Win Tin
Born	(1929-03-12) 12 March 1929 (age 83) Kyopinkauk, Pegu Division, British Burma
Nationality	Burmese
Other names	Maung Wan Zin (မောင်ဝန်ဇင်း), Paw Thit (ပေါ်သစ်), Pyay Soe (ပြည်စိုး), Ponnya (ပုည), Win Swe (ဝင်းဆွေ), Thutethi (သုတေသီ), A Single Editor (အယ်ဒီတာ တဦး၊)
Alma mater	Rangoon University
Occupation	Journalist and Politician
Political party	National League for Democracy
Parents	U Pu Daw Mar

Win Tin (Burmese: ဝင်းတင်, [wɪ́ɴ tɪ̀ɴ], born March 12, 1929) is a politician and former political prisoner in Burma. Arrested in July 1989 because of his senior position in the National League for Democracy (NLD) and for his writings, he spent 19 years in prison. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature, modern history and political science at the Rangoon University in 1953.

Win Tin was serving a 20 year sentence on charges including "anti-government propaganda." One of the reasons for his detention is his attempt to inform the United Nations of ongoing human rights violations in Burmese prisons. At 81 years of age, he is in a poor state of health, exacerbated by his treatment in prison, which has included torture, inadequate access to medical treatment, being held in a cell designed for military dogs, without bedding, and being deprived of food and water for long periods of time.^[1]

Since the start of 2006 he had not been able to receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

In 2001, Win Tin was awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for his efforts to defend and promote and right to freedom of expression. That year, he was also awarded the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award.

He was freed on 23 September 2008, after serving 19 years imprisonment;^[2]. He was a famous writer in Burma.^{[citation needed]}

After his release from prison Win Tin made efforts to reorganise the NLD. He relaunched the weekly meetings of the party's Central Executive Committee which had been irregularly held since 2003. He also resumed a regular roundtable called "Youth and Future" which Aung San Suu Kyi has participated in the past. Win Tin visited family members of political prisoners to offer moral support.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Reporters Without Borders
• IFEX
• Golden Pen of Freedom
• UNESCO

Win Oo (Burmese: ဝင်းဦး; pronounced: [wɪ́ɴ ʔú]; 13 March 1935 – 14 December 1988) was a Burmese actor, director, writer, singer and publisher.

Youth[link]

Win Oo was born Hla Myint in Yangon to his parents U Ba Nyunt (Chit-dukkha) and Daw Hning Ye. He studied at TTC Teacher Training College. In 1952, he discontinued his university education and joined the Burmese Defence Army. He left as an army captain in 1962.

Entertainment career[link]

His first movie was Nit-yauk hte Nay-chin-dai which was adapted from a novel he wrote. He both directed and starred in Sound-Ain-Mat and Mone-Shwe-Ye. He formed the Sandar movie company, established first "color offset printer" in Burma, and published Sanda Magazine which was a best selling magazine.^{[citation needed]} By the end of his career he had written 31 novels.

Filmography[link]

• Winoo.gif

  Win Oo Photo

• ‘Saung Ein-mek’ (Winter Dream)
• ‘Hmon Shwe Yee’
• Maung Doe Cherry Myay (Our Favourite Land of Cherry)
• Ngwe Hlaing Zar Paw Hmar (1988)
• Atwe Atar (Attachment)
• Nay-Min-Thoe-Chae-Hlan-Koe-Sal (90 steps to Sun)

References[link]

• Cartoon Win Aung's famous artist published in 2006.

External links[link]

• Myanmar chronicle
• Win Oo at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Cinema of Burma Films A-Z • Films by year • Actors • Directors • Cinematographers • Producers • Screenwriters • Myanmar Academy Awards  • Myanmar Motion Picture Museum  • Myanmar Motion Picture Organization

John Lasseter
Lasseter at the Austin Film Festival on October 22, 2011. Photograph taken by Vanessa Lua.
Born	John Alan Lasseter (1957-01-12) January 12, 1957 (age 55) Hollywood, California
Occupation	Animator, film director, Chief Creative Officer, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Principal Creative Advisor, Walt Disney Imagineering
Years active	1978–present
Spouse	Nancy Lasseter (1979–present)

John Alan Lasseter (born January 12, 1957) is an American animator, film director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.^[1]

Lasseter's first job was with The Walt Disney Company, where he became an animator. Next, he joined Lucasfilm, where he worked on the then-groundbreaking use of CGI animation. After the Graphics Group of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs and became Pixar in 1986, Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer and he directed Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Cars, and Cars 2. Lasseter is also the creator of Cars.

