Fred Seibert's Blog

Our crack Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! from two summers ago, Ryan Charmatz, stopped by Frederator/NY yesterday. He was cutting animation class at SVA (just down the block from us) along with school buddies Chris Wagar and Jesus (Jesus didn’t email me his last name; I think he’s like Madonna). Update: Jesus Sanchez! It was great seeing all of them rockin’ in New York and starting off the next phase of their animation career. I’m sure they’ll all be back soon.

Frederator/NY was thrilled when artist extraordinaire (and 2010 Emmy® winner) Caesar Martinez and his longtime life partner, writer Dina Allen, stopped by for a visit on a detour from their New York vacation. It’s always a pleasure to spend a little downtime with colleagues from our productions. When we’re in the middle of the action conversations are always about the work at hand. Thanks for coming by guys.

I had the distinct pleasure of a rare New York visit from Fanboy & Chum Chum’s awesome line producer MacGregor Middleton. In the day to day of a show’s production we don’t often get a chance to sit down and get to actually know each other (especially with my home base being 2781 miles away), so I really enjoyed hearing his stories about his time during the heyday of Warner Bros. Animation. Come back soon Mac, and thanks for all your help on the show.

Bobby Miller –webstar, filmmaker, and Channel Frederator manager– introduced me to his childhood bud and fellow filmmaker Nick Bertonazzi. We met at Mo’s in Burbank, California the other day and traded tales of animation in New York and Hollywood, and he gave me a little insight on The Ricky Gervais Show, where he’s been the lead animation director. Great meeting you bud.

Frederator/NY was honored by the presence of an honestly won Oscar nominee this morning, when “Secret of Kells” director Tomm Moore stopped by to get acquainted. We met briefly at the Annies last month, but he’s been so booked up with people wanting to kiss his ring that it took a while for us to have a few minutes peace. Like his Cartoon Saloon partner Paul Young, who gave us our first preview last summer, Tomm embodies the independent spirit of talent and ideas we all would hope gets the top nods in the movie biz. There are great things in store for everyone at the Saloon, so keep watching for them, they’ll constantly surprise and amaze you.

Check out a bit of “The Secret of Kells” here, before buying your theatre tickets.

The Secret Of Kells - This Is My Forest-Uncom from Cartoon Saloon on Vimeo.

Last week, writer and filmmaker Randy Astle stopped by Frederator/NY from his home in upper Manhattan to get acquainted. It’s always great meeting new talent right in our own backyard. Thanks for stopping by Randy.

It’s kind of hard to believe that I’d never met Joe Murray, creator of Rocko’s Modern Life and Camp Lazlo, but there you go. Our friend Khaki Jones put us together yesterday and we started getting to know each other at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in beautiful downtown Burbank. It was a great first step because, at least for me, a conversation is usually the first step to figuring out work to do together. Nice meeting you Joe (and thanks Khaki).

Optic Nerve’s Jon Kane and I met because I really loved the pioneering mix “No Sell Out” by Malcolm X & Keith LeBlanc, on Tommy Boy Records. (It’s too long a story to recount here right now.) After a bumpy start we’ve worked together awesomely ever since.

Carrie and I visited Jon at his Red Hook (Brooklyn) HQ yesterday. We canceled the project that had initiated the visit to begin with, so I thought we’d just be BS’ing about this and that. But as usual with a great creative collaborator we ended up agreeing to work on a project together. Can’t wait to get started.

Animation director Kevin Lofton was back at Frederator/NY, and this time he brought a special guest star, hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy. We were all discussing feature projects, and maybe we’ve just about got one. Thanks for coming over guys.

Just as I was about to post, Bailee Desrocher’s Lego “Click” post popped up on the Channel Frederator blog. It must be the Lego animation moment.

Carrie Miller and I went around the corner late last week to visit artist Nathan Sawaya’s studio. I was virtually introduced to Nathan’s work when I saw a commissioned piece on his work on my friend Liz Gebhardt’s blog. I immediately contacted him for a top secret Frederator Fredbot project. More in a month or two.

Lego artist Nathan Sawaya