Just a Tad

Found Art

I'm cleaning my studio in preparation for  a move and found some real treasures: a Mike Mignola sketch of a multi-eyed bat, a letter from Isaac Asimov and these two cover roughs by Paul Lehr that I bought at a World Science Fiction Convention back in the eighties.

Mike's sketch was done as we discussed the action of HELLBOY ANIMATED: SWORD OF STORMS.  I don't think he can resist drawing monsters when talking about them.  I'd love to see him paint six monsters and hand them out to six of his favorite writers then give those scripts to six artists that he finds interesting.  It's the old pulp/comic tradition of creating the exciting, very commercial cover first then telling a writer the story has to be in by Friday.  That's a trade paperback I'd like to read.

The letter from Isaac Asimov is a simple typewritten note in response to a letter I had sent him.  We had talked briefly about the idea of him hosting some EPCOT documentaries that were to debut on network the same week as the Orlando opening (never happened).  I had just finished his autobiography which was written like a conversation with a good friend.  We met face to face at another WorldCon, his wife was sitting on the other side of him.  I had written that I almost hugged her because she felt like such a friend when my inner voice stopped me in time, "You only READ about her."  I suppose that inner voice is what stalkers lack. 

Paul Chadwick is the creator of CONCRETE.  Buy some trades if you don't have it already!  Paul worked for me on those same EPCOT documentaries that never saw the light of day.  I don't know if he ever heard from Isaac.  I hope so.  Paul is one of the nicest people walking the planet and I know the planet thinks so too. 

I got the Paul Lehr roughs for $25 each at a con.  I love the rough brushwork and the mood of the paintings.  I cringe at that slice down the art.  I'm afraid it wasn't there when I bought the piece but there's nothing to be done about it now.  These pieces are only about five and a half inches wide and are like little jewels.  

 

Have some fun and go to a comic convention.  If you do, seek out "Artists Alley" where artists sit at small tables selling sketchbooks and original art.  It doesn't matter if you've read their books, just look at the art.  If there's something that intrigues you, ask about it.  Chat.   You may find a treasure of your own to buy.   Mike Mignola used to sell pages for around $25.  Who knows who you might discover?

                                                                        --Tad

Development

I've written before that the original reason for this blog was to share an ongoing behind the scenes look at my work in animation, like I did with the popular Hellboy Animated blog.  But I'm not allowed to talk about the work I do that hasn't aired yet and I'm not allowed, by contract, to talk about my own work that's in development. 

So can I talk about the process without the specifics?  Let's find out.

First comes the pitch, then the negotiations, then the first development meeting.   Okay, I've now done all three on my current project.   The first development meeting was a lot of fun.  Mostly because, instead of having your ideas judged, the execs are telling you why they bought your idea.  Sweet!  They like it, they really like it!

But aside from talking about my project, we discussed the audience and wow how things have changed.  In the early days of Disney TV Animation, the Common Wisdom was that "girls will watch boys programs but boys won't watch girls programs."   Well, now there are plenty of boys watching girl friendly shows because that's what is dominating the kid TV market.

 

I'm guessing that's largely due to the Disney Channel juggernaut that seems to manufacture a new pop culture icon just before the last one starts posting sexy videos.  Granted there are plenty of cartoons that are just plain funny and appeal to both boys and girls but when a guy hits a certain age he either develops a resistance to pink and lavender or turns to his gaming console.  

Disney is addressing this with DISNEY XD, which I guess stands for "Disney eXtreme Disney."  The Marvel superheroes will eventually find a home there but more importantly to animation geeks, a new sort of cartoon comedy is being developed.   Well, not really "new" but different than what the Disney Channel is developing which means more shows, more variety.

But the real change is that the animation industry is now developing shows for the Post 9/11 Kid.  These kids are more sheltered by parents, are barraged with scary reports on the evening news that are amped up for ratings and exposed to constant talk about the end of the world either through enviormental disasters or the latest wacky Nostradamus documentary on the History Channel.   Here's how Newsweek describes the difference:

Unlike the baby boomers, whose big fear was that "we'd all live in ticky-tacky houses," says Howe, millennials fear that "strange people with motives we don't understand could be lurking among us." The boomers feared conformity; millennials crave order. 

