CCO / Writer / Director
Jim Capobianco received the 2008 Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Ratatouille. He went on to write and direct the short film, "Your Friend The Rat" winning the 2008 ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Award for short films. Jim followed YFtR up with directing the critically acclaimed end titles for Pixar's 2008 release Wall•E . A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Jim started in the story department at Walt Disney Feature Animation on The Lion King. During his time at Pixar Animation Studios he was influential on the stories of many of Pixar’s films of the past 19 years, including Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, UP and Inside Out. In 2023, ACW’s feature The Inventor written and directed by Jim will be out in theatres.
Jim is represented as an author / illustrator by the Bright Agency
Producer / Cinematographer
Alex da Silva has been working in the film industry in commercials and non-commercial projects since 1986. Originally from Brazil he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999. He has since directed, shot and produced several projects, including 3 feature length documentaries, which opened to much praise and awards at the SF International Film Festival, LA Film Festival, HotDocs, and others. Following his dad's footsteps Alex also likes to paint, his work can be seen at www.paintandbandon.com
From 2010 to 2014 he worked as the Executive Producer at Colorflow in Berkeley and as a faculty member at The Sitka Fine Arts Camp. He joined Jim Capobianco at Aerial Contrivance Workshop in 2016 to promote compelling storytelling in the independent world of film and animation, amongst their most recent work is the animated hand drawn sequence for "Mary Poppins Returns".
Director / Writer
Gary Rydstrom has been nominated for nineteen Academy Awards, winning seven for his work in film sound, including Jurassic Park, Titanic, and Saving Private Ryan. As an animation director, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his Pixar short film Lifted, and in 2015 directed Strange Magic, a Lucasfilm/Disney musical that features innovative integration of music and animation. Gary most recently directed Philharmonia Fantastique in collaboration with ACW and Masonic Music.
Producer / Director
Kat has been working in stop motion animation since 1991. Starting with Nightmare Before Christmas through Coraline in 2009. On James and the Giant Peach she was Assistant Director to Henry Selick and continues to collaborate with him. She was DP for Some Divine Wind, which is now on permanent collection at NYMoMA. The stop motion-live action mixed short, Mermaids on Mars, won the Carmel Film Festival Animation award along with 21 other festival awards across the country. She is passionate about all forms of animation but specialises in stop motion production.
Editor/Producer/Director
Tom Christopher has worked in the film industry for three decades on projects at American Zoetrope, Lucasfilm Ltd., The Saul Zaentz Company and Warner Bros. Studios. In addition to his Editing work on THE INVENTOR for Jim Capobianco, his feature film editing credits include George Lucas's SPECIAL EDITION of STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and THE RETURN OF THE JEDI; Milos Foreman's AMADEUS DIRECTOR'S CUT; and Carroll Ballard's DUMA. At Lucasfilm he edited for TV, THE TREASURE OF THE PEACOCK'S EYE and contributed to many other episodes of
THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES, and for Disney, the animation storyboards for MARY POPPINS RETURNS. Tom was the Series Editor for the Netflix animated series GO! GO! CORY CARSON which was produced by KUKU Studios.
He edited and co-produced FACING FEAR, a short documentary nominated for a 2014 Academy Award directed by Jason Cohen. Tom has edited documentary films for PBS, including an American Masters portrait, ALICE WATERS AND HER DELICIOUS REVOLUTION, directed by Doug Hamilton, and an America at the Crossroads episode, CAMPUS BATTLEGROUND, directed by Bill Jersey. Tom is currently editing an untitled comedy for Michael Arndt at Aerial Contrivance Workshop.
Film Composer / Songwriter
Alex Mandel is composer and lyricist who is comfortable adapting to the styles of diverse storytellers.
Alex Mandel’s songs have been featured in films such as Pixar’s Brave (“Touch the Sky”, “Into the Open Air”). His scores include East Side Sushi (2014), Super Giant Robot Brothers (Netflix), and The Inventor (2023) where he also contributed nine songs performed by Daisy Ridley, Marion Cotillard, Stephen Fry and Matt Berry. As composer for NPR’s Snap Judgment Live, Mandel performed alongside storytellers including host Glynn Washington and the Roots’ MC Tariq Trotter. He also composed a musical about Norman Rockwell at the Tony award-winning Theatreworks.
Post Production
Robert Marty has spent his film career in Post Production. He has had experience working as a first assistant picture editor, first assistant sound editor, visual effects editor, ADR editor, and as a Post-Production supervisor. He has worked for American Zoetrope, The Saul Zaentz Company, Lucas Film Ltd., HBO, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Universal Pictures. Considered a solid team player, Robert works well with the numerous members and outside vendors on the filmmaking team.
His credits include: The Right Stuff, Amadeus, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Godfather III, Jurassic Park, Jumanji, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi (special editions), John Adams (HBO mini series), The Inventor ...
Siobhan Ensley is a storyboard artist who has been drawing since she could hold a pencil. In 2020, she graduated from CalArts with a BFA in Character Animation and since graduation has worked on a variety of independent projects as both a storyboard artist and 2D animator. She joined Aerial Contrivance Workshop in 2022 as a storyboard artist on an untitled live-action comedy with Michael Arndt.
She currently lives in Colorado with her cat, Mochi.
Portfolio website: https://siobhanensley.weebly.com/
Storyboard Artist
Sarah Leuver is a storyboard artist and illustrator. She graduated from California College of the Arts in 2016 with a Bachelor's in animation. She currently lives in the Bay Area where she works as a freelancer. A prolific comic book artist Sarah has contributed to both animated and live-action projects at The Workshop.
Storyboard Artist
Tatiana Moniz (or better yet, Tati!) is a Brazillian storyboarder and 2d animator with too much energy to sit still and follow just one passion. She was born and raised in Brazil, running around her house yelling magic words that would supposedly give her super powers and glueing her drawings on all the wall spaces she could reach. From Rio de Janeiro, she moved to San Francisco to study at California College of The Arts and is currently located in Atlanta, working as a freelancer.
www.tatianamoniz.com
Production Designer / Concept Artist
Glenn Hernandez is a bay area based artist/illustrator. He divides his time between designing for Games/Animation and his Art Practice which he runs out of his back yard painting studio. He has worked as an Art Director/Production Designer at Funomena, Baobab Studios, Paramount Animation and Netflix Animation.
Production Designer / Concept Artist
Louis Thomas is a graduate of Gobelins in Paris and CalArts in Los Angeles in 2012. He worked for various Californian animation studios (Pixar, Sony, Laika, Illumination). Louis currently lives and works with his cat Pipo in his art studio, which can be found between the Pantheon and the Luxembourg Gardens.
Louis is not only a concept artist, character designer, and illustrates/writes children books, he also is an acclaimed painter and portraitist. Exhibiting in Paris. Louis’s art
Concept Artist
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Pedro has always enjoyed creating worlds for him and his friends to play in. He studied Fine Arts and graduated in Visual Development at the Academy of Arts University, in San Francisco. Now a resident of Austin Texas, Pedro has worked in multiple netflix animated tv shows such as Castlevania, Masters of the Universe, and Seis Manos, as well on the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. He also teaches figure drawing at the local Atelier Dojo.
Director / Animator
Story Artist / Director
Matt has worked for over 20 years in the animation industry in Europe and the US. He has directed short films, designed commercials and story-boarded on many feature films including ‘Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride’, Aardman’s ‘Arthur Christmas’ and Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’. Based in LA he is developing an independent animation film for kids.
Animator / Director
