Over five years in the making, animated short The Café is a work-in-progress with an ever-changing cast of participants from around the world, led by led by husband-and-wife powerhouse animation team Dana (Boadway) Masson and Terrence Masson.
Over five years in the making, The Café tells the story of a hopelessly romantic artist who tries to win the woman of his dreams. Every day presents another opportunity to court her, or at least get her to notice him, as she passes the Café below his studio.
The animated short is a work-in-progress with an ever-changing cast of participants from around the world. The project began with a group of students from Northeastern University in Boston, MA, led by husband-and-wife powerhouse animation team Dana (Boadway) Masson and Terrence Masson, in conjunction with a rotating “Special Forces” team of professional friends volunteering their time and talents for character design and animation. Students have had the chance to contribute to every aspect of the film including modeling, lighting, animation, visual effects, look-development, editing, marketing, sound effects, music composition, and more.
Dana, the short film’s director, is a freelance animator and illustrator, as well as part-time lecturer and a senior mentor for AnimationMentor.com. As an animator, she has worked on game cinematics for such titles as Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST; commercials characters including the Geico Gecko; television shows such as The Backyardigans; DVD movies such as Miss Spider's Sunnypatch Kids and The Rescue Heroes: The Movie; and feature films including Disney's The Wild and Starz Entertainment's Everyone's Hero. She also served as Assistant Producer of the 2006 SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival, and participated in the design and animation of the opening credit sequence for its famed Electronic Theater.
Terrence, producer of The Café, has enjoyed almost 25 years of eclectic production experience as a technical director, vfx supervisor and producer including broadcast, video games, special venue, feature animation and visual effects. He single-handedly developed the original CG animation for South Park in 1996, and his short film Bunkie & Booboo won first place in the World Animation Celebration in 1998. Terrence has worked on 20 films including Hook, True Lies, Interview with a Vampire and three Star Wars movies; along with numerous interactive projects such as SimCity 4, Bruce Lee, Batman Dark Tomorrow and Alter Echo. An ACM Distinguished Lecturer and active participant with SIGGRAPH since 1988, Terrence served as 2006 Computer Animation Festival Chair, SIGGRAPH 2010 Conference Chair, and is currently the ACM SIGGRAPH Outstanding Service Awards Chair. He is currently Executive Professor of Animation and full time faculty in the Media & Screen Studies Program at Northeastern University in Boston.
With the project nearly completed, Dana and Terrence have launched a crowdfunding campaign to take The Café out of the classroom and into the world of finished, professional independent films. To learn more, head over to the film’s official Web site, thecafefilm.com.
Source: Killerjellybean Animation
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
