Channel Frederator Blog

This Channel Frederator Featured Film makes great use of the program flash, and it’s nice and very refreshing to see someone using it as creatively as Choom Lan.

Choom presents us with a short and simple, well designed tale about a monster and his little dog friend-monster.
Thanks for submitting Choom!

1. How did you come up with the idea for this film?
Well, I had exactly 4 weeks to make this film from scratch so my first thought was to keep it idiotically simple so that I could actually finish it (so that ruled out epic space battles and ninja fights). I wanted to do a piece that would be pure acting that wasn’t your usual bus stop scenario (not that I have a problem with bus stop films, it’s just that when you pit yourself against something that’s been done by so many people before, it becomes so much harder to make any kind of impression). The original idea was going to be a little girl looking for her dog but again it felt too ordinary. So I changed the idea to two little monsters who were actually two halves of the same monster looking for each other but then that felt too contrived. So I found a happy middle ground and the next thing I knew bobble and sqweek were invading my brain.

2. Who are some of your influences?
Wow, where do I start… I’m a bit of a book nut and I’ve watched tonnes of cartoons (TV is good for you kids!) so it’s hard to narrow it down. Although a lot of these influences don’t actually show in my work they’ve certainly molded my brain into the little deformed shape that it is today. I grew up watching all the awesome Disney shorts made in the 30’s but it was The Lion King that pretty much obliterated any other career interests I might have had before the age of 14 (doctor, astronaut, nuclear physicist etc) so yeah, Disney’s huge on my list of influences.

More recently, I would say Pixar, with Toy Story 2 and Cars and shorts like For the Birds and One Man Band (in case it isn’t already painfully apparent, I love that pantomime stuff!).

(Ok, I know Disney and Pixar as corporations aren’t “who’s” per se.. but I like to think of them as big friendly uncles who make cool cartoons..) Other notable influences would be Gary Larson (I love how he makes you laugh, then makes you feel bad for laughing.. just cos most of his jokes are so.. so.. wrong), Neil Gaiman, Rudyard Kipling, Richard Bach, Roald Dahl, Michel Gagne, Shaun Tan, Dave McKean, Jhonen Vasquez (I own a Johnny shirt!), Pocoyo (I’ve got a Pocoyo wallaper!), Paul Driessen, Cordell Barker, Dr Suess (I DO NOT like green eggs and ham!)… Oh, and Beethoven and Brazilian heavy metal.
Just to name a few.

3. Do you have a pet? If so, what type?
Not a living one, no. The closest I can come to sustaining another living thing besides my own stomach is the colony of algae growing on the bottom of my water bottle. (Does algae grow in colonies?)

4. Have you ever tried popping out your own eyeballs? (I only ask, cause I try all the time.)
Yes, I do it every night before I go to bed. I highly recommend everyone do it. Dreams look a lot clearer when you don’t have eyelids blocking your view. And most of my dreams, disturbing as they may be, are actually worth watching.

5. What are you working on currently?
Two brand new episodes of Bobble and Sqweek! The squeaky madness continues! With More Squeaks! and MORE MADNESS!! I’ve storyboarded them both and I’m only just starting to do rough keys on one episode. I’m in a transitionary period in my life right now where I find myself with quite a lot of free time so my mind tends to go all over the place and there are 101 things I want to do so I end up not really working on any one thing. I’ve got a bunch of thematic drawings too that I’m working on. I don’t want to give too much away till they’re actually done but I promise that it will be sufficiently macabre. I work differently when I don’t have a non-self-imposed deadline to meet so there’s really no telling right now when the new Bobble and Sqweeks will go live. I’ll keep everyone posted on my blog but if anyone wants to send angry letters to tell me to hurry up, please do. I could use the external pressure

Let us know when you finish a few more adventures of Bobble & Sqweek Choom! I’m sure our viewers (along with myself) would love seeing them again!
Keep in touch!
-Jeaux Janovsky
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