SO just like last weekend (and every one following) I’ll be live on Adobe’s Twitch channel animating random stupidness tomorrow (Saturday) from 12-3pm PST using Adobe’s Animate software (The artist tool formerly known as Flash). Tune in if you’ve got the time and see if I put my foot in my mouth! (Pretty sure I will)
http://www.twitch.tv/adobe
What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Mike Blum and I am a director, producer, writer and owner of two boutique production companies, Pipsqueak Films and Blumayan Films. Pipsqueak Films works on animated content of all sorts and Blumayan Films produces live action features.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I waited tables while being a ski bum after college. I couldn’t ski more than 5 feet without falling at the start of the season but was cruising black diamonds by the end. Never did learn to wait tables all that well…And when I was in junior high and high school I worked at this crazy nut, candy, coffee store called The Head Nut. Come to think of it, slinging nuts and candy is a lot like turning the crank in production — head down and scoop away!
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite projects are the ones I’ve had the biggest hand in seeing through creatively. So, even though I worked on nearly a dozen features with world class artists and technical people while at Disney Feature Animation, none gave me the same satisfaction as working on my first shorts, Oil & Vinegar and The Zit.  And while a lot of my colleagues gave me funny looks when I told them I was leaving Disney to direct a series about a pair of talking testicles, The Adventures of Baxter & McGuire (for Comedy Central), got me nominated for an Emmy and took me to great festivals like Sundance and Annecy. And I worked with the amazing showrunners Michael Weithorn and Nick Bakay.  But my favorite project so far is the one I just completed, Samurai! Daycare. It’s a 10 part, Flash animated web series I did for the new YouTube channel, Shut Up! Cartoons. It’s the first property I sold that made it all the way to series and it was great fun to showrun my own creation.
How did you become interested in animation?
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’ll answer these 2 questions together…. I was a huge fan of Bugs Bunny growing up. I know, I know I have such unusual tastes. But I really never had any classic artistic skills and grew up so far removed from “the industry†in the Philadelphia ‘burbs, it never occurred to me in at least a conscious way that it could be a career. I did, however, Continue reading
Edit: Sadly, Gordon Kent passed away last year due to Cancer but his 38 year career lives on…
You can read our article on his passing here.
What is your name and your current occupation?
Gordon Kent – Animation timing director at Bento Box on Bob’s Burgers
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?Â
I was pretty lucky to get into animation almost right out of college. However, while I was in college I spent one summer working in an auto body repair shop as a “lot boy†– the worst part of the job being cleaning the toilet – those guys were not as careful in the bathroom as they were when repairing or painting cars. I also did scrimshaw for about a year – pendants, earrings, belt buckles… lions, tigers and bears mostly (oh, my!)
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’ve been doing this since 1977… I worked on a show called CBS Storybreak for two seasons. I was associate producer – but my job entailed hiring character and background designers, storyboard artists and story editing (and some writing). I also was the voice director for most of them and worked with the composers and sound effects people as well as working with the engineers on the final mix. I got to learn and do a lot. That was for Buzz Potamkin at Southern Star. I also worked for him years later at both Disney TV and Hanna-Barbera. At HB I got to be Supervising Producer on a couple of movies for TV – Titles change in animation all the time – today that would be supervising director. The Flintstones’ Christmas Carol was my favorite project there. I’ve been an animation timing director since then and have been lucky enough to work on Kim Possible, Teamo Supremo, Billy and Mandy and Bob’s Burgers among dozens of other shows.
How did you become interested in animation?
It wasn’t animation per se that I loved it was just the idea of being a cartoonist. Drawing funny pictures that made people laugh. What I really wanted to do was be a strip cartoonist. I tried several strips, both alone and with a partner, but was never able to create anything that the syndicates liked enough to buy. However I did write the Rugrats comic strip for five years. I learned a lot – it’s a very tough job.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from McKeesport, PA – but we moved to Los Angeles when I was seven. I went to Cal State Northridge as an art major and in my last year I met Martin Crossly, who worked at H-B in the Xerography department. He told me that H-B was beginning a class. He told me to take a portfolio to Tiger West and tell him Martin sent me. This was in the summer of 1976. Somehow I made the cut and I was Continue reading
Iron Giant was arguably one of the greatest animated films of all time, yet it fell on it’s feet at the box office due to executive fear and suppression of advertising which is odd since Warner Bros was literally frothing at the mouth to get an animated feature off the ground. Enter Brad Bird who WB execs reportedly allowed to make the film essentially unsupervised and once they saw the film and how good it was they feared for their jobs and suppressed it as best they could.
REALLY looking forward to this film!
Might as well use this site for my own promoting as well huh?
Soooo, this coming Friday morning 8/12, I (Mike Milo) will be broadcasting live from 9-12 PST on Adobe’s Twitch channel and animating using Adobe’s Animate software. Not quite sure exactly what I’ll animate but it’ll be fun so please tune in and watch me talk about the animation business and make funny pictures move right there in front of your face! You can even ask questions via the embedded chat. https://www.twitch.tv/adobe
