CREDITS

BROOKE BURGESS (Creator/Director/Writer/Producer)

Burgess (32) is the wizard behind the curtain. As he watched the art of the graphic novel dying, he wanted to pay tribute to the medium that gave him so much inspiration. The Internet was bursting forth with great fanfare during this time, but no one had adequately created entertainment that fully utilized its strengths. As dot.coms came and went and countless creators attempted to bring the forms of Television and Film to the tiny screen, Burgess began to see a convergence - a fusion of tools that could integrate what was working on the Internet: music, still pictures and text.

During this time, he was working as a Producer for entertainment software giant Electronic Arts. Life in the "cubicle barnyard" was no longer keeping him entranced, so after three years at EA he opted out and decided to give substance to his story. Using savings to keep the dream moving forward, he teamed up with two young friends who were prodigies in the fields of art and technology. With their combined talents, Burgess' story of four very different protagonists answering a "spiritual call-to-arms" became something much more…it became Broken Saints.

Before working at Electronic Arts, Burgess' background in journalism, advertising, theatre, film, and poetry prepared him for his current challenge. Holding an Honours BA in Communication and English from the University of Windsor, he is now entering into a new phase of profound humility, where he prefers to let the work speak for itself.

Key influences: Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, Neil Gaiman, Kahlil Gibran, and Lao-Tzu.

IAN KIRBY
(Technical Direction/Flash/Design)

Who says that TV is the babysitter of our youth? The computer was Kirby's (21) 'virtual nipple', and the following applications were part of that weaning: 3D Studio at age 11, Premiere and Photoshop at 13, MAYA at 17...the list is virtually endless. If indeed there is a lexicon for the information age, then Ian Kirby is in it - as the definition of 'multimedia prodigy'.

On a whim, he began familiarizing himself with Macromedia's Flash authoring tools in early 2000 - mere months before Broken Saints was to reach its genesis. Showcasing the possibilities of the software to Burgess and West, Kirby became intrigued by the chance to do something revolutionary with the technology. The graphic novel format has allowed him to experiment with picture composition, frame size and speed, colorization, and text placement/animation - while the audio aspects of the project have freed his cinematic sensibilities towards editing, sound creation (using Sound Forge), scene flow, and effects creation.

When he's not astounding fans with his techno-artistic wizardry in the latest installment of Broken Saints, Vancouver native Kirby heeds the call of local Whistler Mountain as an avid snowboarder. He dreams of combining his tech-savvy and sense of 'flow' to conquer the world of post-production in the Film and TV industry.

ANDREW WEST
(Art Direction/Character design)

With 7 years of sketch work and 5 years of manga/anime focus, West (22) brings his singular passion and dedication to Broken Saints. His intensely kinetic character designs and unorthodox coloring techniques bring the essential dimension to the project that Flash work and bare text fail to construct.
Working on a Wacom tablet in multiple software programs, Andrew creates the backgrounds, inhabitants, and psychedelic landscapes that populate the fascinating world of Broken Saints. By creating scenes in multiple layers in software and by adding necessary frames, West provides the foundation for the static graphic novel's evolution into the animated realm.

Considering the opportunity to work on the project as a "creative blessing", West hopes that it may eventually lead to the fulfillment of his long-held dream: character creation and design work for the multi-billion dollar videogame industry, with stalwarts like Japan's Capcom, Namco, and Nintendo as his inspiration. Current influences: Blade of the Immortal, Evangelion, X-Men, Shogun

Tobias Tinker (Series Composer)

Tinker has spent more than 20 years honing his skills as a musician, composer and performer. From the countryside near Toronto, Canada, he discovered the
piano at age 4 and grew up playing various instruments and styles of music (classical piano, French horn, Irish traditional flute, Eastern hand drums and others). His love of music took on many forms, from classical to
experimental electronica. In his early 20's, he dropped everything for a spiritual adventure through Asia. The time away from music set up a creative path that would lead to some of his most inspired works, including much of the material for Broken Saints.

Burgess, keenly aware of his cousin's musical gift, asked if he would contribute music for this creative endeavor. Thanks to the endorsement of a previous employer (DataSpace Creative Arts ), Tinker was able to use and adapt material he previously created and offer it to the Broken Saints project. Perhaps a powerful indicator of his abilities, Tinker is able to collaborate with the team from another continent (Burgess and co. in Vancouver, Canada and Tinker in Berlin/Munich, Germany) to create music that rivals any feature film soundtrack.
His passion for traveling still boiling, Tinker is now residing in Germany for the foreseeable future, where he composes and plays with a live circus/variety/ cabaretshow called Pomp Duck and Circumstance - closely affiliated with Cirque Du Soleil.