Other names Ffish Website worker-studio.com Role Director | Years active 1996–present Name Michael Hemschoot | |
Full Name Michael Hemschoot Occupation Director, animator, visual effects artist
Founder, CEO Worker Studio Movies The Birthday Present, The Cleaning Similar People Sean Bridgers, Joey Lauren Adams, Candyce Hinkle, Bill Pope | ||
Michael "Ffish" Hemschoot (born Michael Hemschoot) is a director, animator and has held a variety of roles as a visual effects artist in major Hollywood films. Since 1996, Hemschoot has worked on films such as Mars Attacks!, What Dreams May Come, The Matrix, Hollow Man, Black Hawk Down, Minority Report and National Treasure. He was Lead Animator on the Chuck Russell film Bless the Child and Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 76th Academy Awards. Currently, he is CEO at the animation studio he founded, Worker Studio, and also a partner in the live action production company, Travelin' Productions.
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Education
Hemschoot was born in Aurora, Colorado and raised in the town of Parker, Colorado, but moved to California where he attended California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in the early 1990s and graduated from their Character Animation program. He has worked with visual effects companies such as Warner Digital Studios, Creative Visual Effects, Inc., Manex Visual Effects and Asylum Visual Effects. After his relocation to Colorado, Hemschoot was an adjunct professor of animation at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.
Influences
In an interview with Oxford American, Hemschoot noted his early sensibility of film was formed by the work of Hal Ashby, John Sayles, Sam Peckinpah, George Roy Hill, and Walter Hill, as well as being influenced later by directors such as Alfonso Cuaron, Lars Von Trier, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and Walter Salles. Specifically noting animation in an article, Hemschoot selected 5 animated performances that influenced him creatively, including Bill Tytla's Chernabog from Fantasia and Stromboli from Pinocchio, Milt Kahl's Shere Khan from The Jungle Book, Glen Keane's Professor Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective and John Lounsbery's Tony from Lady and the Tramp.
Recent productions
As producing, directing and writing partners, Hemschoot and actor Sean Bridgers formed the live-action production company called Travelin Productions, as well as an animation and visual effects company, Worker Studio. They've completed 2 short films together: A Night at the Zoo in 2008, starring W. Earl Brown and Bridgers, then The Birthday Present in 2012, starring Joey Lauren Adams, Bridgers and his daughter, Kate. Bridgers and Hemschoot have also been developing a live action feature film that is a dark western set during the Civil War in the South, titled Arkansas Traveler. They filmed a trailer for Arkansas Traveler with some the cast currently attached to the project including Garret Dillahunt and Angela Bettis. They are also developing an animated documentary based on the life of World War II hero and photo-recon pilot, John H. Ross.