Tommy Ardolino
- Art Department
- Producer
- Writer
President and Founder of the multi-faceted Art Studio and Film Production Company, Frame of
Mind Pictures, since 1987, Tommy is an artist who grew up in the
foresty suburbs of New Haven, Connecticut. With early influences like
The Beatles and Peter Max fueling his imagination, Tommy's creative
output rapidly became sophisticated, as he began producing animated films at the tender age of 9. After experimenting
with film special effects, pixilation, and stop motion animation
throughout high school, Tommy was accepted to the University of
Southern California, as the only freshman in the Film Animation program
at the School of Cinema. Tommy produced his first film at USC, a
3-minute 16mm animated film, Clownster (1979) by painting over 1500
cels, and was invited to screen his work for Bill Melendez,
producer all of the beloved Peanuts cartoons. After graduating from
USC with several awards including the prestigious Glen Lukens Award for
Outstanding Studio Artist, and enduring four years of tireless training
at the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonist's Guild at night, Tommy was
hired as an apprentice animator at Hanna-Barbera Productions for
Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper (1982)
and at
Walt Disney Animation for
The Fox and the Hound (1981)
and
Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983).
In 1986 Tommy took a job in the prop department at 'Paramount Studios'
in Hollywood, where he created a variety of props for popular
television shows like
Cagney & Lacey (1981) and
Dynasty (1981). With the animation
boom a few years away with the release of Walt Disney's
The Little Mermaid (1989),
Tommy returned to his hometown of New Haven in 1987, and started his
own business, Frame of Mind Pictures, inside an 800 square-foot studio
once occupied by toy legend, A.C. Gilbert, creator of the original
Lionel Trains and Erector Sets back in the 1950s. Inevitably, the
historical factory complex was sold, and Tommy moved his art business
back out west to Glendale, California in 1991. Before long, Tommy's
wide variety of art services and his friendly professionalism became
well-known, and he began signing lucrative contracts with entertainment
corporations like ABC Studios,
Walt Disney Animation,
Dreamworks Animation, and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. As a
contracted prop designer on blockbuster films like
Independence Day (1996) and
That Thing You Do! (1996) and
on the Al Pacino film,
Danny Collins (2015) as well as TV shows
like [error] and
Criminal Minds (2005), Tommy
has earned the confidence of major production companies, and has
evolved into one of the most sought after artists at the core of the
entertainment industry. Tommy recently came full circle with his
passion for filmmaking by writing the feature length comedy/mystery
screenplay,
Floaty,
as well as co-writing three other screenplays, the urban drama,
Crooked Halos, Sons of the Father,and the
suspense thriller,
The Ten Bells. In 2024, Tommy will go into production on the new docu-comedy, "When Cartoons Were New Yorkers!" and the gangster comedy feature "Oldfellas." Tommy resides with his wife in Valley Village, California.