Channel Frederator Blog

Boy, these little buzzers buzz more than the teachers in a Charlie brown cartoon stuck in an 8 bit dimension. And it’s cute. And Funny. So Funny. And Evil. So Evil. We sat down and buzzed a bit with their creator, Fraser Agar!

1) Where did you get the inspiration to create the Little Buzzers?
I like electronic music, and have always had a penchant for the arbitrary. I also had a digital tablet, a copy of Flash, and the desire to make something… anything, and TLB was the product of those resources. And although my sense of humour ranges from absurd to lewd, I have always preferred the challenge of making G-rated material funny to everyone- and that is what has kept TLB borderline appropriate to all ages.

2) Who are some of your influences?
My influences are pretty typical. I love Spongebob and the early Simpsons, and the Angry Beavers were awesome! A couple years after the “Random Jibberish”, fans started to mention that Greevil reminds them of “Gir” from Invader Zim- which I promptly rented and LOVED! I can understand how people see a resemblance, because I hate now hate Gir almost as much as I hate Greevil.

I discovered Homestar Runner a couple months after I had finished my second episode, and The Brothers Chaps have been a major influence ever since. I should also mention that one of the ONLY Flash cartoons I had ever seen before I made TLB, was Amy Winfrey’s Muffin Films. I can’t even guess how many times I watched those! I was ecstatic to discover Making Fiends last year through podcasting… Amy’s stuff is incredibly funny and unique.

3) Did you do the sound design as well? How were their voices created?
The voices on The Little Buzzers are the product of some extensive knob turning on a 303 synthesizer. I know little to nothing about how it works, but I do know that if you fiddle with it for a while, you get weird and annoying sounds. Then, I use a pitch-bend knob to change the intonation of the synth, so that it sounds like their are talking… sort of.

4) Can you describe your process in creating this short, from start to finish?
The first episode of TLB fits with your theme this week quite snugly! I literally just made it up as I went, having Sedrick, Duncan, and Greevil do whatever I thought guys like them might do… which is apparently completely non-sensical. However, now I try to have a loose beginning, middle, and end before I start animating, and I sometimes key-frame the more important action. I make the voices before I do the animation for each line, but only a couple of sentences ahead, because the script changes frequently. Then, with my terribly amateur hand, I move the shapes about the screen, mostly frame by frame, with a motion tween here and there. Everything is self-taught, and it shows!

5) What are you working on currently?
Currently I am working on a live action show called Awesome Video Games. It’s a parody of the video game review shows and commercials of the early 90’s. Production has taken most of my time over the last year, but rabid Buzzers fans will be glad to know I have just started working on the next episode of TLB. I hope to produce one monthly from now on.

Thanks for introducing us to the Little Buzzers Fraser! We hope to see more of them and your work in the near future!
RAWK!
-Jeaux Janovsky