Channel Frederator Blog

Jonathan Katz, star of Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist and host of “Hey, We’re Back” took a moment to answer a few of Cartoon Hangover’s questions about his career and his animated short “Death Row Diet.”

Cartoon Hangover: What drew you to comedy initially?

Jonathan Katz: I had no other skills. I tried to tune pianos and I was a flop. I had a band and we were moderately successful. On a good night we made 600 dollars. We never had a good night.

CH: Who was good to you and gave you a lot of encouragement when you first started as a stand up comedian?

JK: Dom Irrera, his ex-wife, Lisa Mende, in her own odd way. Silver Friedman, the owner of the NY Improv. My wife. My wife again. Carol Siskind, a comedian who taught me the trick where you right something down. Carol Leifer, a wonderful comedian, Rita Rudner, Paula Poundstone, but [Read more…]

Mike Salva, animator of “Max the Hero” and this week’s Cartoon Hangover ‘toon “Death Row Diet” gives us some background on his work with comedy and capital punishment.

Cartoon Hangover: How did you become so involved with comedy? I mean, as adorable as animated tragedy is…

Mike Salva: I blame it on nine years of Catholic school. Laughter of any kind was discouraged. And I was there when the nuns weren’t allowed to hit the students anymore, so they started punishing the children with mental cruelty. And by golly, those nuns got to be pretty darn good at it!

CH: Why did you approach Jonathan Katz about animating “Death Row Diet”?

MS: I was a big fan of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. Jonathan had watched a cartoon I had made called “Max the Hero” and we had talked about Jon doing a voice in a future cartoon of mine, but I didn’t have a particular project in mind. [Read more…]

Alex De Campi is a writer, visual artist, and film director (also director of this week’s Channel Frederator vid “Raindrops Keep Falling on the Dead”). Here, the investment banker turned jack-of-all-trades tells us about the journey to her current state of happy artist and her upcoming work.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study art/animation/film?

Alex De Campi: I have zero film, animation or art training, beyond some amazing middle and high school art teachers and a summer at RISD. Everything I know, I’ve learned on set, or by just closing my eyes, bracing against cold water and jumping in. I’m lucky to come from a very technical/mechanical family (my father and grandfather were great tinkerers, and were both still photographers) so the technical side of filmmaking holds no fear to me - in fact it’s probably my favourite element. I have a ridiculously nerdy love of old film cameras… my dream is to [Read more…]

You like music? Animation? DINOSAURS?! Then it stands to reason that you will love this weeks animated music video. Thanks for casting your nominations for Channel Frederator and Cartoon Hangover at the Streamys! You’ve proven time and again that Frederator fans are the best fans of all the fans!

“Raindrops Keep Falling on the Dead”, by Alex De Campi: Flash animated music video for the group Flipiron.

*New episode of Cartoon Hangover this Friday! Jonathan Katz & Mike Salva! You can now follow CH on Twitter! Be our friend on Facebook!

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*Want to submit? Then go for it! Click here!

WARNING: Channel Frederator is rated EXPLICIT. Man, 2010 is so *bleepin’* awesome! Oops. Sorry. Some content on CF is pretty grown up. If you’re under 18, get your parent’s permission prior to viewing.

-Bailee DesRocher

This week Cartoon Hangover features Tim Beckhardt’s “Pellet Gunn”, a black and white salute to indie comics and the dangers of small town boredom.

CH: Where did you study animation/film?

Tim Beckhardt: The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). I also took quite a bit of printmaking while I was there.

CH: What gave you the idea for “Pellet Gunn”?

TB: I think the central theme came from growing up in/around run-down towns with not much to do and the schemes (most destructive) you come up with to fight boredom. I had always wanted to do a film with multiple intertwined characters in one location, and the story built progressively from there.

[Read more…]

French animator Ghislain Avrillon’s short film “Galileo” is a bonifide hit with Channel Frederator Fans! Here is a quick interview with the filmmaker about his work.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Ghislain Avrillon: I learned animation and art at the Pivaut School in Nantes (France). My studies lasted 4 years, but only the last two were animation.
Galileo is the result of the last year. Six months of hard personal work.

CF: What gave you the idea for “Galileo”?

GA: I love poetry and the idea of freedom. This mentality orientated my choices for the scenario and graphic world. I heard a beautiful comment about Galileo : “A Modern Icarus”. Icarus has ever been a beautiful dream to me.

CF: What influences your style the most?

GA: Hmmm… I’m very interested in illustrator’s digital work. I want to approach a traditional result with digital tools.

CF: Are you working on anything new you can tell us about?

GA: I’m working on many personal [Read more…]

Mountain from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Here’s a little diddy by Channel Frederator favorite, Kirsten Lepore! Check out Kirsten’s previous CF episode and interviews!

-Bailee DesRocher

It’s finally here! The long awaited second half of this article. Happy 2010 to you! Here, I’ve conducted an email interview with the talented comedians who handle the voice work and improv magic in animator Mike Hollingsworth’s short series “Nature Break”.

CF: What is your background in comedy?

Danforth France: I moved to Los Angeles and went through the Groundlings program, learned how to improvise. Then I did a lot of standup in the months between classes. I did a lot of sketch and improv with the Groundlings and my troupe The Pretty Okay Ho-hum Spectacular on Ice, which is now long defunct.

[Read more…]

Freelance animator Alek Vacura’s short film “Without Arms” follows the Venus de Milo’s journey to get her “hands” on some arms. Here, Alek tells us about his process and what’s coming up in 2010.

Channel Frederator: What gave you the idea for “Without Arms”?

Alek Vacura: The idea for Without Arms came to me as I was falling asleep one night. I think some of the best ideas come when you’re not consciously trying to create them. I have always had a fascination with statues, and studied marble sculpture in Italy a few years earlier, so it seemed fitting that my thesis animation would head in that direction.

CF: What was the most challenging part of making it?

AV: Honestly, every aspect was a giant challenge. Before this animation, I had only worked on class exercises and small projects. I had never worked on a project of this scale. Everyone kept calling me crazy for wanting [Read more…]

Argentinean animator Leo Campasso’s “Wild Wind” is a neat animated throwback to the pixelated 8-bit goodness of the 80’s.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Leo Campasso: I studied animation in Argentina at the “Image Campus” Institute. I graduated this year.

CF: What gave you the idea for this film?

LC: One of these moments in the daily routine, my hair - it’s too bad!!!

[Read more…]