Simon J. Smith

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, pard ...Show More

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. Hide