ADV will localize and distribute anime for its newest business partner, Sentai Filmworks. Among the newest properties is Clannad, a 24-episode Kyoto Animation series based on the PC game, and Indian Summer, a robot maid comedy previously announced at Otakon '08. Clannad's first volume, consisting of four episodes, will be released on 4/21/09, while Indian Summer's OVA collection will be released on 3/10/09.
Also, ADV is re-releasing a number of older series from various companies, such as Mahoromatic (in a complete set on 1/13/09 for $44.98) and its sequel (2/17/09 for $44.98), Tsukihime (complete set on 1/20/09), Pet Shop of Horrors, and Jewel Bem Hunter Lime.
Turner's Animation Media Bumps Up Consumer Research
Research, Research, Research
As Cartoon Network aims to balance positive audience returns and primetime ratings for its original animation and additional cartoon acquisitions, with its untold potential for reinventing its image as a key children's network day-in and day-out; research is the name of the game. The TBS Group's Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media group is the business operations body that oversees the expectations and long-term information gathering for its control areas, which include Cartoon Network and Adult Swim programming.
It is in this vein that the Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media group sees the hiring Lanie Richberger as the division's Vice President of Research, where she will oversee a wide variety of research strategies and tactics. Just as Cartoon Network and its multimedia business plans depend on the timely access of new, relevant audience statistics, so will it be imperative for Richberger to organize and analyze focus group material the kid's entertainment hub can readily use.
"Lanie's expertise with kids television, consumer market research, audience trends, branding, licensing digital media and international markets make here the ideal person to help us evolve and grow Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and our digital properties," Jon Marks, Senior Vice President of Turner Research, commented in an official press note.
As the Vice President of Research for the Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media group, Ms. Richberger will be charged with providing guidance for all of the division's establishment and collection of audience ratings reports, delivery numbers, as well as information for online businesses and digital efforts. Additional responsibility includes providing usable information to Cartoon Network New Media that allows the network to plan entertainment endeavors in multiple media outlets.
Richberger will oversee all consumer focus group testing and other quantitative studies, including annual brand studies and syndicated research; serving as the anchor of information distribution for western enterprises of the TBS Group (contrast with east vp of research and market development, Duncan Morris: June 2008). She joins the Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media group from the noted kid's entertainment producer Sesame Workshop, producer of Sesame Street and other kids-targeted properties, where she was the leader of its Strategic Trends and Audience Research department.
Chapman, Pukeko Team for Trooper Tom
Children’s television production and licensing company Chapman Ent. and Pukeko Pictures entered into a joint venture to produce a CG-animated kids’ show being developed under the working title Trooper Tom. The partnership was forged at MIPCOM in Cannes last week, and has generated interest from 15 broadcasters, according to Chapman Ent. Pukeko Pictures is a new children’s television venture of writer Martin Baynton (Jane and the Dragon) and Richard Taylor, a five-time Academy Award-winning creative director and co-owner of New Zealand’s Weta Workshop.Trooper Tom is an adventure series aimed at boys 6-12. Half human, half robot all hero, Trooper Tom is a futuristic Pinocchio, an experimental android infused with human DNA. The show promises to deliver epic tales with Shakespearean villainy, a wry sense of humor and breathtaking action.
“We are incredibly excited by our relationship with Chapman Ent. and the first property that we have developed with them,” Richard Taylor comments. “The experience of presenting our show together in Cannes was nothing short of fantastic and the reactions to Trooper Tom was very rewarding.”
Taylor, Martin Baynton and Chapman Ent. creative director Keith Chapman will oversee production, which will be handled by Weta Workshop. The first season will consist of 26 half-hour episodes.
Guerilla FX Hires Miller as TD
Vance Miller has joined New York-based independent production, design, effects and post finishing house Guerilla FX (GFX) as character animator/technical director. He comes to Guerilla from graphic design company Eyeball in New York where, as technical director, he served as lighting and rendering specialist on most of the studio’s 3D projects, supervised and fine-tuned the rendering pipeline and worked as both 3D animator and 2D compositor on campaigns for such clients as AT&T, Best Buy, Cinemax, Cingular, Country Music Channel, Jeep, McDonald’s, MTV, Mystic Aquarium and VH1, as well as the video game Bioshock.Earlier in his career, as VP of CG operations for Pixel Light Communications in New York, Miller served as chief animator on all in-house projects, oversaw the graphics creation for multimedia productions and worked with design firms on animation concepts and storyboarding. He was a computer graphics artist at Electric Image Center, where he created computer graphics for film, video and print output, demonstrated software to prospective system sales clients and provided training to clients on software usage. Miller also spent a number of years freelancing as a computer graphics artist, supervising graphics editing sessions, creating artwork for magazine covers and product packaging, and producing 3D animation for corporate and broadcast clients.
Miller’s work has earned various honors, including a SIGGRAPH award for the lighting, textures and animation he created for the indie short Protest, a SMPTE Student Film Honorable Mention for a stop-motion film titled Out of Sync, and a NCGA third-place (secondary/undergraduate level) for an early computer-animated film called Conscience of the King. In addition, he was lead 3D animator/artist for a Warner Music interactive CD that won both the New Jersey Business Association Award for Best Multimedia Presentation and HOW Magazine’s 1995 International Design Award of Merit for Multimedia.
There Was A Screening Of Watchmen...The Whole Thing This Time...
There was recently a screening of Watchmen in Portland.
Strangely, to the best of my knowledge, AICN received no reviews from this screening - although folks who were there have posted their perceptions of the film on several forums.
These communications are, evidently, being removed from boards; those who saw the film were subject to NDA. None the less, quick-acting cyber folk managed to cut & paste some of the now-banished forum postings. These posting have been conveniently rounded up by a few sites, and are linked below for your consideration.
BEWARE SPOILERS!!! Some of the material being discussed involve Watchmen elements that may or may not have made it into the movie adaptation.
HERE!!!
&
HERE!!!
Also, you can catch some footage from the film on Spike TV - Oct. 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT (tonight) - during their Scream Awards broadcast.
Exclusive: A Heroes Intervention
When a loved one is in trouble, we can gather all the friends and family around to stage an intervention on their behalf. Help them kick drugs, booze, karaoke, whatever is destroying them. Well, what if millions of viewers love a show, and we just need to get the creators' attention to nip some problems in the bud? Our shame-free correspondent Fred Topel at SciFi Wire steps up with his own intervention for the producers of NBC's Heroes, which airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Tim, Jeph, Jesse, et al.: We have brought you together because we love you. Heroes is our dream of a superhero show. The show has top-notch effects, and the writing and acting deliver the most believable world of everyday people doing extraordinary things.
