Sunday, January 7th, 2018 Posted by Jim Thacker

Meet the new directors of Google’s Spotlight Stories

Google Spotlight Stories: ‘Son of Jaguar’ & ‘Sonaria’ by Gnomon

Watch Gnomon’s Google Spotlight Stories: ‘Son of Jaguar’ & ‘Sonaria’ on Livestream.com. Meet the directors and crew of the recently released ‘Son of Jaguar’ and ‘Sonaria’ stories at Gnomon School of VFX, this January 16th.


Visitors to Gnomon’s Hollywood campus next Tuesday, 16 January, will have a unique opportunity to see Google’s two latest Spotlight Stories directors discuss their pioneering work in virtual reality storytelling.

The free event, which will also be streamed live online – you can watch via the player embedded above – features Emmy Award-winning director Jorge Gutiérrez and composer-turned-filmmaker Scot Stafford.

A fascinating insight into a new storytelling medium
Since 2013, Google’s Spotlight Stories program has been pioneering new forms of storytelling for mobile and virtual reality devices, building new backend technologies and enlisting leading artists to collaborate.

Previous directors have included Aardman’s Tim Ruffle, legendary Disney artist Glen Keane and, last year, Oscar-winning animator and director Patrick Osborne.



Gnomon’s free event gives visitors a chance to meet the directors of the two latest shorts in the series: wrestling comedy Son of Jaguar (trailer above) and the sound-driven, semi-abstract Sonaria.

Directed by Jorge Gutiérrez, also responsible for Reel FX’s Annie Award-winning feature The Book of Life, Son of Jaguar shows a once-mighty luchador facing the most important match of his life.

In contrast, Sonaria, the directorial debut of Scot Stafford, the composer of the scores for all 12 previous Spotlight Shorts, creates a vivid, semi-abstract journey through sound and light.

The directors will be joined on stage by producer – and former Pixar CG supervisor – David Eisenmann and technical art lead Cassidy Curtis, for a behind-the-scenes look at the two films.

Their talks, which promise a fascinating insight into the artistic and technical demands of working in a new creative medium, will be rounded off by a 30-minute audience Q&A session.

Free to attend, but register online in advance
Google Spotlight Stories: ‘Son of Jaguar’ & ‘Sonaria’ takes place at Gnomon’s Hollywood campus from 7.30-9.30pm on Tuesday 16 January 2018. Entry is free, but you’ll need to register online in advance.

If you can’t make it to LA, you can also watch the workshow free on Gnomon’s Livestream channel. You don’t need to register to watch the stream, and can ask questions via Twitter using the hashtag #gnomon.

Read more about the Google Spotlight Stories event on Gnomon’s website


Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon – School of Visual Effects, Games and Animation.