Lawrence Central Grad Comes Home to Heartland

Every October the Heartland Film Festival comes to Indianapolis to recognize filmmakers for their outstanding achievements in cinematography and to display their films in local movie theaters. This year, the festival features the work of Lawrence Central alumni Stephen Neary.

Neary graduated in 2004. While there, he was involved with marching band, speech team, LC Current, and the Cub Reporter.

Today, Neary is known for his animation skills, which have landed his short film, Chicken Cowboy, on the Heartland line-up.

Neary’s passion for animation even landed him a win in a Channel One contest during his time at LC.

“I was on Channel One’s Student Produced Week in 2003. I submitted some of the intros I had done for LC Current and some short films, and I ended up working as graphics director in Los Angeles for a week. There I shadowed some really talented artists to create the show’s news visuals,” Neary said. “It helped me realize that I could make a career out of working in television and that I could apply what I learned in art class.”

“I’ve made other films and worked on other shows, but Chicken Cowboy is probably my first big break-it’s my thesis project,” Neary said. In fact, Chicken Cowboy was the project that landed Neary a job at Blue Sky Studios, the same studio that produces the Ice Age movies, where he works as a storyboard artist. “It’s my first time working on big studio movies, and I’m learning new things every day.”

Neary also worked on three TV Funhouse animated shorts for Saturday Night Live. “We worked some grueling deadlines. I can remember one in particular that we had to work on for 40 hours straight through just to get it on air Saturday night,” Neary said. “It was my first real job in animation, and it felt great to be thrown in the deep end.”

This is Neary’s first year in the Heartland Film Festival. He applied for three years with other shorts, and this year he was finally accepted.

“I never thought I would be drawing cartoons all day for a living,” Neary said. “Those aren’t the kind of dreams you think will come true. It has been awesome.”