Channel Frederator Blog

Ernest Kim’s “Oh, My Captain!” is a simple, seafarin’ film about a landlubber captain who finally takes to sea.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Ernest Kim: I studied at SAIC. I just graduated from there.

CF: What gave you the idea for “Oh, My Captain!”?

EK: During the fall, I had done a small comic for a class. Then during my last semester, out of a combination of a short deadline and wanting to do something new, I ended up working on “Oh, My Captain!”. One idea lead to another and I ended up where I ended up. I have to thank Erin for helping with the music, especially since she was already busy with her own studies.

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Animator Jim Dirshberger collaborated with artists Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock to create “The Seafarers - Sea of Love”, a story set on the high seas. This tale has it all: Action! Adventure! Animatronic genitalia?

CF: Tell us a little somethin’ ’bout yourself.

Jim Dirshberger: I’m a filmmaker/animator living in San Francisco. I’m currently directing an animated web series called the Forest City Rockers and I produce short films which can be seen on my website.

SF is a kind city with lots of great artists who are eager to collaborate, it’s a great place for an animator like myself. The artists, Ferris Plock and Kelly Tunstall, were not only eager but they’re also extremely talented. I’m very fortunate to have worked with them.

CF: I love the design of the Seafarer’s seafarin’ jalopy. Where did you draw your inspiration from for the style of the film?

JD: I approached this as an adventure story. Most of my inspiration came [Read more…]

Your insides - the final frontier. Seems like it would take a lot of work and brainpower to uniquely interpret the inner workings of the human body (and then some). Zhivko Dimitrov, director of “Body” tells us how he did it.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Zhivko Dimitrov:Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. I was on the Communications Design program, so it was really a melting pot of typographers, photographers, digital media geeks and other weirdos - not your typical animation school… Didn’t really teach anything about animation, but a fair deal of insight on conceptual thinking and experimentation. Took me a while to realize those matter so much more, but I think just in time to make the most of it [Read more…]

Justin Weber’s swingin’ flick “Juiced and Jazzed” is a hit on the festival circuit and the web. Grab a flask of your favorite hooch and read on!

Channel Frederator: Why did you choose a female protagonist? Gentlemen can be led astray too - am I right fellas?

Justin Weber: I think I always had a female character in mind for the cartoon. I was using the Charleston music and going with the 1920s prohibition theme, and that naturally led me towards the iconic flapper girl character. Lulu is very much inspired by Betty Boop. Also, I had been wanting to do a short that featured a female character.

CF: What was your favorite part about making the film?

JW: Coming up with all of the different story ideas and actions to fit with the music. It all started with the music, and I let the ideas flow from there. Once I got into animation, I was having [Read more…]

If you haven’t flipped out over Greg Condon’s “Here Come The Guns” now’s a good time. Get it - “flipped out”? You’ve watched the vid right? So you get why that’s funny, right? Oh, read the interview already.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Greg Condon: I did major in animation at an art school and had a few great teachers, but my real education was making stop motion movies with my friend Lawrence in high school. Making those movies for fun, I developed working styles and routines I still use on projects today.

CF: How long did it take to film “Here Come the Guns”?

GC: It took between 2 and 3 months to finish. The band, Choo Choo La Rouge, was very active (and helpful) in the look of the video and there was a lot of back and forth till we got something we were all happy with. Of course we all [Read more…]

Michael Stevenson is a super talented award winning animator and pigeon expert. Half of that is a lie. Read his interview and figure out which half.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Michael Stevenson: I did a couple years of animation at San Francisco State University. When I was shopping for colleges I discovered that SF State contained this hidden gem, a two-year animation emphasis that could piggyback on a Cinema degree. Although it was a small and woefully neglected program, our teachers were phenomenal and we were given boatloads of freedom to experiment and learn. I spent one year taking 2D and computer animation classes, and another year teaching myself stop motion and making my film.

CF: What are your sources of inspiration?

MS: Real life events are by far the best source of inspiration. Most of my work reflects the structure of a fish story - it starts off as experientially genuine, and [Read more…]

Photographer and filmmaker Christophe Collette’s “Ce Soir” is a haunting stop motion music vid for the Montreal band Monogrenade.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation/film?

Christophe Collette: I did not study animation or film, I studied photography for a bit at Concordia University, in Montreal and at the National School of Photography in Arles, France.

CF: What are your sources of inspiration?

CC: Contemporary photography, films, books, the internet, travelling, friends.

CF: What was the most difficult part of making “Ce Soir”?

CC: Probably finding the right location… Our art budget was really limited, we really needed a fantastic location to make this work… I looked for this house for two weeks, driving the countryside endlessly…

CF: Are you working on anything new you can tell us about?

CC: I DPed a fantastic promo for Most Serene Republic with director and friend Ben Steiger Levine. You should keep an eye out for it, I think it will be amazing.

Thanks for the [Read more…]

Multi-talented, healthy eating Lindsey Testolin gives us the what’s what about her style, the bane of her existence, and how she’s saving the world, one author at a time.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Lindsey Testolin: I earned my degree at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I met brilliant people there, but I think the most successful animators in the group had a strong intuition for what their audience wanted. If you’re animating for a festival or band or gallery, you’ll treat each work differently. You’ll decide whether you’re making a short story or a poem. You’ll think about marketing before the work is even complete. In this case the animation is a delivery system for people to discover music… you have to acknowledge that.

CF: Where did you get the idea for “An Average Idea”?

LT: Film trailers. It’s really like a film trailer; all my favorite parts and motions [Read more…]

Michael May’s radical and romantic webcomic Eros, Inc. follows the unassuming Mot Fleishman as she is unexpectedly chosen to assume the role of “Cupid of Silverlake”. Eros, Inc. is featuring guest artists all week long (including Box Brown and Yuko Ota) and launching hardcopy versions of the first chapter this weekend.

Channel Frederator: What gave you the idea for “Eros, Inc”?

Michael May: I love writing about relationships, meeting someone for the first time, that first kiss, the heartbreak, the drama, the love; I’m obsessed with it. So I wanted to do a comic about that - an “investigation” into relationships, why we like who we like, why things fall apart… That really attracted me to the idea. And I had realized that not many people had played with the myth of Cupid, so I decided to go my own way with it. Which is to say I more or less went an entirely different [Read more…]

Happy Fatties is home to a slew of animated sketch comedy series from Mike Scott. Here he gives us the lowdown on junk food, comedy, and what he’s working on now.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Mike Scott: Well, the short answer to this is that I never studied animation. I originally went to school for video and film production and ended up finding that animation was best suited for me to express my comedic ideas. Much like in any art form, when you find yourself in it, you want to learn more. So since the time I started working in the medium, I’ve studied animation in the comfort of my own home, mostly while wearing footy-pajamas.

CF: You have about a million films. What are your sources of inspiration?

MS: You’re close in your estimation. The number of pieces I’ve made is actually just under a million, more than Disney, Warner Brothers, [Read more…]