Oscar-Winning Director Mark Andrews is Coming to Dodge College
April 23, 2013
Please join us in welcoming special guest Mark Andrews, director of the Oscar Award-winning film Brave, for a special guest lecture on Wednesday, May 1 in the Folino Theater.
Professor Bill Kroyer invites all of Dodge College, and especially the Digital Arts majors, to join us
at 7:00 p.m. in the Folino Theater
to hear from Oscar-winning director
Mark Andrews
(
Brave
).
Mark has worked on various classic animated films and series, from
Cars
and
The Iron Giant,
to
Samurai Jack
and
Star Wars: The Clone Wars,
and numerous live action films, most notably
Spider-Man.
He has worn many hats throughout his times at Pixar, from art direction to storyboarding, to director, and has a unique perspective on how these roles interact and inform each other on and off set. He
described the process to ScreenRant
, speaking of Merida’s complex relationship with her own princess-hood,
It’s an aspect of the story. It’s like her being a woman is an aspect of the story that we can utilize to help tell a stronger story. I mean, it’s a coming of age story. Could we have done this with a boy and made him a Prince? Absolutely. Would it have been as compelling? Possibly. Right. But at the end of the day, after you come out of the film, you’re going to be taken on this adventure and you’re going to care for this character, you know? And you will have seen something that you may think you have seen before or think you understand at the beginning, and it will have gone a different way. And find more of that heart by the end of it. I think that’s what all Pixar movies endeavor to do. I mean, Andrew (Stanton) did a great job taking a sci-fi movie and turning it on its head (with ‘Wall-E’). Brad (Bird) did great taking the superheroes, mindless superheroes, and turning it on its head (with ‘The Incredibles’).
His directorial debut, “One Man Band,” won him a place at the Oscars in 2005 and on DVD for the Academy Award Nominated Shorts. Check it out:
Andrews will speak with students about his career, and provide an opportunity for them to ask more about what it’s like to make a PIXAR feature film. This event is free and open to the public.