But we feel that you're losing your way. So we are staging this intervention to help you find it again. Here are some suggestions, offered with love.
--No more trips to/from the future. The first time Future Hiro came back to tell Peter to save the cheerleader was awesome. It opened up possibilities and major evolutions for the series. The "what if?" of "Five Years Gone" was cool, too, just having fun with possibilities. Now you've overdone it. Peter goes to the future and loses his girlfriend there. Future Claire is all dark and brooding. Hiro visits the future and sees himself fight Ando. It's all variations on the same thing: future=apocalyptic. You've used up all your future trips. It's time to tell stories in the present.
--No more end of the world. Not every story needs to have cataclysmic consequences. So far, all three volumes have dealt with the end of the world. It would have been four if you'd gotten to do your virus story last year! If it's always the end of the world, then the end of the world is just that thing they always save us from. Give us some subtler stories with only dire moral consequences, or just some fun little adventures.
Zachary Quinto as a rejuvenated Sylar snacked on Claire's brains.
--Tell everyday stories. Part of the fun of Heroes is that it's about extraordinary occurrences in everyday lives. That's what made season one so great. Show how these characters use their powers in everyday situations. Maybe have Micah fight the economic crisis with his influence over ATMs. Or show Parkman on a date! Have some fun exploring the mundane. That's what 22 episodes are for.
--Stop pretending to kill people. You clearly don't want to lose characters or actors, since you always come up with ways to bring them back. Nathan's been revived twice already, and now Nikki has a twin? Listen, it's OK. We don't need you to pretend that there's danger for even the A-list series regulars. We're watching a show about superheroes because we want to see people who can always survive and escape danger. So do away with the fake threat of mortality. Just have fun with the cliffhangers, like the movie serials of yore. We'll keep coming back.
--Put a moratorium on new characters. Daphne the Speedster is great, but every time you introduce someone new, you take time away from characters who are already underserviced. Already Maya doesn't have anything to do but show up after Mohinder goes on a rampage. We're still waiting for more on Elle, and we understand there's a scheduling issue with Kristen Bell there, but you've still got Micah and Molly just being neglected. Relax, you're going to be around for many, many years. Sure, there are new cool superpowers, but just file them away in your notes for now. Save them for season six or seven, when contract negotiations force you to recast, like ER.
--Less talk, more twist. The season premiere started off with so many bold moves, like Ando killing Hiro and Claire learning she's immortal. Then Hiro kept looking at Ando funny and hurting his feelings. Claire has had to keep convincing her parents she's immortal. It's fine to tease things, building up to a reveal, but once it's out there, it's time to move on. Hiro finally took some drastic action, though seeing the above entry on character deaths, we're skeptical about even that. All his banter with Ando was just anticlimax. If there are worse fates for Claire than death, let's face 'em. By season three, nobody expects HRG to successfully convince Claire that he knows what's best for her protection. Frankly, HRG should know better by now, too. We like the twists. Change is good. Go with it.
Brea Grant (right) plays Daphne, and Masi Oka is Hiro Nakamura, in the third season of Heroes. (Chris Haston for NBC)
--No more volumes. Face it, it didn't work. It was a novel idea to divide seasons into shorter arcs, but it's not making the stories more exciting. It may even be hurting you to force things into this structure. We've already bought in to the real-world superheroes. It doesn't have to be exactly like a comic book. The goal of volumes is to have more than one big finale a year, but we're not asking for that. We just want to live with these characters week to week. No one's ever happy with a finale anyway.
--Try stand-alone episodes. Maybe the heroes can face smaller threats on a slow week, and everything can wrap up by 10 p.m. Nathan can get a cat out of a tree, or Parkman can work a hostage negotiation by reading minds. Sure, there are questions everybody wants answered, but it doesn't have to be the only thing going on. You've created a world with so many possibilities; we want to see the simple tasks as well as the major adventures.
Trick 'R' Treat Trailer Here!
A new trailer has gone up on YouTube.com for Michael Dougherty's (X-Men 2, Superman Returns) Halloween-themed horror movie Trick 'r' Treat. The movie stars Anna Paquin and Brian Cox in a story that interweaves four different narratives about the holiday. The film doesn't have a release date yet.
Orci Addresses Transformers Sequel Rumors
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen co-writer Roberto Orci addressed some of the rumors about the sequel on TFW2005.com. The site says:He states that some of the leaked TFW insider information may be misinformation. Specifically, he states that Soundwave is not a pick up truck, although he doesn't rule out Soundwave being a truck of some kind.
On the subject of misinformation, Roberto mentions that the false information generally has not been working very well, in fact he says it usually does not work.
In other postings, he stated that the "Fallen" in the title may be a robot, or just a synonym for the defeated side. We can also look forward to fights like the Freeway Brawl in the first movie between Optimus Prime and Bonecrusher, only longer this time around. There's also a good chance we might see a Decepticon who is ridiculously loyal to Megatron and the Decepticon cause. Just don't expect it to be Tidal Wave - Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and the other writers just could not find a way to make him work in the sequel's story.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hits conventional theaters and IMAX on June 26.
The Green Hornet Gets Less Serious?
CHUD talked to Seth Rogen, who talked about how Stephen Chow coming in to direct and co-star in The Green Hornet might have changed things slightly. Here's a clip from the interview:
"Me and Evan [Goldberg] talk a lot of sh*t. We have one rule when writing, and that's don't get attached to anything. One day we want to make a serious film and then Stephen Chow comes in with a good idea and we're like, 'Well it's funny.' Should we not do it because we originally wanted to do a serious film? We come from, nah f*ck it, we'll just take the idea that seems good. So it's definitely less serious than a serious film, that's for sure. We want the action... I say now that we want the action to play serious but Stephen could come in tomorrow and say 'You know what? I want to throw you 400 feet in the air!' and I'd go, 'OK, that sounds cool.'
You can check out the full interview here.
Don't Expect Elizabeth Banks Back as Betty Brant
Would Elizabeth Banks return as Betty Brant in a fourth and/or fifth "Spider-Man" movie? It doesn't sound like it, as she tells CHUD:
"If it's that small, I probably won't do it. They don't need Betty Brant. It's purely, at this point - and I don't think they see it this way - it's kind of a favor, at this point."
She talks more about how she landed the role at the link above!
