STORYBOARDIN'

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm working on a sooper triple funny called FISH HOOKS right now.



And no, I didn't create it.
This guy did:


That's picture book illustrator Noah Z. Jones right there.
And while he definitely knows his way around an animation desk, he's never really worked on, let alone run his own sooper big network show before.

That's why Disney hired this guy:


Uh huh...
Maxwell Atoms is the Executive Producer/Show Runner/Big Cheese/Judge/Jury/Executioner and Head Pizza Chef of Fish Hooks.

So a while back, he asked me if I wanted to write some stories for the show and maybe do a storyboard.

And OF COURSE I wanted to write some stories!
But storyboard?

Uh...

Storyboarding is pretty intense stuff.
Especially when you're 'boarding your story from an outline instead of a script.
You've gotta be an artist, a writer, an actor, a director, a draftsman, a comedian, a storyteller, an editor, a location scout, sushi chef, lumberjack as well as a 1000 other things. And you've gotta do it all on a deadline!

I tried to talk my way out of it, but Mr. Atoms turned into a were-gorilla and shook me around until I agreed to do it.

And I'm not gonna lie to you...
It was HARD and required every ounce of my sooper powers. Aside from doing all the things listed above:

I was drawing characters I had never drawn before...

I was writing dialogue for characters I didn't know that well...
(I mean, I KNOW how each of the KND would react to something,
but I had just MET these fish!)

And I was doing a storyboard digitally for the first time so I had to learn how to use Toonboom's Storyboard Pro (which, BTW, is pretty awesome).

Like I said... pretty intense.
And after a grueling 4.5 weeks, I had to get up and perform my story for the bigshot Disney executives along with the whole Fish Hooks crew.
And for me... that's the easy part.
I mean... I had to get up and perform a billion KND stories in front of people all the time!
But back then, if someone didn't like my story-- I could fire them.

Not so this time around!
But you know what?

It went GREAT!
People laughed.
I got great notes.
I didn't embarrass myself (or Mr. Atoms).
And no one threw anything at me.

And then I had a (very relieved) week and a half to finish up the board.
And during that time...
Another job opened up.

See, between Pre-Production (writing, designing, storyboarding, etc) and Post Production (calling retakes, spotting music and sound FX, editing, mixing, etc) Mr. Atoms was up to his vampire-bitten neck in craziness. So now it's my job to help him out! I'm kinda doing a little of everything-- Post Production, Pre-Production, hanging out by the pie table at the Disney commissary, etc.



In other words... I get to work on a fun show, hang out with Maxwell Atoms all day, work with an awesome crew, AND get paid for it?!

Duuuuuuuuuuude!

But don't worry... I've got lots of my OWN projects in varying stages of development! Keep it locked here so I can tell you about them!