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Business briefcase

Profile: Raymond Iacovacci

Director, producer, production manager, Tri-Dimensional Studios, Tampa

By FRED WRIGHT
Published August 7, 2006

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

2001-present: Animation supervisor, director, producer, production manager, Wildfire Inc., Manila, Philippines.

2004-2005: Production manager, Toon City, Manila. Worked on Fox and the Hound for Disney Studios. Also worked for Isaac Shepherd Productions in Los Angeles.

1990-present: Toon Makers Inc., Los Angeles, Manila and Seoul, South Korea. Director, producer, production manager, overseas supervisor.

1998-1999: RICH Entertain-ment, Seoul. Overseas animation supervisor, production manager, The King and I for Warner Brothers, The Scarecrow for Warner Bros., Trumpet of the Swan for Columbia TriStar.

1992-1994: Film Roman Inc., Los Angeles. Production manager, The Simpsons.

1990-1991: Hyperion Animation Co., Los Angeles. Studio production supervisor, Bebe's Kids for Paramount Pictures and Rover Dangerfield for Warner Bros.

1989-1990: TMS animation, Los Angeles. Office manager, production coordinator, Little Nemo.

1987-1989: DIC Animation City, Los Angeles. Production coordinator, Ghostbusters; Dennis the Menace; Hello, Kitty; Barbie and the Rockers; Heathcliff; and The Little Archies.

PREVIOUS POSITION: Writer, director, producer, Empire Motion Pictures, Manila, Philippines

Raymond Iacovacci has had a very animated life, and his love for animated motion pictures has taken him to exotic locations around the world. Now he's in Tampa, taking on a role as director, producer and production manager for the final series of half-hour episodes of an animated children's TV series.

His new duties at Tri-Dimensional Studios are focused on Story Teller Cafe, a series that will begin airing on the Christian Broadcasting Network in 2007, Iacovacci said.

"This TV series that we're doing seemed so valid to me," he said. "It's a children's series where toys come alive at night in a cafe ... and they act out Bible stories."

Iacovacci has worked on a number of popular animated films and TV shows, from Street Fighter to The Simpsons. He has lived in the Far East for most of his career since 1993, and he has a home in the Philippines.

The series has been plotted out in a series of scenes. Iacovacci has the job of overseeing the computer-generated animation at Tri-Dimensional.

"A half-hour episode can generally take six months, sometimes more," to animate, Iacovacci said, "depending on the complexity. Animation is departmental. The series has to flow down the departmental river, and it can only go so quickly with X amount of people."

Iacovacci has other projects at Tri-Dimensional and other clients for which he writes and produces animation. There can be five to 10 projects under way at a time, he said, and the studio also generates architectural renderings for clients.

"I've got my hands in every aspect of it," he said. "I oversee the team of artists. I make sure the work is up to snuff."

Born and raised in Syracuse, N.Y., Iacovacci said animation "has been a lifelong career. When I was a child, I wanted to get into television and animation. When I was a teenager, I moved to Hollywood and studied voiceovers. And then I just went ahead and got a job at an animation studio."

Iacovacci soon found himself learning the production skills required for animated films and TV episodes, working for production houses in the United States and overseas. "I wanted to supervise the animation," he said.

As a result, he worked on American films that used animation facilities in South Korea, the Philippines and other Far East countries. Many times, Iacovacci would work on more than one project in more than one studio.

Even though he lives most of the year in Tampa, Iacovacci said he is simultaneously involved in animation projects in Australia and the Philippines. His company, Empire Motion Pictures, is incorporated in Florida and he has offices in Manila, Los Angeles and Sydney. His company also has live-action projects.

"I see myself dividing my time 50-50, having a home in Tampa and retaining my home in Manila," he said. "The weather is real similar to Florida, a little more humid. When I came here, I was kind of relieved. It's cooler and more pleasant."

Iacovacci, 44, is single. In his spare time, he likes to visit garage sales for antiques from the 1930s and '40s, something hard to do in the Philippines, he said.

"There are no garage sales in the Philippines," he said. "People tend to hang on to their belongings."

[Last modified August 7, 2006, 05:59:29]