In his first week as the new lecturer in animation at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Damian Candusso will have to interrupt his teaching schedule to fly to Hollywood to attend the 2007 Motion Picture Sound Editors’ (MPSE) annual Golden Reel Awards ceremony on 24 February.

 

Damian was a member of the team nominated for Best Sound Editing for Australian director George Miller’s animated feature film Happy Feet (2006). Clint Eastwood is the guest of honour at the 54^th Golden Reel Awards which will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on the night before the 79^th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards, "The Oscars".

 

“Just to be nominated is a wonderful honour,” said Damian, who was born and raised in Griffith, NSW and studied at Charles Sturt University from 1994 to 1997.

 

Professor David Green, Head of CSU Wagga Wagga Campus and Head of the University’s School of Visual and Performing Arts congratulated Damian saying, “I am delighted that CSU is able to attract such high quality staff to teach in its Performing Arts courses. It demonstrates to current and prospective students, and to film and media industry employers, that this University aims to be at the forefront of training for such highly creative roles.”

 

After working in the film and music industry for ten years Damian was looking for a new challenge to develop his skills further.

“Teaching is something I always wanted to do,” Damian said. “I was keen to get away from the big city and have a lifestyle change. I also want to use my time to help develop the industry. When you’re working on a film, you’re there to do that job and then you’re out again. You don’t have time to better the conditions in the industry. I hope that part of my role at CSU will assist the industry through research and development of new techniques.”

 

Damian’s research interest lies in the integration of digital assets, audio and picture editing specific to animation and digital visual effects.

 

Since graduating from CSU in 1997 Damian’s career has spanned the digital revolution. “When I started working we weren’t using digital pictures, we were still using tape,” he said. “Now, pictures are all on your computer and you can skip to the head or the tail of a film with one click of the mouse, whereas before you had to spool through tape. It has been revolutionary. And you don’t have to go to Los Angeles to sit in on the recording of dialogue of overseas talent any more. You can just dial in from Fox Studios in Sydney to a studio in LA, and record the session from here.”

 

Damian has worked as a member of sound editing teams on other recent Australian films: The Magician (2005), Little Fish (2005), Candy (2006), Catch a Fire (2006), Like Minds (2006), the TV show Farscape (1999-2004), and television animation for Yoram Gross (Blinky Bill, series 3). Damian also wrote a track for Jewboy (2005), worked on X-Box games and has worked with artists such as High 5 and Iva Davies.