He has won two Academy Awards, for Animated Short Film (for Tin Toy), as well as a Special Achievement Award (for Toy Story).^[2]

Early years[link]

Lasseter was born in Hollywood, California. His mother, Jewell Mae (née Risley), was an art teacher at Bell Gardens High School, and his father, Paul Eual Lasseter, was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership.^[3][4][5] Lasseter grew up in Whittier, California. His mother's profession contributed to his growing preoccupation with animation. He often drew cartoons during church services at the Church of Christ his family attended. As a child, Lasseter would race home from school to watch Chuck Jones cartoons on television. While in high school, he read The Art of Animation by Bob Thomas. The book covered the history of Disney animation and the making of a book about Sleeping Beauty, which made Lasseter realize he wanted to do animation himself. When he saw Disney's 1963 film The Sword in the Stone, he finally made the decision that he should become an animator.^[6]

His education began at Pepperdine University. It was the alma mater of both his parents and his siblings. However, he heard of a new program at California Institute of the Arts and decided to leave Pepperdine to follow his dream of becoming an animator. His mother further encouraged him to take up a career in animation, and in 1975 he enrolled as the second student in a new animation course at the California Institute of the Arts. Lasseter was taught by three members of Disney's "Nine Old Men" team of veteran animators – Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston – his classmates included Brad Bird, John Musker, Henry Selick and Tim Burton.^[7] During his time there, he produced two animated shorts; Lady and the Lamp (1979) and Nitemare (1980), which both won the student Academy Award for Animation.^[8]

Disney (first time)[link]

On graduation, Lasseter joined The Walt Disney Company, and was promoted quickly up the ranks to a Jungle Cruise skipper at Disneyland in Anaheim.^[9] Lasseter later obtained a job as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation, but felt something was missing; after 101 Dalmatians, which in his opinion was the film where Disney had reached its highest plateau, the studio had lost momentum and was criticized for often repeating itself without adding any new ideas or innovations.^[10][11]

In 1980 or 1981, he coincidentally came across some video tapes from one of the then new computer-graphics conferences, who showed some of the very beginnings of computer animation, primarily floating spheres and such, which he experienced as a revelation.^[12] But it wasn't until shortly after, when he was invited by his friends Jerry Rees and Bill Kroyer, while working on Mickey's Christmas Carol, to come and see the first lightcycle sequences for an upcoming film entitled Tron, featuring (then) state-of-the-art computer generated imagery, that he really saw the huge potential of this new technology in animation. Up to that time, the studio had used a multiplane camera to add depth to its animation. Lasseter realized that computers could be used to make films with three dimensional backgrounds where traditionally animated characters could interact to add a new, visually stunning depth that had not been conceived before.

Later, he and Glen Keane talked about how great it would be to make an animated feature where the background was computer animated, and then showed Keane the book The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas Disch, which he thought would be a good candidate for the film. Keane agreed, but first they decided to do a short test film to see how it worked out, and chose Where the Wild Things Are, a decision based on the fact that Disney had considered producing a feature based on the works of Maurice Sendak. Satisfied with the result, Lasseter, Keane and Thomas L. Wilhite went on with the project, especially Lasseter who dedicated himself to it, while Keane eventually went on to work with The Great Mouse Detective.^[13]

Lasseter and his colleagues unknowingly stepped on some of their direct superiors' toes by circumventing them in their enthusiasm to get the project into motion. During a pitch meeting for the film to two of them, animation administrator Ed Hansen, and head of Disney studios, Ron W. Miller, the project was cancelled, due to lack of perceived cost benefits for the mix of traditional and computer animation.^[14] A few minutes after the meeting, Lasseter was summoned by Hansen to his office, where John was told that his employment in the Walt Disney Studios had been terminated. The Brave Little Toaster would later become a 2D animated feature film directed by one of John's friends, Jerry Rees, and some of the staff of Pixar would be involved in the film alongside Lasseter.

Lucasfilm/Pixar[link]

John Lasseter with George Lucas in 2009.

While putting together a crew for the planned feature, he had made some contacts in the computer industry, among them Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull at Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Group. After being fired, Lasseter visited a computer graphics conference at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, where he met and talked to Catmull again. Before the day was over, Lasseter had made a deal to work with Catmull and his colleagues on a project that resulted in their first computer animated short: The Adventures of André and Wally B. Because Catmull was not allowed to hire animators, he was given the title "Interface Designer";^[15] "Nobody knew what that was but they didn’t question it in budget meetings".^[16] The short turned out to be more revolutionary than Lasseter first had visualized before he joined Lucasfilm. His original idea had been to create only the backgrounds on computers, but in the final short everything was computer animated, including the characters. After this short CGI film, things would continue to grow until it became Toy Story, the first ever computer-animated feature film.

