Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

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Director

Mike Thurmeier

Bio

MICHAEL THURMEIER (Co-Director), a 1997 Sheridan College Classical Animation graduate, was hired by Blue Sky Studios as an animator in 1998. At Blue Sky, he worked on several award winning commercials, and contributed animation to the film “Fight Club” and to a memorable episode of “The Sopranos.” As Blue Sky transitioned to animated features, Thurmeier served as lead animator on the company’s debut film, “Ice Age,” released in 2002. This work earned him an Annie® nomination in the category of best character animation. Following “Ice Age,” Thurmeier was supervising animator on “Robots,” released in 2005, and on “Ice Age: The Meltdown” (2006), and he directed the Oscar nominated and Annie award winning short film “No Time for Nuts” (2006). He was promoted to senior supervising animator on Blue Sky's next film, “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” (2008).

Director- Job Description

The principal creative artist on a movie set. A director is usually (but not always) the driving artistic source behind the filming process, and communicates to actors the way that he/she would like a particular scene played. A director's duties might also include casting, script editing, shot selection, shot composition, and editing. Typically, a director has complete artistic control over all aspects of the movie, but it is not uncommon for the director to be bound by agreements with either a producer or a studio. In some large productions, a director will delegate less important scenes to a second unit director 2UD.