1. Simon J Smith Personal Bio
Simon J Smith is a 26 year computer graphics veteran with over 32 combined
years of film, television, and post production experience in telling engaging
stories with compelling characters. (Well, pardon me all over the place.)
He is known mostly for his directing feature animation work at PDI/DreamWorks
Animation, where he recently finished directing the feature film “Penguins of
Madagascar” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and John Malkovich, and
previously the Golden Globe nominated “Bee Movie” starring Jerry Seinfeld and
Rene Zellweger.
During his tenure at PDI/Dreamworks, which he called his home for over 18
years, he created the Layout Pipeline for the second ever computer animated
film “Antz”, and served as Head of Layout (cameraman/cinematographer) for that
film, and also for the first ever animated Oscar winning film from
PDI/DreamWorks “Shrek”.
Then he was chosen to start directing projects for DreamWorks which included
“Shrek Imax” the first stereoscopic 70mm film for DW, the Universal theme park
ride “Shrek 4D”, and short films, including “Far Far Away idol” starring
Simon Cowell, and “The Button of Doom” starring Will Ferrell.
Before coming to the United States in 1997, Simon was Directing, Editing,
Animating or FX Supervising at top London post production houses including The
Mill, Framestore, VTR, SVC TV, and ad agency BBDO for 16 years on various
projects, commercials, or music videos including Apple, Nike, Honda, Pepsi, VW,
Pet Shop Boys, New Order, George Michael, to name but a few.
Over his career, he has learned to lead teams of all sizes (from 10 to 400) with
vision and purpose, to partner with creative minds in the fields of artistry,
technology, and even business, and to solve problems big and small, in order to
bring ideas to life.
He has a passion for all forms of entertainment that can tell a story or interact
with a character, including film, tv, theme park rides, mobile and console gaming
and the exciting emerging forms of VR such as Occulus, Magic Leap, and ATAP.
His goal is to get involved in a new technology/story telling team that he can
bond with, and to share his narrative story/character experience to create
something new! Something that feels different and unique to an unsuspecting
audience. An experience perhaps they have never encountered or
enjoyed. Something that they will remember, and that the team can be more than
proud of.