ORCHARD LAKE ST MARYS GRADUATE PART OF OSCAR-WINNING PROJECT
(three cheers for the hometown newspaper)
ORCHARD LAKE -- Officials and students at Orchard Lake St. Mary's Preparatory School are beaming with pride at news that one of its graduates was part of the team that created the Oscar-winning short "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore." Calvin O'Neal Jr., 22, a former Farmington Hills resident and 2008 St. Mary's graduate, was an assistant editor and assistant director on the Morris Lessmore project. It was released in February 2011, in conjunction with the opening of the Shreveport LA MOONBOT studios, which made the animated short film. The hero of the book is a bookworm who is swept away by a tornado and finds his way to a house filled with books. These books are alive and become his close companions for life. While directors William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg were in Hollywood to accept the Oscar, the MOONBOT team held an Oscar watching party.
"We were all on the edge of our seats and we were very excited by the news," said O'Neal, who was assigned to make a video of the team's reaction to the event. As their film was announced as winner, everyone screamed and hugged and cheered. After the acceptance speech, they all went outside and released dozens of balloons into the air. "We were soaking in the moment. It felt unbelievable," O'Neal said. On Monday, March 5, the city is planning a parade to celebrate the achievement, he said. To create the "Morris Lessmore" film -- a year-long production -- the team created thousands of hand-painted books and constructed a full city block of the New Orleans French Quarter in 1/12th scale and used a variety of techniques, including filmed miniatures, stop motion, 2-D, and 3-D animation.Just the fact that he ended up at MOONBOT is also almost unbelievable to O'Neal, who has had a passion for film making since he was a youth. After graduating from St. Mary's, O'Neal went to Columbia Film School in Chicago. But he said that lasted only one semester because of the economy and his lack of funds to pay tuition for the next semester. O'Neal worked on several student film projects in Chicago until "I couldn't afford to live in Chicago anymore."
"My parents (Mary and Calvin O'Neal Jr.) had moved to Shreveport and I moved to live with them. "I looked for any job in film and got a job at MOONBOT," he said, noting he would never imagined events would have turned out so well; like he was meant to end up at the studio. "It is just great!" he said. At the beginning, there were five or six people working at the studio and O'Neal at 19 said he felt intimidated because of their experience and achievements. "But they treated me like family and it was great to work for them throughout the project." Employees now number 35. O'Neal said his experience at St. Mary's was a good one that has helped him in his life. "I went to North Farmington when I started high school, but my father wanted me to have an all boys Catholic school education to be more disciplined. At the time, I really, really didn't want to go to St. Mary's. I couldn't believe it would happen. "But it actually turned out to be a great experience. By surrendering to it and being mature enough to accept it, I learned that things don't always go the way you expect and sometimes you have to accept things the way they are" and they sometimes turn out better than you expect.
"It was same as when I was in Chicago and made the decision to go to Shreveport. It was extremely unlikely that I would find something in the film industry," he said. However, it turns out there is a lot of film industry there. He first worked on a full-length independent feature called "Super" in which he was an extra and a post-production assistant. He's worked on several other projects as well. O'Neal recently finished his first project on which he was full editor. It is called "Numberlys."