Mr Pi (seaniepie)

Sean Cole, musician and video engineer, was born July 6th 1973 and grew up in the small village of Cliffe Woods on the Hoo Peninsular. There, when he was 9 years old, he fixed firmly in mind what he wanted to do once he left school. This was in direct response to the effect the films 'Return of the Jedi' and 'Superman III' had on him, wanting to make music and films like that.

Ignoring the advice of his careers advisors he followed this up upon leaving school. He avoided the usual routes of University and in 1989 found work with a small video production company in Rochester making college and corporate training videos, mainly in the area of electronic and electrical engineering. There he learnt skills in editing, camera operation, lighting as well as electronic engineering. This was also the early years of computer animation and Sean eagerly taught himself all he could find out about 2d & 3d animation applying what he learnt to the videos being made.

6 years later he moved on to an AV company that were using non-linear editing systems for editing and early versions of After Effects (COSA) to produce corporate drama productions. Soon there after he applied what he had learned to go freelance in and around London as an Avid and Media100 editor with 2d & 3d skills.

In 1997 he was employed fulltime with a Maidstone based production company involved in producing training videos for the airline, HM Forces, and avionics industries. The MD, a senior editor for the BBC, trained him further in the skills of camera work, editing and sound up to BBC standards as Sean continued to learn more compositing and 3d skills. During this time he also edited several broadcast adverts and a 12x 15min series for BBC Choice called 'Coastguard', his first broadcast editing job.

He was then in 2001 taken on fulltime by another Maidstone based production company that made corporate drama, motivational and training videos for Pfizer, the world no1 pharmaceutical company, There he utilised all his skills in also editing and compositing several music videos, local council media and adverts as well as his abilities on live events for vision and sound engineering.

During a decline in the work he took the opportunity to go it alone again to set up his own company, Pi Digital Productions Ltd, and steer his interest in what he loved most, Film. He collaborated with several young artists and directors passing on his knowledge and skills as a VFX Supervisor and DOP/lighting director helping them to take their projects to another level. He was also senior editor/animator for a 15x 24min series for UKtv Style, editied and graded more music videos and graded 2 feature films.

He then got called to work with Ragdoll as compositor on their new series, 'In The Night Garden', a 100 episode 24min programme for preschool children. His initial tasks were to remove hundreds of wires in front of live trees, from tracking wide angled shots lasting up to 30 seconds. His photoshop skills were put to use creating clean plates of forests, perspective interiors and designing entire set layouts for interiors of the 'Tombliboo Bush'. In addition his aquired knowledge in computer programming helped him in creating software for specific tasks to assist the editors, compositors and animators integration. Early on he was also given Smoke and Flint training and was later on given the opportunity to online composite and grade two entire episodes.

All the while he has continued to compose music for his own pleasure and relaxation as well as for others. Find out more at soundfarmUK.

And so the story continues as Sean (Mr Pi) builds his way into finally directing and producing full length features of his own.