A diverse audience of more than 300 students from 20 Bay Area public, private and home school groups attended a free advance screening of The Golden Compass, adapted from the award-winning first novel in author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The book is part of the regular curriculum for many of the classes in attendance, so it was a perfect opportunity for them to compare the original written story to the special effects-laden film adaptation. Prior to the film, children’s librarian Barbara Vanderborght spoke to the students about the book and the author and provided helpful information on San Francisco’s local libraries. After the film, visual effects supervisor Matt Jacobs and visual effects producer Carol Corwin from Tippett Studio demonstrated and explained some of the animated effects they helped create for the film.