Tommy Ardolino

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.