Frank Miller On The Look & Feel Of ‘The Spirit’ And Robert Rodriguez’s Influence
During this weekend’s Scream Awards, Frank Miller offered up a bit more insight regarding the vibe of his upcoming adaptation of Will Eisner’s “The Spirit” comics, telling Sci Fi Wire that the film was “romantic, but as in ‘Sin City,’ you don’t know what date it is.”Miller described his take on “The Spirit” as a “very urban/Zorro story,” and said he attempted to make the story “as timeless as possible.”
“You will see cell phones and vintage cars and not really know where you are,” added Miller, who isn’t the first to take such an approach to the classic Eisner hero. Earlier this month, MTV Splash Page spoke to “Die Hard” screenwriter Steven de Souza about the 1987 “Spirit” TV Pilot he created and the similar, “timeless” interpretation he used for the project.
Miller also name-checked director Robert Rodriguez, with whom he shared credit on “Sin City,” as being a major influence on “The Spirit,” Miller’s first solo project behind the camera.
“I learned everything I know about directing from Robert Rodriguez. Everything,” said Miller. “Mainly, I learned never to waste anyone’s time.”
“The Spirit” opens December 25, 2008.
Comedian Rudy Ray Moore, "Dolemite," dead at 81
Filthy-mouthed African-American comedian and rapper Rudy Ray Moore, better known as Dolemite, died Sunday in Akron, Ohio after an extended illness, the Electronic Urban Report site reported. He was 81.Nicknamed "The Godfather of Rap" and "King of the Party Records," Moore -- whose real name was Rudolph Frank Moore -- died from complications of diabetes, said his only child, Yvette "Rusty" Wesson.
A mainstay of X-rated comedy records during the 1960s and 1970s, Moore was the voice of Mr. Slippers in the Revolution Pictures feature film Lil' Pimp (2004). Made entirely from Flash animation, the movie was originally slated as a theatrical release. However, in a bid to cut its losses, Revolution Pictures had it released directly to video.
He also guested as Rudy in Readin' The Bowl, a 2006 episode of the Canadian animated comedy-metal series Sons of Butcher.
Wikipedia described Moore as possibly best known as Dolemite, the "rappin' and tappin' is my game!" pimp from the 1975 film Dolemite and its sequel, The Human Tornado. It was a character he had developed during his stand-up comedy records, in which he was even ruder and filthier than such contemporaries as Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx.
Born on March 17, 1927 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Moore was the oldest of seven children. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio at 15, peeling potatoes and washing dishes to make a living. After appearing at various amateur and talent shows, he moved at 17 to Milwaukee, where he got a job dancing at The Flame Show Bar and the Moonglow Night Club.
Initially, Moore was a fairly conventional R&B singer. While in the United States Army, he gained an interest in comedy in the Army after expanding on a singing performance for other servicemen. He remained a singer throughout his comedy career.
Although Moore's vocabulary kept him away from TV and major films, he definitely had his fans, developing a cult base. 2 Live Crew used his records as scratch samples on its early work, especially "Throw The Di*k." He guested on Big Daddy Kane's 1990 CD Taste of Chocolate.
He played Dolemite for the first time in over two decades in the 2000 direct-to-video movie Big Money Hustlas, created by and starring the Insane Clown Posse.
Once again, he took on the character Petey Wheatstraw ("The Devil's Son-In-Law") earlier this year for "I Live For the Funk," a song featuring Blowfly (an equally X-rated singer) and Daniel Jordan. It was 30 years since the movie Petey Wheatstraw was filmed, and the first time that Blowfly and Moore had collaborated together on the same record.
Besides his daughter, Rudy Ray Moore is survived by his 98-year-old mother Lucille.
Funeral services are planned in Akron, Ohio, as well as in Spokane, Washington where his mother and other members of of his immediate family live. No dates have been set.
Fredrikstad Animation Festival
If you’re in Norway this week, I hope to see you at the Fredrikstad Animation Festival, which takes place this Wednesday through Sunday. Among the events at the festival is a day-long seminar on Friday, October 24, entitled “American Masters of Animation: American Animation from Disney to PES.”
At the seminar, Andreas Deja will be talking about Disney’s Nine Old Men and PES will offer a masterclass on his approach to directing stop-motion animation. They’ve also wrangled me into being part of the program, and while I don’t exactly qualify as a master in anything (unless you ask my mom, in which case I’m a master in everything), I’ll be doing a lecture about the works of Fifties design masters like Bobe Cannon, Ward Kimball, Tom Oreb, Ed Benedict and John Hubley. Even more exciting, I’ll be interviewing Gene Deitch, an honest-to-goodness animation legend, live on-stage.
I’m going to pick Gene’s brain about everything he’s done, from creating the classic TV series Tom Terrific…
…to making mind-bendingly trippy political allegories like The Giants…
…and who knows, maybe we’ll even talk about these:
In other words, this Friday will be damn awesome if you’re in Norway! There are also plenty of other fine screenings and presentations planned throughout the week. See you in Fredrikstad!
(Thanks cartoonbrew)
Meeting panel: The Internet for Animators
The membership meeting panel "The Internet for Animators" on September 30 was zesty and informative.
Moderator Mark Farquhar hosted a free-wheeling discussion on how animators can use technology and the internet and thrive on it. The panelists were Rick DeMott, Kevin Freeman, Kevin Geiger, and Charles Zembillas ...
Farquhar, a veteran c.g. animator at various studios and now a prof at Cal State Northridge described how the internet as opened doors for independent animators.
There are more and more distribution channels for content, and its increasingly more easy to create content. Technology is more accessible. Chinese artists are now producing 3-minute shorts on-line that have captured a worldwide audience.
Kevin Freeman, proprietor of animationrigs.com and a veteran rigger and animator, talked about how the web has made it possible for him to work with aspiring riggers and provide them with the tools they need to learn and pursue the craft:
... "I began talking to my co-workers and friends about how they would like to contribute and ultimately decided to open the site for industry professionals to contribute anything they would like: how tos, interviews, work flows, tips and tricks, and more on the topic of character rigging" ...
Rick Demott, editor of Animation World Network, described AWN's newer animation website AWNTV.com and how it worked:
"We're distributing original content, providing an opportunity for artists to have a platform for their shorts. As for financing the site, pre-roll ads rather than banner ads provide more revenue to the site.
The internet launches people [and their creations] in different ways. There's guerrilla marketing, there's viral growth. AWN takes animation submissions from around the word. Fifty percent of our traffic is in north America ... "
Charles Zembillas, animation artist, teacher and the founder of AnimationNation.com, was delighted with the way the internet is shaking out:
"I started Animation Nation as an issue-oriented website. I think it's important to prepare students to be warriors. They can write a web log, and build a community. I had a lot of material in my files about aspects of animation, and I learned Photoshop and created a book, then created a website to promote it, and I'm now selling enough copies to recover the costs to publish it.