 This changes the way I think of my main characters.   My idea was already pretty positive.  Basically kids doing exciting stuff.   The fun comes from pushing their enthusiasm to the extreme.   But how I portray them and how the interact with authority figures should reflect the change in the audience. When Nickelodeon was started, the mantra was "Us against Them."   The "Us" were kids and the "Them" any person of authority.  Kids were the smartass geniuses, adults were dunderheads.  This doesn't seem appropriate anymore.  A character can do insane things, like Phineas and Ferb for instance, without being rebels or flaunting authority (Big Sister Tattletales don't count).

If you've read my previous posts on pitching, you may remember that I said presenting too many details of your series can be a negative.  Development executives want to be a part of shaping the show to fit the specific needs of their network.  

As the execs explained why they optioned my idea, I understood which facets of my idea to emphasize and what to diminish or eject altogether.   I purposely didn't reread my pitch during negotiations.  The temptation to "get ahead of the schedule" by getting a start on a bible or writing up some premises was there but ignored.

I'm very glad I did.  It left me open to new ideas and I made the most of them.

I hope.

--Tad

PS: Those kids up there are the work of a great character designer, Miah Alcorn,  check out an interview with him here.

Logic Be Damned!

 If you want to kill the guy hanging off the front of the truck, you can run down a long list of easy ways to do it before you get to "Push the guy into the car ahead of you, the one that refuses to slow down."  What?  They were in too much of a hurry to stop and shoot him?  Sure they were catching a plane but it wasn't going to leave with out them.  And no one in the car had guns?   They were NAZIS!  Were they saving their bullets?   Used up their ammo allowance?  Nobody suggested, "Hey, why don't we just stop and blow the crap out of that guy?"

Raiders of the Lost Ark is full of stuff like this.  Ancient temples booby trapped with pressurized dart guns and photo-electric cells, tombs filled with snakes who evidently don't need to eat, the most poorly guarded Nazi airstrip in history, a warehouse filled with treasures and wonders that no one touches (granted, this was well before eBay).  It's chock full of some of the most goofiest, most illogical set pieces in cinema.

And I love it.  It's one of the most exciting movies ever made and I count myself lucky to have been  part of the best audiences in the world on opening day.  Yes, I'm old.

We never questioned the illogic of the truck chase because we were too busy being thrilled.  

This is another post about notes.  Logic notes are some of the most common, especially from inexperienced note givers.  "How many shots does that gun hold?   How could they travel that far without stopping for gas?  Wouldn't they need to pee?"  It's easy to shine a reality light on nearly any adventure story and find inconsistencies.  And if that light is unrelenting, you'll see the suspension of disbelief evaporate before your eyes.   

This isn't to say that logic doesn't matter.   Everything in your story must  feel right.   If an action seems illogical, it can pull the audience out of the story.  Suddenly they're not involved; they're not part of the world you created.   

But sometimes you let the little things go.   Try to address logic notes but don't sacrifice entertainment for it.   However, if the note is "It's not logical for this character to do that," then you better be prepared to argue the state of mind of the character that allows it to happen.  

Going back to Indiana Jones, I'm sure Indy would have had a thrilling fight with the scimitar waving giant, but the biggest laugh of the series was when he did the "logical" thing and pulled his gun.

 

If you're developing a show or running a series, there's no telling what kind of creative executive you'll be working with or for how long.  Some are brilliant, some are using the position as a stepping stone to something else, some start out clueless and get much better and some switch to the creative side of the desk and handle shows of their own.  No matter what their caliber, show a little respect.

At the very least, they provide a fresh point of view.   If a plot point, character motivation or gag doesn't make sense to them, the same will be true for a sizable percentage of your audience.  Sometimes the exec will offer a solution to a problem and sometimes that solution will stink.  It's their job to point out a weakness.  It's your job to fix it.

Everyone should be working together to make a better show.  It's great if you can build a friendly, casual relationship with those who give you notes.  An antagonistic attitude only makes it harder to push your point of view.  And you should definitely have a point of view to fight the "too many cooks" syndrome.

An animated series is a community effort.  It's up to the producer/director/story editor to keep it from disappearing into the sea of blandness that sinks many of the network offerings.  So be a friendly adversary, address all the notes you can that don't hurt your show.  Then pick your battles and don't sweat the little stuff.

