What Do You Want To Know?

[Ward Jenkins]

Obviously, there are a good mix of people here from the animation industry, both young and old(er), newbie to seasoned. For those who are dying to know anything and everything about working in animation, ask away on this thread. Myself (11 years experience), along with many others in the industry will try to take a crack at your answers.

For the record, I work in the commercial/broadcast side of the biz. Others have worked on TV shows and internet. Do we have any feature peeps? If not, let's try and get 'em here.

Ask away.....(or not)...

[Fred Seibert]

Ward, you are one great guy, and our community's lucky to have you.

Bring it on folks.

[Patrick Mallek]

Great idea for a forum! I've got ten years worth of whip marks myself. A healthy combination of online and film work. I am currently the Animation Director for an international film festival, so If anyone wants to know more about that process, I'd be happy to share some dirty little secrets.

[Elliot Cowan]

I've logged 10 years in animation and live action, mostly in low budget commercial production.
So far that's 30 combined years worth.
Surely someone has a question.
Wait...
I do!
Patrick - Tell me why the Europeans love my short films but I can't get anyone in North America interested?

[Patrick Mallek]

Because both the European audiences and your films are either too smart or too dirty!

[Elliot Cowan]

Maybe so...but I wouldn't have especially thought so.
Here's one here that played on Channel Frederator a while back.
They're mostly completely silly but funny and well timed (or so I think).

[Patrick Mallek]

I hate to say it (because I like this film) but here's one of those dirty little secrets I promised: I would have to reject your film from the festival because you don't own the rights to the music, which is a total shame because visually this is very intriguing. But without an original score, this film would not get past the first round of cuts. I think it would be totally worth your time to find a composer to score this.

[Elliot Cowan]

Oh yes - I thought you might say this.
I do have original music for it.
This is the music I work to then I hand it to another feller who shoves his own compositions on it.
It is those with all original music that I send to the festivals.
I get attached to the original tracks so those are the ones I put on YouTube.

[Patrick Mallek]

Definitely. Never send a film if you don't own all the parts. Not only will you get rejected, your liable to get black balled at certain festivals. Problem is, say you use a song and the festival director is unfamiliar with it and they screen your film. Now they've opened themselves up to a potential copyright law suit from the owner(s).

Technically, you could get a "cease and desist" from the label for even posting it online. But it's doubtful unless you get a million views. Parody law can protect you, but it's a grey area. Know this: certain bands and celebs are more litigious than others.

All that said, I'd love to see the other mix. I'm done taking submissions for the 2008 fest but I'll keep it in my pocket for the following year. Email me at [e-mail] and I'll get you the address to send the DVD.

[Elliot Cowan]

Oh sure - I understand that.
Just emailed you - cheers for that.

[Vincent Veidt]

I'll have to agree on this one, America is a strange animal when it comes to animation. There's a broad notion that animation is just for kids and it isn't taken seriously. In fact, if you look at it, the majority of (successful) experimental animators in the United States are immigrants from Europe and Asia. The sad thing is that most experimental animators either become slaves to a studio system (because we all know there's no money in pure art) or teachers and lose touch with their craft. Appealing to a European audience is not a bad thing, but it certainly won't make you a millionaire animation tycoon. Take pride in a (typically) more intelligent and "refined" (I'm not sure what they mean by this) niche.

Another problem you have in North America is the insistence upon ADD. Everything has to be fast, colorful, and story oriented or it will lose its audience to a candy bar and "spinners". Don't worry about it, it shouldn't be about money or recognition, but what makes you happy.

[Ian Ellis]

Melvin Van Peebles had the same problem. You should check out the documentary on him called "How to get the man's foot outta your ass"

-EanFace

[Ian D. Merch]

How necessary is it to move to California for the animation industry? I was born, raised and educated in the midwest, and Chicago seems to have very little in the way of careers in animation, despite having three schools with a bachelors program in it.