For years I asked myself why Australia hasn’t had its own animated series for adults.
Now I know that it’s my own fault!
Sad Animator expects money. Laugh at him.
“Pretty cheap!”
Last year I went to a launch event put on by our state film funding body and SBS, Australia’s multicultural government TV network.
At the drinks part afterwards I asked a lady from SBS if they were interested in commissioning adult animation. She replied, laughingly, “How cheap can you make it?”
So, since I don’t need their money to make the cartoons, I figured I should just make them myself.
I’m currently making them — in the form of an animated series called BE A MAN — using money I earn elsewhere.
People have asked me, “How will you make money doing this?” The answer is, “I won’t”.
I suppose the goals are to make something good and to make a reputation for doing so, each of which is valuable.
Waiting around for TV executives to pass judgement on my ideas isn’t furthering those goals. Better I just make the things, enjoy the making and stop to earn money when it’s possible.
A script. You could write one!
Devolving
I went to the SPAA Fringe conference last year. It’s reasonably priced and a good way to get access to some interesting people and hear things first-hand.
I attended a roundtable discussion with a ABC-TV development fellow who asserted that the best way to approach the ABC with your comedy idea is to NOT approach the ABC with it.
Instead, it should be taken to one of their “preapproved” production companies, ones they repeatedly work with (Andrew Denton’s, for example) so that they can decide if it’s ABC-worthy.
We at the table were a bunch of mostly neophyte dopes with TV show ideas. The impression I got was that he was sincerely trying to give us the good oil.
I’m not sure every ABC executive would give the same advice. The most interesting thing I learned from speaking to several of them was that none of them seem to agree on anything.
Storyboards. You could draw these.
“At least it’s not sitting gathering dust on the shelf, right?”
I listened to this podcast of a talk from the SPAA Conference (not the one I attended, the “big boys” one) which asks the question, “Will one of the people on this panel, who represent alternatives to network television, actually put their money where their mouths have been for quite some time now and commission some bloody content?“
The moderator did an excellent job trying to squeeze an answer out of them. Their answer was muffled but sounded a lot like, “noooooo, probably not right now”. They’re currently doing fine paying pennies (or nothing) for your video once it’s been made.
“At least it’s not sitting gathering dust on the shelf, right?” said the nice lady whose salary is paid by people giving YouTube their work for free.
A character. You could build this.
“The right people”
Sometimes we complain that we aren’t successful because we aren’t friends with “the right people”, the implication being that “the right people” are TV executives or celebrities whose access to money or power could smooth the way for us.
What’s great is that if you’re more concerned with making a good show than with having a show on television, you almost certainly know “the right people” already. Your smartest, funniest and most eagle-eyed friends are capable of helping you make your show, or of making your show better. You only have to ask them for help.
Once you have “the right people” involved, it’s just a matter of renting a camera and some lights. Or sitting in a little room and drawing lots of things.
Backgrounds and props. You could draw these.
Making stuff will save you
Working in animation, I sometimes find myself part of a large crew working to make a children’s show worth millions of dollars, and in the middle of that I sometimes forget it’s possible to make something better on no budget at all.
But you can! People do.
I’d say the following is as true for you as it is for me. It’s important, so I’m writing it in pink:
You have ideas and energy that the people in charge don’t want and wouldn’t know what to do with. Use them yourself.
Cartoons: you have to make them. They'll get you if you don't.
The reason Australia hasn’t had its own adult cartoon series
It’s because nobody in the TV industry wants one as much as I do, and I haven’t worked hard enough at it!
I apologise, and I’m fixing that now. Slowly.
David Blumenstein writes and draws, often simultaneously. He makes pictures and animation for money. He’s not saying anything you didn’t already know. You can learn more about his animated series via his Twitter feed and his Facebook page. Or go watch him making it at Squishface Studio.
These images are from the storyboards I’ve been doing for my animated series, BE A MAN.
