Storyboard Summit Report

Just a delayed follow-up here to a recent event. Over the Easter Weekend in March, we spent some time at Boarding: Stories & Snow Summit at The Banff Centre, located in the breathtaking Canadian Rockies. The event was co-organized by the Banff New Media Institute Accelerator Program, and Ken Bautista, who organized all the guest speakers for the event.

'Boarding' was an immensely rewarding series of workshops, guest speakers, discussions, dinners, and general creative brainstorming focused on developing Storyboards and Characters for visual media. All of this was conducted within the humbling natural scenery of Banff. Participants also had the opportunity to learn to snowboard or even ski at nearby Sunshine Village. Overall the weather was beautiful, with occassional light snow and wind; certainly a lot less of the white stuff than we usually see in Alberta in March.

Among the honored guests was Ronnie del Carmen, Story Supervisor and Story Artist at Pixar Animation Studios. Ronnie was not only incredibly inspiring and entertaining, but the attendees were riveted to his every word and illustration. I think we all left the Summit as better storytellers because of his being there. We're very thankful that both Pixar and his family allowed Ronnie the time away from his busy schedule to come and share his wisdom with us.

We also had the incredible opportunity to be around Story Artist and Storyboard Artist Kris Pearn of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Director/Animator Woody Woodman, Character Designer and Story Artist Chris Tougas, as well as Animator and Storyboard Artist Jorden Oliwa. Moderating the Summit was Peter Hansen, Independent Producer and Program Chair of NAIT's Digital & Interactive Media Design program.

You can read about Ronnie's experience in Banff here and see a few more photos at this posting on his blog, Tirade.

For a more detailed rundown of the Summit and additional photos, head over to my blog and read the report.

Thanks again to The Banff Centre and all who made this a great experience!