Michael Hemschoot

Michael "Ffish" Hemschoot (born 1972, Aurora, Colorado) is a director, animator and has held a variety of roles as a visual effects artist in major Hollywood films. Since 1996, Hemschoot has worked on films such as Mars Attacks!, What Dreams May Come, The Matrix, Hollow Man, Black Hawk Down, Minority Report and National Treasure.
He was lead animator on the Chuck Russell film Bless the Child and Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 76th Academy Awards. Currently, he is CEO at the animation studio he founded, Worker Studio, and also a partner in the live action production company, Travelin' Productions.

Hemschoot was raised in Parker, Colorado, but moved to California where he attended California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in the early 1990s and graduated from their Character Animation program.

He has worked with visual effects companies such as Warner Digital Studios, Creative Visual Effects, Inc., Manex Visual Effects and Asylum Visual Effects. After his relocation to Colorado, Hemschoot was an adjunct professor of animation at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.

In an interview with Oxford American, Hemschoot stated that his film sensibility was formed by the works of Hal Ashby, John Sayles, Sam Peckinpah, George Roy Hill, and Walter Hill, as well as by such later directors as Alfonso Cuarón, Lars von Trier, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Walter Salles.

Specifically noting animation in an article, Hemschoot selected 5 animated performances that influenced him creatively, including Bill Tytla's "Chernabog" from Fantasia and Stromboli from Pinocchio, Milt Kahl's "Shere Khan" from The Jungle Book, Glen Keane's "Professor Ratigan" from The Great Mouse Detective and John Lounsbery's "Tony" from Lady and the Tramp.

As producing, directing and writing partners, Hemschoot and actor Sean Bridgers formed the live-action production company called Travelin Productions, as well as an animation and visual effects company, Worker Studio.

They have completed two short films together: A Night at the Zoo in 2008, starring W. Earl Brown and Bridgers, then The Birthday Present in 2012, starring Joey Lauren Adams. Sean Bridgers and Hemschoot have also been developing a live action feature film that is a dark western set during the Civil War in the South, titled Arkansas Traveler. They filmed a trailer for Arkansas Traveler with some the cast currently attached to the project including Garret Dillahunt and Angela Bettis. They are reportedly developing an animated documentary based on the life of World War II hero and photo-recon pilot, John H. Ross.