Michael Lessa
Producer

As Producer for Lincoln Butterfield Animation, Michael Lessa leverages his financial and managerial skills, along with an expertise in animation, visual effects and production, to ensure the company's animation properties are both top quality and cost-efficiently produced.

While Lessa brings 30 years of experience in film and television, he was a budding artist and avid comic book collector in his youth. A serendipitous meeting at a comic book store led him to an animation class at Hanna Barbera, and subsequently a full-time animator position with the company that dominated North American television animation throughout the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

Leaving Hanna Barbera in 1980 to work on the animated feature film Heavy Metal, Lessa was then hired by Lucasfilms’ Industrial Light & Magic to work as part of the effects team for Poltergeist, transitioning his career from animation to visual effects. During his time with ILM, Lessa was involved with such feature films as Star Trek III, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Return of the Jedi.

Working at ILM gave Lessa the opportunity to explore all facets of visual effects. He explains: “For the next 27 years, I went back and forth between animation and live action movies.”

After taking on a host of projects that often required extensive traveling overseas, Lessa returned to his native Los Angeles and began to freelance. Such work included supervising effects animation on Superman IV; and serving as an effects animator on Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Willow, Star Tours and Flight of the Navigator for Available Light Ltd. and on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Ghostbusters II for Industrial Light & Magic. During this time, he also worked as an illustrator and model maker on Ghost.

In the early 1990s, Lessa took a permanent position at Disney’s Buena Vista Visual Effects, where was a visual effects supervisor on John Carpenter’s Escape from LA, The Phantom, Mr. Wrong, Incredible Journey: Homeward Bound 2, Operation: Dumbo Drop, Man of the House, Cabin Boy and Roger Rabbit – Trail Mix-up. He also served as supervisor of effects animation and animation cameraman for Disney's Hocus Pocus, Wilder Naplam, Honey I Blew Up the Kids and Wild Hearts Can't be Broken.

Lessa returned to animation in 1996 after Nickelodeon invited him to produce its Hey Arnold series. He also worked on the network's Angry Beavers series, created by Mitch Schauer. Schauer served as Executive Producer and head of creative, Lessa was line producer and Robert Hughes was one of the show's directors. Subsequently, the three reconnected when each became involved with Berlin Animation Film, a government sponsored program aimed at making the city Europe's animation hub. Those experiences laid the groundwork for both Lessa and Schauer to join the development and production team of Lincoln Butterfield Animation.

“As an independent animation studio, we’re able to retain creative control and ownership of a property,” says Lessa. “Ultimately, it’s about pleasing ourselves, having fun and truly enjoying the work we do.”

For more information, contact us at: info@lincolnbutterfield.com
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