LB: What Does a TV Animation Director Do?

Glad You Asked Department 7/12/13

question_ditkoBack in the late ’90s I did a little work in animation, creating projects like Fox’s THE SILVER SURFER, which I also ran – as much as a writer can run what is probably the only TV genre where writer-producers don’t get to call all the shots because the animator-directors are the official Big Cheeses – and supervising the writing on SURFER, SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED, DIABOLIK (a French series for all practical purposes although everyone wanted it to be more), and HBO’s SPAWN (a terrific series bujt the less said about it as an experience in my life the better).

As a result of that work (which you can get a quick overview of here), I’m often asked a lot of questions about the television animation process. One of the days, time permitting, I’ll write a nice long article on the subject. But until then I’m happy to use this space to answer the following question from Delia, who wants to writes:

I’ve been a secret fan of Saturday Morning animation for years and have always been amazed at the variation in quality. I’ve seen shows that obviously were intended for 8 year olds, like POKEMON, and shows that scaled upward in age past pre-teens and teens to the viewing group I’d call Young Adults, which clearly was the demo you aimed THE SILVER SURFER at. read article

Peer Production: Our Favorite Superman Film Is…

clarkkentsclosecall

This one from 5second Films:

LB: Ooh, Somebody Actually Noticed My Poetry!

I’m definitely loving on Examiner.Com:

TV writer goes wild with “Kid Hollywood and the Navajo Dog”
by Janet Arvia

Kid HollywoodAnyone who has worked with Final Draft is familiar with TV industry expert Larry Brody, whose morsels of advice appear on the screenwriting software. The Northwestern University alum worked on Ironside, Hawaii Five-O,The Streets of San Francisco and Police Story as well as creating the animated Silver Surfer TV program in 1998, before establishing the Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts and TVWriter.com to help aspiring writers.

Today, Brody is switching channels with the release of a Kindle edition of his book Kid Hollywood and the Navajo Dog which poetically traces his life as a TV writer and his time, away from Hollywood, in the mystic wilderness. “Everything that happens in this book did in fact happen,” says Brody. “Every event. Every emotion. Every sign/auger/omen.” read article

Cartoons: How to Explain GAME OF THRONES

2013-06-27-gotFound on BasicInstructions.Net
(which has lots of other cool, um, instructions)

LB: Extra! Emmy Ballot Deadline is 5 PM (Pacific) Today!

This pic is for those who've said that showbiz is like high school. This changes your minds, right?
This pic is for those who’ve said that showbiz is like high school. This changes your minds, right?

Yep, this is a special shout-out to TVWriter™ers who are also Television Academy members.

Get those ballots in.

Both of you. read article