Guest Speaker: Mario Azzopardi

26Sep11

Today, September 26th, 2011,  Mario Azzopardi gave an impassioned talk about his experience and perspective on the future of Gaming and the role of storytelling in digital media.  An attentive audience of Game Art & Design and Digital Animation students listened, and spoke with Mario about his experiences in television and film production, and his work with KOEI Canada on “Warriors: Legends Or Troy” . Mario is very excited about the convergent possibilities of leveraging digital  assets for multi platform/multi purpose production.

Mario Azzopardi addresses students from Centennial College's Game Art & Design and Digital Animation programs.

As a traditional film maker he also welcomes the freedom that working in animation provides, no longer is the director/filmmaker limited to the physical restraints of what is physically possible with camera angles or elaborate costumes. “What would Zeus look like?  Is it Laurence Olivier in a Toga?

Mario sees an exciting future full of possibilities for students involved in animation and game.  He believes that the medium of gaming is in it’s infancy and the use of avatars, digital animation, motion capture will revolutionize and set story telling free. It is up to us, as the developers of media to use our skills to envision, and create, the digital culture of the future.

Mario shared and discussed his work on the cut-scenes found in “Warriors: Legends of Troy”, work produced in the Toronto studios. These scenes can can be seen on Vimeo.

Mario was a very engaging and motivating speaker with a great vision and a wealth of experience.

Condensed Biography:

Mario Azzopardi was born on the 19th of November 1950 in the village of Siggiewi, on the island of Malta.While still at university he joined the Atturi Theatre Group, Malta’s national repertory company. Soon after his graduation he became the company’s resident director.Perhaps one of his most significant achievements during his university career was Mario’s work at RUSCA, The Royal University Students Cinema association, which he founded and under whose auspices he directed the first Maltese full length feature film, called GAGGA (The Cage), which he adapted from a novel by Frans Sammut, and directed at the age of 21. This film has been recently restored by Studio7 productions and presented at the 2007 EU film Festival held this march in Malta with great success.In the early 80s American TV production was non-existent in Canada. Today it is a billion dollar industry. Mario was one of the early pioneers who together with GROSSO JACOBSON, a New York production company, ventured in the then untested experiment of producing American programming abroad. The test show was called “Night Heat” to be aired on CBS. Of the Hundred Episodes produced, Mario directed 23 and was nominated twice at the Gemini Awards for achievement in directing. The show was not only a resounding success with the audience, but it gave birth to a new co-production formula between the US and Canada which has flowered into a national, world class, production infrastructure.Mario was entrusted to direct several TV pilots, all of which went to series production, among which the highly popular “ENG”, “STARGATE”, and “TOTAL RECALL”. As Canadian companies availed themselves of established Co production treaties, Mario found himself directing episodes and films in Germany, England, Hungary, Mexico, France and last summer back in Malta, where he was instrumental in bringing an DISNEY/HALLMARK  production to Malta.So far Mario Azzopardi has directed over three hundred hours of prime time American television for world renowned production houses like WARNER BROS, UNIVERSAL, MGM, PARAMOUNT, HBO, ABC, CBS, NBC, TBS, SHOWTIME, HALLMARK, FOX etc etc.

His latest film, “Savage Messiah” (2002) earned seven nominations at the Genie awards, Canada’s version of the Oscars, winning three of the nominations.

Last year Mario wrote and directed KOEI Canada’s  “WARRIORS: LEGENDS OF TROY” a major video game, released in March 2011.

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