake | CG artist | |
2002 | Phone Booth | Joel Schumacher | CG artist at Asylum Visual Effects | |
2002 | The Ring | Gore Verbinski | Animator at Asylum Visual Effects | |
2002 | Catch Me If You Can | Steven Spielberg | CG artist at Asylum Visual Effects | |
2003 | Levity | Ed Solomon | Animator at Asylum Visual Effects | |
2003 | Down with Love | Peyton Reed | Animator at Asylum Visual Effects | |
2003 | Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle | McG | Animator at Asylum Visual Effects | |
2003 | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World | Peter Weir | Lead Animator | Film nominated for Academy Award for Best Visual Effects |
2004 | National Treasure | Jon Turteltaub | Animator at Asylum Visual Effects | |
2005 | Sky High | Mike Mitchell | Lead Animator at Asylum Visual Effects | |
2008 | A Night at the Zoo (Short) | Michael Hemschoot Sean Bridgers | Producer, director | Co-producer, Co-Director with Sean Bridgers |
2012 | The Birthday Present (Short) | Michael Hemschoot Sean Bridgers | Co-Director, Digital Effects, Editor | Co-Director with Sean Bridgers |
2012 | The ABCs of Death | Various | Visual effects with Worker Studio | For segment "E" directed by Angela Bettis |
2017 | Camping à la Bergman (Short) | Michael Hemschoot | Director with Worker Studio | Short Film inspired by Ingmar Bergman [11] |
2017 | Arkansas Traveler | Michael Hemschoot Sean Bridgers | Co-Director, Editor, Visual Effects | Co-Director with Sean Bridgers |
Raymond Frederick Harryhausen was an American-British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for Mighty Joe Young (1949) with his mentor Willis H. O'Brien ; his first color film, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958); and Jason and the Argonauts (1963), which featured a sword fight with seven skeleton warriors. His last film was Clash of the Titans (1981), after which he retired from filmmaking.
Digital Domain is a global visual effects and digital production company headquartered in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California.
Donald Virgil Bluth is an American filmmaker, animator, and author. He is best known for directing the animated films The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Anastasia, and Titan A.E., for his involvement in the LaserDisc games Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, and for competing with former employer Walt Disney Productions during the years leading up to the films that became the Disney Renaissance.
Animal Logic is an Australian animation and visual effects digital studio based at Disney Studios in Sydney, New South Wales in Australia, Vancouver in Canada, and Rideback Ranch in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1991, Animal Logic has produced visual effects and animation for feature films such as the Academy Award-winning Happy Feet, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, Walking with Dinosaurs 3D,The Lego Movie andPeter Rabbit. The company was also recognised for its work as lead visual effects vendor on Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, which won Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects at the 3rd AACTA Awards ceremony. In 2018, Peter Rabbit was presented with a range of accolades, including the AACTA Award for Best Visual Effects or Animation, and Australian Production Design Guild Awards (APDG) in Visual Effects Design and Drawing, Concept Illustration & Concept Models for Screen. Most recently, the company has produced work for the Warner Animation Group's The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel. It is a subsidiary of Netflix.
Jerry W. Rees is an American film director and animator, best known for the Emmy-nominated animated feature film The Brave Little Toaster (1987) and creating many of the visual effects for the cult classic Tron (1982).
John Christian Wedge is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He is best known for directing the films Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005), Epic (2013), and Monster Trucks (2016), the former of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He also wrote and directed the short film Bunny (1998), where he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Wedge co-founded the now-defunct animation studio Blue Sky Studios and has voiced the character Scrat in the Ice Age franchise since the year of 2002.
Manex Visual Effects (MVFX) was a motion picture special visual effects company located in Alameda, California. Though a small company active only for a short period of time, it provided visual effects for a number of high-profile movies and the company received international recognition including two Best Visual Effects Oscars and one Academy Award for Technical Achievement. As the company that created bullet time for The Matrix their work has been highly influential and still is referenced in many media outlets as recently as November 2022.
John Mitchell Lounsbery was an American animator and director employed by Walt Disney Productions. He is best known as one of Disney's Nine Old Men, of which he was the shortest lived as well as the first to die.
