News stories about Disney are often read around the world, but when it comes to major news items about animation companies that are not famous, they are generally ignored by the national press. One important story that was treated this way began to unfold in the press on April 3, 1996 when the San Francisco Chronicle ran the headline "Colossal Pictures to Lay Off Third of Staff." The news was followed by rumors that the company of about 130 people had given pink slips to 40, 80, 100 and even 120 people. In June the Chronicle ran a second story about the company. They had filed for protection under Chapter 11.

Rumors about what was going on went out of control. Some people in the film community falsely stated that Colossal was out of business. Colossal put out press releases explaining what had happened, but it appears the writers at several film and animation trade magazines didn't read them. They continue to run stories that suggested things at Colossal are bigger and better than ever. Today, Colossal Pictures has undergone an extensive reorganization. They have consolidated their operation from four buildings into one. They now have around 40 people on their staff including a new CEO. Drew Takahashi, co-founder and chairman of the board says, "we can look forward to being out of Chapter 11 in 1997."

The changes that occurred in 1996 were triggered by the rising costs of doing business and a drop in the
company's profits. The animation production division had become so large it was not only unwieldy to run, it was also less profitable than it had been in past years. It was decided that it was wiser to restructure the company and concentrate on the development of well written and designed projects rather than maintain all the facilities and staff needed to execute animated, live action, and special effects work. It was especially difficult to maintain high-tech computer facilities that require constant upgrades of equipment and software. It was decided that in the future they would send the production of their animated and special effects work out to other companies. The company eventually moved out of three buildings and into their facility at 101 15th Street in San Francisco. Prior to this consolidation they had an ink and paint service in one building, the animation department in another, the administrative office, a design department and other services in a third and stages, a model shop, a camera room and other facilities at a forth location. Drew Takahashi says it was just too much to keep track of.

Just as important to the survival of Colossal as the downsizing of space and staff were the changes made in the company's administration. Gary Gutierrez who co-founded the company with Takahashi, remains a stockholder and believer in the future of Colossal, but he left to pursue his desires to work as a filmmaker on feature productions (he has an office in the Zoetrope facilities). Takahashi has stepped aside as president and CEO to become the Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors. In December, 1996, Brooks McChesney was appointed President and CEO. McChesney has over 20 years management and production experience with hi-tech and interactive companies. Before coming to Colossal he was Chief Operating Officer of IVN Communications Inc., a leading producer and distributor of non-fiction programming. His background also includes two B.A. degrees from Stanford University and a J.D. degree from Cornell Law School. McChesney say he is re-focusing the business end of Colossal to have a more pro-active account management strategy. He says, "We're now more pro-active in communicating our menu of services to our client base so that an advertising account will use us for their website design and an online company will discover we can help them with their advertising needs."

"Drew Takahashi is Colossal" according to one staff member. His greatest strength is conceiving and designing projects. The company's international reputation for producing remarkable works with unique styles and techniquesis based to a large extent on his visions. Unfortunately in recent years he had little time to devote his energies to the creative side of the company. With the addition of McChesney to the staff, Takahashi can once again concentrate on what he does best, design and direct projects.

