Raúl daSilva

Infobox actor
name = Raúl daSilva


birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1933|06|12
location = Brooklyn, New York, New York, U.S.
height = 6'
parents =
spouse =
yearsactive =
homepage =
awards = Gold Medal, New York International Film and TV Festival
1975 "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"Gold Venus Award, Virgin Island International Film Festival
1975 "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"Golden Eagle, Cine Film Festival
1975 "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"Cindy Statuette, IFPA
1975 "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"Chris Statuette, Colombus International Film Festival
1975 "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"Certificate of Merit, Chicago International Film Festival
1975 "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Motion picture producer-writer-director Raúl daSilva (born June 12 1933) is a TV commercial and business documentary filmmaker, and an expert in the field of photoanimation.

Biography

Raúl daSilva is the author of seven books including "The World of Animation", a first place national book festival prizewinner. He is also recognized internationally as a filmmaker and writer-director. His film career began in 1965 at the Jamison Handy Organization of Detroit, Michigan. Starting as a writer in the animation department, Raul quickly moved to live action and became a director of several hundred short films for clients such as General Motors, Merck & Co., Chevrolet, and The Boy Scouts of America. It was at this time that he became a producer director of television commercials and significant public relation films.

Raul then went to Cessna Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas where he created the first audiovisual marketing tools for the general aviation company. He combined his Navy flight experience with the skills he learned at the Detroit studio. Shortly thereafter, he pioneered screen communications for the international pr agency Burson-Marsteller.

Raul has been an adjunct instructor on the script scenario at St. John Fisher College and a lecturer in screenwriting and directing at NYU, Rochester Institute of Technology, Brooklyn College, and Ithaca College. He met one of his mentors, TV pioneer writer Rod Serling at Ithaca College where they both lectured. Following that, he worked with Rod Serling on film productions and when the celebrated playwright died at age 50, Raul was asked to write Rod Serling’s Eulogy by the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

Actor Sterling Hayden, who as a young man had been a master of tall ships urged Raul to bring to the screen what turned out to be a critically acclaimed, six time international film festival prizewinning visualization of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Not able to locate a large budget for a complete live action production, he used his long time expertise in the technique of photoanimation, a technology that he learned at the Jamison Handy Organization’s animation department. This allowed him to inexpensively bring to the screen the efforts of illustrators from the 19th and 20th centuries who sought to breathe life into the timeless epic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. After some research he discovered that British actor Sir Michael Redgrave had taught the epic poem as a schoolmaster. After contracting the actor Raul flew to London to have Sir Michael narrate the epic poem. Two years in production, the film demonstrates the most complex work in existence today on the craft of photoanimation due to the mixed combination of movements and exposures between the vertical camera and the compass rose movements of the camera stand compound or platform where the graphic material is placed.

The production was widely acclaimed by the critics and recognized by six international film festival juries throughout the United States that awarded five first place prizes to the film. In this effort, Raul renewed interest for this 1798 epic poem that speaks to the sanctity of all life on Earth. [cite web|url=http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/dasilva.htm|title=Technology in Education: A New Generation Meets the Ancient Mariner] The film has been distributed throughout North America since 1985 and was also broadcasted in Australia.

Raúl has been on the Spiritual Path since 1967 after a life changing mystical experience while studying writing at the University of Pittsburgh. His first such mystical experience, a Marian vision [ [http://www.biomindsuperpowers.com/Pages/GAMreviews.html The Great Apparitions of Mary] ] , took place at age five at New York City’s Gouverneur Hospital. Raúl has written magazine articles on spirituality and has presented lectures throughout New York City on the eternal spirit in the ephemeral human experience.

Raul daSilva currently resides in New Haven, CT, where he operates Studio Merrywood and works on his fiction projects with a break now and then to write website columns. [cite web | url=http://www.newenglandfilm.com/news/archives/2008/07/script.htm|title=Importance of Quality Script]

Filmography

As Director

*"Conflict and Resolution" (1980)
*"Nat Hurst, MD, a 20th Century American Physician" (1976) (TV)
*"Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1975)" ... aka The Strangest Voyage (USA: TV title)
*"Hidden Battlefield" (1973)
*"No Whistles, Bells, or Bedlam" (1973)
*"The Silent Drum" (1973)
*"Craftsmen in Concert" (1969)
*"Rochester, First Person Plural" (1969)
*"Yesterday" (1968)

As Miscellaneous Crew

*"Fear No Evil" (1981) (creative consultant)
... aka Lucifer (Philippines: English title)
... aka Mark of the Beast
*"Standing Tall" (1978) (TV) (script consultant)

As Writer

*"Nat Hurst, MD, a 20th Century American Physician" (1976) (TV) (written by)
*"Yesterday" (1968) (writer)

As Producer

*"No Whistles, Bells, or Bedlam" (1973) (producer)
*"The Silent Drum" (1973) (producer)

Books Written

*"The Corner Where Night Begins & 16 Other Stories", short story anthology, a salute to Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone genrecompleted and currently with literary agency. The prologue to this book, "My Friend Rod Serling and His Legacy",is published in the July/August 2008 FATE Magazine.
*"Making Money in Film and Video: (1st and 2nd editions)" Simon and Schuster, 1986 and Butterworth-Heinemann. 1992.
*"The World of Animation" [Recipient 1st place, national Book Festival Award) Eastman Kodak, 1979
*"The Business of Filmmaking", Eastman Kodak, 1978
*"SOUND: Magnetic Recording for Motion Pictures", Eastman Kodak, 1977
*"The Motion Picture Production Manual", Eastman Kodak, 1972
*"In Flight Aerobics and Transitions" Senuta Publishing Co. 1969.

References

External links

*imdb name|0002352