De Anza College alumni Joel Natanuan and Robert Pendleton, graduates of theSpring 2010 animation program, will have a short animated film,”The Vacation of Death,” featured at the Cinequest film festival.

“That’s what we have been working on this whole time,” Pendleton said.

The duo spent three years of long, late nights at the Advanced Technology Center in order to finish their scenes on schedule, Natanuan said.

Before working together on this project, neither student knew the other, but both had worked on their own assignments as they went through the animation program. One day Natanuan, approached Pendleton.

“I am grateful to Joel for seeing something in me and willing to talk to me about joining him in the project,” Pendleton said.

An occasional hiccup arose from time to time, both admitted. “The bumps in the road we hit were always overcome by the fact that we wanted to make the film the best we could. We gained respect for one another as we worked on the film,” Pendleton said.

“I think the film is stronger from what each one brought to the table,” Natanuan said.

The pair began working on the film when they were still amateur animators. While both would love to go back and reanimate some of their earlier scenes, they feel that the film itself represents their growth and both are happy with the final product.

“It is not just the story of Death on a Vacation, but us as filmmakers as well,” Pendleton said.

After long days and hard work, the film was  finished in the spring of 2010, the same year both filmmakers graduated with associate degrees in Film/TV, with an animation emphasis.

Natanuan and Pendleton entered their film into De Anza’s student film festival, where the top contenders would have the chance to be featured at Cinequest.

After seeing the other films, their hopes seemed dashed. Surprisingly, the people running the show loved their film, and the pair were told that they would be featured in Cinequest.

“We were overjoyed and it is a great honor for us to represent De Anza at Cinequest,” Pendleton said.

Natanuan is currently attending San Jose State University and pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in San Jose State’s animation department. 

“I’m actually corralling some of the other De Anza animators who transferred in hopes of making another project … at De Anza. I felt like I belonged to a family and not just looking out for myself,” Natanuan said.

Pendleton is studying at Cogswell Polytechnical College in Sunnyvale, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in their digital arts and animation program with an emphasis on 3-D animation. Pendleton still works with friends he made in De Anza’s animation program, as well as his peers from Cogswell.

Pendleton and Natanuan’s “The Vacation of Death” will be shown at Camera 12 in San Jose on March 8 at 9:15 p.m. and again on March 12 at 4:15 p.m.