Stephen Chiodo, Creative Director & Director of Animation: Stephen has established himself as a highly creative special effects director with expertise in stop-motion animation. Supervising every aspect of the animation production process, his direction begins with translating the script to storyboards, through character fabrication, set building and continues to the performance of the animation elements on stage and in post.
Stephen perfected his animation and directori... moreStephen Chiodo, Creative Director & Director of Animation: Stephen has established himself as a highly creative special effects director with expertise in stop-motion animation. Supervising every aspect of the animation production process, his direction begins with translating the script to storyboards, through character fabrication, set building and continues to the performance of the animation elements on stage and in post.
Stephen perfected his animation and directorial skills at Rochester Institute of Technology, where he was awarded "Best Young Director" at the Cannes Film Festival for "Cricket”, a ten-minute short he wrote, animated and directed. Stephen’s first major professional credit was animation director on the first feature-length clay animated film “I Go Pogo”, based on Walt Kelly’s comic strip, Pogo.
Moving from New York to Los Angeles, Stephen quickly established himself in a new market and co-wrote and directed the award-winning ABC After School Special, Cousin Kevin. He served as co-producer and visual effects supervisor for ABC’s All-New Land of the Lost TV series as well as directing several episodes. Additionally, Stephen developed, and executive produced with Howie Mandel the innovative effects-filled CBS series The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys.
For the company’s first feature film, the widely popular cult-classic Killer Klowns from OuterSpace, Stephen served as writer and director. Bouncing back and forth between movies, television, and commercials, Stephen and company have received Emmy Awards for animation work on “The Simpsons” and the Sci-Fi mini-series“ Dune” and the Cannes Film Festival’s Lion Award two years in a row for Japan’s “ Cup-A- Noodles” campaign. Recent credits include the stop motion character animation for New Line Cinema’s “Elf” and creating the cast of marionettes for Paramount’s “Team America- World Police “.
Over the years Stephen has worked with such notable Hollywood directors as Jon Favreau, Joe Dante, John Landis, Ron Howard, Francis Ford Coppola, Matt Stone & Trey Parker. He also worked closely with Tim Burton on a number of projects, most notably as a technical director and animator for the acclaimed short “Vincent” for Disney.
Stephen has directed pilots for CNN, ShowTime, Relativity Media and the Disney Channel and is currently directing a stop motion holiday special based his book “Alien Xmas” for Netflix. Stephen has also been sharing his experiences and knowledge by teaching stop motion animation at the prestigious California Institute of Art.edit
In ‘“Greatest Klown on Earth”– and the Killer Klowns from Outer Space’, Stephen Chiodo reflects on the influence of popular art forms – clowns in particular – on his work. Considering himself a story teller, an artificer, craftsman,... more
In ‘“Greatest Klown on Earth”– and the Killer Klowns from Outer Space’, Stephen Chiodo reflects on the influence of popular art forms – clowns in particular – on his work. Considering himself a story teller, an artificer, craftsman, inventor, and a Dr Frankenstein, Chiodo pursued a career in special effects to bring to life his stories involving fantastic creatures – and in doing so, essentially shaped our cultural fantasies around clowns as mischief makers. The clowns he created are foundational for contemporary versions of the comic-violent clown character, inflect(ed) audience expectations and inform(ed) the patterns of future texts. In his interview with Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Stephen Chiodo discusses the (un)pleasant clown experiences he had as a child, and reflects on the ‘cartoon’ violence in his 1988 cult movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Chiodo explores the power of the disconnection between the interior and exterior of the clown, and of familiar storylines that end differently than expected. Finally, he shares his thoughts about the techno-future of clowning.
