CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

The Red Stick International Animation Festival could have just been a film event featuring cartoons. Take a couple of days, screen a few cartoons for families, bring in a big shot from out of town and hold a seminar or two. But LSU's Center for Computation and Technology had a much bigger goal when it created the five-day festival that begins this morning at the Shaw Center for the Arts and several other locations downtown. “We wanted something more than just showing movies,” festival director Stacey Simmons said. “We wanted to inspire people to go into jobs and careers in computing, engineering and art.” Redstick, now in its third year, was modeled after the Animex festival in North England. It was conceived as a way to promote the center and work as an economic development tool. Simmons said that while the center's mission is science and technology, the festival communicates with young people “in a language that means something to them.” “How much easier is it to … (take) a young man in high school who loves video games and talk to him about getting into video games than saying, ‘I really would love for you to get into multi-core processing?'” said Simmons, who was the center's assistant director for strategic initiatives when the festival was created. “I want creative, smart, go-getting people to stay in this community and do profound things and participate in the global economy,” she said. This year, the festival will once again work to achieve that goal with screenings, competitions, workshops, lectures and demonstrations. As of Monday, there were 263 films submitted from 30 countries. Last year, Redstick was the largest animation festival in the country, as measured by attendance of 2,000 people. Simmons said the festival is on track to have about 2,800 this year. For those familiar with the two previous Redstick festivals, Simmons said, this one will feature more panels, more independent films and companies, and a more international scope. While a special screening of the new Disney film “Meet the Robinsons” was held Saturday, the festival really begins this morning at the Shaw Center with a series of lectures focusing on science in animation. At 5:30 p.m. at the Old State Capitol, “Animation on the River” will include local band The Eames Era, a retrospective on the work of screenwriter and Baton Rouge native Karey Kirkpatrick and a screening of “Charlotte's Web,” which he wrote and co-directed. Kirkpatrick, who went to Baton Rouge Magnet High School in the mid-1980s, also wrote “Chicken Run” and “Over the Hedge.” Simmons said Kirkpatrick, in many ways, personifies what the festival hopes to accomplish. He told Redstick attendees last year that a drama teacher in Baton Rouge inspired him to pursue his dreams and become a screenwriter. In addition to screenings for general audiences, the festival will feature 14 workshops, most of them geared toward how to break into the business. Workshops include how to write a pitch, how to write a screenplay, how to animate for television, how to write for video games and design levels in video games. “We really want people to think about working in this industry,” Simmons said. Then on Friday there are the three “Brilliant New Ideas” presentations, one of which comes from Baton Rouge. Local twenty-something filmmaker Dax Allen has a film called “Little Lost One,” about a boy who falls off a boat and ends up in a magical ice paradise. The others are a feature film from an Austin filmmaker and new technology from France to improve upon the blue screen process of animation. “We want people to bring new ideas to the festival every year,” Simmons said. On Thursday, a delegation from China will talk about collaboration on Chinese animation projects. A complete listing of events is available to those who register at http://www.redstickfestival.org. Among the scheduled events: * Organizers of Animex will talk Thursday about how that festival impacted its host city, helping create one of England's top video game development curriculums. * On Friday, animated shorts created by area schoolchildren, who, after a couple of days of training, spent a few weeks coming up with pieces about organ transplant awareness. The project is being done in conjunction with the James Redford Institute. Redford, son of actor and director Robert Redford, had two liver transplants before he was 25 because of a rare blood disease. * There is a Friday tribute to Joe Barbara of Hanna-Barbara fame. * Cartoonapolooza will be held for kids at the Old State Capitol on Saturday. * A free workshop Saturday will be put on by the Baton Rouge Cartoonists Society to teach kids and adults how to do storyboarding and cartooning. * Someone from animation giant Pixar will be on-hand Saturday to review and critique submitted portfolios and reels. Simmons said she gets excited about the exposure the festival has gotten but gets more, for example, out of a recent exchange with a local teacher who called to thank the festival for exposing her students to the industry.