Channel Frederator Blog

Tony Dusko (Mr. Dusko to his students) is an elementary school teacher, former microbiologist, artist, and creator of the animated Notebook Babies shorts. Channel Frederator caught up with him this summer to find out where he got his mad animating skills, how his films are impacting his students, and what he’s working on now.

Channel Frederator: What made you decide to leave the world of microbiology to pursue teaching?

Tony Dusko: Basically I was bored. And I wasn’t having any fun. When you teach kids, every day is different and dull moments are few. It is a very tough job, but a fun job with lots of rewards.

CF: You studied art and have an artistic background, but were there any pros/cons to studying animation later in life?

TD: Well the challenge of studying something later in life is that you often have a full time job, so traditional university courses are usually out of the question. However, if you are motivated, independent study can be an efficient way to learn a craft because you don’t have to take courses that have nothing to do with your goals, such as archery or dinosaurs. I got lucky in my independent study in that I found a mentor, Paul Fierlinger, who was willing to take me on as a sort of private student. Paul has been a huge help. He has been in the business for decades and was one of the original Sesame Street animators, so he is sort of a hero to me as an educational filmmaker. I was also lucky in that he lives only an hour away.

CF: How do you decide which topics to address in your films?

TD: That is an easy question. The topics in my films come out of the needs of my students. For example, we were having issues this past year about spreading rumors and so I made “Rumors Hurt”. My students are also a driving force for me to get the films done because then I can put them into service and see how effective they are. They become my own focus group. I love showing them a new film. It is a great feeling, especially when my gags work. And then of course I enjoy using the internet to share my films with lots of other people. I was sure that there had to be lots of other kids out there being hurt by rumors too.

CF: Which film is your favorite? Which one is the most popular among your students?

TD: I really like “Some Facts about Owls” . I think it is an attractive film to look at and I think there is some really funny dialogue in it. My brother Mark contributed a voice and his silly sense of humor as well. One of my most popular films with my students is “Bio-bunny”. I used it to drive a school-wide campaign to reduce our trash and showed it on morning announcements every day for a week. The kids loved the character so much that I made a costume of Bio-bunny and had a student wear it and go all over the school to visit classrooms.

CF: Has introducing animation to your classes encouraged students to be artists when they grow up?

TD: My work constantly encourages students to try their hand at drawing and even animation. And in fact, they don’t want to wait until they grow up. My style is actually largely inspired by child drawing and I suspect that this allows them to think that they can do it too. And actually, this past year I had so much interest that I set up a simple animation station in my classroom and allowed kids to use it in their free time. They made some great little films.

CF: Any cool plans for this summer?

TD: I will be doing a lot of drawing and writing and hopefully some surfing in Costa Rica if it works out. I also have a film in a New York festival that I would like to attend.

CF: Do you have any upcoming projects you can tell us about?

TD: Due to the success of “What is a Friend”, I am working on a sort of sequel that communicates what a true friend is as compared to a false friend. It will explain to kids that a false friend might not be good for them. So many people of all ages have really connected to “What is a Friend” and I think that friendship is such a connectible topic for all of us.

Thank you for the interview, Mr. Dusko!

You can check out Tony’s films “What is a Friend?” and “Some Facts About Owls” right here on Channel Frederator!

-Bailee DesRocher