Visual Arts Guest Speaker
(NOTE SPECIAL TIME!!)12 pm - 4pm Wednesday, Sept 19th
Meyer Hall and Simulcast in Classroom 2
Don Bluth
Producer, Director, and Animation
Don Bluth Films Inc.

NOTE TIME CHANGE: This special Insider’s day event will take place from 12-4pm and is for ALL VISUAL STUDENTS, so be sure to come early on this day to get a good seat. They will be demonstrating valuable storyboarding and animation techniques that you wouldn’t want to miss.

Over the course of his career, Don has worked in all categories of traditional animation, from mixing colors for Ink & Paint to writing scripts, to directing and even composing songs.  He was an inbetweener and assistant animator to John Lousnbery on Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Sword in the Stone (1961).  He left Disney and returned to Brigham Young University where he graduated with a bachelors degree in English Literature.  He spent three years in the mid-sixties as the producer/director of live musical plays with his brother Toby.

Returning to Disney in 1971 after three years in TV animation as a layout artist, his career began to skyrocket, first as an animator on Robin Hood (1973); as a directing animator on Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too (1974); and the The Resuers (1976); then as director of animation fro Pete’s Dragon (1977); and producer/director on The Small One (1978).

His name came to the public’s attention in 1970 when he resigned his post at Walt Disney Productions along with long-time partners and fellow animators, Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, to found Don Bluth Productions.  Since then, he has wirtten, directed, produced, and designed characters and environments for 12 films which include The Secret of N.I.M.H. (1982); An American Tail (1986); The land Before Time (1988); All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) Thumbelina (1994); Anastasia (1997) and Titan A. E. (2000).  The last three were produced in Phoenix, Airzona, for Fox Animation Studios.
Mr. Bluth has given seminars on storyboarding, character design, animation and directing at schools across the nation and, internationally, in Mexico City, Mexico and Florence, Italy.  Recently, he has authored two books; the first, called The Art of Storyboarding was released in November 2004 and the second, The Art of Animation Drawing, in the first quarter of 2005.

Visual Arts Guest Speaker
(NOTE SPECIAL TIME!!)12 pm - 4pm Wednesday, Sept 19th
Meyer Hall and Simulcast in Classroom 2
Gary Goldman
Producer, Director, and Animation
Don Bluth Films Inc.

Gary was born in Oakland California, raised in Watsonville and earned his fine arts degree in Life Drawing with a minor in Art History from the University of Hawaii in 1971.  His first job interview was at Walt Disney Productions. He was hired into their animation training program three days later.  His film career began in February 1972, on the motion picture Robin Hood. His first assignment was a ruff inbetweener to supervising animator Frank Thomas.

His artistic contribution include the films Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974) and The Small One (1978).  He shared public recognition with his artistic partners when he resigned his position from Walt Disney Productions and in 1979 co-founded Don Bluth Productions with Don Bluth and John Pomeroy.  He has since animated, produced, co-directed and supervised post-production on 12 films and four video games, including, The Secret of N.I.M.H. (1982); An American Tail (1986); The Land Before Time (1988); All Dogs GoTo Heaven (1983); and Dragon’s Lair II; A Time Warp (1989), Dragon’s Lair 3D; Return to the Lair (2002) and the Dragon’s Lair III (2004).

Early in 1994, Mr. Goldman was recruited by 20th Century Fox to assist with the creation of Fox Animation Studios, Inc.  He along with partner Don Bluth, was the creative leader for this new company.  A year and a half later, Anastasia went into production.  In the six years they were in business in Phonenix, Fox Animation Studio employed 316 artists, technicians and administrative staff. 
Mr Goldman continues to partner with Don Bluth under the moniker Don Bluth Films, developing intellectual properties for animated feature films, consulting on video game productions and giving seminars on animation production to animation professional and students from around the world at venues in New York, Chicago, Savannah, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mexico, Florence, Italy, and Oulu, Finland.

Sounds Arts Guest Speaker
9am – 11am East End
Todd Gascon
Zent Law Group in Sunnyvale, California

Todd Gascon is an entertainment and technology lawyer with the Zent Law Group in Sunnyvale, California.  His practice is focused in the areas of intellectual property law, including copyrights and trademarks, with a particular emphasis on digital media, music, motion pictures and the visual arts and all entertainment issues relative to the Internet.  His clients include authors, musical groups, songwriters, managers, independent record labels, producers, recording studios, performance venues, visual artists and technology companies. He has negotiated recording and licensing agreements with all four (4) major labels as well as such independent labels as Arena Rock Records, Badman Recording, Cryptogramaphone, Compass, Domino, Eeenie Meenie, Ghostly International, Matador, Merge, Nettwerk, New West, Ropeadope, Rounder, Rykodisc, Sub Pop, Thirsty Ear, Touch and Go, Troubleman Unlimited, Ubiquity, Vanguard, Yep Roc and numerous foreign labels.

