Tag Archives: Final Cut Pro

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Temple Mathews

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Temple Mathews, owner of Temple Mathews Prods. Inc. Currently a screenwriter and author.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Roofer, clerk, shoe salesman, film producer.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I wrote “RETURN TO NEVERLAND” an animated feature for Disney that did over 100 million worldwide. Also “THE LITTLE MERMAID II”.  My YA trilogy, “THE NEW KID,” “THE RISING,” and “THE SWORD OF ARMAGEDDON” was published by Benbella Books and continues to sell.

How did you become interested in animation?
A friend called me up and said hey would you like to write for this show, and I did, and Continue reading

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Ron Doucet

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Ron Doucet, Animation Director.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I harvested fish eggs for a couple summers when I was a teenager. Thousands of fish come in on a water-fed conveyor belt, you grab the females, slice open their bellies, remove the sack of eggs, slap them in a box, and repeat a million times. Not so much crazy… but incredibly boring.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
So far I have a few.  The very frist production I ever directed holds a special place in my heart because we had so much creative freedom, the series was Olliver’s Adventures, a little cartoon that aired on Canadian and Australian television from 2002-2006.  It was a lot of fun to produce, the crew turned out to be a well-oiled machine by the 3rd season, and we were creating our own stories and scenarios and having a blast doing it.  I made an independant short film back in 2005. Me and a few others got together for a few weeks to create it, it was fun and spontaneous, and even though it was brief and made with no budget, it was pure fun.  Another cool one was the MSTRKRFT music video for the track ‘Work On You’ I sort of played the roll of Producer and FX Supervisor for it. Again, the enjoyment came from plenty of creative freedom, from developing a story, designing characters, to animating the whole thing. We were pressed for time (as always), but had lots of laughs creating it. The only direction the client gave us was “Make it feel like Astroboy, transformers and Akira.” — we were in heaven.

How did you become interested in animation? 
My parents say I was drawing since the age of 2. But as far back as I can remember I was always drawing the cartoons that I’d see on TV. I had a chalkboard when I was 8 years old, and I’d draw scenes as Continue reading

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Mike Blum

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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

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Signe Baumane

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Signe Baumane and I am an independent animator, which means I am a producer, writer, director, designer, animator and cleaning lady of my own films. (I am a woman, if my name doesn’t make that clear)

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Wait. I got the crazy jobs AFTER I chose animation as my life and profession. To be able to stay in business I did some dog walking, applied for strip dancing jobs (was accepted but didn’t have guts to actually show up for the job), had to give bath to a 87 year old man, masturbate in front of 76 year old man, clean a few bathrooms, paint walls in restaurants, and make 30 paper mache sculptures for a Famous Italian fashion designer.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
From my own work I like “Tiny Shoes”, “Birth”, “Teat Beat of Sex”.

How did you become interested in animation?
I got interested in animation only AFTER Continue reading

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Jennifer Harlow

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Jennifer Harlow and I’m an animator at DreamWorks Animation SKG, where I’m currently working on “The Croods” which is due out March 2013.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Prior jobs have included working at Subway with the job title of “Sandwich Artist”—a fancy name for the not-so fancy job of making the customer’s order. I was also an assistant manager on Sundays, so I kept the business running from 6 a.m. until almost 9 at night when the other manager would take over. I also worked for 2 years at Target as a cashier, but I also spent time in the photo lab and behind the customer service desk. I have a lot of wild stories from my time there, ranging from encountering a homeless woman who was convinced Target employees like myself were stealing her freshly purchased toilet paper, the chaos that is Black Friday, to random strangers pulling my curly ringlet-like hair because they thought I was wearing a wig. A slightly crazier job was during the summer after my second year at CalArts, while staying at my home in Oregon I worked as a freelance caricature artist and this led to one memorable event where I was hired for a wedding. Nothing stranger than drawing tons of already self-conscious strangers for about 4 hours. Everything went very well though, the crowd was extremely nice, and I had a fun time—though I made it a point to make the caricatures a little more flattering than my usual style.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
It’s still pretty early on in my career to be able to state a specific project. I’m really enjoying working on my first feature project, “The Croods.” It’s been a really wonderful experience, and the crew is very supportive and awesome. But I’m proud of everything I accomplished during my time at CalArts and while my students films are less than perfect, I’m glad I have them. They were each a huge learning experience.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I always drew as a kid, even before I can really remember, my Mom likes to tell this story about how she found me in the living room drawing with a big red crayon on Continue reading

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Ron Brewer

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Ron Brewer. Director.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
I was a drug runner. Or should I say a delivery boy and stock clerk in a class 1 drug vault for a completely legitimate pharmaceutical warehouse. We supplied all the pharmacies and hospitals in the San Diego area. I was involved in two armed robberies there. The first was a gang from LA that wore Halloween masks. They had shotguns and AR15s. We were made to lie on the floor and then locked in the vault. The second time was a gang from East LA. I was chased down the street by a guy with a handgun. There was no where to run to. We were tied up with duct tape. Curious that I would find the nerves needed to get through these trials to be a good tension test, to be a good prerequisite to my animation career. Cartoons is war!

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I would have to say the Pink Panthers I was a part of. I directed 28 shorts for Pink Panther and Pals at Rubicon Studios LA. One of which won four 2011 KidScreen Awards including Best series, Best Series Viewers Choice, and viewers choice for Best Music –David Ricard and Best Directing –Me. Kerry Valentine produced, Ceci Aranovich did the design, Ryan Green and I did boards, Rob Sanders the sfx. Have a look!


The entire crew for the whole series was just awesome. The Pink Panthers are pure cartoons because of the absence of dialogue. Such a challenge to get the message across, stay true to the originals and hopefully be funny. You can find them on youtube or itunes.  Then I got to direct “A Very Pink Christmas” a Pink Panther special in the classic style. It’s the best thing I’ve done to date. Kerry Valentine producing, Ceci Aranovich design, David Ricard music, Rob Sanders sfx. A story that really came together thanks to so many talented people who I am very proud to have worked with. If you’re a Pink Panther fan or could just use a smile, go see it here.  I had the pleasure of traveling to the Philippines to meet the animation crew. Incredible the small army one of these things takes to complete. This show was also for Rubicon Studios LA., Manila and Amman. Unfortunately not many people saw it when it aired last year 2011. No publicity. You my insider friends know how that can go. But it really is a good little show and maybe it will pick up speed as the Christmas’s roll by. Look out Rudolph. 😉
How did you become interested in animation? 
I loved watching Saturday morning cartoons like the rest of you did. When I was a kid I had this idea to make Continue reading