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Hellikon
animation and design studio, specializing in content for high-resolution
venues, was launched in September 2000. The studio is dedicated to the
development and enhancement of CGI and live-action integration for all
formats with an emphasis on 70mm.
Making
up the CORE TEAM at Hellikon, which
was named after the mythological home of the Greek muses, are Executive
Producer Christina Schmidlin ; and Creative Directors
Chitra
Shriram and Lisa Slates . This award-winning design,
animation and production team was previously the creative, executive management
core of San Francisco-based visual effects company Xaos. The new
company is based in Sonoma, California, with a Design Studio located in
San Francisco.
The
Hellikon team won a number of prestigious large format and computer graphic
awards in 2000 for their work on “Wege
zur Qualitaet,” a 70mm ride film for Volkswagen's new Autostadttheme
park in Germany, and completed seventeen 70mm feature projects in the last
three years for the large format market, as well as a string of broadcast
and commercial campaigns
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MEET
THE TEAM
Christina
Schmidlin
Executive
Producer Schmidlin combines a varied background stretching from world finance
and investment banking to film finance and production with Swiss Television,
Heritage Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox. At One World Productions,
she joined forces as a partner and co-produced the feature film "Loon"
(starring Robin Wright and Jason Patrick) and negotiated the U.S. distribution
deal for Cannes Grand Prix Winner "Yeelen." She also served as the creative
and production consultant on the Oscar-nominated short "Cadillac Dreams"
before joining Full Circle Films in 1991 to oversee all commercial and
feature production. She then joined Xaos as Director of Business Development
in 1994. As Executive Producer, Schmidlin spearheaded the company's involvement
in the 70mm market and has produced over a dozen large format projects
as well as the company's broadcast, commercial and feature film projects.
Lisa
Slates
Creative
Director Lisa Slates was a painter and graphic designer before entering
the world of computer animation at the University of Cincinnati (MFA.)
She came into her own in this medium with independent projects "Cycles"
and "Harvest," which have been exhibited at various festivals. After assisting
James Duesing on his highly acclaimed "Law of Averages," a Sundance Film
Festival favorite, Slates joined Xaos in 1995 and won an Emmy for her broadcast
design contribution to the 1996 MSNBC launch. Most recently, Slates designed
the effects sequences for the San Jose Tech Museum's "Spirit of the
Valley," and the Volkswagen Ride film "Wege zur Qualitaet" (highlighted
in this year's Prix Ars Electronica) as well as collaborated with Little
Beast on a teaser for Entertainment Art's game "Alice." Lisa worked with
ABC to design their 2000 election graphics package. Other project credits
have included film animation/design work for "Small Soldiers," "Loch Lomond,"
"Rheged: Lost Kingdom," "Dolphins," , broadcast design/animation projects
include "Discovery Channel," Intel, "Sci-Fi Blips" and numerous "ZDTV Ids."
Chitra
Shriram
Creative
Director Chitra Shriram was a painter and traditional animation filmmaker
in India before coming to the United States to study computer animation
at Charles Csuri's premier computer graphics program at the Ohio State
University. Her M.A thesis film, "Leela" was showcased in film festivals
and other venues all over the world. After joining Xaos in 1993 she brought
her multiple talents to bear upon conceptual design work for the Emmy Award
winning MSNBC identity campaign and story pitches for Johnny Quest Series
to Hanna Barbera Studios. She has designed and directed projects in multiple
formats/markets including the 70mm "Dolphins", "Island of the Sharks" and
the award winning "Wege Zur Qualitaet" which she co-directed with Lisa
Slates. As an animator in the digital medium, she made her debut in Warner
Brothers' “The Pagemaster” and went on to work on a host of other commercial
/ broadcast projects for clients including Sci-Fi channel, McCann Erickson,
Virgin Interactive, Mattel, Deloitte & Touche, to mention a few.
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