I don't think studios will disappear because of artists doing original content on the internet, but they'll evolve.
Kevin Geiger, a longtime c.g. supervisor who now runs his own consulting firm and will shortly be relocating to China to work on an animated feature, had this to say about the continually morphing internet:
"There's a lot of discussion now about artists' images being stolen on the internet, but Internet Opportunities puts a copyright bug on its images. You can also insert copyright data into data and jpeg image..
... There's going to be a huge market for content on the web. There's 1.5 billion cell phone owners in the world. Apple charges 99 cents for anything. For mobisodes, creators will get around 12 cents out of each 99 cents. Mobisodes could generate artists $100,000 per year. Lots of content will be distributed for free, with revenue generated by ads.
And the internet has made video conferencing very cheap. When I started at Disney, we had to go into the big conference room and conference on the big screen with lots of equipment. Now with Skype, you can now conference anywhere in the world for very little money. You can conference and work from West Los Angeles, Shanghai, the location really doesn't matter.
Members were encouraged to get started by signing up with a free bloging service (blogspot.com, AWN.com, etc) and start sharing your work and opinions.
Here is a list of the various sites that were mentioned during the discussion:
afterworld (online computer animated series)
aniboom.com (software website with free animation clips)
animationcoop.org (currently on hiatus)
Animationdb.net
Animationmentor.com (online animation instruction)
AnimationNation.com (Charles Zembillas; see above)
animationoptions.com (Kevin Geiger; see above)
animationrigs.com (Kevin Freeman; see above)
Asifa-hollywood.org (Annie Awards, Animation Archive, etc.)
awn.com (Animation World Network)
blogger.com (to set up your own blog)
Cartoonbrew.com (Amid Amidi and Jerry Beck)
hulu.com (TV shows and other free content)
mumuhug
mytoons.com (short animation)
pocoyo
thundersquid.com (mobile phone animation)
wordpress.com (to set up your own blog)
All in all, the panel was well-attended and useful for the members who attended. But for the members who didn't show up ...
(Apologies for the delay in posting this to the blog.)
(Thanks Animation Guild Blog)
EXCLUSIVE: Your First Look At ‘The Incredible Hulk’ DVD And Blu-Ray Special Feature Clips
“The Incredible Hulk” hits DVD (and Blu-ray) shelves today, and the long list of special features found on each version of the film is pretty impressive, to say the least. The 3-disc set of DVDs and 2-disc Blu-ray versions will contain more than two hours of extra footage, including a heap of behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Oh, and there’s that Captain America cameo everyone’s been talking about, too.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Marvel Studios have provided MTV with EXCLUSIVE clips from two of the “Incredible Hulk” featurettes, including the following look at “Becoming The Hulk” — featuring a cameo by none other than TV’s “Hulk,” Lou Ferrigno:
Here, check out another EXCLUSIVE clip from “The Incredible Hulk” featurettes, titled “The Making of ‘The Incredible Hulk.’”
Daniel Craig Offered, But Declined, Lead Role In ‘Thor’?
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Sure, we heard the rumors that current James Bond lead Daniel Craig was considered for the title role in “Thor,” but we didn’t think they were legit. One man playing both the smooth, international man of mystery and Marvel Comics’ Norse god of kicking magical villains’ butts? Not a chance.Well, it looks like the rumors were not only true, but Craig was actually offered the role by Marvel Studios at one point.
During a recent “Quantum of Solace” press event, Craig revealed that Marvel did indeed approach him to play Thor, but he turned the role down. According to IESB, Craig said he declined the part because it would have been “too much of a power trip” to play both Bond and Thor.
As skeptical as we were about the casting, it does eliminate one more name from the pool of potential actors who could be wielding Thor’s magical hammer, Mjolnir, in July 2010. In fact, there’s been very little official news about the film thus far. The most recent reports have Mark Protosevich polishing the film’s script, and rumors that Kenneth Branagh will direct “Thor” have yet to be confirmed (even though he’s already cleared his schedule for the project).
DisneyToon Studios and The Sequels That Never Were, with Tod Carter
When continually asked for more Three Little Pigs cartoons after the immense success of his 1933 cartoon short, Walt Disney famously quipped “You can’t top pigs with pigs!” It was, until recently, a philosophy that the Studio upheld, breaking the rule but twice, for theatrical follow-ups to The Rescuers and Fantasia, but when Aladdin and The Lion King proved such smashes, the powers that be couldn’t resist providing audiences with more pigs: a series of direct to video titles that admittedly could surprise once in a while, but more often than not earned their nickname of “cheapquels” for all too obvious reasons.When Disney brought Pixar - and new head John Lasseter - into the fold, one of his first decrees was that this profitable but creatively bankrupt practice be brought to an end: no more sequels (or prequels, or midquels). No more Cinderella II or Little Mermaid II (hopefully), no more Cinderella III or Bambi II (unfortunately). With the recent release of The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning, the end of an era has been sounded and marked by the departure of the not always popular Sharon Morrill from the presidency of DisneyToon Studios, the division that sprang from Walt Disney Television Animation to produce these films. As every ending is an occasion to look back and see what was done…and what was not done…we approached Tod Carter, a long-time DisneyToon collaborator, to be our guide through the history of the unit.
A big name in the animation industry, the award-winning Director of Animation and Story Artist began his 15-year career in film and animation as a graduate of the Fine Arts Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Tod has utilized his skills and talents to create and establish Chicago-based animation studios for Terra Glyph Interactive, Media Station Inc. (producers of Disney Interactive CD ROMs) and Character Builders (animation providers for many of the direct to video features). Tod has been equally prolific in his commercial work for major motion picture studios, well known within this circle, and his list of credits continues to grow.
His work for Warner Bros. includes animation for Quest For Camelot and Space Jam as well as numerous commercials featuring the Looney Tunes characters. His animation credits include work for DreamWorks Home Video on Joseph, King of Dreams and Pocahontas II for Disney. Tod also contributed story development to DisneyToons for video sequels to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, The Fox and the Hound and the never to be realized sequels Aristocats 2 and Chicken Little 2. Also well-know for his key participation in the Veggie Tales series, he is currently working as an animation and story consultant for film and commercial projects.
Animated Views: You were trained in animation and live action. How did that happen?