COLOSSAL'S LATEST WORK


Proof that the company is alive and well can be seen in their latest demo reel. It isn't as long as reels have been in past years, but it is just as exceptional with one outstanding work on it after another. The company's latest ads for Coca-Cola demonstrate that Takahashi is a brilliant creative director. The two ads are so dramatic that many people are unaware that one was done using cgi and the other is entirely live action photography without any special effects added. Both are journeys through unusual spaces. For viewers it isn't how they were done that is important. What is important is they are visually captivating and they reinforce the name of the sponsor. "Pictogram," the computer generated Coke ad, flies around some sort of carnival ride of the future. We go past fascinating statues, gadgets and other cool things. There is no hard sell for the product in the ad on the soundtrack. Instead we see some 40 or 50 Coke bottles in the landscape. The bottles are often tiny decorative details. The product's name is sometimes barely visible on a bottle or sign for a fraction of a second as we fly through the park. The end result is our seeing the company's name 15 or 20 times in 30 seconds. It is a sophisticated understatement and it might just win a few major awards if it is entered in competitions. The completely live-action ad takes us inside a Rube Goldberg type of vending machine. The ad begins with a close-up of a finger pushing a button and ends with an inflated rubber glove deflating, allowing the bottle of Coke resting on it to tip over and pour its contents into a glass. In between marbles, eggs and steel balls roll and bounce about making levers move within this unique devise. It should also be an award winner. Takahashi was Creative Director on both ads. The cgi ad was composited by Click 3 West with character animation by Betsy de Fries and Jerry van de Beek of Little Fluffy Clouds. Jill Sprado directed for Colossal. The live action ad was directed by Takahashi and Lucy Blackwell. The props and models were built by M5 Industries. Other recent work by the company includes a series of 20 IDs for the launch of Loco Motion, a new South American satellite animation channel. Using a variety of styles including traditional stop-motion and computer graphics they created a wonderful series of images for the station. Most are full of primary colors and appear to be
really hot contemporary looking graphics. Charlie Canfield, who joined the company in 1991 after working at ILM, directed them. Another remarkable work on the reel is a movie opening for the Nickelodeon channel. It shows a blue rhino galloping across a pink cloudscape at sunrise. He stumbles on a couple of clouds and they fall over to reveal they are painted billboards with scaffolding holding them up from behind. Canfield directed this show opening using traditional and computer animation.

My favorite work on the reel is a stunning work done for Turner Classic Movies. It brings Edward Hopper
paintings to life. The movements are subtle. We watch sunlight and shadows move across his cityscapes as people sit or stand quietly or slowly move about. The city seems to be a series of 3D sets or models, but it still maintains the look of Hopper paintings. The images are set to a period song about the sunny of life. The music and visuals works so well together that they must make a lot of viewers happy when they see this work of art that moves. Tom McClure directed and painted it using Mac and SGI hardware with Adobe After Effects, Elastic Reality, Electric Image and Adobe Photoshop. Jeffery Roth did the 3D animation.

Colossal's latest work to be released is Koala Lumpur, an interactive CD-Rom journey that is an action-adventure movie with a lot of outrageous humor. The first review has just been posted on the web at www.gamespot.com and it is quite flattering. The author said Colossal's collaboration with Broderbund produced "mature themes, high-brow remarks, and twisted puzzles with the finesse of a seasoned Las Vegas lounge comedian. And their routine deserves a loud round of applause... a unique fun experience... they pull the trick off so well that it's hard to believe that Koala Lumpur is the company's first attempt at a comedy title." The game was created and directed by Jamie Baker, produced by Colossal's Pola Ayllon and executive produced by Media Concrete.


THE FUTURE OF COLOSSAL


Restructuring the company so the main energies are directed toward design work has resulted in a smaller company where everybody can work together on the same thing according to Jana Canellos, their Executive Producer. She says Colossal is a great working environment where people help each other and that what they do best is tell short stories whether the project is a TV ad, an ID, a TV show or an interactive project. Canellos worked for Colossal from 1982-86 as a producer, and she returned in 1996 after working at PDI as Executive Producer. Canellos expects the company will expand by creating work for new markets including the Internet. She stresses that regardless of what the format is that displays their work, the main thing Colossal is concerned about is their commitment to quality. She says "our focus is on creative entertainment pieces."

A look at Colossal's current list of projects gives some idea where the company is headed. They are developing anonline network show with Microsoft, material for kids' programs on the MSN (the Microsoft Network), aninteractive TV project with a major entertainment company and interstitials for a major TV network. They are also doing live action TV commercials for GTE Mobilnet and animated IDs for the Discovery Channel. The company's current staff includes a roster of outstanding talent including George Evelyn, Senior Creative Director; Charlie Canfield, animator/director; Jeffery Roth, director/designer/3D-2D animator; Margeigh Joy, creative director; Tom Rubalcava, animation director; Jil Sprado, designer/director; Sam Register, creative director for interactive media; Lucy Blackwell, designer; Stephanie Hornish, producer; Pola Ayllon, producer and Neon Weiss, producer. All have distinguished themselves in their areas of expertise. Colossal has its own award winning web site at www.colossal.com, so check it out if you want to learn more about one of San Francisco's great companies.

