Channel Frederator Blog

Maik Hempel

Maik Hempel’s animated infomercial “Petsicle” will solve all of your holiday pet-sitting problems. Plus, he gives us a little insight into why sometimes laughs outweigh style, and why a high SPF sunscreen is extremely important during an Australian Christmas.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Maik Hempel: After high school, I studied architecture for about one year, before I realised I should have stuck with my original choice of animation. So I slapped my lecturer in the mouth with a set square, traded my graphics pens for a peg bar and learned the astonishing art of the “moving-picture-bonanza” at Griffith Film School in Brisbane, Australia (“Bachelor of Animation with Honours” they call it)

CF: Who or what has influenced your work the most?

MH: Like everyone else at some point in their life, I was pretty amazed by
Disney, but the biggest influence animation-wise for me was Ren & Stimpy. I used to tape them and watch them back frame by frame on my dad’s state-of-the-art video recording machine (what ever happened to VHS? …and hyper-colour shirts for that matter).

These days however, I’d have to say I’m more inspired to create short films in the hope of making people laugh (or at least vomit). So I’m more influenced by comedies like Seinfeld, The Office (U.K. version) and an Australian comedian called Shaun Micallef (one of the funniest people I’ve ever laid my eyes and ears upon).

CF: What is your favorite animation?

MH: My favourite animated feature is The Lion King. I think the day I saw that film, I realized that making stuff move one frame at a time was for me. It was quite a hemispholiating experience.

More recently however, I would have to say that Family Guy stands out above the rest. It’s not the fanciest in terms of animation, but it’s the only animated show that guarantees me at least 5 laughs per episode. And I think that’s more important than the number of keyframes.

CF: How do you get past creative blocks?

MF: The only way I can get past creative blocks is to wait them out. Kind of like a hibernating grizzly bear. Eventually the snow melts, and there’s plenty of salmon for everyone – what I’m saying is, in the end, something random will hit you in the face and the proverbial ball will get rolling from there. It’s actually much easier if you have a deadline, because it forces your brain to get it’s ass into gear.

CF: What is at the top of your Christmas list this year?

MF: Getting one of my animated shows off the ground would be awesome. I’ve been working on a little thing called “Rashman” with a mate of mine (Adam Leigh) for a few years. If you can give us lots of money for it, please Santa, that’d be great.

Other than that, this year for Christmas, I’d really like to celebrate a White Christmas. I was born in Germany and haven’t seen one since we moved to Australia 17 years ago. Christmas falls smack-bang in the middle of summer over here, so while the rest of you are building snowmen and roasting chestnuts on an open fire, our nuts are roasting in the open sun while we dehydrate and get skin cancer. I just can’t get used to it.

Meeeerry Christmas, Maik!

You can watch Maik’s animation, “Petsicle”, in episode #158 of Channel Frederator below.

– Bailee DesRocher