Actually, they’re an awkward cross between storyboards and animatic frames.
Storyboards should be clear and easy to read when printed on paper. These would be quite difficult to read because of the way I do my boards — I draw the frames in Flash, and, anticipating turning them into an animatic, I draw WAY too many frames! I put in all the little glances and moves the characters will do.
This is great for when I do the animatic and can easily watch how all the actions time out, but now that I want to show actors this stuff, I find it’d be time-consuming to put together a version that’d work on paper or as a PDF — I’d have to drop out all the extra frames.
Maybe I just need to physically flick through the boards for them — like having them watch the cartoon in flip-book form. I’ve been showing people my progress this way and it seems to work.
In 2011, the Precinct team put this proposal to SBS — a proposal for a half hour animated cop show for adults.
We were told it would be good to have an idea of how three seasons’ worth of the show would work, hence the enormous cast and loads of plotting and ideas. We left out a lot of stuff, too.
In the end, it was more than the programmers at SBS really wanted to see, but making it helped us enormously in figuring out what we like about the show and what we would like it to be (and the divide between Adam, my co-writer and I, on that issue!).
I thought it might be interesting for people to see just how much work we put in. And obviously we’re still working on Precinct, but going in more of a “ACTUALLY MAKE CARTOONS” direction than a “PITCH IT AGAIN AND AGAIN” direction.
I should point out also that, although she didn’t go for it, Caterina (our contact and yours at SBS when it comes to comedy and drama shows) has been extraordinarily giving of her time and experience over the last year or so.
So, here’s our proposal! Is it a good proposal? Not sure, but this is what we put to them, warts and all, and I’d still love to see an animated Aussie adult cartoon on SBS more than just about anything. Obviously I’d prefer it be ours, but there’s enoughtalentedbastards around that we’re gonna see one, finally, one day, and I’ll be bloody happy whoever it comes from.
Feel free to comment here or anywhere else (FB? Twitter?) as to what you reckon about it.
I’ve been blogging about my “upcoming” animated series, The Precinct, for almost six years now!
In that time, I’ve learned a lot about the animation industry, and about animation itself. I’m a much better artist and animator than I was in 2006 (see here for evidence). A better writer, too, hopefully.
I’ve made countless plans as to how we’d make the show. 12 x 3 minute episodes. 11 x 5 minute episodes. 8 x half hour episodes. 6 x eleven minute episodes!
For a little while, it might have been a Canadian co-production. Or an Israeli co-production! Then it became an interactive story. Then it wasn’t. Then it was again! Then it wasn’t again.
Adam and I have written numerous episodes, in several formats. We’ve been very excited and also very cynical about its chances on TV. Every dummy has a show idea, and we’re funny dummies, but, y’know, still dummies.
Adam’s one of a big bunch of people who have been greatly supportive over the years. They’ve helped in many different ways, including with making the few short “teaser” episodes that exist.
At our high points, we got funding from the government to promote ourselves. We’ve chatted with production companies and networks about making the show. We’ve had a great producer and currently have a great animation company behind us.
The low points have been infrequent, but depressing, in the way failures often are. You’ve been there. You know what I mean.
And, though all this has been worthwhile as a learning process, the fact is: I’ve spent six years writing proposals and scripts and pitches… and it’s time for that to stop.
That’s why, come 2013, production will begin on a series of Precinct shorts. One minute episodes. Probably eight of them.
I don’t have funding or backing. That’s why I haven’t done this before now. As a freelance animator, finances have been wobbly enough that it seemed very risky to take a punt this big. I know eight minutes of animation doesn’t sound like a huge ask, but when you’re trying to pay bills, it’s a lot to add to your plate.
Still, others have done a lot more with a lot less, so it’s go time.
The plan has been to start pre-production as 2012 ends and work on it through a solid production period of several months, albeit one divided between the series and freelance work.