COLOSSAL'S SUCCESSFUL CHILDREN

When a company gets into trouble the press rarely mentions what happens to the people who join the ranks of the unemployed. Fortunately, the San Francisco Bay Area film and animation industries have been growing rapidly in recent years, so when Colossal Pictures laid-off most of their production staff in 1996, there were lots of jobs available. Some of the former staff joined well established companies like ILM, Zoetrope and Pixar. Others joined studios that were formed in the 1990's by individuals who had worked for Colossal before they went out and formed their own businesses. Others formed their own companies after the lay-offs. The live action, animation and special effects companies in the Bay Area that are run by former Colossal employees include Cartoonland, Complete Pandemonium, Curious Pictures, EyeHeart, Kirk'sWorks, Little Fluffy Clouds, M5, Maverick, MessyOptics, Protozoa, Six-Foot Two Productions, Story Animation Company, and Wild Brain. They may not be well known yet, but all are producing excellent work, suggesting working at Colossal was an important education for the company heads and many of their employees.

Wild Brain, founded in 1994, has grown rapidly. In 1996 when Colossal laid-offs most of its staff, Wild Brain was busy doing commercials for Nike and Coke, material for HBO, Warner Brothers and The Turner Cartoon Network plus CD-Rom projects including Flying Saucers for AnyRiver Entertainment, an animated Carmen Sandiego sequence for Broderbund, and the CD-Rom Green Eggs and Ham for Living Books. They hired 10 former Colossal employees within two weeks of their being laid-off. At present about half of their staff of 80 are former Colossal people. Wild Brain is run by a consortium of directors (John Hays, Phil Robinson, Gordon Clark, David Marshall & Robin Steele plus producer Jeff Fino) who are willing to combine traditional animation with computer animation, other new forms of technology and overseas animation service. Their work stresses storytelling and entertainment. At present Phil Robinson is directing Ferngully II, a direct-to-video animated feature. They are also developing an Internet situation comedy for The Microsoft Network, a pilot for Nickelodeon and several commercials (Coke, Mainstay, etc.). The company is located at 2650 18th Street in San Francisco, 94110, (415) 553-8000.

EyeHeart is Siri Margerine's new animation art production service. They do ink and paint, backgrounds,
illustrations and whatever else your art needs might be. For many years she headed the art production services at Colossal. EyeHeart's clients include Colossal, Story Animation, Wild Brain, Curious Pictures, Maverick and other local studios. The company is located at 3001 19th Street, San Francisco. (415) 641-0338.

MessyOptics is an animation camera service founded in 1996 by Carter Tomassi. He has Colossal's late model Oxberry animation stand with a 16mm and 35mm camera. It has all the bells and whistles needed to do complex productions including a motion control system. Tomassi also has a 35mm high contrast film processor for making pencil tests and a 35mm Steenbeck flatbed. His clients include Colossal Pictures, Curious Pictures, Lucas Arts, Pacific Data Images, Spellbound Productions, Story Animation Co., and Wild Brain. He can be reached at (415) 641-0391 or www.messyoptics.com The company is located at 3001 19th Street, San Francisco.

Maverick is an animation studio formed in 1996 by Robert Valley and Jeanne Reynolds. Valley, who animated for Colossal, was in Korea working on a MTV project with Peter Chung when he got word that Colossal had filed for Chapter 11. Maverick was formed when he returned to the states. The company has been kept busy doing work for Wild Brain and Curious Pictures. They are located at 351 9th Street, Suite 204, San Francisco, 94103, (415) 522-1717.

Little Fluffy Clouds is a computer animation firm run by Betsy de Fries and Jerry van de Beek. Since opening their studio in June, 1996 they have been kept busy producing work on their SGI and Mac equipment. They did the character animation for Colossal's recent "Pictogram" Coke ad, created the destruction of the Universe in 60 seconds for Rocket Science, and animated a 30 second Mainstay ad for Wild Brain. The company is working on another Coke ad for Colossal. Little Fluffy Clouds, Pier 29 Annex, San Francisco, 94114, (415) 956-8699.

