Monday, March 31, 2008

"Multimedia Seminars: Careers in Videogames" Thursday April 3 Convo Hour Burns 214


Two Loyola Marymount University graduates, Thomas Inesi (Class of 1996) and Steve Ratter (Class of 1990) both of whom have successful careers as artists in video game development will talk about the video game industry in Los Angeles as a city of many opportunities for an artist that who wants to get into games/software/digital media. As a developing industry, the possibilities for success can seem overwhelming, but whatever discipline or creative skill you excel at, there will most likely be a useful, real-world application in the creation of interactive gaming.

Thomas Inesi and Steve Ratter, will talk about multimedia career opportunities for the potential Game Developer, Art Director, Concept Artist, Environmental Artist, Levels Artist, 3-D Artist, Animator, Sound Designer, Scriptwriter and Programmer.

Thomas Inesi is currently a Senior Character Artist at High Imact Games. He has previously worked at Electronic Arts as a UI artist on "Medal of Honor Underground", and as Character Artists at Spark Unlimited and Treyarc (a division of Activision) where he worked on "Call of Duty 3" and "Bond".

Steve Ratter is a Senior Environment Artist at Insomniac Games. He has previoiusly worked at Dreamworks Interactive, Electronic Arts, Inscape, Philips Media, and was a member of the initial team that started Spark Unlimited. His game credits include "Small Soldiers", "Chaos Island", "Medal of Honor", "Call of Duty" and most recently, "Resistance: The Fall of Man" for the Playstation 3.


Everyone with an interest in creative career in art, multimedia, design, music, animation, film, and computer science is invited to attend and as a special bonus, we will be giving away FREE COPIES of "Video Game Developer's Guide to Careers in Video Games" to the first 20 people!

Plan to attend!

For Additional information contact the Department of Art and Art History at 310-338-7424, or Michael Brodsky at mbrodsky@lmu.edu and Dmitry Kmelnitsky at dkmelnitsky@lmu.edu .

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Student Profile: Ryan Hopkins

Ryan Hopkins is a senior studio arts major originally from New Jersey and Danville, CA

"Unlike many photographer's, I don't have a story of picking up my first camera at 3 years old, instantly falling in love. Photography fell on my lap, on accident. I had the choice to take painting or photography, and I don't have the patience for painting. Little did I know that it would turn into a passion, that almost never exits my brain. I'm always thinking of crazy ideas that have an extravagant factor, i.e. I can't afford it or I don't know how to do, yet I always come out with something that is cohesive with my original idea. I learn more every day, venturing out to try new techniques and I enjoy it even more than I could have ever imagined."

Favorite Artists: Ansel Adams, Annie Leibovitz, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Patrick Hoelck
Favorite Movie: American Beauty
Favorite Place in LA: Topanga Canyon
Quote: "The most wonderful thing about Tiggers, is Tiggers are a wonderful thing"


Monday, March 10, 2008

Martin Kersels to Speak at LMU


Tuesday, March 11 8:00pm
Ahmanson Auditorium
UHALL 1000

Martin Kersels is known for his performance-oriented works and his mechanical sculptures made of found objects, moving parts, images, and sound. Kersels was a member of a neo-Dadaist performance group with bizarre costumes and awkward movements. Like himself, 6 feet 7 inches, weighing over 300 pounds, the work of Kersels is large and awkward. His sculptures and performances are often humorous and light-hearted at first, however, they reveal the true embarrassment of not fitting in. Kersels most recent works take his themes of scale and the effects of gravity into more conceptual directions.
Kersels was a member of SHRIMPS and several of his pieces have included music soundtracks composed by Mark Wheaton. His first piece was Objects of the Dealer, 1995. In 1997, he was part of group exhibitions; CA 9001-185, W-139, Amsterdam; COLA: 1996-1997 Individual Artist’s Grants, The Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angles; 1997 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and The Power of Suggestion, LACMA. His most recent works include The Tumble Room and Dionysian Stage. The Tumble Room presents objects in a young girl’s bedroom which turns into remains to be refined, using humor and pathos to heal the reality of everyday life. In Dionysian Stage, its on-going movement creates reflections on the ceiling like a disco ball. Kersels currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Mr. Kersels visit is part of the ARTin LA/LA Now course in the Department of Art and Art history and is sponsored by the College of Communication and Fine Arts Visiting Artists and Lectures Fund.

Sundance Channel Showing Documentaries on Photographers Through March


SCHEDULE:


HELMUT NEWTON: MY LIFE

Director - Gero von Boehm

Helmut Newton was one of the most renowned and controversial fashion photographers of the past half-century. His shocking mix of chic decadence with haute couture changed the look of glossy magazines around the world, while earning him accusations of sexism and perversity. Shortly before his death at age 83, Newton collaborated with documentary filmmaker Gero von Boehm on this humorous and revealing biographical profile. In Monte Carlo, Los Angeles and Berlin, Newton talks about his life, influences and unquenchable obsession with photography.
(2002) Color (52 mins)
WEDNESDAY MAR 26 1:30AM
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HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: THE IMPASSIONED EYE