Tod Carter: I grew up in Chicago, a child of the 70s, watching cartoons on TV. I guess you could say that’s my true background. I always had a love for drawing, even at a very young age. Of course I wanted to grow up to be an “artist”, but I didn’t really know what that meant. How does one really make a living as an artist? We all have heard the cliché of being a “starving artist”. By the time I reached college, my dream of being an artist hadn’t died but I was pretty sure that I didn’t want to be starving, so I was frantically trying to figure out a suitable resolution to that problem.
Really, what I enjoyed doing was making pretty pictures but I couldn’t figure out why someone would actually pay me to do that. This was in the mid 80s which was a unique and exciting time. Computers had been around for a little while but the programs that allowed artists to use the technology creatively were really just taking hold. I believe DeluxePaint for the Amiga was one of the few tools available at the time. It’s pretty archaic stuff by our current standards, but it was exciting to a young artist at the time. The new technology had the look of “The Future” and I was drawn into it as were many my age. I decided to pursue my education locally and enrolled at the University Of Illinois at Chicago. Because the Computer Graphics program was so small, and limited to only a few classes, it was lumped into the greater curriculum of the Film Program. So, it happened quite by accident, that I found myself involved as a film student.I was one of the few in the department that could draw well, so I distinguished myself a bit in the animation classes that were available (although, I must admit that I did have one instructor tell me that there was no future for me as an animator because I could not draw well enough). After a few years of school, I had decided that I would pursue a career in film as a Director of Photography in live action. I was convinced that my new love of film would steer my life in that direction. But, after a minor stint in a live action film as a 3rd AD, I became a bit disillusioned with the process. I was working, but just not creatively and I wanted to change that before it was too late. I put together my student reel and (with great persistence) landed my first animation job as a cell painter on Cap'n Crunch commercials. So, it was in this roundabout way that I would begin my career in the animation industry. Every artist draws upon all their experiences and pours them into their work. My experiences are a bit varied but each one contributes to my vision as an artist.
People often ask me about what I study as a filmmaker to learn and improve. I think most animation students assume that I would focus mainly on animation but the truth is that I really like to study live action films. The reason is twofold. I think real people/characters offer a rich source of inspiration for animated characters and there is a rich tradition in animation that establishes this idea. The other reason is that since I’ve been working on a lot of CG animated film projects, there is a great flexibility that can be accomplished that virtually mimics live action camera technique in the CG realm. I love animated films, don’t get me wrong, but you can easily see how animated films in the last decade have really moved closer to their live action counterparts in style and sensibility with great results. A film worthy of study that comes to mind is Hot Fuzz by director Edgar Wright (also of Shaun of the Dead). This director’s camera and editing style are both quite stylized and very deliberate and is a source of great inspiration that I recently enjoyed.
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame II - click to enlarge
AV: Your experience combines Animation and Story Development, doesn’t it?
TC: Since I started in animation in the late 80s, I’ve had the opportunity to work my way up from cell painting, inking, inbetweening, animating, story artist, story supervisor and finally to director and sometimes writer. I’ve always worked outside the larger studios, which has provided me the opportunity to do it all. My first true passion was at the board as an animator. In the mid 90s there was an incredible boom in the industry which provided great opportunities for artists. At the time, I was given an opportunity to work for Character Builders, based out of Columbus, Ohio. Character Builders was rolling along pretty well and contributing feature animation to a number of projects. During this growth phase they were looking for some good talent. After contracting me and another local artist to do animation for Space Jam, they decided to bring us on staff. Because moving to Ohio wasn’t a great option at the time, they gave us the chance to open a satellite studio in Chicago that began as a two-person studio but quickly grew to about a dozen artists. Unfortunately, this business can be quite cyclical and as the industry contracted, things really changed. Our entire production team was laid off as the trend to outsource animation overseas kicked in.
Because Character Builders had shown great competency in delivering work to the Disney direct to video department (now DisneyToons) they were offered a chance to produce the sequel for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, along with director Steve “Oscar” Moore. It was at this same time, while I was essentially packing my things and heading out the door, that director/producer Jim Kammerud called me. I guess he must have liked something I was doing because he asked me if I thought I could storyboard. Well, I can tell you it never really crossed my mind but I realized long ago that if someone asks you if you can do something, you just say “yes” and figure it out later. So, it was on Hunchback that I received my on-the-job training as a story artist. It was never by design or part of a grand plan, but I feel it was really the beginning of my true profession, as I was laying the foundation for becoming a filmmaker.
AV: As an animator, you worked for different studios like DreamWorks, Warners and Disney. Did you see differences in their approaches to animation?
TC: I did quite a bit of work for Warner Bros. on Animaniacs which really shaped my early style. I think most animators will think of Chuck Jones and Warner Bros. as being synonymous. So, in truth, it was the artistic style of Chuck Jones that I tried to imitate. He, of course, is a true master of timing and comedy. Working for Disney is quite different since the sensibilities are very different. Disney focuses on more subtle techniques and the beauty of realism. Both techniques require the study of life, but whereas the Warners style is generally much broader, the Disney style is usually closer to realism. I think this is true in their approaches to story as well as animation. Of course, you can find good exceptions in each case.
AV: How was your experience on Pocahontas II like?
TC: Pocahontas II was produced at an incredibly fast pace. If fact, most projects are, and I think many people would be surprised how we fly by the seat of our pants as we create projects. For this project we had a fairly short time to ramp up and learn the characters. Probably about a week, if I remember correctly. To make matters worse, it was 1998 and the video release for the original film wouldn’t come out till about 2000. Therefore, even though we were supplied with a fair amount of production drawings and model sheets, we didn’t have access to the original animated film itself. This may surprise a lot of people, but the majority of sequels I’ve worked on were all handled this way. During this time, we worked feverishly to try and hone the style.Of course, you must realize that few artists can draw the way John Pomeroy (Supervising Animator for John Smith) can. This put us in quite a spot because we needed to mimic his animation as well as that of many other talented feature artists. Now, I will tell you, that if you took a room of animators and gave them a choice between animating Pocahontas and Meeko the raccoon, nine out of ten artists will choose Meeko. The reason being is that it’s much more fun to do the broad character comedy of a character like Meeko. Also, it’s incredibly challenging to draw lifelike characters like Pocahontas and John Smith and the subtle realism that is required to make their acting believable. The stylistic realism of these human characters can really display the flaws of an artist.
Unfortunately for me, I could pull off the human characters just well enough to land those main characters for Pocahontas II. While I toiled away with human characters doing all sorts of difficult acting and action, I watched others enjoy working on lively scenes involving Meeko, Flit and Percy. I was also assigned to animate quite a few scenes involving characters riding horses. It was a challenging show, to say the least. By the end, I really wanted to let loose and draw some funny cartoons.
