"Tah-Dah" - now available on the web!

"Tah-Dah" [2009] from Stacey Chomiak on Vimeo.

Since the film fests have started to die down [although this month "Tah-Dah" was screened in five different locations alone, yahoo!], I thought it was time to put it online. I hope everyone enjoys!

artschoolreviews.ca

I was asked by a great guy, Michael Ngo, working over at artschoolreviews.ca, if I wouldn't mind writing a review of my experiences at Sheridan College.

The idea of them having this great site designed to help anyone who is looking into various colleges and wanting honest feedback from people who have gone before them, is a great one! So of course I was happy to write one from my humble experience.

Click on the image above if ya wanna check it out, and thanks Mike!

Winnipeg newspaper article

I was fortunate enough to be featured in one of Winnipeg's regular newspapers - The Metro - this week! It feels great to have the support of my homegrown community behind me! Here is a version of it online for those who feel compelled to read it:

http://www.canstarnews.com/page/story/1/4509

And now.....off to Hawaii!! [in a few hours...I cannot WAIT!]

From Chicago to Hollywood!

Happening next weekend....


Above is my "official" certificate of nomination from the AniMazing Spotlight fest, happening next weekend at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, CA! I am very honored to be up for Best Student Animated Short, yahoo! Wish I could be there to support everyone else's shorts as well!

Happening now.....


Also, this weekend "Tah-Dah" screened at the prestigious Chicago International Children's Film Festival [CICFF] - the only Children's Fest in the world that is an Academy-Award Qualifier! That is trés exciting for moi! My film screened multiple times throughout the fest; yesterday at noon & 2pm, and today at 9:30 am. For more info on the fest and schedules, click here.

"Tah-Dah" DVD & disc designs

At the end of finishing my final year at Sheridan's Animation degree, I was so worried about getting my film "Tah-Dah" finished in time for the big Industry Day screening, that I was slightly forced to design up my poster and DVD case/disc rather quickly!

However, I am sure glad I did do those designs, as soon after that I have had to send out my film to all the film fests, and well, writing on a disc with a Sharpie just doesn't have that same professional appeal :)

Here are the designs:

Festivals continue to abound :)

Since getting home from the Feel Good Film Fest at the Egyptian, I have been able to recoop a bit and catch up on some freelance work - sketches to be posted soonly!

In the meantime, a couple updates re: "Tah-Dah" in more film fests!

The AniMazing Spotlight [see image above] has put up a montage of clips of the animated films to be included in their festival at the Egyptian in November - of which I am included, as well as a few friends of mine from Sheridan - yay Sheridan!

Check out the montage of clips here.

Most recently, "Tah-Dah" has also been accepted into two more festivals, bringing the grand total thus far up to 14! Wowza, I am still amazed.

Sept 24 - Oct 1st in Montreal, QC:

I haven't been included in too many in my Canadian homeland just yet, so this one in Quebec was a nice surprise! I was super honored to make the cut [no pun intended], as they chose their Top 100 films from well over 1000 entries. I've never been to Montreal, so I'm really hoping to make it out for this one.

Sept 17 - 19 in Galesburg, Illinois:

I'm not entirely sure what the Black Earth Film Fest all entails, but I am happy to make their short list of films in any case!

"Tah-Dah" teaser trailer

So I finally threw together a quick teaser trailer of my film, "Tah-Dah"! A few of the film fests were requesting a trailer, and I thought then it could have some online presence without having to post the whole film...yet.



I hope this makes ya wanna see the real deal!

Festivus 8, 9 & 10

'Tis the season for film fests! I continue to be overjoyed with the response "Tah-Dah" has had amongst the film festivals! It has been invited to 3 more over the last little while, yayzers! Here they are for the inquiring minds who....inquire.

On Friday Aug 21st in Nevada City, CA:

On August 8th at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood:

In November at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood:

I couldn't have done it nearly as well [or at all!] without Tams helping me colour the last few scenes, and all the Sheridan faculty's help along the way, not to mention all the support of my fab fellow 4th-year-ers!

Yay team!

"Tah-Dah" in Film Fests!

I thought I should update on here thus far: my thesis film from Sheridan "Tah-Dah" has made it into 3 film festivals!

I have applied to many [millions, it seems], but I have only heard from 3 so far, and I got into all 3, so I like that track record :) Most of the others I won't hear until well into the summer, so these were unexpected smiles.

The fests are:

During July & August on all Air Canada flights:

Air Canada's enRoute Film Festival - my film will be shown in-flight on all Air Canada's flights during July & August

On Friday, Aug 14th @ 8pm:


Washougal International Film Festival in Washougal, Washington


Beloit International Film Festival in Beloit, Wisconsin

I'm super pumped, it makes every long day of obsessively tweaking each scene and frame that much more rewarding!

Industry Day 2009

Two of my greatest Sheridan gal pals - Alysia Avey and Laurin Wolf
with their films on Industry Day!