Due to George Lucas's financially crippling divorce, he was forced to sell off Lucasfilm Computer Graphics. It was acquired by Steve Jobs in 1986, and became Pixar. Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer. He also personally directed Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Cars, and Cars 2.

He has won two Academy Awards, for Animated Short Film (Tin Toy), as well as a Special Achievement Award (Toy Story).^[2] Lasseter has been nominated on four other occasions – in the category of Animated Feature, for both Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Cars (2006), in the Original Screenplay category for Toy Story (1995) and in the Animated Short category for Luxo, Jr. (1986), while the short Knick Knack (1989) was selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time.^[17]

Lasseter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California on November 1, 2011.^[18]

Back at Disney[link]

Disney purchased Pixar in April 2006, and Lasseter was named chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was also named principal creative advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he helps design attractions for Disney's theme parks. He reports directly to Disney President and CEO Robert Iger, bypassing Disney's studio and theme park executives. He also received green-light power on films with Roy E. Disney's consent.

In December 2006, he announced that Disney will start producing animated shorts that will be released theatrically once more. Lasseter said he sees this medium as an excellent way to train and discover new talent in the company as well as a testing ground for new techniques and ideas. The shorts will be in 2D, CGI or a combination of both.^[19]

Lasseter is a close friend and admirer of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, and has been executive producer on several of Miyazaki's films for their release in the United States, also overseeing the dubbing of the films for their English language soundtrack. The gentle forest spirit Totoro from Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro makes an appearance as a plush toy in Toy Story 3.

Other work[link]

Lasseter drew the most widely known versions of the BSD Daemon, a cartoon mascot for the BSD Unix operating system.^[20]

He owns the "Marie E." steam locomotive, which is an H.K. Porter engine. The "Marie E." was once owned by Ollie Johnston, who was one of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men". In May 2007 and again in June 2010, the locomotive visited, and was run by Lasseter at the Pacific Coast Railroad in Santa Margarita, CA alongside the original Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad "Retlaw 1" coaches.^[21]

Personal life[link]

John Lasseter with his wife Nancy Lasseter at the 2006 Annie Awards red carpet at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California.

Lasseter lives in Glen Ellen, California with his wife Nancy, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, whom he met at a computer graphics conference. He has five sons, their ages ranging from 14 to 33. The family has a Dachshund named Frank and a cat named Moocher.^[22]

The Lasseters own Lasseter Family Winery, located in Glen Ellen, CA.^[23]

John is an avid NASCAR fan and loves to attend the races at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.^[7]

On May 2, 2009, Lasseter received an Honorary Doctorate degree from Pepperdine University.^[24] He gave a commencement address where he encouraged the graduating class of more than 500 students never to let anyone tarnish their dreams.

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

Short films[link]

See also[link]

• List of Pixar films
• List of Pixar shorts

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Lasseter

• John Lasseter at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Verrier and Dawn C. Chmielewski, Fabled Film Company May Get a Reanimator, Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2006
• Fortune Magazine interview with John Lasseter – includes biographic information
• KCRW's The Treatment: John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton (02/04)
• KCRW's The Treatment: John Lasseter (06/06)

Christopher Tin 田志仁
Born	1976 California
Occupation	Composer
Years active	2001–present
Influenced by	Ennio Morricone, Joel McNeely
Website
http://christophertin.com/

Christopher Tin (Chinese: 田志仁) is an American composer whose work is primarily classical, with a world music influence. He won two Grammy Awards for his classical crossover album, Calling All Dawns. He is also a composer for films, video games and commercials. Tin is best known for his composition Baba Yetu, featured in the 2005 computer game Civilization IV.

