Trik Film Effects
Edmund Sydor
Edmund (better known to his friends as "Ted") began his first forays into the stop motion world while taking sculpture classes at Middlesex County College, NJ in 1991. That same year, while attending an animation class, he saw the documentary "The Puppet Films of Jiři Trnka" and Czech puppets and animation for the first time. It was a revelation for him; this was what he was meant to do. That same week he began to put together a shop so he could start to build his own puppets. With a nod to the original name for stop-motion (trick film) and Jiři Trnka's first studio, Bratři v Triku (Trick Brothers), Ted named his fledgling shop Trik Film Effects.
In 1992, with more than a little help from fate, he was able to travel to the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) and met the wonderful artists of Studio Jiřího Trnky (The state-run animation facility named for the late Jiři Trnka). There he focused on the specialty of puppet armature construction, and was made an apprentice of the three men that ran the Studio's machine shop where these were made. Their vast knowledge and guidance offered an incredible experience for Ted and they all remain very close to this day.
Alternating between continents and his ongoing apprenticeship, Ted began attending The School of Visual Arts back in Manhattan full time. His second year at SVA, "Baby's First Steps", the story of an armature completing itself and exploring the workbench, won Best Animation out of entries from 13 countries at the Cinevue International Film Festival in 1994. By his third year, he was working professionally with Liberty Studios in NYC animating/model building and Jim Henson Productions creating animatronics and props for Muppets.
Although he never finished his (overly) ambitious animated Thesis Film "Within", in 1996 he still earned a BFA with Honors in Film/Animation. Armed with a photo resume packed with samples from his unfinished film (many of which you can see on this site), Ted was hired shortly after graduation by Olive Jar Animation in Boston, MA, as their new Technical Director (thanks in great part to the keen eye of Tom Gasek, their Head Animator). Ted brought his machine shop with him and made an immediate impact to the quality of the productions with the high grade armatures and rigging he produced. Ted also assumed the duties of motion control operation and supervised a great portion of the rigging, prop, set and model construction as well. During his five years there, he helped to produce over 25 stop motion animated commercials and films.
Sadly, Olive Jar closed in 2001. Ted returned to New York City and resumed freelance work in live-action commercials and film, occasional animated projects, and the odd custom carpentry installation. He has worked for Jim Henson Productions ("Dog City", "Secret Life of Toys" and "Dinosaurs"), HBO (where he earned a Emmy working on "Inside the NFL"), the artist Mathew Barney ("Cremaster Cycle" and "No Restraint") Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, MTV, Spike, and numerous other studios, networks and companies.
For the past 15 years now, Ted proudly works as a member of Local One IATSE, formally at the Met Opera and now on Broadway shows including "Charlie and Chocolate Factory", "King Kong" and currently "West Side Story", helping to maintain the vast digital effects and live camera systems. The irony that Ted now makes his living working with the great "nemesis" of stop-motion, computers, is not lost on him.
Ted maintains a home and studio in Central NJ. Although not actively producing any stop-motion work these days, it is never far from his thoughts...
Interested parties can contact Trik Film Effects by clicking HERE
Milan Vins, Vít Lebeda and Ondře Zíka; my Teachers at the Trnka Studio
Forming a steel armor claw
Working at Olive Jar
Trading jokes with Richard Dryfuss while shooting for the History Channel
Working with the late, great Pat Morita
Filming "Baby's First Steps"
Forging rod ends in Brooklyn
Trik Film Effects representn' at the Met
At the very tip of the Chysler Building setting lights for "The Cremaster Cycle"Building custom bookcasesThe smoke clears in my shop after a job at Olive Jar