Moi by my Tah-Dah station, awaiting Industry peeps :)

The big ol' Industry Day '09 at Sheridan College this past April 30th was, for me, an experience! I knew it could be a big day, but I also knew not to hold my breath and hope to get offered an amazing job immediately following the screening.

It was great experience getting some professional and honest feedback from various parts of the Industry; my first real animation "schmooze" day.

In the end, I met a lot of people, got some really positive feedback on my film, and landed an interview at Nelvana in downtown Toronto.

While I still cannot believe my 4 years at Sheridan are complete, I look forward to seeing what this next chapter holds for me!

"Tah-Dah" Poster.... Finally!

So even though I officially finished my Animation degree this previous Friday [yaaahOOOOOOOO!!!!] and will soon complete the last chapter in this 4-chapter book....it doesn't feel that way!

Industry Day is this Thursday, so I am madly trying to get together my portfolio, update my resume, do my demo reel, design a takeaway portfolio for possible interviews, design postcards and redesign my poster, get that all printed, apply to a bunch of film fests....OH and my family is flying out this weekend and then we will be moving back to the Peg.

PHEW! Time flies :)

BTW, if anyone wants to take a peek at my flat portfolio or my press kit for "Tah-Dah", the links are on the side > > > under "My Jazz".

We'll see how the big screening goes!

Another finished still!

The end is so near, I can taste it! I am muchos excited :)
I'd love to be able to just concentrate on my reel and portfolio now, however I have two electives to take care of, exams and such.

In any case, I only have two official weeks left of 4th year.... which then means I graduate in two weeks! Yipee kay-yay! WOW, how time has flown.

Much excitement to come, but for now, I gotta finish comp on "Tah-Dah"!

A finished still from "Tah-Dah"

I honestly feel like I am developing Photoshop Elbow. [in lieu of Tennis Elbow!!]

However, since I am on the almost-last stage of my film, I can deal with this never-ending Photoshop colouring frame by frame! By the end of all this, I will have felt like I ran 14 marathons. With my pencil :)

So here's a finished still from my upcoming film, "Tah-Dah"! I am excited to finally start to see it come to Technicolor life – I have been staring at the grayscale animation and backgrounds for what seems like eons, so this stage is exciting for me!

Stay tuned!

Straight to your airwaves...

I'm on the radio! Or, I was.

First off, a huge thanks to Toni Pennacchia at MergingArts Productions, who invited me to come and do an interview with her on Spoiler Alert Radio.

It was great fun! I have never been on the radio before, not even as a call-in for a contest, so this was an entirely new experience for moi. It's now available as a downloadable podcast on the Spoiler Alert Radio website here.

For more info on Toni's awesome film festivals, Short Short Short Film Festival and Womanimation!, click here.

The cello stands alone.

Here's another painted layout from my film - this one is basically my master layout where the farmer is playing his cello. I can't wait to finally get to colouring my animation!

The deadlines are fast approaching....just keep colouring....just keep colouring......!

Paintin' fences

I am done clean-up [yay!!], and I am starting now to colour my backgrounds. I have 13 backgrounds total, and 2 minutes worth of animation.....and I plan to paint each frame in Photoshop with texture SOOOOOOOOOO....

I gots a lots o' colouring ahead!

For now, background 01 is done-o!

Animation Yearbook design

So this has been the year I have been waiting for [in more ways than one!], but also in terms of our annual Animation Yearbook. We can design one page of artwork each year to be included in the Yearbook, black and white; however when you get to 4th year, we get 2 pages - one colour AND one black and white. Wowza!

I spent last night and this morning finishing up a design to represent my film and be sufficiently well designed--at least to my liking!

Above are the pages individually; the black and white page will be on the left and the colour page on the right. I only tried to remember one thing this year when I designed them - LESS is more!

The pages together as hopefully they will appear in the Yearbook:

And now....back to clean-up!

Rough "TAH-DAH" Poster Idear

UPDATE: Watch a trailer of the finished film "Tah-Dah" here!




Amid working like a nutbar on cleaning up my animation, I am also trying to compile a few promotional pieces for my film right now. I am confident I will have more artwork when the film is closer to being finished, but as it stands I threw together a few pieces.....here's one of them, a rough poster idear.

Stay tuned for more!

Colour Concoctions

Right now I am trying to clean up all my animation [as quickly as humanly possible, which is not easy with clean up!]....so I thought I'd post my newest colour script for my film.

I really want an earthy palette, but one that's also a bit wacky to work with the UPA-ish stylings.
I hope this works, but the real test will be when I start to paint my animation and backgrounds!

Must.....keep...........drawrrrrrrinnnnnnggg......

Ruff animation stills from "TAH-DAH"

I thought since I am starting clean-up today [FINALLY!!], that I would post some stills of my ruff animation. I am actually happy with how it's turning out, which is a rareity when it comes to me liking my own animation!! So I am staying positive and moving forward!















I am sooooooo anxious to get to the painting stage, I just want to see it all finished now, but clean-up is a necessary evil, I suppose...... :)

Onward and upward!