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Chris Van Allsburg

Chris Van Allsburg (born June 18, 1949) is an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for Jumanji (1981) and The Polar Express (1985), both of which he also wrote; both were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. For his contribution as a children's illustrator he was 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in April 2012.

Life

Van Allsburg was born in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, the second child of Richard and Doris Christianen Van Allsburg. Van Allsburg's older sister was born in 1947. When Chris was born, his family lived in an old farm house. His family then moved to a new house at the edge of Grand Rapids when Chris was three years old. His new house was located close enough to his elementary school that he could walk there for class. His family later moved again to East Grand Rapids. He attended middle school and high school at East Grand Rapids. Van Allsburg attended the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Michigan, which at that time included the art school. He majored in sculpture, learning bronze casting, wood carving, resin molding, and other techniques. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1972 and continued his education at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), graduating with a master's degree in sculpture in 1975. After graduation, Van Allsburg set up a sculpture studio.

Rhythm King

Rhythm King Records Ltd was an independent record label founded in the mid-1980s by Martin Heath, Adele Nozedar, DJ Jay Strongman and James Horrocks.

History

Beginnings

Starting out as an offshoot of Daniel Miller's critically acclaimed Mute Records Rhythm King's initial focus was dance music - specifically house music, acid house, acid jazz, sampling culture and hip hop/rap. Strongman's rap/funk offshoot, Flame Records, signed proto-gangsta rapper Schoolly D and Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers amongst others. James Horrocks left the label at the end of 1987 and subsequently went on to form React Music Limited in 1990 which also had a focus upon dance music. This left Martin Heath in sole charge of the label; however by the beginning of 1988 Rhythm King was to enjoy a period of short term success which went hand in hand with the dominance dance music had in the UK singles chart from the late 1980s to the beginning of the 2000s.

January 1988 - First UK Singles Chart breakthrough - The Beatmasters / Bomb the Bass

Robert Zemeckis

Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker and screenwriter. Zemeckis is credited as one of the greatest "visual storytellers" in filmmaking and is a pioneer of visual effects. He has directed some of the biggest blockbuster hits of the past few decades. He first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of Romancing the Stone (1984) and the science-fiction comedy Back to the Future film trilogy, as well as the live-action/animated family comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). In the 1990s he diversified into more dramatic fare, including 1994's Forrest Gump, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Directing. The films he has directed have ranged across a wide variety of genres, for both adults and families.

His films are characterized by an interest in state-of-the-art special effects, including the early use of the insertion of computer graphics into live-action footage in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and the pioneering performance capture techniques seen in The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007) and A Christmas Carol (2009). Though Zemeckis has often been pigeonholed as a director interested only in effects, his work has been defended by several critics, including David Thomson, who wrote that "No other contemporary director has used special effects to more dramatic and narrative purpose."

The Polar Express

The Polar Express is a children's book written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1985. The book is now widely considered to be a classic Christmas story for young children although the point has been challenged. It was praised for its detailed illustrations and calm, relaxing storyline. For the work Van Allsburg won the annual Caldecott Medal for illustration of an American children's picture book in 1986, his second. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." It was one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.

The book is set partially in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where the steam engine of the Coopersville & Marne railway once traveled- featuring the same line of steam engine as the 1225), the author's home town. It was adapted as an Oscar-nominated motion-capture film in 2004 starring Tom Hanks and directed by Robert Zemeckis with Van Allsburg serving as an executive producer on the film. At the premier of the movie, Van Allsburg stated that Pere Marquette 1225, formerly owned by Michigan State University and now owned by the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, Michigan, was the inspiration for the story line. He played on the engine as a child when it was on display and was inspired by the number 1225, which to him was 12/25, Christmas Day. The real 1225 was used to create the animated image of the engine and all the locomotive sounds were recorded from the 1225.