Fred Seibert's Blog

Va Va Toon!

fredseibert — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:01:52 +0000

Frederator Postcard Series 8.8, mailed November 20, 2009

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More Frederator postcards:

Frederator Postcards Series 1, 1998
Frederator Postcards Series 2, 1999
Frederator Postcards Series 3, 2000
Frederator Postcards Series 4, 2003
Frederator Postcards Series 5, 2004-2005
Frederator Postcards Series 6, 2007-2008
Frederator Postcards Series 7, 2008-2009
Frederator Postcards, Series 8, 2009-2010
Frederator Postcards: Non-series cards

Ken Auletta works hard.

fredseibert — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:17:33 +0000

There’s no one who can translate the BS of media jargon for us like prolific author and media observer Ken Auletta. Almost two years ago he came by to do background research for what turned into “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It,” his just released book. If you’re interested in the media revolution you’re living through (yes, this time it truly is a revolution; your kids will be reading the history of this era when they’re in school) it’s a must read.

Over his two and a half years of his usual, thorough, research (no quickie here) Ken came up with a bunch of truths that didn’t fit neatly into his narrative. Being involved in media for almost 40 years now, it still astounds me how… stuck media executives can be (me too, often). Writer William Goldman once said that in Hollywood “Nobody knows anything,” and media executives are really no different. No one knows how anything will turn out, but so many of them think they do so they rarely try things that are actually new (me too, often). They read stuff like Ken’s maxims and pretty much ignore the lessons.

Mr. Auletta’s warnings are embedded below. Read ‘em and get smarter.

…:::Update: I posted these Media Maxims of Ken’s and then read them, noticing my quote at the end of page 26. Thanks Ken. :::…
Ken Auletta : Media Maxims

Some things never change.

fredseibert — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:01:17 +0000

Frederator Postcard Series 8.7, mailed November 13, 2009

From
Animated Cartoons
‘How They Are Made Their Origin and Development’
By E.G. Lutz
Illustrated
Charles Scribner’s Sons
©1920

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More Frederator postcards:

Marv Newland Takes Festivals by Storm

fredseibert — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:54:32 +0000

Marv Newland really gets around! Postalolio, the short that Marv produced with Frederator will be screening all over the world over the coming months. If you’re in any of these countries or states, make sure you come out to support this great film.

04 - 08 November 2009
Holland Animated Film Festival
Utrecht

11 - 15 November 2009
15th Cucalorus Film Festival
Wilmington, North Carolina

03 - 06 November 2009
Les Sommets Du Cinéma D’Animation
Montreal, Canada

25 - 29 November 2009
I Castelli Animati
Italy

01 - 04 April 2010
11th Dawson City International Short Film Festival
at the Klondike Institute of Art
Dawson City, Yukon, Canada

21 - 27 June 2010
Melbourne International Animation Festival
Australia

Congratulations to Marv on gaining entry to these prestigious festivals and best of luck!

What a couple o’ hams.

fredseibert — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:20:19 +0000

Frederator Postcard Series 8.6, mailed November 6, 2009

Perry & Alan Go odman
Photography ©2009, by Elena Seibert. All rights reserved.

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More Frederator postcards:

Five stars, definitely.

fredseibert — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:12:39 +0000

Michael Jackson: “This Is It”

“This is It” Michael Jackson Trailer from Create Design LA on Vimeo.

Go see it in the theatre, it’s worth it.

Happy Halloween!

fredseibert — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:01:17 +0000

Video by justinsuperstar

Introducing…

fredseibert — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:01:05 +0000

Frederator Postcard Series 8.5, mailed October 30, 2009

We’ve shown you guys the Frederator Films logo (designed by animator Floyd Bishop), but this is the first time anyone else will see it.

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More Frederator postcards:

Cartoon stuff galore!

fredseibert — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:29:30 +0000

The cartoonerati are probably way ahead of me on Cartooncrazy, but I still drool when I see all the stuff that should have been in the Hanna-Barbera warehouse.

Blog History of Frederator’s original cartoon shorts. Part 22.

fredseibert — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:38:02 +0000

Video frame grabs from Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Dexter’s Laboratory in ‘The Big Sister‘”

Blog History of Frederator’s original cartoon shorts.
Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8. Part 9. Part 10. Part 11. Part 12. Part 13. Part 14. Part 15. Part 16. Part 17. Part 18. Part 19. Part 20. Part 21.

A server failure at our website caused the loss of our frame grab gallery of What A Cartoon! shorts. It seemed like a good push to add a post to our history.

What A Cartoon! was still an unnamed project of 48 “Looney Tunes length” shorts with more hope than actuality when we started taking pitches in earnest in 1993. No one had attempted anything like this before in the television animation era, and I wasn’t sure that anyone else shared my optimism at the beginning.

The Hanna-Barbera development team, led by Jeff Holder and Ellen Cockrill, with significant input from production head Buzz Potamkin, dug right in. They got the word out, literally all over the world, that the studio had entered an unprecedented phase, and that we were looking for the ideas from all corners. No longer would ours be a top down studio; animators had a better idea what cartoons should be than executives and we were out to support them in every way we could. Eventually, we received storyboards from all over the world, thousands of them. Many from within the studio and from the Los Angeles industry, but from also from schools and international centers of animation. (Occasionally, we even used the then brand new technology of video conferencing to take uncomfortable pitches from Turner Broadcasting’s London office.) In all, the development group estimated we received over 5000 pitches for the 48 slots we were planning.

I was hoping for an idealistic diversity in our filmmakers that could solve the inequities of our business overnight. It wasn’t just a uptopian hope either; I’d seen the direct benefits in other creative businesses like movies, television and music. The wider the palette of creative influences, the wider and bigger the audiences. It was time for cartoons to go in the same direction. And while we received a smattering of pitches from people of color, women, and international creators, it would take us at least 15 years before I really started seeing a clear progression. But, as it was, we had creators from Europe and Canada (like Bruno Bozetto), Asia (like Swamp & Tad), the heartland of the US (Jerry Reynolds), and colleges (like Seth MacFarlane). There were plenty of young series first timers (like Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig McCraken, Rob Renzetti, Butch Hartman, and John Dilworth), but veterans too (like Don Jurwich, Jerry Eisenberg, and Ralph Bakshi).

All in all, it was an incredible process with amazing results (yes, I’m aware of my justified hyperbole). 5000 pitches begat 48 shorts and seven series. No studio had attempted this scale in 30 or 40 years. Each creator was treated just so, as a filmmaker, not a factory worker with hands to do the bidding of management. And though our ends were definitely commercial, I think the results were almost like art films. Not too many voices in the mix, just one creator (or creating team), one film.

I’m very proud of the work everyone did on the What A Cartoon! shorts (eventually promoted as World Premiere Toons on Cartoon Network). Whether it was the development and production groups, marketing, PR, even accounting, we were all there to support the creators who put their asses on the line, pencils on the paper, and came up with original work in a business that hadn’t been interested for a very long time. Viva cartoons!

Video frame grabs from What A Cartoon!