AV: What appealed to you about the very specific art of storyboarding?
TC: Going from animating to storyboarding is a significant change. The beauty of storyboard for me is the ability to see and affect things globally. You really get to see the big picture and develop the film at a higher level. Animating can be a very solitary endeavor in some ways. Working in story is very much a communal effort in its function. Whereas animating focuses on performance, boarding focuses on storytelling. I always felt that animating was much more of a precise drawing skill while boarding required a broader set of drawing skills and allowed for looser representations.
AV: When I see your storyboard drawings, I don’t just see rough story drawings, but beautiful drawings, with shadows, textures, etc. There is also much technical information and most of all, emotion (like in the Tarzan/Zugor dialogue for Tarzan II). How do you create your storyboards?
TC: First of all, thanks for the compliment! This is really a great question because the answer outlines what is really necessary to elevate the art form. I’m always trying to learn and improve and, in doing so, I hope that my story work is always evolving. You can see some variety in my samples due to that approach. The first show I ever boarded was for Hunchback II. What I did was probably what most young board artists do when they first start. I spent a lot of time trying to make great drawings and really flesh out the characters and backgrounds in detail in order to make a good impression with the director. This is really the wrong approach and I soon learned my mistake when I saw the first cut of the animation reel.
My drawings, with their rendered backgrounds and heavy shading that seemed so accomplished when I first did them, were barely legible when cut into a reel and displayed in sequence. It’s important to remember that each story panel will be visible for only a fraction of a second and therefore must be stripped down to its bare and essential elements, while still projecting just the exact emotion and acting (not to mention camera information). In other words, they must be CLEAR. Clear of all unnecessary information and full of everything relevant that can be viewed and absorbed in an instant. Of course, this is a skill that isn’t learned overnight and may never be truly mastered, it must be continually developed.
I’ll give you a little bit of insight into the process. Obviously, we start with a script and a scene hand off with the director. The director gives his insight on how he feels the scene plays out. I’ve worked with directors who have given very detailed information and even thumbnail drawings and I’ve worked with directors who have handed me a script and said, “Make it funny”. I personally like to get very little direction because it allows me to work harder and become vested in the ideas. By this I mean, that as I develop ideas I have the freedom to let my inspiration dictate where the scene is heading and how it plays out. It’s just more fun for me to work that way.
Next, I usually do some thumbnail drawings to choose my shots and help create a sense of continuity. The thumbnails, in most cases, are barely legible to anyone but me. I spend very little time on the drawings themselves. The real effort is in trying to get great ideas. I’m concerning myself with camera direction, blocking, pacing and having good business for the actors. Also, if there are elements of the scene that just aren’t working well, I’m trying to address solutions at this point. I will play the whole sequence out in my head while looking at the thumbnail scribbles I’ve drawn. By now I’m pretty good at envisioning what the scene will look like and how it will play, even before making the boards.
Now that I’ve done all my scene planning, I get down to making the real thing. I’ve tried lots of different techniques for doing the boards themselves. I’ve done pencil, Col-erase pencil, Prisma-color, grease pencil, ink pens and most currently Cintiq tablet. Sometimes, I would do a rough and clean up over my original, sometimes I would just do one drawing and not clean at all. Most of the Tarzan drawings were done with Prismacolor and probably had some light under-drawing with a pencil. I have found that the key to creating good and expressive boards is to draw quickly and with emotion. It goes without saying that the key to being able to loosen up your drawing style, is to lay down a good foundation with years of practice drawing from life.
Tarzan II - click to enlarge
When I draw a character I really try to FEEL the emotion as I draw. (Sometimes my wife laughs at me because I make what she calls “a drawing face” which is really just me imitating the character I’m making). If you draw slowly and too deliberately you will have a harder time getting great emotion in your drawings. I usually do my under drawings very quickly and without great regard for model. I can then go back and tighten the drawing and put it more on-model while hopefully retaining most of the expressions. I’m convinced that my best work is produced when I’m working very, very quickly. This keeps my brain from getting in the way of the creative process.
AV: How do you choose the tools you use for drawing?
TC: I’ve been using the Cintiq for about a year now. It does take some adjustment and it’s only as good as the drawing software that you’re using. Photoshop, for instance isn’t a very good tool for drawing (although I understand that artists at Pixar use it for boarding, which really surprises me). Corel Painter has much better drawing tools but the interface is a bit cumbersome, in my opinion. I’ve tried a version of Toon Boom Storyboard Pro, but I wasn’t too crazy about the drawing tools in the version I tried (but I thought the program had a lot to offer in its ability to organize a project). My software of choice for boarding via Cintiq is Autodesk Sketchbook Pro (formerly Alias Sketchbook Pro).
Despite some peccadilloes, this software has an incredibly efficient interface and some excellent drawing tools that can emulate pencil and pen, as well as others. It also works in layers to allow for easy reuse of backgrounds and other elements. Even though it does have some shortcomings, I’m disappointed to hear that Autodesk isn’t pursuing support or development of this software, so future upgrade versions are not likely. Hopefully, someone will pick up where Autodesk leaves off. Storyboarding via Cintiq offers some advantages in efficiency and obviously saves a lot of time since you don’t have to scan. I do lose a bit in line control and the ability to fine tune a drawing, but overall it’s a good solution for a fast-paced production.
Aristocats 2 - click to enlarge
AV: You worked on some Disney video sequels that never were. Can you tell me about them, starting with Aristocats 2?
TC: Well, the story of these films is a little convoluted and I’ll do my best to keep the facts straight. I was asked by director Jim Kammerud of Hot Donut (formerly of Character Builders) to help with boarding on Artistocats 2. This film went through multiple scripts and different incarnations and probably didn’t really have a clear vision in the beginning. Our goal was to create that vision and tell a solid story. With the exception of retaining the main characters, we were given a good deal of freedom to create original story (similar to Fox and the Hound 2). We were given a script to work with, but unfortunately a good deal of time and money had already been spent on the previous versions (before we got the job) and the producers at Disney were getting a little antsy to get the film rolling and put something onscreen.
We felt the script still needed some work, but the schedule wasn’t going to afford us the opportunity to rework the current version and still deliver the film on time and on budget. So, a unique plan was hatched by Jim Kammerud to deliver the first rough story reel quickly and thus allow us some time at the end of the schedule to rewrite and fine tune the story a good deal. The proposed time frame was four weeks. When I heard this suggestion I said, “Ok, great. Four weeks is tight, but I think we can get the first act done.” Jim said, “No, four weeks to do all three acts.” I honestly didn’t think it could be done. I wish I could remember how many board artists we had, but it wasn’t that many; possibly five or six. This was a Herculean task and I can tell you that I don’t think it had ever been done for a film of that scale.
