Cindy Freeman (moderator), Kevin Sean Michaels, Perry Chen, and Dean DeBlois at panel discussion

Film Method

Episode Fifty: Icons Panel #4

The Icons event was held during Comic Con 2010 and showcased different types of pop culture including art, film, music and fashion. Film Method conducted a total of four panels at the event. Here is the recording from the fourth panel of the day with 10 year old film critic/animator Perry Chen, Director Kevin Sean Michaels and the director of How to Train Your Dragon, Dean DeBlois.  Cindy Freeman is the moderator.

Listen to the interviews and panel discussion:

http://film-method.com/2010/08/25/episode-fifty-icons-panel-4/

Perry Chen – Film Critic/ Animator

At 10 years old, Perry Chen is the most influential and award-winning child film & entertainment critic, speaker, TV personality, radio talk show host, reviewing movies and family-friendly entertainment with his unique, kids-friendly starfish rating system on a multi-media platform on TV, radio, print, and web.  He is an entertainment critic for the San Diego Entertainer Magazine and was the first child film critic invited to present at the prestigious Annie Awards for animation, the youngest blogger on Animation World Network (AWN), the youngest member of Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA), and San Diego Press Club, and the youngest honoree of Cox Communications’ annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.  Perry has been a frequent star on the red carpet and credentialed journalist interviewing filmmakers and stars at major film festivals, movie premieres, and press junkets. He is a speaker at a TEDx conference.

Perry has become an authoritative spokesperson for his generation about movies with his insight and humor from a child’s perspective, combining entertainment and education for kids.  Perry is also an award-winning artist, filmmaker and animator, partnering with Oscar-nominee Bill Plympton to create a new animation short, “Beyond the Forest,” about a young Jewish girl’s survival during the Holocaust.  Perry became a national sensation on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and NPR with Liane Hansen.  He has been extensively featured on regional, national and international media.  Perry’s Previews webseries is slated to launch in the summer of 2010. Visit http://www.perryspreviews.com for details.

Kevin Sean Michaels – Director

Kevin Sean Michaels was born and raised in New York City. He started making films at age thirteen with a Super 8 home movie camera in the style of silent movies. Michaels was the Art Director for Troma Entertainment for three and a half years, working closely with filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman on Troma’s film “Poultrygeist! Night of the Chicken Dead,” as well as numerous DVD extras. He founded his own production company, Vamp Productions in 2005.

Michaels is known for his documentaries, “Vampira: The Movie” was his first documentary released on Alpha Video in 2008. Since then, he has produced “The Wild World of Ted V.Mikels,” about the grind-house filmmaker, due in stores March, 2010 also on Alpha Video. In 2008, Michaels met David Lynch and is producing a documentary,”Beyond The Noise” about a teenager’s journey learning Transcendental Meditation.

He is working on a project with horror legend Ingrid Pitt on ananimated short on her experiences in the Holocaust with 10 year old art prodigy Perry Chen and two-time Oscar nominee Bill Plympton.

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