Studio 100’s Flying Bark Productions (flyingbark.com.au) has today announced the appointment of Sarah Harper to Creative Director – 2D. In her new role, she will oversee 2D projects for both original and client service work in the Sydney studio and will help spearhead Flying Bark’s further expansion into original content with a specific focus on anime-influenced traditional animation and the studio’s recently announced After Bark brand. Harper joins fellow Creative Directors Alexs Stadermann (100% Wolf, Maya the Bee Movie) in Sydney and Ian Graham (Glitch Techs, Legend of Korra) jn Los Angeles.
Part of the Flying Bark Productions team since 2016, Harper has been pivotal in the growth of the 2D team, most recently with her work as series director, co-producer and writer on LEGO: Monkie Kid, working with the LEGO teams out of China, Los Angeles and Denmark to bring the series to life. The series has attracted more than 600 million views.
Flying Bark continues to grow its world class animation team across CG, 2D and CG/2D hybrid productions. With 350 employees (including a 2D team of over 200 artists), it has quickly become one of the world’s most sought-after studios for traditional frame-by-frame animation. Its list of recent projects include Nickelodeon’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie, the team’s first foray into 2D features, as well as LEGO: Monkie Kid S1-3, Disney/Marvel’s upcoming Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and What If..?. Flying Bark is preparing for further expansion to support more 2D feature animation in addition to the various development and pre-production projects as part of its growing slate.
Leading VFX and animation studio DNEG (dneg.com) announced that Janek Sirrs has joined its creative leadership team as Visual Effects Supervisor. The Oscar and BAFTA winner, who comes to DNEG with more than three decades of experience in the film industry, will be based at the company’s Los Angeles studio.
Sirrs’s impressive list of production VFX supervisor credits includes Marvel movies Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: Far from Home and Homecoming, The Avengers and Iron Man 2. Other client-side VFX supervisor credits include Terminator Genisys, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Batman Begins. In 2000, Sirrs received the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Special
Visual Effects for his work on The Matrix. He has subsequently received two additional Oscar nominations, for his work on The Avengers and Iron Man 2, and two additional BAFTA nominations, for his work on The Avengers and Batman Begins.
“As a client-side supervisor, I have worked with DNEG for more than
20 years, all the way back to Batman Begins and Mission: Impossible II. I am a big fan of the company’s work and its ethos. This new extension of my relationship with DNEG is incredibly exciting for me, as it allows even closer collaboration with DNEG’s talented teams, and the opportunity to develop groundbreaking and unconventional ideas, concepts and approaches,” said Sirrs. “One of my goals in designing and worldbuilding for movies is to create something that has never been seen before, and I am looking forward to working with interesting and esoteric filmmakers to help bring a different take and a unique approach to the craft of storytelling.”
More Moves:
- Post-production solutions outfit Remote Pictures Labs (RPL, remotepicturelabs.com) has appointed Rich Venezian as Director of Business Development. The post industry pro will work alongside VP of Sales Sal Baldomar in Burbank.
- Color and post house Rare Medium (raremedium.tv) announced the hire of Ayumi Ashley as Senior Colorist, bringing in her expertise honed on campaigns for Instagram, Amazon Echo, Spotify and YouTube.
- London-based VFX boutique Stone Dogs (stonedogs.co.uk) has brought on Holly Greig as Colorist at its new color facility; she joins from Prime Focus.