It would take a unique approach, so we devised a method where we (I’m not sure if everyone drew the same) would essentially do large thumbnail board drawings instead of full size boards. We created board panels on 7.5” X 4.5” paper with 4.5” x 2.5” inset frames. Our drawings would fit inside the smaller window area and the dialog and camera direction would be written below. The paper was at a size that was easy to handle and stack while still allowing us to draw at a small scale. Obviously, with such a small window to draw in, we couldn’t do detailed or elaborate drawings. We’d have to limit the drawings to clear and essential information. At the time, I was convinced the results would be less than acceptable but I was surprised when I viewed our first story reel. The weaknesses in our story were apparent but the overall quality of the reel was really quite good. In the end, I think we pulled it off in five weeks, which was remarkable.
To make a long story short, Artistocats 2 was eventually shelved because there was skepticism by the executives that it would find sufficient audience in an ever more competitive market. It’s one of those disappointing things that happen in the film business from time to time, but it may have been a wise call. The good news was that we had pulled off our little experiment and succeeded in delivering a quality reel in record time. The bad news was that we had established a precedent of what can be accomplished in that time frame and the producers and budgeters at Disney had taken notice.
Aristocats 2 - click to enlarge
AV: What was that story like?
TC: To make Artistocats 2, we tried to distill the essence of the original film. In the first film, the kittens’ nemesis was a misguided butler intent on stealing their fortune. The sequel created a similar dynamic by pitting them against a jewel thief on the open seas aboard a luxury cruise ship.
The flavor of the film was sort of a mystery/farce/comedy. There was also a young kitty love interest for Marie who became the focal character of the film. By singling out one character for the central story arc we could do a better job at strengthening the elements of the film. Sometimes when you have an ensemble cast, things can really get watered down because you don’t have enough time to spend with each character. We tried to avoid that pitfall.
The original film takes place in Paris but we didn’t feel they exploited the setting to its fullest potential. We wanted to adopt a European flair by filling our ship with a cast from places like France, Scotland, England, Spain, etc, thus creating a rich environment in both scenery and character in the era of the early 1900s. Our main objective besides the mystery element was to make it completely fun. We worked hard to up the action scenes and create a level of high energy.
I really think this film was headed in the right direction and with another pass we could have gotten it right but there are other important considerations in making films of any kind. Making sure you have an audience for your movie is paramount. Disney just felt that Aristocats 2 was in jeopardy of falling through the cracks in a competitive marketplace.
Another interesting side note by the way - originally this movie was slated to be a traditionally 2D animated film like the original, but that strategy was eventually changed by Disney Execs who felt that a CG animated version might do a better job at capturing interest. I personally am not a big fan of converting characters from 2D to CG mainly because there is an importance in designing for your targeted medium. Going this route, we probably would have lost a good deal of softness which is essential to these character’s charm but since it was ultimately shelved the world will never know for sure.
Aristocats 2 - click to enlarge
AV: With all these characters from different countries and one thief among them, there seems to be an “Hercule Poirot” flavor to it.
TC: Yes, exactly. Sort of a Murder On The Orient Express without the murder.
AV: Afterwards, there was Chicken Little 2?
TC: Not long after that project was shelved, I received a call from Klay Hall, who was directing Chicken Little 2. He was given the mandate to create a story reel for his project in the same time frame that we did for Aristocats 2. I don’t think he or the other board artists at Disney were too excited about the deadline, but I guess Klay figured that it would be a good idea to get someone involved who had actually had experience working at this pace. Overall, the script for Chicken Little 2 was pretty good and I felt great about the sequences in which I was involved. Klay gave me a good deal of freedom to invent and I really appreciated working with him and loved the project.
In the story, Chicken Little finds himself in the midst of a love triangle. On one side, is his childhood sweetheart (but not too attractive) Abby “ugly-duck” Mallard. On the other side, is the very attractive newcomer, Raffaela, the French sheep. Abby’s at a tremendous disadvantage here, so she goes to great lengths to give herself a makeover. A portion of the makeover sequence is represented on my website, which shows Abby’s grand entrance at school with her new-found look. The script, in this case, had dialog but very little specific action, so most of the visuals and business are original ideas that I was free to invent. Working on this type of scene is great fun for an artist.
Chicken Little 2 - click to enlarge
By the time the first reel was being finished, the crew was fairly excited about the direction the show was heading. The story I heard, was that the screenings were going extremely well and at one point there was talk that Disney would actually increase the budget since they felt they wanted to up the production quality to match the quality of the story. Sadly, in their next breath, Disney pulled the plug on the project. It was a reactionary move (in my opinion) to sales figures for current projects and the overall market. The executives didn’t feel that the original film had a wide enough market to draw upon to support the sequel. We’ll never know for sure, but I really feel the film was progressing well and would have succeeded.
AV: You also did a “White Whale Chase” sequence involving Little Mermaid characters. What was that?
TC: This sequence was actually mocked up for a storyboarding test I did for Disney TV, when I was toying with the idea of moving to L.A. I never submitted it, but since it was one of the few examples of TV boards I’ve done, I decided to include it in my gallery for a bit of variety. Doing TV boards is quite a bit different than film or direct to DVD productions. The main differences to me are in the fact that you must include very specific camera directions and your characters must be tightly on model. Also, it’s essential that your layouts are clear and well drawn since they are usually blown up and used for character layouts in production.
Ariel’s Undersea Adventures test - click to enlarge
AV: Story development is a team process, but can it be a solitary work, alone with the script and your storyboard paper?
TC: Well, it’s a little bit of both. There can be a great deal of collaboration with the writer, director and other story artists, but a good deal of time must be spent at the board creating the visuals. Personally, I work best alone in a quiet room but I know some board artists who like to sit around a table and sketch out ideas and bounce them back and forth with other artists. It’s really just a matter of personal preference.
AV: Do you go back to the original movies to get into that universe for the sequels, or do you prefer to ignore them to find new directions?
