Eric Elder, about midway through the video. If you play board games on the west side, or Strategicon, you’ve probably seen him
That guy looks passionate about his project. I’d have a coffee with him. Does he have an assistant? First round of interviews is tomorrow so I’m hoping to have one early next week.
Sorry, I’m new to LA. By west side you mean near Long Beach? Also what’s Straticon? A convention of some sort?
Sorry to be a newbie to this whole animation studio thing.
Westside is generally west of the 405 and north of the 105. Long Beach is a whole different country.
Already trying to poach another company’s employees, eh?
El Guapo you need to brush up on your 90s West Coast gangsta rap.
ElG:
If you’re paying relocation fees, I’d rather help you make Lego movies than have another workday like today. I am very qualified to do. . . um. . . stuff.
In seriousness, this sounds super cool, and I hope it goes well for you. I’m following on Twitter now, so don’t disappoint ;)
Yay! I hired an assistant today! He’s claiming we can sell this thing to Cartoon Network for the low low entrance price of $50k. He’s either way too optimistic or I am failing to see the barriers to entry here. Anyway away we go!
West side is Santa Monica, Hermosa Beach - literally the west side of Los Angeles County. The west facing beaches. Long Beach and into Orange County are the south facing beaches. Edit in: Oh, and horrific traffic on the 405 around UCLA and the west side.
Strategicon is a series of three gaming conventions every year near LAX (OrcCon, Gamex, and Gateway) on President’s Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day weekends. Labor Day pre-registration is now open (strategicon.net). In Orange County, there is the Orange County Gamer’s Association that meets at the Duck Club in Irvine (next to natural wetlands, thus the ducks and other waterfowl).
It’s been a while since I was in the industry, but iirc correctly the barrier for entry was having good content (content people want to see) and decent production values (plus networking, but this applies everywhere). These two things are extremely rare. Your assistant seems to think your work is worth it!
Cool! I think I have both things in spades.
Who would by poll here watch a stop motion plastic brick (i.e.legos) version on the Daily Show? With high production values? On say Adult Swim?
Yes, yes, no. I don’t have cable. I am undermining the system. :(
Sorry if I missed your point Guapo, but if you’re asking if I would watch a version of The Daily Show done with stop motion lego-like animation, to be honest I don’t know that I would. Seems like a waste of perfectly good Legos, so to speak. Something like, well, The Lego Movie, which was totally insane, that’s what I would like to see. Hell, I would pay good money for more of that kind of content.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Damn I should actually clarify then. The news desk is two people, a liberal woman and a conservative guy. This part is like the Daily Show. The other layer is that we see them in their normal life (but mostly at work) walking around the studio and such. Maybe like Newsroom or Thirty Rock. The other layer is that the station is owned by this eccentric character thats like a cross between Alec Baldwin and Rick from Rick and Morty. He’s an accomplished business man but always uses his profits from the program to fundd crazy new tech sciency projects behind the scenes in the back offices. For instance portals that open other dimensions and let Chuthulu in accidently. Of course it would have the most insane visuals ever created like we’d get to see where Chuthulu actually comes from and explore his dimension. And find out he’s kind of a loser nerd God or something funny.
Daily Show mixed with 30 Rock mixed with fanboy awesome stuff about sci-fi, tech, alien worlds, the imagination is the limit and you never know where it’s going next week. Also it would feature all the insane things around the world people have built with their LEGOs, all those crazy passion projects like 1-120th scale Death Stars. We’d go over to their house, animate all that awesome shit for them, and bring that passion to the main stage as part of likely cutaway jokes.
Basically I’m going to ignite all fans of Lego everywhere and showcase their passions and work a spotlight nationally.
Would anyone watch THAT?
What part of yes, yes, yes didn’t you understand? Um… Maybe I should rephrase that…
OK, now I’m with you. Lego people behind a desk, I don’t know. Lego people behind a desk with portals to lovecraftian dimensions, oh hell yeah!
Oh ok, so it’s like the Daily Show, in that it’s lampooning current events plus craziness, but it’s not made daily, only weekly, which makes being animated more feasible. So are you looking to start your studio to make a pilot+pitch+scripts+show bible to sell to Cartoon Network, Adult Swim or whatever (and I assume 10-12min run time typical), or are you directly producing + releasing episodes on Youtube & such (2-5 min episodes typical I would think) in the hope of gaining an audience enough to make a publisher take note and take offer from?
So quick update and a couple questions. This afternoon I went to a pool party in LA and was froliking with everyone else. I met an older woman there who knew the Disneys because her sister or something married one of the Disneys, I forget which. Over cocktails in the pool with palm trees all around us (sorry I’m from Ohio and this alone was pretty surreal) she told me Walt Disney was the creative guy and his brother Roy was the business guy. So it was really Walt-Roy Disney but that’s kind of cumbersome. We talked a bit about the Disneys and some fun personal stories. So anyway I thought the coincidence of my starting an animation studio this week was fun and mentioned it to her, the idea behind it, the characters, why I was doing it, basically just gushed out blabber mouth idiot worst case scenario “I’ll change the world!” excited nonsense.
She tells me after I have to meet a close friend of hers that’s a VP at Disney. Now I have his business card. And we’re going to set up lunch at some place in Burbank and he’s going to bring friends.
So couple of questions.
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Fucking LA, huh man?
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I have no idea what the Hollywood dress code is like. What does a producer guy wear to a fancy restaurant in Burbank?
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What in the hell do I say to Disney? I’m skurred. It’s just me.
This is some crazy town you have here.
That’s awesome!
- I have no idea what the Hollywood dress code is like. What does a producer guy wear to a fancy restaurant in Burbank?
I would take inspiration from The Dude. Straw hat, hawaiian shirt, swimtrunks and flip flops.
- What in the hell do I say to Disney? I’m skurred. It’s just me.
Don’t be intimidated: he puts on his pants the same way you do: by having an assistant hold him and being lowered into them by a giant mechanical hand.
This is some crazy town you have here.
indeed!
So sort of like a “current events” - rather than everything ever sci-fi and fantasy - version of Legostar Galactica. Maybe, Yes, No (also have no cable).