The former Pixar director is busier than ever, completing his next short film ‘Home’ and in the production and pre-production stages of two new projects employing Virtual Reality.
Saschka Unseld, writer and director of Pixar’s photoreal short film The Blue Umbrella, recently moved from the studio to take on the role of Creative Director at the New York location of international animation and film production company Passion.
The move from films to commercials could be viewed as slightly in reverse of the usual trajectory, but the director and technical innovator has a number of projects in the works as he enters the final editing stages of his next short film, Home. A live action-animation hybrid produced by Blue Umbrella collaborator and former-Pixarian Kyle Ranson-Walsh under the banner Madly in Love, Home is slated to begin the festival circuit early next year.
“Since I left Pixar I've actually been more busy than I've ever been,” Unseld tells AWN.
In addition to writing a script for a new feature, called Summer and based on Home, Unseld recently completed films and animation for a massive stage show for Sarah Jaffe in her Dallas hometown. The singer in The Blue Umbrella, Jaffe has continued to collaborate with Unseld since the film was released. “I loved working more in the physical installation space,” he says of the collaboration, which was produced by partner Ranson-Walsh.
Unseld is also in the production and pre-production stages of two new short films employing Virtual Reality for some of the industry’s VR pioneers. No details yet, but one is illustrative and the other live action, and we can look forward learning more about the projects early next year.
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