TC: First, I’ll say a bit about creating sequels in general. I don’t think people realize the difficulty involved in pulling off a good sequel. The problem lies with the fact that you have already established a complete universe with characters and predetermined scenarios. The audience is full of expectations since they want to see all the characters and they want to see them doing all the same types of things they are well known for. In addition, the main character has already finished his/her character arc by the end of the first film and obviously you want to remain true to that character and not undo anything from the first film by rewriting history. Having said that, the next main obstacle is to keep it all fresh by introducing a new plot and all new characters and situations. Basically you end up with a script that is forced to accomplish too many things. For example, you could come up with a fantastic script for a Tarzan sequel, but if you didn’t include quality roles for Tantor and Terk you’d have to start all over again. There’s a tremendous responsibility involved and the artists involved really do want to pay due respect to the original.
Working on Fox and The Hound 2 was a little bit different than most of the other sequels I did. The original film doesn’t really have a strong following and wasn’t held up with the same regard as, say, Little Mermaid. Because of that, I was given more freedom to develop the story and for that reason I think it was probably one of the most successful sequels I have worked on. When we sat down and talked about what we really liked and wanted to retain from the original, it was quickly decided that the high cuteness factor of the young fox and hound and their relationship were the most redeeming elements of the film. Kids really responded well to those characters, much more so than to their grown-up versions. We decided to strip the story down to the bare elements of their childhood friendship and build it up from there. When I first got involved on the film, the country music theme had already been established. Besides the other two main human characters, there wasn’t much baggage that needed to carry into the film from the original, so it really distilled down to the question, “How can we make an entertaining film”. This was a tremendous freedom for the crew.
AV: For an artist who likes to work by himself, is it difficult to pitch your scenes in front of the crew?
TC: I have worked on productions where I was able to pitch the boards to the director and crew, but there have also been times when I had to send my artwork directly to the editor. The “pitch” is a pretty cool event since it’s sort of like performance art. Besides explaining the scene, you are playing the role of every character and your performance will influence how the director perceives the scene. You also have the ability to influence the timing of the eventual cut of the scene, since you will be pacing the boards as you do your pitch. The pitch process does create a certain amount of anxiety and not every board artist can perform well in this situation. I’ve had some great and some not so great experiences pitching sequences.
Overall, I have to say that I really enjoy the process since it’s your first opportunity to present your work and there’s no greater feeling than to pitch a joke that you wrote and receive enthusiastic laughs. Not every production affords the luxury of the pitch process. I’ve worked on productions where I simply handed over boards to the editing department, who then scanned them and cut together a rough edit for presentation. On occasion, I’ve done my own edit to make sure the director knew exactly what I was intending. Timing of the boards, particularly in comedy, has a tremendous importance and it’s essential that the editor knows your intent to insure the proper result. This is where a good pitch (or a good editor) can help.
AV: You took part in Tinkerbell. Can you tell me about that experience?
TC: I don’t know the entire history of the Tinkerbell film and I’m more than a little surprised that it still hasn’t been released. I was asked by director Klay Hall to help with the boarding back in September 06. Since my daughter was four at the time, I was thrilled because she loved Tinkerbell and I was a hero in my own home. Tinkerbell is a huge Disney icon and certainly gave me tremendous satisfaction to be invited to participate. The version I was working on was the 2nd or 3rd script incarnation. Going back to my earlier comments about the difficulty of writing sequels, Tinkerbell is a perfect example.
In the original movie you have a character who doesn’t speak and whose environment is removed from modern technology and terminology. Now, how do you craft a script that makes Tinkerbell the main character, give her dialog, put her in a relevant context, create her in CG and still keep the charm factor from Walt’s vision? I know that Disney really wanted to get it right and had made a large investment for promotion and product development into what would be a big franchise for them. To complicate matters, there were already planned sequels as part of a trilogy of Tinkerbell films. The merger of Pixar and Disney occurred around the time I was finishing my involvement with the Tinkerbell project. From my understanding, Pixar had gotten involved and decided to revise the project quite a bit.
AV: How is it, continuing the lives and imagining new stories for classic heroes like the Aristocats or Tinkerbell? Is there a kind of a responsibility you feel?
TC: I always feel some responsibility toward characters, regardless of their origin. As an artist, you are required to give a voice to these characters and allow them to breathe. It’s important to me that when we expand the universe of the character we don’t adversely affect the history that has already by established. It can be a real trick to do that and maintain a fresh feel for the brand. That’s why a film like Toy Story 2 is so incredible, because it really stands out as a beacon in terms of what a sequel can accomplish.
AV: You founded another company recently, Brain Freeze. Can you tell us about that?
TC: I’ve always tried to look ahead and adapt to the changing climate in animation. It’s important to remember that although animation is an art form, it’s also a business. You need to have a variety of skills to survive the long-haul and stay productive. Also, learning and adapting is fundamental to an artist’s growth. Without the learning process, an artist will cease to be original and creative.
2007 was one of my busiest years ever, since I was doing a variety of boarding jobs and also directing a TV series, 3,2,1 Penguins and a feature short Deja Grape. But in the midst of it all, I could see how the climate of entertainment was changing; fewer projects were being produced and budgets were being reduced. Meanwhile, everyone in entertainment was feverishly trying to figure out how to capitalize on the internet as a fresh revenue source for production. Unfortunately, since internet content is free, it is difficult to raise significant funds to create original content solely for internet viewing.What I could see was that advertising was the true growth market in this scenario, since there are new ad spaces being sold via internet and cable network. This creates a need for more advertising-related animation content. I started my career working on TV commercials, so in a way, I’m coming full circle. I created Brain Freeze Entertainment at the beginning of 08 as a source for high quality animation for TV, film, web, and just about any other media where animation can be seen. I still offer project directing, story development and design for any level of production, but Brain Freeze has given me the opportunity to expand my offering and take my career in a new direction.
I’ve also created a working relationship with Magnetic Dreams, an animation production company in Nashville, TN. Magnetic Dreams offers additional production support to Brain Freeze to allow for some scalability on BF projects and, in return, I offer support as director to select projects on their end. Our first collaboration was on Deja Grape and the results were fantastic. Although this is all very exciting for me, my true passion is creating original content and the long-term core business of Brain Freeze is to create original properties. We’ve got a few in the mix as well as a childrens’ book (Today I’m A Dinosaur, co-created with Dennis Bredow) that is near completion.
AV: Are you still storyboarding for the studios?
TC: I’ve done a lot of work recently for Big Idea on Veggie Tales projects and their recent film release, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. Since Disney has merged with Pixar there has been some reworking on their end as they move forward and try to figure the best approach to develop DVD projects. John Lasseter is very much involved in Disney’s new development, which I think will be great for their future. I’ll have to see how it shakes out and hopefully I may have a role in future projects.
With all our gratitude to Tod for his kindness and great involvement in this article. For further information, feel free to visit his personal website and Brain Freeze online.
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