Budget will be my savings. So it will be miniscule by animation standards. I’m considering trying a small crowdfund whose goal would be to raise enough money to pay others to help me. We’ll see.
I’ve popped the new project on SPAA’s The Melting Pot site so you can see a bit more about what the series will be and what I’m hoping to find, help-wise.
Whatever happens: Precinct cartoons are coming! I may come looking for your help one day soon. Beware.
I’ve been mostly working on comics lately, so my animated project The Precinct has only occasionally peeped out for a sniff of air, but yesterday I went to a Film Victoria presentation by a group of SBS staff and took some pictorial notes.
Here they are, in case you’d like to learn what they’re up to over there (heavily flavoured by my own POV. Don’t assume anything is a direct quote unless it’s in “quotes”).
The general theme was, “We’ve had no money for a few years, but we have some now, so we’re going to do stuff with it”. Go SBS!
THE GOSS
There were probably lots of big TV/film producers there, but since I don’t know who they are, I was very pleased to encounter the (just as big, but more animation-friendly) Ivan Dixon from Rubber House, Peter Viska and Kate Mills from Viskatoons and director “Tall” Paul Andersen.
AND FINALLY
OH! And here’s what you can expect from the Q&A at an event like this:
We’ve all seen lists of “tips” or “hints” on the internet, because they come up every time you search for info.
They are written by arseholes who think that, to be noticed on the Web, you need to be “an expert on something”. They’ve read that the best way to do that is to write a list of handy tips about their topic of interest. So I’ve written a handy list of tips to keep in mind when you’re writing your own list of tips to keep in mind about your topic of interest!
1. Think of a topic about which you can write five to ten really obvious bits of advice (or, “tips”).
2. Make sure the topic is one that people are searching for information about on Google.
The way to figure this out is to go to Google Insights For Search, search for how many people are Googling “porn”, then search all the topics you have a clue about. Pick the one whose level of worldwide interest is closest to “porn”.
3. Write five to ten fairly obvious bits of advice on your chosen topic.
Remember that people are selfish. They want their information boiled down to the very basics so they don’t have to read ACTUAL information, which often spills over from simple sentences into long sentences with big words, and, sometimes, even into paragraphs.
Nobody likes paragraphs, because those often appear in “books”, which are a bit old and smell funny.
4. More important than the content of your list of tips is the catchy title for your list of tips. Try to include one or several of the following: TIPS, TRICKS, HINTS, HANDY, SURVIVAL, HOUSEHOLD, MUST-KNOW, USEFUL, SAVE, HOTTEST, PORN
5. If your list of tips appears a bit drab and lacking in internet search glitz, pop a few highly-searched terms in wherever is convenient. For example:
“When curing your salami, be sure to cover the entire surface area in rock salt. Don’t miss any IPAD KINDLE NOOKS or crannies, even though putting your fingers in them might cause you to FACEBOOK unwelcome thoughts about LADY GAGA‘s vaginal folds.”
6. Even better than short sentences with small words are pictures. Come up with an image to illustrate each of your handy tips. Don’t worry about whether you’re “stealing” that photo of Justin Bieber, because this is the Internet and there’s no such thing as copyright and information wants to be free and Anonymous Wikileaks Billy Idol cyberpunk.
7. Put your list of tips on your blog. Be sure to spread word about your list of tips by talking it up on social media, at your office, around your house and by leaving dozens of iPads on park benches with your blog post already loaded up.
8. Be sure to solicit for blog comments at the end by asking “How have YOU solved this problem?”, or “What do YOU think?”
This is known as a “call to action”, and it makes it look like you give a shit what people think. If nobody posts any comments, post a few yourself under false names:
“Rajesh says: This is great advie, thank for sharing !!!”
Have you written a successful list of handy tips? How did you do it? Share what YOU think!
I think media fatheads talking ugly garbage help make the world a worse place, and that’s why I’m going to put these ones in some new cartoons when I get started on a Precinct series later this year.
