Back in 2001, the web was growing rapidly as a place for rich media to be viewed thanks to the ubiquity of Macromedia’s Flash. People seemed to be making money on websites like atom.com with short animated films.
I was fresh out of RIT’s Film/Video/Animation program and gave a go at starting my own online flash animation series, hoping to win a deal through an upcoming contest.
Of the movies I’ve seen that have influenced me the most, there is the original Star Wars movies, and there is Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. The soundtrack is by Joe Hisaishi and seeing him conduct an orchestra playing themes from that movie is just sublime.
YouTube – Joe Hisaishi – Nausicaa of the Valley Wind (Part1 of 9). <- link is much higher quality video than embedded one below.