Former Inverness man makes magic for 'Smurfs,' movies
When Tom Bruno Jr. lived in Inverness, he and his friends would drive around the Northwest suburbs with a video camera and ask strangers to create public television promos by having them announce, "This is WTTW, Chicago!"
"We would act as if we were a real TV crew," Bruno said. "We got a great collection of fake promos. We had regular people, sailors on leave, everybody. It was lots of fun."
Bruno and his pals would also hang out at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, videotaping frustrated drivers waiting while Bruno took forever to unlock a car in a prime parking spot; it wasn't even his car.
"Sometimes, I'd make a good half-hour out of that," he said with a note of pride.
After graduating from the Elgin Academy and earning a political science degree from Northwestern University, Bruno eventually became an animation filmmaker.
His newest movie is Sony Pictures' animated "Smurfs: The Lost Village," opening Friday.
"I'm really proud of it," Bruno said. "It's a great little story and it's really funny. (Actor) Rainn Wilson just kills it! It's my kind of funny film."
If you see "Smurfs: The Lost Village," notice the climactic escape sequence at the end.
"That was sort of my baby," he said, "the part of the movie that I'm most proud of."
Although his new title at Sony Pictures Animation is "head of layout," Bruno's job title on "Smurfs" is the cryptic "senior layout lead."
He described it as similar to storyboarding on a movie.
"A senior layout lead helps determine which camera lens to use, how the camera will move, what's in the shot and what's not," he explained.
"Where are the characters? How big are they? What's in the background? How is it lighted? These are all cues the general audiences won't even notice."
If you've seen the comedy "Rock Dog," you've already witnessed Bruno's work.
"'Rock Dog' was done with a Chinese investment company, and it was done on the cheap, as you can tell by the look of the film," he said bluntly.
"Rock Dog" cost $20 million, really cheap compared to the $150 million estimated cost of Disney's "Zootopia."
Bruno admitted that he has led something of a blessed professional life.
As his first job on a feature film, he created hair and cloth effects for 2001's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
Since then, he has racked up an impressive resume that includes "Men in Black II," "The Polar Express," "Monster House," "X-Men: First Class," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and many other high-profile projects.
Bruno credits an early brush with professional acting as an invaluable asset for his work in animated movies.
Between his junior and senior year at Northwestern University, the acting bug bit him. Instead of working as a law clerk during the summer, he opted for a cinema-television production workshop at the University of Southern California.
Later, he helped create the CAG Theater in Hollywood, a repertory company focused on the experiences of Gen-Xers.
"We created our own material," Bruno said. "It was quite experimental." He quit when the administrative work became overwhelming, or, as he put it, "there was too much work and not enough art."
Bruno attended a visual effects animation trade school that changed his life. Gnomon, a for-profit college founded in 1997, gave Bruno the artistic and technical tools for his future employment.
He began working on "Harry Potter" soon afterward. "That was a pretty exciting start in the biz, actually," he said.
Bruno, who is single, occasionally returns to his Inverness childhood home where his parents, Tom Sr. (an orthopedic surgeon) and Sharon Bruno still live.
"When I come back home for Christmas or Thanksgiving, I still sleep in my old bedroom," Bruno mused. "It's like I'm Marty McFly when I'm home. Everything's the same as when I left."
- Dann Gire
• Jamie Sotonoff and Dann Gire are looking for suburbanites in showbiz who'd make good columns. Contact them at jsotonoff@dailyherald.com or dgire@dailyherald.com.