That New Show Smell

Today is Adam’s first day in the office as we kick off production on his short, “Krunch and The Kid”–a “Wam! Bam! Pow!”, of a cartoon featuring a monster, a kid, and, of course, a dearly departed frog.

Close to two years ago, when Adam and I worked together in commercial production, I saw the beginnings of “Krunch and the Kid” take form. It came very close to taking off then, but we all know how tough it is to go from, “We really like it.” to “We’re really going to make it.” Adam Henry is the classic example of what happens when persistence and talent meet opportunity. He didn’t give up on his vision for this short. Instead, he pitched it to Oh Yeah! and is now making it happen. Congratulations! Victory is sweet, ‘aint it?

Just who exactly are these show creators of ours?

I had Kyle and Andrew give me a snapshot of themselves. These guys live and breathe cartoons, so you can see why they may look different than you or I. As soon as Adam Henry starts on Monday with “Krunch and the Kid”, I will have him take a picture of himself too. Soon we’ll have a full blown photo album.

Get ready!

You may like them. You may love them. You draw them, doodle them, and maybe even make your own finger puppets out of them. You envision them on sleeping bags, key chains, and sugar cereal boxes. Little sticky-handed kids will be unable to part with their plush, adorable likenesses.

They’re your characters. And as much as we all adore them, chances are there may be too many of them to cram into a seven minute short.

One of the most common critiques we give here on Development Row is that many shorts that are pitched simply have too many characters. We lose sight of who our lead is. Too many secondary characters can outshine your lead, and take precious time away from getting to know your star character (seven minutes goes quickly!) Remember, these are not pilot episodes, they’re stand alone pieces. Try focusing on one or two main characters and the [Read more…]

There’s something about the fresh smell of original animated shorts that makes me want to put them all on a little cardboard pine tree and hang them on my car mirror.

My name is Melissa Wolfe, and I’m writing to you from Frederator’s Development Department in bee-you-tee-full Burbank, CA.

What I hope to do in this blog is give everyone a little insight into the Oh Yeah! development process here. It’s a bit different than you might imagine. We are very creator-focused. This means that our ultimate goal is to find talented people (like your cousin Freddy) and help him to make the seven minute short he wants to make.

Which brings me to step one in the process. The pitch. An initial pitch is rarely a “yes or no” answer for us. After each pitch we sit down with the creator and go over points we feel need clarification. We encourage [Read more…]