What is your name and your current occupation?
Mark Fellows – Writer – Big Time Rush, Nickelodeon; Johnny Test, Cartoon Network, & Kick Buttowski, Disney.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a copywriter for a toys company and wrote descriptions for their monster toys.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Walt Disney World Millenium Celebration at EPCOT – I was the Entertainment Manager
How did you become interested in animation?
Once I moved to LA and discovered you can let you imagination go and was confined to production and locations.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from CT, and got into animation writing for Johnny Test.
What’s a typical day like for you with regards to your job?
Go to the office and daydream (think of stories). It’s a great life.
What part of your job do you like best? Why?
During a read through and the whole room laughs at one of my jokes. Then I know I’ve done my job well, and that joke will make kids laugh too.
What part of your job do you like least? Why?
The blank page. Because it’s just you and a keyboard.
What is the most difficult part for you about being in the business?
Knowing I have a really good idea and not being able to sell it. But at least I know American Idol went to all the networks twice before FOX decided to buy it.
What kind of technology do you work with on a daily basis?
MacBook Pro – Final Draft.
In your travels, have you had any brushes with animation greatness?
See Johnny Test toys at Carl’s Jr.
Describe a tough situation you had in life.
I was a UPM on a horror film in the woods and had to feed a crew at 2am in the mountains of Big Bear, not many places open at the time.
Any side projects you’re working on you’d like to share details of?
I have two finished show bibles for animation and one live-action that I’d love to team up with a producer and get sold.
Is there any advice you can give for an aspiring animation student or artist trying to break into the business?
Keep writing everyday, because one day when you least expect it you’re going to run into someone look for you idea and you better hope it’s ready to show them.
Nice.
Leave it to a “writer” to give one of the worst interviews on the site. While I appreciate what you’re doing with the site in general, this is one interview that should have been left on the cutting room floor, so to speak. Fellows seems to have given about as much thought to answering your questionnaire as he gives to his hack animation scripts and the end result is, again like his scripts, a complete waste of time. Besides, writers are most certainly not the “unsung heroes of the animation industry,” so this interview fails that test as well.
I can deal with your questionnaire approach because I know how hard it can be to make time for real interviews. I also appreciate the need to put something out on a regular basis to keep visitors coming back to the site. But, please, no more writers unless the resulting interview is absolutely stellar.
Sorry you didn’t go for this one Matt, can’t please everyone! For some reason writers seem to write the least on the interviews which I personally find kind of funny. I will say though that many writers are indeed unsung just like us artists which is why I chose to allow them to be interviewed on this site. I have also chosen to interview the many creators of the shows too so as not to leave them out. to each his own and I hope it will not prevent you from coming back and reading more interviews with some of the most talented people in the world.
It ‘s cool that u interviewed Mark I loved Johnny Test and decided to look him up only to find out he’s also a writer for my other favorite shows,awesome.I find the shows very funny and loved watching them as a kid tho I’m technically an adult now at 18.