Journal Entry from July 15th, 1997

I was reading through some of my old journals from the last ten years. Up until the last year, I wrote consistently since I was in high school. It's amazing to think of your life as over 500 pages of words. Weird. I came across one entry that stood out to me. It took place the summer before I entered my senior year of high school...not having too much direction. I didn't change anything about this entry except for some spelling mistakes (before I owned my first MAC).

TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1997
Today I saw the Disney movie, Hercules. It was such a fun movie! My jaw was nearly hanging during the entire film...and the animation was completely over-the-top. It was just amazing. This movie helped me understand the value of artwork, but specifically animation. I'm now thinking about art school. I think I have the talent and the ideas, but now I have to put them to use. My brother put it a good way. He said, "Working for Disney or Nick is like going pro in sports". He's so right and that's the route I want to take. My dream is now to work for an top-notch entertainment company making cartoons.

It's funny reading that now. It's especially funny because the following year I went to the University of Massachusetts to study political science. It took me another two years to realize what I was meant to do. I'm glad I came to that decision, even if took me a little longer.

Thanks Frederator!

A big thanks to Jeaux Janovsky, Eric Homan, and the crew at Frederator. The first episode of Philippe and Pierre was featured this week on Channel Frederator. In addition, I was interviewed by The Frederator Studio Blog about the conception and production of Philippe and Pierre. You can check out the interview here.

Once again a big thanks to Frederator Studios!

Lewis Carroll and Serendipity

So a couple weeks ago, I was doodling away at Starbucks. A lady saw that I was drawing and asked if she could take a peek. I agreed and she began to tell me that she was also an artist (a writer). Sadi went on to mention that she was close to finishing a biography of Lewis Carroll, which will be published in NYC and London this summer. Make a long story short, she contacted me last week and wants me to do some quirky illustrations for the book. I whipped up this test sketch of the Caterpillar in my sketchbook yesterday, and I did the coloring this afternoon. I don't think I'm going to with this style, but I thought it was a fun experiment. I'll upload more tests in the coming weeks.

Big Loser

I haven't posted anything in a couple weeks because...well...I don't have a good reason. I've been working on an animated demo for a local studio and other than that, I've been developing new content for my own future projects. All is well in Schlafmanland. In the meantime, here's a little test I whipped up last night...

Let the Idiotic Adventures BEGIN!

It's been many months since my first post about Philippe and Pierre. The team has put down their Wacom pens and the result is finally up for everyone to enjoy. Pileated Pictures and myself present to you The Idiotic Adventures of Philippe and Pierre.



Stay tuned every other Monday as we will release a new toon on the Philippe and Pierre website. Check out all the action at
www.IDIOTICADVENTURES.com

I want to give a HUGE thanks to the folks who made this happen:
1. Mike Levine at Pileated Pictures.
2. Dan Flynn (Animation)
3. Evan Sussman (compositing and effects)
4. Joe Pleiman (Sound design)
5. Fletcher Beasley (Theme Music)
6. Matt Moore (Website)

Although the project was my vision, it couldn't have happened without these folks. I'm truly lucky to have worked with all of them and it shows. Sign up for the newsletter as more toons and goodies are on the way!

Uh-Ohs...It's a Wrap!

For the last three months, I have been working on a series of fun educational safety shorts with SNAP Studios for the National Fire Prevention Association. Scott Nash and his team came up with the look while I co-wrote/directed the shorts. It was the first
time I directed animation using someone else's style, and I had a ton of fun working on them. The talented crew was made up of folks from sea to shining sea. Here's a few stills from the Bike Safety PSA. The video will be up on YouTube in a day or two.

Jungle

Back in frigid Boston from a great trip out to LA. I met some really great folks and saw some really amazing artwork. Well, I'm back in reality, working on another Ecard for American Greetings. Here's a background design from the project. It makes me want to leave Boston...again.

Phlippe and Pierre...Almost there!

The first installment of Philippe and Pierre is wrapping up! Eight of the nine shorts are done. The website is in the works and should be unveiled Monday February 4th. In the meantime, here's a couple stills from the finished shorts.

Hello Los Angeles

I arrived in LA yesterday for a week of meetings at some animation studios and networks. I've been working on a slew of projects for the last three months and now it's time to show some folks out here what I've been up to.

Here's a still from one of the pitch books I created. I provided the layout, characters, and art direction, while the mega-talented Lindsay worked her amazing artistic magic with the background. I should have some time to post more in the coming days...

Al Gore Shout Out

Evan Sussman, my good friend and collaborator grew up in Tennessee. Al Gore was just named TN Man on the Year. Evan's parents read this article about Gore and sent it to him.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071231/NEWS01/712300378

Here's cool part:

Flipping open his laptop to an "Ecospot" on Current TV's Web site brought sparkle to his often serious demeanor.

The just-over-2-year-old cable and satellite nonfiction network is rooted in viewer-created content and citizen journalism.

It boasts 51 million paying subscribers and is "aimed at giving a voice to the average person who has not had a way to break into the conversation of democracy on television," said Gore, who is the network's chairman.

He began searching on the computer for the grand winner out of about 3,000 entries in a competition for television ads to educate people on the climate issue.

An animated feature popped up showing a city with smoke pouring from stacks and heavy traffic. Car horns beeped and then an elephant dropped from the sky, squashing a vehicle.

"In 2005, the U.S. released 6.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air," the clip reads, referring to metric tons.

More elephants fall. "That's 1.2 billion elephants," it says. A man looks at the mayhem and then shrugs. An elephant falls on him.

"It's time to stop ignoring the 1.2 billion elephants in the room," the clip ends.

Gore, smiling broadly, chuckles.

"Madison Avenue wouldn't have come up with that," he said.

Alien Advertising

So...As I mentioned a couple posts earlier, I'm working on an animated short with an outer space flair. The short is being sponsored by none other than COSMO COLA. I've been asked to help with their marketing campaign.

Greetings 2008

I was slammed by the flu last week and now I'm recovering to a pile of work. I've been commissioned by the card company, American Greetings to create an animated Ecard. Here are some character designs that I made for the project.