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Originally from Michigan, Michael A. Kaczmarek graduated Magna Cume Laude from Central Michigan University in graphic design and a minor in film. After working professionally in graphic design and multimedia for 7 years he became burnt out and wanted new challenges. Mike knew he always loved films and filmmaking but didn’t want to be another starving director so he moved to California to pursue my MFA in Computer Animation/Filmmaking at the Academy Of Art in San Francisco. While working on his Master’s degree, Mike became involved with a short CG animated film project called FREEWARE. He took on the roll of Producer while still being involved in the hands on production of the film.

As the producer of FREEWARE, Mike’s time was split 50/50 between management and production. He worked closely with Alex Orrelle (the Director) to ensure his artistic vision while guiding all production art departments in meeting their deadlines. Also as a production artist team member Mike worked in the modeling, texturing, lighting, and compositing departments depending which area needed more manpower.

Mike explains, “My goal with this film was to develop my storytelling, management and artistic abilities while trying to secure a future position as a director/producer”. Freeware has won the Alias/Wavefront Student Competition Award for best group animation, The Sundance Film Festival Online Audience Award and was recently featured on the TV show: Exposure from the Sci-Fi Channel as well as being in The Animation Festival at SIGGRAPH 2001. Mike notes, “This just helps to reaffirm my previous thoughts that we created something special”. To see the film and images from it, you can visit our website at: www.freewarethemovie.com. After completing Freeware and his MFA, Mike took a job at LuuLuu.com located in San Francisco as the production manager and head modeler.

At LuuLuu.com Mike worked with a team of artists and engineers in the creation of 3d web avatars for the fashion Industry. Mike included, “We used Maya to create our virtual fashion models and also worked with Maya Cloth to simulate different clothes”. The work was cutting edge technology but Mike became nervous as dot com’s were going out of business left and right. While at LuuLuu.com he got a call from Bob Nicoll at Electronic Arts to come by and see what EA was up to. Shortly after that meeting, Mike left LuuLuu.com to accept a job at Electronic Arts’ headquarters located in Redwood city, California. “Due to confidentiality agreement I can’t really show any of our work but I believe the web site is still up at www.luuluu.com”, explains Mike.

Mike is currently working on the Playstation 2 version of James Bond 007 in… Agent Under Fire. The game features a completely original storyline and is scheduled for release later this year. Currently, he is modeling and texturing various objects for the game, everything from a British Harrier Jet to futuristic nuclear submarines.

At work Mike’s team is just wrapping up production on this title and getting ready ship it for the holiday season. He thinks that consumers will see a significant advancement in the visual quality of this game verse what was done even a year ago. Not so much because of the technology but because of a new sensitivity to the aesthetic visual aspect of the game.
Today, Mike is resting. After finishing Bond, Mike’s received some needed time off to rest and recuperate before starting the next project (which he’s not sure quite yet what that will be).

Some of Mike’s hobbies are films and filmmaking. Mike shares, “Collaborating with a group of people on a common artistic vision is exciting! That’s why Major Damage (www.major-damage.com) appealed to me so much. It was a great project that I could put as much or as little time in as I had and still see a wonderful finished film”. In Mike’s spare time he watch tons of DVDs and tries and learn from each movie he see. DVD’s are great not only because of the quality but many of them have extra features which show how the film was made with director’s commentary. Mike confesses, “I’m kind of using it as a cheap version of film school you might say.” Mike is also writing his first live action short film, which he’s hoping to take back to Sundance when it’s completed.

Mike wants to continue to grow and learn as much as possible. He just got a new DV video camera, which he’s exploring the possibility of shooting his live action short on. Mike would also love to take some writing and filmmaking classes in the near future.

Mike's thoughts on production:
There was a whole new world of things to think about when running an entire production (Like Freeware). It’s not just whether the color of a texture is right or if there is enough of a rim light on the characters. You have to think about story issues, sound and music, computer and technical resources, employee turnover and a host of other things. The knowledge I gained after finishing this film is probably ten times the amount I would have gotten if I had just worked on my own. After working in the field for a little while, I discovered that all productions have their own unique problems. A lot of my friends in the industry feel that these problems they’re experiencing at work are just at the place that they’re working at. Not so! Enjoy the challenge and over come these obstacles because the next project (whether it’s where your at now or at a new place) will have it’s own rewards and pitfalls.

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