Notes

Over 1500 applications from around the
world flood George Lucas’s animation
academy each year (Lucas created the Star
Wars films), but only four applicants are
selected for internships. Randolph Lizarda,
21, from Scarborough, was one of them.
“I’m very excited. I’ll be working in
the LucasArts division animating video
games, although I don’t know what we’re
working on. They wouldn’t tell me—it’s
confidential,” Lizarda said on a break from
his Sheridan College class.
As a child, Lizarda liked to draw
cartoons. Now he is learning to transfer his
drawing ability to the computer.
“I was into [art] when I was little;
then I got more into it in high school.
In Grade 10, I took one of those career
surveys to find out where you fit in. I fit
into the animation industry,” he said.
Lizarda aspires to one day work for
an animation company such as Pixar or
DreamWorks.
“He’s an excellent student,” said Dave
Quesnelle, who teaches animation and is
one of Lizarda’s professors. Lizarda stood
out after handing in his first assignment, a
10-second action sequence of a muscular
circus performer balancing on a ball before
jumping through a hoop of fire. This clip
was the first segment on the demo reel he
submitted to Lucasfilm.
“I had a really good sense of his
storytelling. He had the basic principles of
animation [but] it was also comical. And
that’s our job. Anyone can make a picture
move, but to make it entertaining, that’s
the craft of an animator.”