I wanted to detail an event that came together seamlessly
and on very short notice the other evening due to some great collaboration
between our staff. Bardel Entertainment, which hires a great deal of our
animation grads (current number is around 15) was stuck for a venue last
Tuesday to hold a private screening of a ‘soon to be released’ animated feature
film they had worked on. Anne Denman, the studio manager, called me and asked
if we could facilitate this event which was happening in 2 days. This
required the quick action of Meredith Schuurman to communicate with her
instructor Tony Lewis And ask if his lecture theatre class could be re-located
as it conflicted with the time and place needed for the screening. Thanks
to Meredith and Tony’s quick dialogue, I was able to confirm with Bardel that
we could indeed hold this event, which required seating for close to 40 people,
including several local economic luminaries, Bardel artists and CATO alumni who
had worked on the film. The event was to be catered and alcohol
provided. The event was invite only and due to the private nature of the
film being screened, it needed to be viewed in our lecture theatre with all windows
blacked out and any recording devices confiscated. The party and
screening came off without a hitch and there was much applause and
congratulatory dialogue during the credits. Anne gave a big shout out to
CATO for hosting this event in such short time and providing such nice
facilities.
In addition to Meredith and Tony, I want to give my own big
shout out to Randal Typusiak who’s own event in the lecture theatre (planned
much more in advance) preceded mine by about 15 minutes and who showed such
unselfish professional concern that my event not be negatively affected.
To Ryan Campbell and Scott Rees for their dialogue and coordination to ensure
that things got set up according to Bardel’s specifications and that it
provided as little distraction to the ongoing scheduled classes as
possible. To Anne Pawlowski and Suzanne Kruse in scheduling, Carrera Teal
and Amy Nutt in marketing, Trista Godfrey in the equipment cage, all of whom
played a role in making this happen. All in all it just reconfirms what
an awesome team we have and I was moved how everyone jumped in on short notice
to help me coordinate this event and make it the success it was. Thank
you all!
On a personal note, I was quite emotional due to the
inspiring nature and quality of the animated film, but also this was a
watershed moment for the animation program in how hard it has worked to foster
local industry relations and for the celebration of our alumni whom all talked
glowingly of their jobs and how it felt to be back at CATO in this
capacity. It was also very cool to learn that this film had only been
screened at TIFF, Cannes and now CATO!
