Director & Co-Creator (Story) - Christian Greet
Christian Greet has 20 years experience in high end commercial animation direction and music videos as well as working on character development, pre-visualisation and post-fx for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Cowboy Bebop, The Beast, Underworld Werewolf, Spartacus, Thirty Days Of Night - with more in the pipeline.
His career began as a Pre-Vis Artist on the Narnia films working under Andrew Adamson. Having helped constructing all major battle scenes and action sequences for the first two Narnia films Christian went on to become a Pre-vis Supervisor. directing and designing all battle scenes in Underworld: Rise of the Lycan films. Christian’s career in directing commercials started with the McDonald’s Light Options Campaign in 2006 and is still considered a classic to this day.
Over the years he has directed many brand campaigns and collected close to thirty awards for his work, including a Gold at Adfest, a Bronze Lion for Art Direction at Cannes Lions Festival and a Graphite Pencil at the D&AD Awards for outstanding creative excellence in advertising.
Having worked in advertising and film, he has gained a knowledge base and understanding on what is well received amongst audiences and has a style that has proven to be commercially successful. Christian’s talent is to find a unique creative angle in every project setting the work apart from the competition.
Producer - Marko Klijn
Marko Klijn has been active in the animation industry for 20 years, and since 2006, he has been the Ringmaster of Cirkus. Storytelling, design and character animation are Marko’s prime passions and he loves to use mixed media in our work if it all possible. He also prioritises quality over quantity, and always tries to go for an out of the box approach to offer clever and fun alternatives for communication.
Marko believes that Cirkus stands for “doing things differently. As our reputation has grown internationally we are now finding a lot of really talented artists wanting to work with us. Simply because of the incredible variety of work we do! That really goes to the heart of our wanting to stay independent. If you want something a bit different that is also handcrafted, then you’ll ultimately come to Cirkus.”
“For us, our magic really comes from our quirky sense of humor. We laugh all the time here, which really saves your sanity sometimes. I honestly believe that you need humor in everything you do, because that’s what will ultimately shine through in your projects. I just love coming in to work everyday with a bunch of fun people. There is something very eclectic and cool about this company and that really means a lot to me.”
Co-Creator (Story) & Composer - Marshall Smith
Marshall is a writer and producer for stage, screen and page and is also an award winning composer. As a composer he has scored 13+ feature films, 70+ documentaries, countless TV series, short films & animation, 100+ TVCs along with music for games, theatre, cabaret, museums, events and album production.
He won a place at the Berlinale in 2016, an ART Venture Award in 2012 for creative entrepreneurs and was granted a Professional Development Award in 2011 from the NZ Film Commission. He has also been a finalist for song of the year in the APRA Silver Scrolls (2004). Marshall is co-founder and Chairperson of the Screen Music & Sound Guild of New Zealand.
He is currently developing two animated feature film scripts, Gold Paw and Finders Keepers with Cirkus along with a number of other feature film and TV series with New Zealand producer Paula Jones. He is also currently putting the finishing touches on World On Fire - a 90 minute theatre cabaret featuring Jackie Clarke, and directed by Margaret-Mary Hollins for a debut at Auckland Live 2022.
Marshall works freelance as part of the production team at Cirkus.
Script Writer - Amber Edwards
From reading to writing to roleplay gaming, Amber has nurtured a deep passion for storytelling and especially fantasy. Some of her most major inspirations are the worlds of The Witcher, The Elder Scrolls series, Redwall, and A Song of Ice and Fire. She has been writing fantasy novels since high school, several of which have been published online as free-to-read fanfictions. She graduated from Yoobee College of Animation in 2020 with a Bachelor’s Degree, majoring in Worldbuilding, and has pursued her interests in designing worlds, stories and characters as both a concept artist and a writer for Cirkus Productions Ltd. Goldpaw is her first feature film screenplay.
Story Consultant - Simone Ling
Simone R. Ling is a creative producer and story consultant working within both the Hollywood studio system and indie film arena. Clients have included Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures and the Sundance Institute’s Labs for Screenwriters, Directors and Episodic Story. Additionally she spearheads outreach for the Institute’s Asian American Fellowship.
Having started her producing career within NHK’s documentary division, Simone served as an executive producer on Aurora Guerrero’s coming-of-age directorial debut MOSQUITA Y MARI, a 2013 Film Independent Spirit Award nominee, and feature producing credits include Anahita Ghazvinizadeh’s THEY, an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 that continues to enjoy a 40 plus film festival run.
She is a TAP (Trans Atlantic Partners) 2018 producing fellow and a Film Independent 2018 Fast Track fellow with the project BELONGING. A member of MPEG/IATSE, the Producers Guild of America, and BAFTA, she sits on BAFTA/LA’s Student Shorts jury and New Talent Committee. Adjunct Faculty at the American Film Institute, she holds a Master’s degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford, and, as a Fulbright Scholar, earned a Master’s in Media Studies/ Journalism from Stanford University.