The team of Trevor and Morgan Hunter won the Outstanding Visual Effects Award for the Apple TV+ show “Jane” at the second annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards this past weekend.
Trevor and Morgan Hunter are still pinching themselves after receiving one of television’s biggest accolades last weekend.
The Desbarats and their longtime animators were stunned to learn that the effects team at Toronto-based production company Thinking Ship Entertainment had won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects. jane – Kids programming on Apple TV+.
She graduated in 2003 from St. Mary’s College in Sault Ste. Marie, Morgan has long dreamed of being recognized for her work on the big stage.
“In high school, when I was making demo reels for college entrance exams, I imagined writing storyboards and receiving awards,” she said. “I also had a picture of me in a sparkling dress winning an award. My family grew up always watching the Emmys and the Oscars.”
“The Emmys were far from what we had in mind,” her husband added. “It was pretty surreal.”
Trevor is the company’s animation director and has overseen a team of 36 animators, including his wife. jane Come back to life.
Inspired by the work of Dr. Jane Goodall, the show follows a young girl named Jane who goes on fantastical adventures to save animals. Her environmentally conscious Jane and her best friend chimpanzee Greybeard find ways to help various endangered species.
“I’m happy to be working on a television show that inspires and promotes positivity around the world,” Morgan said. “It really opens your eyes to the environment. In fact, we had to study and study the animals thoroughly before touching on animation.”
Trevor and Morgan first met in 2004 when they enrolled in the animation program at Algonquin College in Ottawa.
Since then, they have traveled all over the continent and worked on numerous shows and films for different companies.
Whether they live in Vancouver, Halifax, New York or California, hunters said: sue today They always found ways to stay busy while building on the skills they gained from previous projects.
“We’ve lived in a lot of places. Sometimes you have to take risks if you want to make a profit,” Trevor said.
Their most notable projects include animated work in films such as: Ted, Twilight, Paw Patrol: The Movie, The Smurfs, My Little Pony: The Movie, and spy in disguise.
However, their efforts jane It’s the first time any Des Barats resident has been awarded this kind of honor at the second annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards ceremony held at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles last weekend. It is about.
Matt Bishop, producer and partner at Sinking Ship Entertainment, also offered words of encouragement to Trevor in the team’s acceptance speech.
“We had a really good team that came together at the right time,” Trevor said. “Honestly, it was a really great team effort. We worked hard, but we had a lot of fun.”
Since the pandemic, the couple has been living 30 minutes east of the Sioux River with their two children, Genesis and Logan, and continuing to work remotely at Thinking Ship Entertainment.
“I missed the trees and the water,” she said. “We have been very fortunate to have had some good outcomes come out of the pandemic.”
The Hunters have worked and lived separately at various times during their 20-year careers, but now they share an office space in the basement of their home, so they are rarely apart from each other. do not have.
“We live together at home, we work together, and we’re both still alive, so that’s a good thing,” he laughed.
“We always want the best that we can for each other,” she added.
While they wait about three months for their Emmy awards to be shipped, the hunters hope their story will remind younger generations to never be afraid to follow their dreams.
“If it’s something you know you want to do, you should try,” he said. “You may fail, it may not work out for a while, but you just have to keep going. With a lot of effort and a little luck, it will work out eventually.”
“If you care about it and work hard enough, good things will happen,” she added. “Take risks – sometimes it pays off.”
