JENNIFER WOLFE

Los Angeles-based content strategist & technology storyteller

Nicholas Arioli Shoots for the Moon with ‘Coin Operated’ | ANIMATIONWorld

‘Coin Operated’ ©2017 Two Ghosts, LLC.
‘Coin Operated’ ©2017 Two Ghosts, LLC.

AnimationWorld Magazine — November 16, 2017
Nicholas Arioli Shoots for the Moon with ‘Coin Operated’

Coin Operated, a new CG-animated short from first-time filmmaker Nicholas Arioli currently making the festival rounds, spans 70 years in the life of one naive explorer.

In the five-minute short, a young boy dreams of star-ships and space travel, opening a lemonade stand in hopes of financing his ambitions. Because becoming a space explorer takes time. And money.

Written and directed by Arioli, and produced by Jennifer Dahlman, Coin Operated has been selected to screen at more than 20 festivals, including the recent AFI Fest, where it played ahead of both Studio Ponoc’s Mary and the Witch’s Flower and Cartoon Saloon’s The Breadwinner. The short has won seven major awards along the way, including Best Short at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and Audience Awards for Animation at the Brooklyn Film Festival and the Palm Springs Int’l Shortfest.

Brought to life using Nimble Collective’s cloud-based production platform, Coin Operated will be presented at the CTN Expo held this weekend in Burbank. The short is scheduled to screen on Saturday as part of the Artella Saturday Morning Short Film Fest, and Arioli will also be speaking on a panel entitled “First Time Directors at Nimble” on Sunday, November 19th at 10:15AM.

An engineer by training but an artist at heart, Arioli spent years in the technology industry before making the jump into filmmaking. He was born and raised in New York City, and now lives in San Francisco. AWN had a chance to ask the first-time director a few questions about the making of Coin Operated, including production tools and processes, financing, and the genesis of the idea.

(Read more at AnimationWorld Magazine)

Jennifer Wolfe

A Los Angeles-based content producer and strategist with 15+ years of experience in Media & Entertainment, I bring a broad-scope knowledge of M&E business and technologies spanning visual storytelling, creative post production, and digital content creation and delivery. Fluent across digital publishing platforms, including development and back-end management, I am highly skilled at translating technical workflows into narratives that showcase product features and capabilities.