Life and career[link]

Career[link]

Christopher Tin, a Chinese American, was born and raised in California.^[1] He worked on his undergraduate education at Oxford and Stanford University. At Stanford, he was active in the taiko group,^[2] Stanford Taiko, and conducted the a cappella group, Stanford Talisman,^[3][4] several musicals,^[5] and choral concerts at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.^[6] While there, he roomed with video game designer Soren Johnson.^[7] He graduated in 1998,^[5] receiving a BA with Honors in Music Composition and English Literature. He continued to study at Stanford and received an MA in Humanities in 1999.^[8] He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, becoming the first to be awarded one for film scoring,^[9] to study composition and conducting at the Royal College of Music in London, and he graduated with a MMus with Distinction. He was also the winner of the Horovitz composition prize, and graduated with the highest grades in his class.^[1] He was also commissioned by the US Embassy in London to compose music for a string quartet.^[5] In 2003, he became a Sundance Institute Film Music Lab Fellow.^[10]

Tin returned to Los Angeles and continued his career by producing TV show music and working as an intern with Hans Zimmer, composer for The Lion King and Gladiator, and Joel McNeely, with whom he worked on Mulan II.^[5] John Ottman contacted him to work on X-Men 2, for which he composed several original themes.^[11] He also composed "Daydream" for Apple Inc.'s music software, GarageBand, and the music for an international advertisement of Puma AG. He also worked on TV show music, notably for Nova,^[12] The History Channel, and Discovery Channel.^[13]

"Baba Yetu"[link]

By far his biggest break came in 2005, when Soren Johnson, his roommate at Stanford and now working as a game designer at Firaxis Games, asked him to compose the theme song for Civilization IV. Tin responded with "Baba Yetu," a choral piece performed by Stanford Talisman. Its lyrics are a Swahili version of the Lord's Prayer. It garnered a huge critical response, with over 20 reviewers singling out the theme on IGN, GameSpy, and Game Shark,^[14] and is a persistent favorite of blog posts.^[15] Contemporary Tommy Tallarico called it "incredible".^[16] and the piece is a staple of the concert tour Video Games Live, which Tallarico organizes. It won Tin two awards at the GANG (Game Audio Network Guild) Awards in 2007.

On December 5, 2010, it was reported that "Baba Yetu" was nominated for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in the category for 'Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists', making it the first video game theme nominated for a Grammy Award.^[17] On February 13, 2011, it was announced as the winner of its category, making it also the first piece of music composed for a video game to win a Grammy Award.^[18]

"Baba Yetu" has also been performed at various venues and events around the world, such as the opening ceremonies of the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung Taiwan, The Dubai Fountain (the world’s largest water feature), concert programs at The Kennedy Center and Disney Concert Hall, and many more. Additionally, "Baba Yetu" is one of the most widely performed pieces of contemporary choral music, with hundreds of amateur choirs singing it internationally. In January 2011, Calling All Dawns was nominated for The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in the Contemporary Classical Album category. Additionally, "Baba Yetu" won in the Song Used in Film/TV/Multimedia and World Beat Song category.^[19]

[edit] Calling All Dawns

Tin released his classical crossover album Calling All Dawns in 2009. The album won two Grammy Awards in the 53rd Grammy Awards for Best Classical Crossover Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for the song, "Baba Yetu". The win marks the first time in history that a Grammy has been awarded to a composition written for a video game.

The album is a song-cycle in three uninterrupted movements: Day, Night, and Dawn (corresponding to life, death, and rebirth). The twelve songs are sung in twelve languages, ranging from Swahili to Polish, from French to Persian to Maori. The lyrics are taken from diverse sources, including the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, ancient Persian and Japanese poetry, and lyrics by contemporary writers. Vocal traditions include African choral music, opera, medieval chant, Irish keening, and more.

The album features performances from over 200 musicians on six continents, including Frederica von Stade, Anonymous 4, the Soweto Gospel Choir, Dulce Pontes, Sussan Deyhim and many more.

Works[link]

Tin's works include both concert pieces and incidental music for films, TV shows, video games, commercials, and other multimedia applications. His works, scores and clients include:

• Calling All Dawns (debut 2009 album) recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Soweto Gospel Choir, Lia / りあ, Aoi Tada / 多田葵, Kaori Omura / 大村香織, Jia Ruhan, Dulce Pontes, Anonymous 4, Frederica von Stade, Sussan Deyhim, Stanford Talisman, On Ensemble.
• X2: X-Men United
• Lilo and Stitch 2
• Dante's Inferno
• Civilization IV
• Pixar's Cars Online
• Pirates of the Caribbean Online
• Pocket God
• Apple
• Puma
• Microsoft
• Nokia
• Verizon
• Morgan Stanley
• Guess
• The Gap
• PBS
• Discovery Channel
• History Channel
• New York Times Television

Collaborative projects[link]

In 2009, Christopher Tin and multi-instrumentalist and producer Shoji Kameda, aka "Kametron" formed an LA based production duo, Stereo Alchemy. Their debut album, God of Love, was released 14 February 2012.^[20]

