Bryce Hallett
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Bryce Hallett (born in Northern Ontario in 1975) is a Canadian independent animator living and working in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A graduate of Sheridan College's classical animation program and Canadore College's graphic communications program, Bryce has been creating numerous cartoons and animations since 1999 working under his business "Frog Feet Productions". His first job was creating the "Ranger Gord's Educational Films" and "Ranger Gord's Safety Tips" cartoons based on the character of the same name for The Red Green Show created by Steve Smith which aired on CBC Television and PBS. Trained in traditional animation and graphic design, Bryce has been known to experiment with a variety of styles and techniques including photography, cutout animation, stopmotion, watercolour and other media and various computer software. Caricatures of famous people and or family and friends are often requested and featured in his work.
Bryce mostly works alone and created many of the ealy animated cartoons for The Red Green Show in a basement apartment while still living in Oakville. He was responsible for designing, animating and directing all 23 animated shorts, over five seasons, using the classical animation techniques of paper, pencil and an old Mac G3 computer to colour and composite the "cels". The dialogue of each episode was written by the staff writers of the Red Green Show and voiced by Peter Keleghan who played "the real" Ranger Gord. The cartoon segments (typically running approximately 2 min each but on rare occasions as long as 4 minutes) were created at a frantic pace (for animation) in 3 to 4 weeks for each episode. A feat which could not have been accomplished without his assistant Kurtis Brown who spent many a long hour scanning and colouring each cel.
Since that time Bryce Hallett has created numerous other animated shorts for sketch comedy TV series; a list that includes animation for Gemini Nominated History Bites (created by Rick Green), Listen Missy (created by Jane Ford) and The Frantics. He has also contributed animation to numerous music videos featuring artists such as Robin Black, Howie Beck and Eminem, and TV commercials airing across Canada and the U.S.
Since 2000 Bryce has also been involved in teaching workshops in animation for kids and adults with organizations such as TAIS (Toronto Animated Image Society) and Teletoon including a number of Teletoon's "Creative Sparks" animation workshops with schools, and public service announcements with Gilda's Club of Greater Toronto which have aired across Canada on Teletoon.
In addition to animation Mr. Hallett has written & performed sketch comedy and improv around Toronto in various venues such as the Bad Dog Theatre, The Tim Sims Playhouse and the Poor Alex Theatre (now closed). He has also dabbled in live action films co-writing, directing, editing and co-producing a number of short films with Kelly Aija Zemnickis some of which have been seen on the festival circuit. His student animated film A Tiny Little Love Story was an official selection at SAFO 99. In 1995 he won an Adjudicator's Award for his role as "David" in the play Gwendolyn put on by the Gateway Theatre Guild and performed in North Bay and in Toronto at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts. He also won "Best Supporting Actor" the same year that role at Theatre Ontario. He has never pursued a professional acting career though he can be spotted occasionally in small roles in short films and TV series created by friends.
