Memorial: Written, Directed, Animated and Produced by Matt Clausen and Jon Gutman

Matt Clausen is a third year graduate student in the MFA Animation and Digital Arts program at the USC School of Cinema-Television. From 1997-2003, while completing his BFA in Media Studies at The Columbus College of Art and Design, he directed the award winning not for profit art collective, Firexit, was Associate Creative Director at Scale Inc. and also created first film, A film for Exit Music, which exhibited internationally. At USC Clausen was production designer for the award winning films, The Flood and Memorabilia. He also created animations for the Labyrinth Project and collaborated on animation and visual design for The Chant of the Universal Flowering, which debuted at the Getty Institute in 2005. Another collaborative piece, Deconstuction, was included on the Gnomon Workshop DVD Digital Sets 4: 3D Image-Based Terrain, and was exhibited by Gnomon at Siggraph 2005. He is currently continuing work on his thesis film, The Godling. After graduation Clausen hopes to direct animated music videos and commercials as well as create storyboard/development for feature live action and animated films.

Jon Gutman is a third year graduate student in the MFA Animation and Digital Arts program at the USC School of Cinema-Television. In 2003, he received his BFA in Computer Art at the University at Buffalo in his home state of New York. While at USC, he has created visual effects for several award winning student productions including Sacrifice, The Tao of Pong, The Taking and Outside a Dream. Another collaborative piece, Deconstuction, was included on the Gnomon Workshop DVD Digital Sets 4: 3D Image-Based Terrain, and was exhibited by Gnomon at Siggraph 2005. He is currently in his final semester at USC and working on completing his thesis film, Stuck with You. Upon graduation, Gutman hopes to pursue a career in Visual Effects Direction for feature live-action and animated films.