Hal T. Hickel is a visual effects animator for Industrial Light & Magic.
Tony Bancroft is an American animator and film director who frequently collaborates with Disney. He is the founder and owner of the faith-driven animation company Toonacious Family Entertainment. Tony is the Executive VP Creative Development and Production for DivideNine Animation Studios.
Crew972 is an Israeli 3D animation studio that provides 3D animation services and develops and creates original animated entertainment.
Shane Richard Acker is an American animator, film director, screenwriter and animation teacher known for directing 9, which is based on his 2005 Academy Award-nominated short film of the same title. He is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Tommy G. Warren is an American screenwriter, director and producer. Warren is also CEO/President of TWarren Investments, inc. founded in 1975. Tommy Warren began working in film and video in the 1970s. He has worked on film, videos, and television with MGM and had offices at Paramount Picture, Studios in Hollywood. In 2004, founder and Owner of Spiderwood Productions [SpiderwoodStudios] & [Spiderwood Magic] - began creating feature films, videos, television, music and media. Then in 2009 Warren opened Spiderwood Studios, a full service motion picture, television studios, and backlot along the lower Colorado River just outside Austin, Texas. Warren, the founder and owner of T. Warren Investments,inc.(TwarrenInvestments.com) Other businesses include director at Bold Ventures / Projekt 202 Dallas, Austin & Seattle.
John Henry Ross was a decorated World War II pilot who flew 96 missions for the 22nd Reconnaissance Squadron as part of the 7th Reconnaissance Group in the 8th Air Force. Ross flew the Lockheed P-38 Lightning as a photo-recon pilot out of RAF Mount Farm in England during the war. He received 11 medals and 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses.
Sean MacKenzie Bridgers is an American actor, screenwriter, and producer, known for his role as Johnny Burns on the HBO series Deadwood and on the SundanceTV original series Rectify as Trey Willis. In addition to many roles in television and film since 1991, Bridgers received acclaim and awards for the independent film Paradise Falls, which he wrote and produced.
Worker Studio is an American animation and visual effects company based in Centennial, Colorado, founded in 2009 by Michael "Ffish" Hemschoot. The company has provided visual effects for a number of short films including Angela Bettis' segment E is for Exterminate in the horror anthology film The ABCs of Death. In 2013, the studio began developing an animated adaptation of Phil Hartman's comedy album, Phil Hartman's Flat TV, which was posthumously released in 2002 after he performed and recorded it in 1978. The studio is also the production company behind the animated documentary John Ross: American, based on the life of World War II pilot John H. Ross.
Barry R. Kooser is an American artist, painter, and educator who worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios between 1992 and 2003 as a background artist on films such as The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and as background supervisor on Brother Bear. After leaving Disney, he worked independently as a painter exhibiting and selling fine art in galleries around the US. While teaching animation and story-boarding at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, he met Worker Studio founder Michael "Ffish" Hemschoot, and became a partner at the Colorado animation studio. Barry has since left Worker Studio. He is the Founder, Executive Producer and Director at Many Hoops Productions.
Stephen Michael Martino is an American designer and film director. He is best known for directing the Blue Sky Studios films Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012), and The Peanuts Movie (2015).
Arkansas Traveler is an American indie Western web series written by American actor and screenwriter, Sean Bridgers, and co-directed with Michael Hemschoot. The series cast includes, Garret Dillahunt, Angela Bettis and Bridgers. It premiered on Digital distribution platforms YouTube and Vimeo on June 14, 2017 with the first of six episodes, "Enter the Traveler"
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko is a 2023 independent animated short film directed by Dave Mullins. The 11-minute short was inspired by and features John Lennon and Yoko Ono's anti-war anthem "Happy Xmas ". The film was written by Dave Mullins, with story by Dave Mullins and Sean Ono Lennon. The film was produced by Brad Booker and production was handled by Booker and Mullins' Los Angeles-based animation studio ElectroLeague, in partnership with Lenono Music, Sean Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono. Thomas Newman composed the score for the film.