Filmmaker Bios
Timothy Hittle
Timothy Hittle is an animator living in San Francisco and the creator of The Jay Clay Trilogy. His other Stop-Motion work include the New Adventures of Gumby, The Fridge on Pee Wee’s Playhouse, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and James and the Giant Peach.
As a CG animator he has worked on several films for Pixar including The Incredibles, Wall-e and Toy story 3. He currently works for Pixar Animation studios.
If you would like to contact Timothy, he can be reached at timothy@jayclay.net
Brian Kearney
Brian Kearney grew up in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. His dad was a big fan of the big bands and, as a child, Brian was moved by the recordings of Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and the vocals of Frank Sinatra as heard on WNEW 1130 AM in NYC. He started playing saxophone in the 6th grade and got his first Baritone Saxophone in the 8th grade. During high school, Kearney was listening to a wider range of music including jazz (Two Generations of Brubeck, John Coltrane, Gerry Mulligan, and Betty Carter) and rock artists including Van Morrison, the Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane. While toying with the idea of becoming a professional musician by pursuing a music degree in college, he ultimately decided to keep music as an avocation. He chose Indiana University because of the excellent music school along with the opportunity to major in business and administration at IU’s Kelley School. While in college, Kearney found like-minded musicians to play in local rock bands that included The Cleavers, Go Dog Go, and The Rosebloods. During this period, instrumental rock music, world music and movie soundtracks became a strong influence from both a playing and listening standpoint.
Kearney met claymation filmmaker Tim Hittle when each was a radio dj at Bloomington’s WQAX. A lot of common musical and artistic ground existed between Hittle and Kearney that encompassed independent rock, world music, as well as country artists that included Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, and George Jones. Kearney’s first recording on a Jay Clayu film was playing a sax part on “The Sink Cleaner” on a composition penned by Rosebloods’ guitarist Steve Cook.
While Tim Hittle moved to the Bay Area in the late 1980’s to launch his professional career, Kearney remained in Bloomington where he successfully led an effort to launch community radio station. WFHB Community Radio made its on air debut in 1993 and Brian served as its first station manager. In addition to working for Indiana University’s legendary Chancellor Herman B Wells from 1986-2000, Kearney eventually became a professional fundraiser for Indiana University. Besides acting as musical director to the Jay Clay trilogy, Brian Kearney has played saxophone in Bloomington’s Üt Haus jazz band for the past 20 years.