Channel Frederator Blog

Imagine if the 3 Stooges were flies and they had to battle a fly version of Arnold Schwarzenegger for a prized used olive for dinner. That would be Club Cocoanut Animation’s short, Flies by Night, in a nutshell, er rather used… olive.
Morgan Williams shared his short Flies by Night and a few words about it with us back in episode 102 in this installment of Channel Frederator Rewind.

1. How did you come up with the idea for Flies by Night?
I’ve been working on a series of stories about the pests, insects and vermin that live in and around old apartment buildings. This film is one of it’s first manifestations.

2 Who are some of your influences?
Well there’s too many to list really: Clampett, Avery, Jones, Blair, Culhane, the Fleischer’s — the usual old California guys and their many imitators and followers. But I also like stuff like Cordell Barker, Bruno Bozetto, Paul Driessen… [Read more…]

Doug Bresler, the Doog of Doogtoons, submitted his epic music video he made for His Weirdness, the one and only Weird Al, entitled Trapped in The Drive-Thru! It’s an 11 minute animated music video, and it is EPIC.
Have you ever spent a looong time stuck at the drive-thru? I know I have at one point or another…
Weird Al takes R.Kelly’s, Trapped in the closet, and puts his spin on it in this highly entertaining parody song video.
In Doug’s Interview we rap about animation, his varied influences, and thoughts on our fast food nation.
Makes me hungry.
Bon Appétit Mon Amis!
1) Who are some of your Influences?
I have countless influences, but to name a few, not in any order:
a) Sam Raimi - Gotta love Evil Dead.
b) Claudio Fragasso - The genius behind Troll 2. “Nilbog is Goblin spelled backwards!”
c) James Cameron - I saw “The Terminator” when I was 5 and it made me want to make [Read more…]

Bryan Brinkman’s Channel Frederator Featured short, The Coffeebird, is bittersweet while still showing us the humorous and touching sides of friendship and life…
Even if it is a beautiful friendship between an old person and his fine feathered friend. I wanted to do something different for this interview, so rather than dish out my usual Channel Frederator Featured Film Interviews, so I opted to interview Bryan Brinkman’s character in his film!
So without further ado, here’s some answers from Coffee Person (Barrista?) Henry Stevens.

1) Your story, has touched millions, and has been made into an animated feature by Director Bryan Brinkman. How was it working with him and has success changed you Henry?
Well Bryan’s tough to work with, aside from his pompous attitude and dangerous drug habits, he’s just plain unprofessional. Also he tends to break the rules of editing and what he comes up with is just sloppy. Not very professional. For [Read more…]

Bonjour IM with Dan Meth.
10:46 AM
hey dan

hey jeaux

are you busy?

not really

i’m gonna interview you about Internet People via Ichat.
How long have you been on the Internet dan?
not in the sense of having a website…but more in the sense of when were you first introduced to the internet?

i first started using the internet in about 1998
here and there in college to check my email and download guitar tablature for Neil Young songs
it wasn’t until I got my own computer after college that i really started surfing the web alot

What was big at around that time period online that you remember? i gues pre viral.

well, it was the first big dotcom era and I was out in San Francisco trying to learn Flash quickly so I could get a job.
There was all these Flash cartoon sites like Icebox and Mondo Media
Viral things…. hmm, it’s hard to remember. I recall one cartoon about a grandad or something.
I [Read more…]

Vi-Dieu Nguyen gives us a surreal peek into the world of a tiny, be-scarfed photographer, giant flowers, kites and a Gigantic Superhero Baby. It will all makes sense in the end. If you, watch… it. So Watch it, and check out Vi’s Awesome work. He certifiably Rocks.
Thanks for the quick Interview Vi!
[Read more…]

Bryan Brinkman’s short, Gordy, was pretty funny. I’ve been waiting for someone to do something like this since I first saw Winsor McCay’s original Gertie the Dinosaur. I’m glad it was Brian and crew at Uber Street. Gordy could be a distant relative of Winsor Mccay’s Gertie the Dinosaur, if those relatives mated with eachother and inbred, inbred, inbred. Over time, you are bound to get genes all kinds of messed up. Gordy, lovable and deformed as it is, would be the happy result.
Thanks Bryan!
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Elliot Cowan is a very talented animator from Australia, now living and working in London. His popular shorts featuring an odd little duo named Boxhead and Roundhead are extremely well done and powerful in their quiet simplicity. Bhead & Rhead are what would happen if you combined Abbot & Costello with the DNA of Abstract art, add a touch of silent filmism on top of that and mix to fine cake batter of Awesomeness.
Elliot took the time out of his busy schedule to answer a few of our Channel Frederator questions. Thanks Elliot.
[Read more…]

Filippo Giacomelli is an animator working out of Rome, Italy. We recently were lucky enough to show his film, Page d’Ecriture, last week on Channel Frederator episode #85. What’s surprising and refreshing about Page d’Ecriture, is the combination of CGI and traditional 2d (flash?) within the piece. It’s a delight to the eyes and a whimsical view into the mind of an elementary school kid. I know I’ve daydreamed about these kinds of things during my elementary school career.
Thanks Filippo.
[Read more…]

In an effort to find a so-so article of Tom Kenny discussing what it’s like to voice Spongebob [as seen in the latest issue of the Onion in paper form], I found this great interview with John Kricfalusi on the Onion.com HERE.

One excerpt:
[on animating his own version of Yogi Bear:]
I was a little kid when those were appearing on television, and I used to stare at them and draw them while watching them on TV. I used to write my own stories and everything. Then when I was a teenager, I started making fun of the cartoons and would do my own weird, caricatured versions of them. I would do dirty versions of them. I’d fill all my textbooks with dirty stories of The Flintstones and do flipbooks, and I’d amuse all my friends. So I showed some of this stuff to Fred Seibert when he took over Hanna-Barbera in [Read more…]

I particularly enjoyed Russel Etheridge’s short, Odd From Every Angle. It really captures the alcohol induced absurdity and surrealistic moments of the blackouts that we prefer to keep hidden under the rugs. Not that I go around as drunk as Charles Bukowski or Hunter S. Thompson, but I’ve had my fair share of hazy moments of hornicorns & clowns, robots & monkeys and who knows what else.

Russel’s short bends the rules, daring to combine traditional 2d, cg, live action and other various techniques. It’s refreshing and very exciting to see something like this, and I’m glad we’re helping to make it spread.
Thanks for submitting Russel!
[Read more…]