People
Musical Chairs
Saban Entertainment has named Jorge
Ferreiro vice president of licensing and merchandising, and Jamie
Simons editorial director of licensing and merchandising. . . . Anne
Gates has been named vice president of business planning for Disney
Interactive. She was previously vice president of finance for
Disney Consumer Products. . . . Metrolight Studios has hired Mark
Rodahl as a senior animator, Brian Samuels as a visual effects
supervisor, Ron Simonson a post-production supervisor and Jesse
Silver, formerly of Warner Bros. Feature Animation, as an art director.
. . . Film critic and animation historian Leonard Maltin has begun
teaching the "Theatrical Film Symposium" class at the University
of Southern California (USC) School of Cinema-Television . . . .Paris-based
producer Gaumont has named Thomas Kornfeld director of international
sales. In this role he will be responsible for the sale of television product
to Asian territories. He was previously manager of international sales
for Gaumont, handling territories in Eastern Europe and Africa. . . . Julie
Haddon, marketing director at the New York-based office of Blue Sky|VIFX,
has moved west to Palo Alto, California to take on a post as director of
marketing for Pacific Data Images (PDI). The computer animation
studio, currently in production on the DreamWorks animated feature Antz,
also recently hired Regina Wright as director of Human Resources.
She was previously director of Human Resources at 20th Century Fox.. .
. . Atlanta-based Internet and multimedia service company Crawford Intermedia
has announced the hires of Minsoo Pak (formerly director of multimedia
at Ogilvy & Mather) as creative director, Will Weyer as art
director, Karl Wattenburg as a designer and Laura Citron
as production manager. . . . NELVANA Communications, the Los Angeles-based
programming and merchandise licensing subsidiary of Canadian animation
studio, NELVANA Limited has hired Sidney A. Kaufman as executive
vice president. Kaufman was president and CEO of Total Licensing Services
which he founded in 1994. Working with NELVANA Communications president
Toper Taylor, Kaufman will oversee worldwide merchandise licensing for
NELVANA properties. . . . Visual effects producer Jenny Fulle
has joined Sony Pictures Imageworks as executive producer. She was
most recently an effects producer for DreamWorks and previously for Warner
Digital. . . . Charles Gibson, co-founder of ten-year-old, L.A.-based
effects/animation house Rhythm & Hues, has left the company
to pursue freelance work. . . . Jenny Bright was promoted to executive
producer at 525 Post Production. She has been a visual effects producer
with the Los Angeles-based company since 1994. . . . Leslie M. Levine
has been named licensing consultant for Hearst Entertainment's merchandise
and licensing division, which was recently relocated from New York to Los
Angeles. Levine was most recently vice president at Playmates Toys. . .
.
UK Council Commissions Creators. The Arts Council of England has
doled out commissions to five artists, as part of their Channel Four-sponsored
"Animate!" program which commissions innovative and experimental
animation for television. Production budgets ranging from U.K. £12,000
to £25,000 were awarded to Paul Bush for a project titled Nursery
Poetry, Jo Ann Kaplan for An Anatomy of Melancholy, Oliver Harrison
for Love is All, John Parry for Salvage and Tim Macmillan
for Ferment. Since launching in 1990, Animate! has supported 35
projects including Karen Kelly's Stressed, Run Wrake's Juke Box,
William Latham's Biogenesis, Kayla Parker's Cage of Flame
and Tim Webb's 15th February.
Send your newsworthy items, press releases, and reels to:
Email: wendyj@awn.com
Fax: (213) 464-5914
Mail: Animation World Magazine
6525 Sunset Blvd. Garden Suite 10, Hollywood, CA 90028 USA
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