 One last thing about note sessions: Share the credit, take the blame.  You're going to get compliments among all the other stuff.  If a particular gag or story idea is pointed out as being good, name the writer whose idea it was.   Likewise, if you told the writer to make a change that is criticized by the note givers, admit that it was your idea and float the writer's original idea.  You may get an approval for the new idea on the spot.

The photos above show just a few of the talented writers that I've worked with: Greg Weisman, Bob Schooley, Steve Loter (director), Mark McCorkle, Dev Ross, Kevin Hopps and Doug Langdale.  There's a ton more... but they don't have pictures on the net!

Later! -- Tad

Did Michelangelo Get Notes?

Imagine having your every creative decision judged, guided or "corrected" by someone who purports to have your best interests at heart.  You're either six years old or you work in animation.  There are many hands involved in the production of a cartoon and some of them are typing memos and sending them to your boss.  These are called "notes."

Okay, it's easy to talk about dumb notes or horror stories so why take the high road?  A cool series that only saw the light of day as a DVD compilation was "Disney's TEAM ATLANTIS," a spin off of ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE.  It was action adventure in the pulp tradition and had some of the best scripts I've worked on... at the beginning.  

Atlantis was Disney's first PG animated film with lots of guns, explosions and violence.  We intended to keep that element as the animated team searched for ancient Atlantean artifacts which had been activated by the raising of the power crystal at the end of the movie.  Lots of Fortean subject matter would be explained as having a connection to Atlantis.  This was my chance to cover Hellboy-like subject matter, since I'd never get a chance to do the real thing.  Little did I know.

Anyway, we were doing a Bermuda Triangle story where the disappearance of ships and planes is traced to a second Atlantean crystal at the bottom of the ocean.  That crystal had, among other things, mutated ocean life into a weird amphibian race that attacked ships.  Our notes came from, among others, David Stainton, then head of Disney TV Animation just prior to him taking over Feature Animation.  David had twisted the arms of ABC and Toon Disney to take the series.  They were reluctant because its action adventure bent didn't match any of their programming but David pushed it through.  I'm grateful to him for that.

I'm less grateful about what happened to the series.  David immediately started giving notes to tone things down, to make sequences less scary and just sort of bland things out.  So by the time we got to the amphibian humanoids attacking ships, he threw up his hands in frustration and asked why they had to be included in the story.  I replied that they were the antagonists of the episode at which time he uttered the tee shirt worthy statement: "Why do we need antagonists?"

The production was shut down after the movie was released to disappointing box office returns.  The network had been willing to go along with the show if the movie was a monster hit that would deliver viewers but without that, well, Atlantis sunk.  Again. 

Also during that time there was an intern working with the development group who was constantly pitching premises to me.  His stories were way off but I explained in detail why I was rejecting them so the guy could get something out of the exchange.  One day he came to me and said he'd been offered a change to join the development executive track but he really wanted to write.  I said I appreciated how he kept coming up with premises in the face of rejection.  But I explained that even if he came up with a premise that I liked, all it would mean is that he'd get to try writing an outline and possibly a script.  I couldn't hire him on as a staff writer.  He thanked me for the advice and left.

Cut to one week later: I enter a conference room for a notes session and across from me is my boss, his head development exec and the guy who couldn't sell me a premise... who proceeded to give me notes on our scripts and outlines.

Here's the value of notes: they are opinions from people who are familiar with your show yet not caught up in the day to day process of creation.   They're an informed point of view from the outside that can point out confusing elements or inconsistencies in character portrayals.  Network notes also push the show toward the needs of the network, increasing its appeal to their target audience.  After all, that's why they bought the series in the first place.

My mild horror stories went a little long so I'll continue this in another post.  I'll cover when logic is NOT your friend, development politics, and your poor attitude.  ; )     --Tad

Oh, the artwork.  You know I don't like to post without art.  I'm not a painter but I have painted.  The above is the result of having a bunch of free acrylic paint from my time at Imagineering.  It was a presentation piece from a  project called, "SnowStar," and an example of my enthusiasm and inexperience.  Not everything in it is a joke but there are plenty.  For example, the robot in the front is a tribute to Robbie the Robot but his chest is  Vincent, the floating bot from The Black Hole.