Todd has represented a number of artists and musical groups in the negotiation of licenses for the use of their compositions and master recordings in such motion pictures as Paul Bolger’s “Happily N’Ever After”, Ali Salim’s “Sweet Land”, Joel Zwick’s “Elvis Has Left The Building”, Garry Marshall’s “Princess Diaries 2”, Larry Charles’“Masked and Anonymous” (starring Bob Dylan), Stephen Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can”, Jonathon Demme’s “The Truth About Charlie”, Mike White’s “The Good Girl”, Finn Taylor’s “Cherish”, Gus Van Sant’s “Finding Forrester”, Wim Wenders’ “Million Dollar Hotel” and Paul Auster’s “Lulu on the Bridge”, television (“Alias”, “Dawson’s Creek”, “Ed”, “Friday Night Lights”, “Hidden Palms”, “Kyle XYZ”, “The OC”, “Roswell”, “Shark”, What About Brian” and “Weeds”), cable television (MTV’s “Real World”, “Road Rules” and “Extreme Sports”), and several television and feature film soundtrack albums.

Todd was the Chair of the Sports and Entertainment Law Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco from 2000 through 2002.  He has served as both moderator and panelist at several intellectual property and entertainment industry conferences including SXSW, CMJ, California Lawyers for the Arts, National Association of Recording Industry Professionals, Noise Pop, American Federation of Musicians and at several Bay Area colleges and universities.

Todd received his B.S.B.A. from Ohio Northern University and his JD from the University of Dayton in Ohio where he was the Articles Editor for the Law Review.  He is admitted to practice law in California and Illinois and the Ninth Circuit and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeals as well as the Northern Districts of California and Illinois. 

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Sounds Arts Guest Speaker
2pm – 4pm East End
Manny Marroquin
Grammy Award Winning Mixing Engineer

“A lot of mix engineers work at developing their own ‘unique’ sound and that’s cool, but I choose to act as a ‘chameleon’ of sorts by bringing the collective ideas of the producer, label, and artist to life for each individual project… hopefully the finished product results in a mix that best represents their vision.”

..And REPRESENT that vision he does. His technical savvy and creative ability have made Manny Marroquin one of the most “in demand” mixing engineers in the industry, working with such internationally renowned artists as Carlos Santana, Whitney Houston, LeAnn Rimes, 2PAC, Biggie, Alicia Keys, Craig David, Pink, etc.(see Discogrophy) and hit producers like Babyface, Soulshock & Karlin, Warryn Campbell, Kanye West, Brian Michael Cox and Tim & Bob, and many others.

Born in Guatemala, Manny moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was nine. His obvious gift for music became obvious at age 11 when he began playing drums. A few years later, at the prestigious Hamilton High School for the arts, his love of drums was replaced by his passion for the studio: “They had a MIDI studio and I became really interested in electronic music. By 11th grade I was pretty much in charge of the studio and knew that after graduation I wanted to be in a studio and ‘mix’.. I didn’t really know what a mixer did, but I knew that I wanted to mix.”

A teacher advised Manny to “get a job as a runner in a studio” (which consisted of making coffee and taking out the trash) if he was serious about following his dream, but, since several colleges had already offered him scholarships, his mother almost went into shock: “My mom was definitely not happy about my decision, initially,” he laughs.

Manny’s first “real live” studio gig after graduation was as a runner for Enterprise studios, where his first day “was the best and worst day of my life . . . the best because I was at a huge studio; the worst because I was cleaning bathrooms. At that point I made it my mission to get out of the ‘runner business’ as soon as possible.” Shortly after, he was promoted to staff assistant.

His professional breakthrough came unexpectedly during a late night session when the producer asked him to do a rough mix because the engineer had gone home: “Once I was done, he immediately called his partner and told him I would be mixing the entire album.” As happens sometimes in the “biz,” the album was never released, but Manny had already begun honing his skills and making a name for himself.

When asked if there was one specific project that got him started, Manny explains; “I can’t really say there was ever one particular project that ‘set me up.’ I met different producers, and one thing led to another. My career has definitely been a steady progression, and I feel blessed to do what I love and still have fun. I treat every mix as if it is my last and never take anything for granted.”

Manny’s humble approach and creative technique have positioned him among the elite in the industry. His ear for sound has helped snag top-40 spots for artists within a wide spectrum of genres, and in 2005 his talent and hard work were acknowledged Grammy style. Manny Marroquin received 3 nominations for his work on the Alicia Keys, Usher and Kanye West albums - all of whom were nominated for “Album Of the Year” - AND took home not one, but two statues for the Kanye West ("Best Rap Album") and Alicia Keys ("Best R&B Album") albums.