OK... so... the CAEAA (Canadian Awards for Electronic Arts and Animation) were held for the first time las night; hubby and I attended as media, along with several other Gameboyz reviewers. The big attraction for the "Gala Evening" was the host, William Shatner.
I didn't realize he actually came to the table with an appropriate resume -- he is a co-founder of C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures which has done animation and visual effects for dozens of movies and tv shows. (The guy on the right in the photo above is Victor Lucas from Electric Playground and Reviews on the Run -- two shows I love watching -- the woman talking to Shatner is Erin Cebula from ET Canada)
At the reception, he graciously answered endless inane questions about who should play the "young Kirk" and other Trek-related nonsense while he tried to steer the interviewers toward the topic of the evening: Canadian-made animation. Hubby and I followed in his wake, listening in and watching the media make its magic.
Eventually, Shatner was spirited away to the Green Room and the rest of us were directed to the theatre where we were seated at the back of the room. We got a buffet dinner -- the nominees got a full three course dinner -- and watched from directly behind one of the house cameras (that was transmitting the action to the big screens to the side of the stage)
As the evening wore on, the media began to thin; by the time the last winner was announced, many of the media had left; some stayed for the after party but most had already got their thirty second soundbite of Shatner and didn't want to stick around talking to the equivalent of a "technical Oscar®" winner.
I actually enjoyed seeing the student work, as opposed to the big game studio stuff (Ubisoft took home a suitcase of statues) -- but I would have preferred to see their films in their entirety, rather than screen caps or demo reels. I did find one of my faves available for download: Saturday Afternoon Fever by Jeremy Brown. I would also love to see all of "Tree for Two" for which Joel Furtado took home three statues.
We did check out the after party, but only stayed briefly before checking out the casino floor -- where hubby quickly turned $5 into $29 then after some more ups and downs still managed to come out $20 ahead. I finally had to hobble to the car when my feet started to go numb in my fancy shoes and we called it a night.
I'm not sure if I'd do it again, but I'm glad I did it this time around. Getting all dressed up is fun, but after five hours I was ready to climb back into my own skin.
tags: CAEAA, animation, Canadian, shatner, William Shatner
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