Animism: The Gods' Lake (APTN/Z2H Studios), which we worked on last year (director: Jericca Cleland) is now broadcasting on APTN. The show premiered this week and broadcasts on Wednesdays at 8 (PST) and repeats Saturdays at 5:30 (PST). Drawing on ancient First Nations mythology, the show is a contemporary mix of tech meets magic in highly stylized animation and evocative artwork. The series tells the story of Mel Ravensfall, who, unbeknownst to her, has been chosen by the Trickster to be his emissary. As her powers begin to manifest and she steps deeper through the veil between worlds, Mel and... Continue reading

Our friends at Danish studio Noerlum do this awesome thing every year called Team Generous... They gather a group together for a couple of weeks with a creative or technical challenge in mind and make a pro bono short film for a worthy organization. How cool is that? Two years ago, I consulted on their piece for Save the Children and just loved it! Last year, they supported Medics Without Borders. This year, the lucky beneficiary is the World Wildlife Fund. Check out beautiful result of the Team Generous collaboration this year! See it on the Noerlum page or on... Continue reading

As most of you know, I'm a huge fan of short films and a big believer in the power of story to communicate, illuminate, and shift our understanding and world view. It is with great pleasure that we are participating in the outreach and distribution of Anne Leonard's The Story of Stuff Project shorts. The newest one, The Story of Change, is released today! Can shopping save the world? The Story of Change urges viewers to put down their credit cards and start exercising their citizen muscles to build a more sustainable, just and fulfilling world. Continue reading

CSC's Canadian Cinematographer interviews Jericca Cleland csc regarding the art of cinematography in animation. Continue reading

I had the great pleasure of attending two of the three evenings in the recent 5D Flux series on Worldbuilding held at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts this week (March 13-15, 2012). To quote the 5D philosophy, worldbuilding is a “metaphor for the design and iteration process, creating and actualizing the story space in digital narrative media. It addresses the design thinking, the process, and the experience of creating new worlds for storytelling.” The conference opened with a fantastic talk by Tom Wujec (Fellow, Autodesk), who posed an interesting question regarding the effects of exponential technological growth on creativity. If... Continue reading

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - One thing I learned while writing my holiday film guide "Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas" is that there are two kinds of plots in this sub-genre with a tendency to stink on ice: movies about Santa, and anything where somebody has to save Christmas. ("Miracle on 34th Street," "Elf" and "Ernest Saves Christmas" among the obvious exceptions.) via news.yahoo.com Of all the reviews I've read, I really enjoyed this one... Continue reading

CULVER CITY, Calif., Dec. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The 3D, CG-animated family comedy ARTHUR CHRISTMAS, an Aardman production for Sony Pictures Animation, added a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Animated Feature to a growing list of accolades. The year's best reviewed animated movie now playing in wide release, ARTHUR CHRISTMAS also won a nomination from The Broadcast Film Critics Association for a Critics' Choice Award on Tuesday and was named Best Animated Feature by the San Diego Film Critics on Wednesday. via www.prnewswire.com Congratulations to everyone who contributed to 'Arthur Christmas'-- now a Golden Globe nominee for Best Animated... Continue reading

Christmas is coming early!! Check out Arthur Christmas, new CG animated feature from Sony Pictures Animation/Aardman Animations, releasing in theatres Nov 23, 2011. This also happens to be what I (Jericca Cleland csc) spent most of the year working on... I started on the film about a year ago, when Twenty One Inc was contracted to do some previsualization. Twenty One Inc Previs Supervisor Zondac Gibson and I went down to LA to work with Sony Imageworks, who handled production of the film. Soon after, I was asked to join the film as the cinematographer, establishing the filming style and... Continue reading

Here is the next instalment of the previsualization documentary series by Autodesk and The Previsualization Society. This one focuses mostly on post-vis and its beneficial role. Enjoy! Previsualization Society Presents - Postvisualization from Previsualization Society on Vimeo. Continue reading

The major annual conference for SIGGRAPH is happening in Vancouver this year, held at the Convention Centre at Canada Place. Welcome to all the visitors and enjoy! Continue reading

I am often asked what I mean when I use the term 'cinematic design' in reference to my work or in lectures about visual storytelling and/or cinematography. This term is one I started using when developing the filming plan for Finding Nemo out of a desire to describe the overarching visual story design of a film. Continue reading