Awards[link]

• 53rd Grammy Awards: Winner - Best Classical Crossover Album (2011)
• 53rd Grammy Awards: Winner - Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) (2011)
• International Songwriting Competition: 1st Place - World Music Category (2010)
• John Lennon Songwriting Contest: Finalist - World Music Category (2010)
• Horovitz Composition Prize at Royal College of Music
• GANG Awards: Best Original Vocal Song - Choral ("Baba Yetu"), Rookie of the Year (2007)
• USA Songwriting Competition: World Music Category ("Baba Yetu") - Honorable Mention (2010)
• GANG Awards: Best Adapted Soundtrack ('Pirates of the Caribbean') - Nominee (2007)
• Independent Music Award: Best Song for Film/TV/Multimedia ("Baba Yetu") - Winner (2010)
• Independent Music Award: Best World Beat Song ("Baba Yetu") - Winner (2010)
• Independent Music Award: Best Contemporary Classical Album ('Calling All Dawns') - Nominee (2010)
• Gamespy: Best Music (Civilization IV) - Honorable Mention (2005)
• Regional Emmy Award: Best Historical Feature ('Fishbowl') (2007)
• Archaeological Channel Film and Video Festival: Best Music ('Life in Limbo') - Honorable Mention (2009)
• Sundance Composer's Fellowship (2003)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Stereo Alchemy official site
• Christopher Tin at the Internet Movie Database
• Christopher Tin at MySpace
• Christopher Tin at Youtube

A1 Tin Maung (Burmese: တင်မောင် [tɪ̀ɴ màʊɴ]; 1913 – 4 October 2000) was a two-time Burmese Academy Award-winning film actor, director and producer.

Biography[link]

Tin Maung was born in Pyay, a small town in Lower Burma during the British colonial rule. The youngest brother of Nyi Pu, a famous Burmese actor of early Burmese cinema, Tin Maung began his film career at age 10, in 1923, appearing in Taw Myaing Zon Ga Lwan Aung Phan. In 1934, while enrolled in Rangoon University, Tin Maung joined the A1 Film Company–the preeminent film studio of the time to appear in the film Mya Ganaing. He quickly became known as A1 Tin Maung, one of the studio's stable of stars.

In 1937, Tin Maung directed Aung Thabyay about the final days of King Thibaw, Burma's last monarch, who died an embittered man in exile in India. However, few Burmese got to see it initially, as the colonial government did not allow to the movie to play at theaters.^[1] In 1942, during World War II, Tin Maung enlisted in the Burma Independence Army to fight against the British colonialists.

After the war, Tin Maung returned to a film career at A1, increasingly focused on directing. He visited several Asian countries (Indonesia in 1950, India in 1954 and Japan in 1955) to learn directing and film production techniques. He won the Burmese Academy Award for best actor with the 1953 film Yadanabon. He also won another academy award for best director with Ko Ye, Toe Ye, Soe Soe Ye in 1967. Tin Maung was chairman of the Film Council (later, Myanmar Motion Picture Organization) from 1964 to 1966.

Tin Maung was married to Tin Tin, and had six children. He lived in Yangon and died on 4 October 2000.

Filmography[link]

• Mya Ganaing (1934)
• Ta Lane Nit Lane
• Chit Ta Mya
• Aung Thabyay (1937)
• Chit Yay Sin (1940)
• Chit Sa Noe
• Min Kaba Le
• bar ma hti
• Chain Tan Pyi
• Chit Thet Wai (1952)
• Hpuza Shin
• Pyo Do Maung
• bhain Ma tar ya
• Nit Mwar A Theal
• Moe Nya Einmet Phyu
• thu ka Lae chit ya mae
• ta man kyar
• Zarti Thway
• Zin Ma so taw main ka lay
• Chit Myay
• Po Pyon Cho (1955)
• Chit Mone Man
• Yout Sein
• Gone Ye Ma Thu
• Myay De Thitsa
• Latt Oo Sayar
• Po Hnin Phyu
• Yin We Khin Twe Zaw Lay Ye
• a kyaw a mar
• Yadanabon (1953)
• Ko Ye, Toe Ye, Soe Soe Ye (1967)

v t e Cinema of Burma Films A-Z • Films by year • Actors • Directors • Cinematographers • Producers • Screenwriters • Myanmar Academy Awards  • Myanmar Motion Picture Museum  • Myanmar Motion Picture Organization

References[link]