Media Concrete is a multi-media design company run by Stuart Cudlitz, George Consagra and Anne
Ashbey-Pierotti. They formed Colossal's New Media Division in 1990 and opened Media Concrete in March, 1995. Working with Colossal they produced the CD-ROM Koala Lumpur for Broderbund. Other CD-Rom projects that the company has worked on are Play-Doh Creations from Hasbro Interactive and Ruff's Bone for Living Books. Cudlitz additionally designed and directed the Main Video Exhibit for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. They have also worked on projects for IBM, Hewlett-Packard and other clients using new technology for communications. Media Concrete is located at 639 Front Street in San Francisco.

Story Animation Company is run by Robert Story who worked at Colossal as a producer. He recently produced a commercial for GTE Mobilnet and he is presently producing the animated segments of a Sears commercial with Catherine Margerin as creative director/animation director, MessyOptics, EyeHeart for ink and paint and Varitel for post. Story's office, 38 Miller Ave. #130, Mill Valley, (415) 383-2628. The studio, 750 York, San Francisco (415) 642-0230.

Protozoa is a motion capture company founded in 1994 by Brad de Graf with seed funding from Motorola. They spun-off of the performance animation team at Colossal where they had developed the character Moxie in 1993 for the Turner Cartoon Network. The company's focus is on character-based real-time 3D entertainment. Their projects include Squeezils, a cartoon game for Inscape. Their character Dev is seen daily on TV on MS/NBC's show called The Site. They have also been developing other unusual characters for a variety of media, including TV and the World Wide Web. Clients include Microsoft, Silicon Graphics Images, MS/NBC and other corporations. They are located at 2800 Third Street, San Francisco 94107 (415) 642-4141. You can find their work on the Internet at vrml.sgi.com, at www.mediadome.com and at www.protozoa.com

Six-Foot Two Productions is Robin Atherly's company in Larkspur. Atherly has provided computer ink and paint for several CD-Rom producers. They are located at 1011 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur, Ca. 94939 (415) 925-9909.

Curious Pictures, a New York City company founded in 1993, opened a branch office in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 1996. It is headed by Anne Smith, a Colossal alumni who worked her way up through the ranks from production manager to senior managing producer of animation. Curious Pictures' first projects here were a Nike shoe ad directed by Robert Valley and three stop-motion ads for a superstore in the Midwest that were directed by Denis Morellia. Both directors were former staff members of Colossal. 1360 Mission Street, Suite 201 in San Francisco 94103, (415) 437-1400.

Kevin Coffey's Cartoonland, founded in the 1980's, produces several interesting projects each year. They've produced the animation for the Star Wars Chess Game for Software Tool Works and the animation for Doonesbury Flashbacks: 25 Years of Serious Fun for Mindscape. Coffey has also worked on several national TV commercials for Coke, Nabisco, Van de Kamp, General Mills and other companies. Cartoonland, 478 Frederick, San Francisco, 94117 (415) 387-2844.

Kirk Henderson, who was one of Colossal's top directors in the 1980's, works as an art director/designer/animator under the name Kirk'sWorks. Last year he completed Orly's Draw-A-Story for Broderbund. Prior to that he helped develop the CD-Rom Toe Jam and Earl. Kirk'sWorks, 27 Rosemont Ave., San Anselmo, 94960 (415) 459-5181.

There are also several companies in the area run by former Colossal people that work in the areas of live action filmmaking and special effects props. Complete Pandemonium, founded in May, 1995, does live action national and regional TV commercials. The renovated Custer Avenue Stages, formerly run by Colossal, can provide motion control rigs, scene shop services, an Avid 8000 editing system and other equipment. M5 Industries, formed in October, 1995, is a props and special effects house that can fabricate anything needed for film or video projects. They also develop animatronics and toy prototypes.

The influence of Colossal Pictures on the local animation and effects industry is immense. Colossal was founded in1976 and their work over the past 20 years has pushed animation forward as an exciting art form and as a communication medium. They helped develop the skills of hundreds of production people and have helped make the Bay Area one of the most exciting production centers in the country. Without them many of the above studiosmight not have been opened in the Bay Area.


© 1996 Animation World Network