Directed by Steven Quale and shot in 3D, Final Destination 5 will be in theatres August 12. Twenty One Inc contributed to the previsualization of the movie, particularly the gymnastics sequence, the laser surgery sequence, the factory sequence, and final climactic sequence. Continue reading

I've been reading a great book called Making Ideas Happen, by Behance Network founder Scott Belsky. Checking that out led me to read an article by Scott Young, which I found an inspiring reminder about the importance of doing if you want to actually get where you're headed. Continue reading

Here is an interview done by HFF Academy at this year's Insight Out conference (March 2010). I gave a talk on previs at the conference, but this interview was conducted separately, and gave me more of an opportunity to express my personal point of view and philosphy regarding previsualization and its role in filmmaking. Continue reading

Check out this fantastic documentary on previsualization put together by Autodesk and The Previsualization Society. It represents a variety of insightful perspectives on this beneficial, collaborative, and crucial element of modern-day filmmaking. Very well said and right on the money... Continue reading

Here is a recent previsualization we did for a live-action commercial. Of course, everything you see would be replaced by real elements on location during production. Everything we've created is to real-world scale so you can analyze the previs for how to achieve the shots in live-action. We always shoot our footage a little long, allowing for coverage so that an editor can cut the scene creatively. Since the edit is where things ultimately come together, it's wonderful to be able to shape the shots and staging in synergy with the cut. This helps the filmmaker get to the core... Continue reading

I happen to be teaching at The Animation Workshop in Denmark right now, and among other things, I’ve been working with the students on log lines for their graduation films. And it’s reminded me yet again how valuable constructing a log line is. Not just for being able to succinctly pitch your project, but for really digging down into the heart of what the story is. Not only that, but it proves to be an incredibly valuable tool in honing in on how to best structure the film visually in terms of its cinematic design (the holistic design supporting the... Continue reading

Here is an example of previs for an animated commercial. What I love about working in animation is how much everything can be designed to underscore the story and emotion. One of the best things about previs, is that it can bring this kind of thinking and control to live action filmmaking as well. What we really enjoyed about this little piece was the emphasis on lighting as a part of telling the story. Typically, lighting is difficult to do early in the CG process. But the way we work at Twenty One Inc, we are able to design and... Continue reading

When I lecture on cinematic design and visual storytelling (which I've been doing a lot recently), people often ask me "There are so many possibilities, so many visual devices-- how do I figure out a design for MY story?" A huge key to this is presented in a great book by Bruce Block (of USC): The Visual Story. I clearly remember when Block came to lecture to us at Pixar many years ago-- it made a very deep impact on me and my understanding of cinematic craft. In his book, Block states a very simple, but exceedingly useful principle: the... Continue reading

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which one to keep." - Scott Adams I love this quote-- and live by this philosophy. To be truly creative, we must risk, and to risk, we must get over fear of failure. In teaching improvisation, I spend a lot of time addressing fear of failure and changing people's perspective on risk. I think this is imperative to success in life and art. And certainly in filmmaking as well. One of the things I love most about previsualization is that it encourages creative exploration while mitigating risk. If you have... Continue reading

Traveling to Germany at any time is a great treat—going there to participate in the HFF “Konrad Wolf” Film & Television Academy’s InsightOut conference is terrific! This intimate, hands-on conference is held in the beautiful film school building in Babelsberg, Potsdam, not far from Berlin. I was invited there as a trainer to speak on the subject of (guess what) previsualization. The talk was very well received, and hopefully, we have some new converts out there. ;0) And I love Europe, so the whole affair was wonderful. The conference format is very interesting—two days of lectures and case studies followed... Continue reading

"All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move. I know which one I'd rather be! Continue reading

At the SPARK Animation Festival in September 2009, held in Vancouver, BC, previsualization made a bit of a splash. In the four-day conference covering varied subjects such as character design, the cinematography of Up, and animation studio pipelines, two sessions were dedicated to previs. Chris Edwards, CEO of The Third Floor, and Jericca Cleland, CEO/CCO of Twenty One Inc, laid a foundation for conference attendees with their joint presentation on the definition, history, and trajectory of previs. The following day, Justin Denton of Halon and Jason Hopkins of Propaganda Games joined them for a previs panel moderated by EA Chief... Continue reading