David Koenigsberg

David Koenigsberg is the director, producer, production executive and overseas supervisor of motion pictures and television series, who has gone back and forth between animation and live action.

Attending the Los Angeles City College Radio, TV & Film department, he made two short 16mm films.

Grand Motel (1974) was a 3 1/2 minute parody of Grand Hotel (1932). Shot in one (long) night, in a single hotel room, the film is a marvel of economy. Crew members included Victor duBois, Dran Hamilton and Osvaldo Zornizer. In front of the camera, among others, was Tani Guthrie.

A Very Good Year (1975) was a 6 minute film about a little girl who shoots down a blimp with a pea shooter. The short won a Cine Eagle Award in 1975, was entered into the Library of Congress and was subsequently screened around the world at various film festivals.

Koenigsberg was then accepted into the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts) where he worked on stage presentations, edited student films and was director of photography on some shorts. At this same time he was nominated for an Eddie Award (from the American Cinema Editors).

One of his instructors offered David a lead to his very first professional job as a fine-cut editor on a soft-core porno film, The Dicktators (1976). After cutting 20 minutes out of the feature he swore never to work in porno again, saying that there was no difference to being in front or behind the camera.

To make it up to him, this same instructor recommended Koenigsberg to Sy Wexler, a medical films producer. David found himself editing shorts on kidneys in several foreign languages. Although Wexler was a good producer, David wanted out, badly.

He found work in Film Preparation for Filmex which lead to a gig as Head Projectionist at the New Beverly Cinema and other theaters in Los Angeles.

During this same time he directed a 35mm short, Her Continuing Temptation which starred Anne Terrail and Aimee Eccles with director of photography Victor duBois. Although it has music and sound effects, the film is basically a modern silent about a woman who thinks she might be a lesbian.

His experience at the New Beverly Cinema led to becoming the Special Programs Coordinator for Filmex. From 1979 through 1983 Koenigsberg worked with all of the major studios, domestic & foreign distributors, archives and filmmakers to create and/or supervise all of the special programs at the film festival.

Starting at this same time, David had been raising money to start a special effects/animation camera service company with LACC alumnus, Osvaldo Zornizer and Cal Arts alumni Mark Kirkland and Richard Jefferies. On July 14, 1979, their company, New Hollywood, Inc. opened for business.

Koenigsberg ran the company for almost 13 years from the beginning until early 1992. He used all of his contacts from LACC, Cal Arts and Filmex to amass an amazing list of clients.

David also worked on some jobs as an individual in order to accommodate certain clients.

As a favor to Tim Burton and Rick Heinrichs, Koenigsberg provided the voice of a Gingerbread Man (who wants to be eaten) in the short, Hansel and Gretel (1982).

Another was the Steven Spielberg Amblin'/Universal television series Amazing Stories episode, "Family Dog" (1985) directed by Brad Bird. David helped budget the episode (for associate producers Cleve Reinhard and Alex King), took on the (uncredited) job of scene planning and oversaw the photography of pencil tests.

His estimate for the final camerawork convinced the team to attempt to finish the episode overseas. Koenigsberg (and ink & paint supervisor, Jill Stirdivant) flew to Sydney, Australia to check up on their facilities and concluded that the show could be completed there.

Besides animation, Koenigsberg also worked on two documentaries: Ernie Andrews: Blues for Central Avenue (1989) as assistant cameraman for Lois Shelton and Ron Shelton; and Live And Kicking In L.A. (1990) as co-director, co-producer and cameraman.

Koenigsberg's work on Ren & Stimpy (1991) started with shooting some of the pilot, "Big House Blues." For the series he planned camera movements and special effects. Later he was made technical director.

David cashed out of New Hollywood, Inc. and took an overseas job as a camera supervisor for Turner Entertainment/Film Roman's Tom & Jerry: The Movie (1992) in Bangkok, Thailand. Later, the production was split into two; David Koenigsberg and Maria Gonzalez went to Cuckoo's Nest Studios in Taipei, Taiwan with half of the remaining sequences.

Once completed, Koenigsberg returned to Ren & Stimpy for the next 2 years helping to complete all of the remaining second season episodes and working on season three.

During this same period, Nickelodeon asked Koenigsberg to temporarily produce their fourth, new series, Rocko's Modern Life. David helped to deliver the first 3 episodes and set-up the rest of the season.

He also shot his own 35mm, Cinemascope, Dolby stereo short, Adventures On The Isle Of Adolescence. Written by Pamala "La Loca" Karol as a poem, Koenigsberg hand colored the art (there was no animation) while in Bangkok and Taipei.

Returning to documentaries in 1994, David was the unit production manager and editorial consultant on The Haunted World Of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (which was not released until 1996). Written and directed by Brett Thompson, this was one of the first documentaries to inject theatrical flair (as opposed to cinema verite) to tell its story.

Walt Disney Television Animation was having challenges in completing the theatrical feature, The Goofy Movie (1995) in Paris, France. Koenigsberg was sent by the studio to help the producer and the digital ink & paint/camera company, PixiBox.

An educational CD-Rom start-up company, Cloud 9 Interactive Media, hired David first as a consultant, then as its creative director. He inherited the company's first title: The Wannabees (1996).

20th Century Fox was suffering from growing pains and (like Disney) was facing challenges--not just in animation, but with large live action productions such as Titanic (1997). Cleve Reinhard convinced the studio to hire Koenigsberg as a consultant for just a few months starting in August of 1997. Four years (and several contracts) later David finally finished his stint after working on hundreds of projects.

His first assignment (from Kiki Morris) was to analyze and report on the studio's new, serious and expensive foray into becoming a major animation powerhouse.

But animation is only half this story. All during this same time he was working on live action features, television business affairs and other divisions of Fox.

Working at Fox made it possible for Koenigsberg to finance the internet radio drama, The Soul Patrol. Originally conceived as a television series (on a bus to Pasadena on December 31, 1984), he adapted the first 11 teleplays into radio scripts. He wrote episodes 12 & 13 for radio. 13 episodes were recorded with David editing them in his spare time.