Photograph by George Sakkestad
Young filmmaker Craig Akimoto shows off the scanner he used to help make his computer-animated film.
Young filmmaker lets his work do the talking
Craig Akimoto goes far with his killer whale
By Steve Enders
Craig Akimoto, an enterprising 10-year-old filmmaker from Saratoga, doesn't have much to say.
In fact, during a recent interview, the shy guy hid behind his latest work, a script telling the latest adventures of his favorite character, Tom the killer whale.
It was the same killer whale who, along with his friend Adam the bald eagle, gained Craig some prestigious awards from both local and national youth filmmakers' organizations recently.
Just last month, Craig, for his film Tom's Outer Space Adventure, was honored as one of 16 finalists in the international National Children's Film Festival in Indianapolis, Ind.
The international festival features the crème de la crème of youth talent in film each year and also plays to a very distinguished advisory board and panel of judges that include some of the country's top broadcasting, film and education executives.
Although he didn't place in the big competition, Craig received a first-rate lesson in what it takes to make an attention-grabbing film.
The Blue Hills Elementary School student did, however, take first place in the regional version of the film festival, held at San Jose's Children's Discovery Museum, before moving on to the big show last year. Craig even has a very slick triangular, see-through trophy to show for it, hidden among all the soccer and bowling trophies above the family fireplace.
It all began, his mother said, in an art class he took in Saratoga two years ago. There, along with art instructor Eric Hoffman, Craig shaped his characters and the story, in which the two adventurous animals take off in the Space Shuttle to meet the inhabitants of our solar system's newfound 13th planet.
On the journey, Tom and Adam escape trouble from a black hole and make friends with the aliens on the planet before landing to a hero's welcome back on earth.
The film is a cartoon, with Craig serving as the screenwriter, narrator and artist for the entire production.
He created the animation on the family's computer using some pretty sophisticated animation software and with some help from Hoffman.
To make the film, Craig said, he spent about three months scanning in his drawings to the computer, and using the software to make them move.
He also commissioned family friend and musician Jay Ongg to supply the film's original score, which runs throughout the film.
Craig's younger brother, Kirk, also does some animating. Together, the two have produced a short feature based on a recent family ski vacation.
After Craig made Tom's Outer Space Adventure, Hoffman encouraged him to enter the film--it's about five minutes long--at the Santa Clara County Fair, where he became the youngest filmmaker ever to show his work.
Like any animation fan, Craig said, he keeps up with today's popular cartoons. He knows Steven Spielberg only as the creator of the Animaniacs cartoon show.
And following in the footsteps of the many shy film stars and producers before him, Craig looks away and gives a simple "yes" when asked if he thinks he'd like to be a cartoonist when he grows up.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
