Festival Workshops

In this workshop, Comet Entertainment's President, Raquel Benitez, & Carmen Llanos, head of production, offer a workshop on the minimum requirements for aspiring producers. Discussions of intellectual property protection, contracts, copyright protection, proper solicitation techniques, and standard business practices. Required for anyone who wants to participate in the Red Stick Pitch! Contest on Friday afternoon. You must hold a Gold Pass to attend this event.

This workshop will give you an overview of how to approach MEL scripting a complex biped character rig in Maya to automate and streamline the character rigging process. It will show you the advantages of scripting an entire rig, and will give you a sneak peak of the content of Chris' new book on the subject due out this summer.

The coaches for the Red Stick Pitch! Contest will meet (by appointment) for the Pitch Contest Coaches Roundtable. Each participant will be assigned approximately 30 minutes with their coaches to review their creative materials and respond to questions.

The inaugural workshop was a huge success with 15 people participating in making a new commercial for the 2008 Red Stick International Animation Festival. This year, participants will also create animation, but for the 2008 Beijing OLYMPICS! "MARATHON" is a short animated video
produced on location in the Louisiana Old State
Capital during the Red Stick International Animation Festival as a Festival Workshop. As a member of the ASIFA International Animation Workshop Group (AWG), we coordinate efforts in international expositions of our animation classes.

This year's theme is "Olympics, Let's Fantasy!". Students will shoot all over Baton Rouge's downtown, and create their own animated content in a single day! Lunch will be served.

Visual Effects Supervisor, and Author, Pete Draper leads a workshop for students on how to create digital destruction using 3D Studio Max. Participants will meet in the lobby of the Shaw Center for the arts and be bused to LSU. Lunch will be served. Participants will be brought back downtown to the Shaw Center at the end of the workshop.

Eric has been a writer for two seasons on SpongeBob SquarePants. In this workshop you will collectively conceive, break, write, discuss, and rewrite a premise, outline and additional scenes using as a template, one of the hit shows Eric has written for. You'll also learn proper story structure, character arc, dialogue structure, timing uses of visual gags, and comedic values and so much more.

Creating compelling characters requires strong concepts, believable design, and the willingness to adapt. Curtis Jobling, creator of Frankenstein's Cat, and designer of Bob the Builder, works with artists to develop strong believable characters.

Selling a series these days is difficult. Budgets are down, competition is up, and Broadcasters have little time to wade through the sea of bibles that arrive on a daily basis. So how do you get your fantastic idea to stand out from the crowd, and how do you get them to read yours in that five minute ‘slot’ before an important lunch meeting?

“The Beauty of a One-Pager” is an intensive development workshop designed especially for our ever-changing industry. Barbara Slade (a writer and creator) is a firm believer in the art of ‘hooking’ a producer, investor or broadcaster with a strong, one page concept. Having recently sold an original live action series on ‘one page’, Barbara has become convinced that if you can’t sell it in one, you’re not going to sell it with twenty!

In this fun, yet intensive workshop, participants will arrive with an idea, be carefully guided through the important stages of development, and leave with a solid concept, ready to write and take out into the market.

Designed especially for writers, producers, and others working within the industry (as well as those who would like to be), this course will teach important skills in development, and at the same time, help participants bring a new (or old) idea to life!
Topics will include:

a. Finding the ‘hook’ – the key to any successful series
b. Creating and developing your hero (s) – the centre of any successful series
c. Building a strong, organic world
d. Secondary characters that support your hero
e. The important element of conflict
f. Making sure the property has ‘legs’ and can sustain a long running series
g. The stories – how to think ‘out of the box’
h. Solidifying the style and genre

Colleagues and creative partners, Tony West and Dan Lund, worked together for many years at the Disney Studios. Dan is at Disney now working on the Frog Princess, Tony is at Firefly in Orlando where much independent animation is created. The two will review portfolios for participants, giving constructive criticism and helping artists present their work. The public may attend the workshop, but review of portfolios is limited to 12 participants. The workshop adjourns at precisely 12:15 due to speaker commitments.