Hero Heights

Hola Amigos!

Six minutes and forty seconds. That’s how much time each creator has been given to tell their story. It seems like plenty of time doesn’t it? Maybe it is, if you just want to string a bunch of gags together. But that just isn’t my style. Bill and I want to craft a complete story with a beginning, middle, and an end. We want to introduce the audience to a completely new world, full of engaging characters and compelling situations with an awesome payoff at the end. The catch is we have to do it in less than seven minutes.

So in the process of making Hero Heights, I’ve learned a valuable lesson. The story is the single most important thing. Nothing else matters. Nothing. Bill and I could have come up with the most hysterical gag involving Strikeout and a bicycle pump; a gag so funny that it made Fred Seibert shoot milk out of his nose or sent Claudia Spinelli into labor. But in the end if it doesn’t support the story we can’t use it. We’ve had to cut out so many gags and lines of dialogue my scissors have worn out. Some of them were pure gold. One gag in particular involved Smart Alec using his telekinetic powers to animate a lion skin rug and having it attack Strikeout. We had Strikeout flopping around Olympia’s living room screaming his head off as the lion mauled him.

We must have edited the storyboard at least 5 or six times, each time trimming a little more fat from the steak. At first it was difficult butchering our baby, but each time it got less and less painful because in the end we had a rock solid story without a single second of time wasted on a dead end, or a mediocre gag.

For those of you that don’t know, I come from a feature animation background. In that world I didn’t have the strict time constraints and limited budgets of TV animation. Luckily Larry Huber was there to help my transition to this format. He converted me and showed me the light. I can still tell the epic stories full of endearing characters and fantastic artwork that I’m used to. Only I have to do it faster and in a more budget conscious manner, and most importantly I have to get to the bloody point a little quicker. I’ve had to make some important decisions right then and there with hardly a moment to think it over. I’ve learned to go with my instincts more and to prioritize any changes I want. Sometimes you gotta let the little things go. I mean does it really matter if the third cloud from the left isn’t as fluffy as the second on that layout? Well, maybe it does but why am I going to waste the time of my crew making a lame correction like that. This isn’t rocket science, or brain surgery. (Sometimes it feels like it though.) We’re making cartoons! And thank heaven for that.