Note
from Lance
Do I draw? Yeah. I started drawing long before times I can remember.
My mom (and my biggest fan) saved drawings and colorings I did
from the time I was 2! Oddly enough, looking back, I must have
had a fetish for the Jurassic period, because I can clearly make
out dinosaurs being probed by UFOs.
Do
I draw? Well, I didn’t remain true to my first love; instead I
found the confines of the digital world more appealing:
End
to Beginning
I feel a business Bio doesn’t always take into the whole accounts
of a person, so, here goes the amendment to mine:
Lance
Powell accumulates over 10 years in the visual arts and creative
technical fields. Currently the Creative Officer for Xaero, a
small creative services company - his past years experience help
drive the brand, and brand product development of the projects
currently in development: the Stephen J. Cannell library properties,
Averil Capitol and others.
Prior
to Xaero, Lance was the Sr. Art Director for Magnet Interactive,
an online creative services firm building the identity and online
site for Crania Mania, and redesigning the online presence for
Texas Instruments as well as a host of other projects.
Before
Magnet, Lance was the Sr. Producer at Express.com. Express allowed
him to concentrate on team management, creative direction and
the build out of the entertainment e-Commerce giant, as well as
long-term business, and brand development. Throughout his career,
Lance was called back to the interactive games world to bring
projects to a well-polished close. Art Directing titles like South
Peak’s: Flintstones Bowling for PSX, and PC, and crystal Dynamic’s
Gex II: Enter the Gecko for Nintendo 64.
Sony
Pictures Imageworks was his home for some time before Express.
As a Technical Coordinator for films like Contact, Star Ship Troopers
and The Postman. The technical coordinator role offered a unique
edge of code development and production support, which gave him
the technical bridge necessary to meet his creative side. 1996
was also the same year he and his sister Lisa Powell split from
a co-business venture, Dreamwaves: A small boutique house developing
CG and traditionally animated bumpers and web sites for the Jamie-Foxx
show, the Martian Lawrence Show, and Bent Outta Shape Productions,
to name a few.
Dreamwaves was started the same year Lance joined Accent Media
Productions. AMP as it was known in interactive, was one of the
first companies to develop a game using a 3d Engine. As he ramped
up on production of the title Varuna’s Forces, for: Atari Jaguar,
3DO, Sega Saturn, PC, and the new comer PSX, he had just wrapped
up a conversion of Interplay’s title: Battle Chess.
Lance
owes his deepest plunge into games with Activision Studios. Coming
from Novalogic, working on titles like Comanche, Armored Fist
and Comanche II, Activision was a new dimension providing a wealth
of hot titles to work on. Lance’s spin through Activision took
him through titles like MechWarrior II, Mahjong II and HyperBlade.
Novalogic
was Lance’s home for around a year. Coming from Symantec/Peter
Norton Group - also, Lance’s first job. His position in Technical
Support, then turn Quality Assurance was the stimuli that would
help create the bridge of technical into creative..
Lance
attended Otis / Parsons School of Art and as well as Santa Monica
College, studying Film. He is on the Advisory Board with Gnomon
School of Visual Effects, an active member with Los Angeles Chapters
- SIGGRAPH, a member of Women in Animation, as well as a careers
speaker with the 3D Design and Animation Conference.
He’s also one of the Founders of The ScratchPost.
Summing
Up
I don’t think this is a full bio. And nor does my real bio reflect
the dozens of business ventures, and creative escapes I’ve had
the privilege to work on. In all, the accounts above touch on
some of the major impacts of my creative life.
Lance's
thoughts on production:
Mean. Nasty. And the best bitch you’ll ever love. My definition:
Production is a process, and means to a greater accomplishment.
A funnel allowing creative input from various sources to touch
a part of a greater work.
My
idea of production varies from the project, to the people I’m
working with. What it tends to sum up regardless is: Production
is a way to build family. To meet and make new friends. And a
way for parties from technical, creative and production (producers
and such) to add their collective experiences to a project - be
it film, broadcast, games, web or building the space shuttle..