Director - Heinz Bütler

Considered by many the greatest photographer of the 20th Century, Henri Cartier-Bresson was also notorious for not wanting to be photographed or interviewed on camera. Shortly before Cartier-Bresson’s death at age 95 in 2004, documentary filmmaker Heinz Bütler interviewed the man who defined “the decisive moment” and recorded reflections and anecdotes from a lifetime shooting images in remote locales around the globe. Supplemented by many of Cartier-Bresson’s iconic images and contributions from Arthur Miller, Isabelle Huppert and others.
(2003) Color (72 mins)
MONDAY MAR 10 6PM | FRIDAY MAR 28 12:15PM
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MUHAMMAD ALI, THE GREATEST

Director - William Klein

Ten pivotal years in the life of Muhammad Ali — from Cassius Clay’s 1964 debut as a swaggering and savvy media star to Ali’s triumph in 1974’s RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE against George Foreman in Zaire — are mesmerizingly captured in this documentary portrait by William Klein. An influential photographer and filmmaker, Klein had a trained eye for the power of the media image, and recognized Ali’s charisma and social significance early in his career. “Fascinating … riveting … Ali is always compelling, no matter what he’s doing” — The Guardian.
(1974) Color and B&W (111 mins)
MONDAY MAR 10 at NOON | SATURDAY MAR 15 5AM | SATURDAY MAR 22 10AM
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PETER BEARD: SCRAPBOOKS FROM AFRICA & BEYOND

Director - Guillaume Bonn
Director - Jean-Claude Luyat

Renowned for his magnificent images of Africa’s landscape and wildlife, his collage diaries and his commercial fashion shoots, photographer Peter Beard comes into focus in this documentary profile by Guillaume Bonn and Jean-Claude Luyat. Beard’s life and half-century career has been divided between remote African locales and fashionable cosmopolitan circles, where he has counted among his friends Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Francis Bacon and Mick Jagger. A rare and engrossing portrait of one of the world’s last artist-adventurers.
(1998) Color (54 mins)
SATURDAY MAR 15 7PM | MONDAY MAR 24 8PM
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SAVING JAZZ

Director - Leslie Woodhead

Since the 1940s, photographer Herman Leonard has created the definitive visual history of jazz, with classic images of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and hundreds of other music icons. However, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Leonard’s studio, darkroom and part of his photographic archive were badly damaged by eight feet of water. This documentary by Leslie Woodhead follows the 82-year-old photographer on his painful return home and his efforts to rebuild his life’s work. With Wynton Marsalis, Tony Bennett and others.
(2006) Color (58 mins)
MONDAY MAR 17 1PM | WEDNESDAY MAR 26 10AM
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STARS BY HELMUT NEWTON

Director - Julian Benedikt

As renowned for his striking portraits as for his shocking and iconoclastic fashion photography, the late Helmut Newton created a gallery of iconic images that pictorially defined the best-known supermodels, Hollywood stars and artists of the last three decades. Filmmaker Julian Benedikt explores this aspect of Newton’s career as many noted celebrities who sat before Newton’s lens — including Claudia Schiffer, Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, Robert Evans, Billy Wilder, Marianne Faithful and David Lynch — reflect on Newton’s work and his legacy.
(2000) Color (58 mins)
TUESDAY MAR 25 1AM
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TIERNEY GEARON: THE MOTHER PROJECT

Director - Jack Youngelson
Director - Peter Sutherland

Documentary filmmakers Jack Youngelson and Peter Sutherland present a sympathetic profile of Tierney Gearon, an American model-turned-photographer whose surreal, vividly colored snapshots of family life became the center of a scandal when they were exhibited in London in 2001. Delving into the personal dynamics that partly inspired Gearon’s compelling images, Youngelson and Sutherland follow the photographer at work as she interacts with her children and her manic-depressive, schizophrenic mother, who figure prominently in her work.
(2006) Color (70 mins)
TUESDAY MAR 18 2:45AM
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TINA BARNEY: SOCIAL STUDIES

Director - Jaci Judelson

Born into an exclusive world of wealth and privilege, photographer Tina Barney has made a career capturing America’s gentrified East Coast upper classes in revealing large-scale color portraits. Sometimes called the “Diane Arbus of the rich,” Barney herself is profiled in this documentary portrait by filmmaker Jaci Judelson. Cameras follow Barney while engaged in a new project: a series of images capturing the lives of Europe’s aristocrats, at home in their lavish city apartments, partying and at their country estates.
(2005) Color (56 mins)
FRIDAY MAR 14 7PM
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TINA IN MEXICO

Director - Brenda Longfellow

Pioneering photographer, silent-film star, model, muse to artists and writers, revolutionary — the tempestuous life of Tina Modotti (1896 - 1942) could easily be confused with a novelist’s creation. Documentary filmmaker Brenda Longfellow tells the story of Tina’s time in Mexico, where she was Edward Weston’s assistant and lover, modeled for Diego Rivera, became passionately involved in leftist causes and created some of the most beautiful and iconic photographs of the 20th century. “Graceful and elegiac” — Toronto Globe and Mail.
(2003) B&W (77 mins)
MONDAY MAR 17 1:30AM
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