Fred Seibert's Blog

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Bloomberg Television made a terrible mistake and booked me as the first guest on their new show ‘Venture’: The World of Entrepreneurship in October. The host Mike Schneider was much better than I was, and the entire staff (including associate producer Nikole Yinger) was fantastic to work with. It was a great experience; it’s rare for someone like me to be featured in a solid half hour interview, Charlie Rose style. And once again marveled at the power of media when I got emails from around the world after the show aired across the weekend. I know, I know, I’m in the media, but when you get hit with it from an obscure appearance it’s always amazing.

Andy Schwartz at Frederator from Fred Seibert on Vimeo.

I have an incredible life and I’ve met some amazing people. Including Andy Schwartz, a writer who’s a friend of my wife’s who’s met many more amazing people than I have. This afternoon he came by to discuss the photographic estate of the incomparable music photographer David Gahr, who recently passed away at 85. Andy shows a few of David’s photographs in the video above, and together we plotted to build the public Gahr legacy that David was always too modest to do himself.

Roger Maloney at Frederator from Fred Seibert on Vimeo.

Roger Maloney is a Youth development Specialist for the NYC Board of Education who’s a media specialist; he used to work at BET and MTV. Roger saw me on TV recently and stopped by to ask if I’d come and talk to his elementary school in the Bronx about cartoons. Sign me up! I’ll let you all know how it goes towards the end of January.

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One of the highlights of my gig is visiting with college animation classes, and because I live in New York, I get the opportunity to hang at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) more often than some others. SVA is almost unique among schools because the entire faculty is made of up professionals in their given field, and no real full time teachers-only; they give a perspective that only working folks can have. Last week it was my annual trek to Lisa Goldman’s class, where she helps students prepare projects for selling to producers and networks. And yesterday, I spoke with Jim Arnoff’s senior class on getting ready to enter the professional world, along with Alice Cahn from Cartoon Network and Paula Rosenthal from Disney Playhouse. Thanks Lisa, and thanks Jim. As usual.

At the end of Jim’s class we all decided to have a little fun with my new Flip Video Mino HD, and I asked everyone in class to tape me a message (Arnoff’s the last guy). Check it out up above.

PS: And visiting art schools’ bathrooms is always fun:

My former Next New Networks colleague George Stewart suggested me for an interview on Leonard Lopate’s radio show on New York’s NPR affiliate, WNYC, to discuss “TV on the Internet” with John Gottfreid (Devour.tv) and Geoffrey Drummond (A La Carte Communications). It turned out pretty well, considering the continuing surprise that some folks still have about how popular the medium really is. (Thank you, producer Leslie Dickstein.)

TV On The Web: The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC-FM

Steve Leeds from fredseibert on Vimeo.

Steve Leeds runs Talent and Industry Affairs over at Sirius Radio and is a professor at William Patterson College in New Jersey, and a colleague of mine from MTV. We had our annual catch up yesterday at the Edison Coffee Shop in Manhattan, and I taped him using the new Flip Video HD camera (a revelation of portable technology).

 
Dave Levy (right) with Bill Plympton, Drinking & Drawing,
Platform Animation Festival, Portland, Oregon, June 2007

David Levy, aside from being a talented director and artist, and aside from being the latest longtime President of ASIFA-East, has proven himself to be one of the best observers of the animation biz. He’s written the only useful, smart, and well written book I’ve seen on working in the industry,  Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive (disclaimer: a few thoughts of mine are quoted). He teaches a senior course at New York’s SVA about getting employed, which consistently gets high grades from students year after year. And he’s living, successful, proof of his tireless boosterism of the New York City professional animation scene.

And, this week on his year old blog, Animondays, he writes another intelligent, cogent, and, yes, well written, piece (if self deprecating) on what it means to make a personal animated film. I wish some more people in the Hollywood animation industry would take his conclusions to heart.

Every year Kidscreen Magazine puts on it’s international summit in New York, the only North American meeting of everyone around the world who’s in the kids’ media biz. TV, movies, licensing, games. You name it, they’re here.

Our calendar’s filled with folks from the UK, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Ireland, Portland, Atlanta, and Rochester. I’ll try and fill you in on some of the details throughout the week.

I started reading Ken Auletta’s wonderful books at the suggestion of my lifetime friend Nick Moy and have never been disappointed, especially as he switched his beat over towards media, my consuming interest. It’s rare to find a thorough reporter who’s also a compelling writer. So I was more than flattered when my partner Herb Scannell suggested Ken talk to me about a future book he’s planning. Afterwards I walked him over to meet David Karp, someone who knows a lot more than I do.

Gavin Logan was in New York the other day to show us an animated show he’s been working on with some friends, and a few comedy ideas for Next New Networks. Bill Sobel is a friend of ours who teaches at SUNY Albany in his spare time and he was kind enough to give us an intro to Gavin. Thanks for coming by.