Who's Responding?

Finding your audience begins with knowing yourself. The longer journey, though, is hearing the genuine voices of those that are finding you and finding your work.

Ralph Waldo Emerson inspired the saying:

“build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” 

Perfect. So, after you have pushed through the work, solved the problems, and finalized all the steps - your creation is complete! Open the gates, so the masses can be enriched and enlightened.

Um . . . where are the masses? Where is that well-beaten path?

That old saying left out some important info, like, how did all those path beaters find out about the better mousetrap? And, how much feedback did the inventor need to finally land on the ‘better’ idea? 

Old sayings aside, there are currently an abundance of opportunities to not only get your work in front of people, but also to have direct access to that audience. And, a potential key feedback point in your work is the direct response from the people consuming it.

So, who is responding to your content? And, what is their response? What usually happens in the beginning as we are first putting our content out in an accessible place, is that we don't get any response. Basically, no one is consuming the content.

No one is watching. No one is reading. And then, you have the one. That first one. The first reader, or watcher. But, no comment, no response, just the information that, yes, they were here. Your content was read, it was watched. But, by whom? And what did they think? Did they love it, or hate it? Or worse: did they even care at all? And possibly, you may have that cavalier attitude of, "It doesn’t matter to me if anyone watches it or reads it. That is not the reason I am creating, anyway."

Ok, yes, as creators, we need to be vigilant around our original inspiration. We certainly need to be true to ourselves in the process of stewarding it from idea to final format. However, it’s what happens to our creation after it is released that holds the most potential for impact. I believe that we have the additional responsibility to listen for the responses from those who have found our work. Here are four questions we can ask which may help us increase our impact as creators:

Who is my art speaking to?

Find out how old they are. What do they do? What shows do they watch, or what do they like to read? Are they active? Where do they live?

What do I hear them saying about my art?

Listen to the specific words they use to describe it. Do they think something is missing, or something is too much? Do they look up to your work, or admire it as the thoughts of a peer?

How do I feel about their response?

Does the feedback make you happy? Sad? Angry? Are they telling you something that you already thought of, or is it a new revelation of your work?

Am I able to see a way that their feedback can help me make better art?

I am not talking about re-doing the work you have already created, but listening to the input and testing it as part of your process the next time around.

INFOGRAPHIC: Animation Studio Pipelines VS. Independent Animation Producer Pipelines

It's all about managing those pipelines. Here are a mere handful of the possible pipelines that major animation studios manage, compared to some that independent animation producers manage.

MANAGE THOSE PIPELINES!!!

Amazon Storybuilder: Gives Your Stories a Safe Place to Grow

Thank you, Amazon Studios, for the gift of Storybuilder!

I know that I was not the only one to receive the promo email from Amazon Studios about Storybuilder last month, but I may have been the first to click the link in the email.

I have been using it, and actually it has helped me begin one of my Seven Deadly Disciplines for 2014: Write six pages per week. Am I writing six pages per week? No! I am writing six hours per week. Well, I am writing much more than six hours per week, but I am writing story and screenplay pages six hours per week. Amazon Storybuilder is helping me in the pre-page stage of story construction. Storybuilder is not a screenplay format wizard, and it is not for creating storyboard panels. It is a notecard system to build the structure of your story before you begin cranking the pages.

Using notecards to nail down the elements of your story is an classic method. I was listening to Doug Tennapel speaking to a class on writing stories. Notecards! He says he starts with three: the beginning, the middle, and the end. Then he appended that statement by clarifying that he actually starts with one notecard – the ending. On that card he wrote what it was that he wanted the story to “preach”.

Anyway, I am using Amazon Storybuilder. Some may be concerned that Amazon will have some rights or options on their Storybuilder corkboards (each story project in Storybuilder is called a corkboard, and you can have as many corkboards as you need for all your brewing story ideas). It’s true, that when you upload a script to Amazon Studios, or use their storyboarding application, Amazon Storyteller, they have a 45 day option on those properties. And, it would be cool for them to pick your property for potential development, but Storybuilder is a free application that is cross-platform to help you work on your stories. And, not just you, but you can also open any of your corkboards to other collaborators, or critics. A team can start developing together on Storybuilder, or an individual that would like to receive notes from certain trusted colleagues/fans/family members. And, isolated artistes can create their story all by themselves.

I like it and I’m using it.

Here is my Amazon Studios page: http://studios.amazon.com/users/89237

I don’t have any of my corkboards open for input, yet, so I guess that puts me in the isolated artiste category. Hopefully not for long.

Blasted New Year Discipline

Looking forward to the new year, means making "resolutions". You know what a new year's resolution is, right? It's something, or a list of somethings, that you are going to do, or do differently, in the new year. Here are the popular ones from the usa.gov website:

Lose Weight

Volunteer to Help Others

Quit Smoking

Get a Better Education

Get a Better Job

Save Money

Get Fit

Eat Healthy Food

Manage Stress

Manage Debt

Take a Trip

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Drink Less Alcohol 

Seriously, now, how many times have you chosen one, or some, of these particular items, and decided that you were going to start it up in the new year? And how many times did you fall short before January came to an end?

New year's resolutions are for the birds. Those things that you choose for your new year's resolutions are things that you want to do anyway, but consistently have difficulty getting started, no matter what time of year. We like new beginnings, starting over, passing go and collecting $200. What is more of a fresh start than the new year? Nothin', bub! So every year, we grab a hold of our opportunity to accomplish these things because the slate is blank on January 1st. When we start missing  the mark during January, well, the slate doesn't look quite so clean anymore. It looks the same as it does the rest of the year. So, we leave the new year's resolution idea in January, and move on through the remaining months until our slate looks clean enough again to convince us that it's time for another stab at it.

The real issue: Blasted Discipline!

The reason that we haven't already done those things on our list is because we have been undisciplined. January 1st does not magically infuse self-discipline into our beings. January 1st merely infuses us with the idea that we can start again without all the previous strike-outs showing up on our score card. And we can, but we also need . . . I don't even want to say it again, but here goes . . . discipline. Blasted Discipline.

Here's an idea! What if you accomplished your goals two days out of the thirty-one available to you in January? Two is better than zero, right? Instead of stopping because you've failed too many times, just keep going. Take it into February, and maybe you'll succeed another couple of days in February. I would imagine that by the time you get to March, you'll be thinking, "I can do better in March than I did in February." Who knows, by the end of the year, you may have had 30 or 40 successful days - that's like 10%. Come on - 10% improvement? Yes!!! Keep going through the next year and the next. That percentage will continue to grow, because you have started to track your success rather than be shamed by your failure.

And you've also tricked Blasted Discipline into being your slave. Mwahahaha!

So, go boldly into January. Track your success throughout the year, and begin to enjoy your new relationship with . . . you know who.

The Individual IS the Studio, so . . . DO the Impossible.

Waiting for a studio to help you do the impossible? Your wait is over.

I absolutely love listening to this promotional video created by Cartoon Network. It was released 3 months ago, but only has around 45,000 views. You probably haven't watched it, yet, because it's a Cartoon Network promo and it's 9 minutes long.

Next Generation of Animation - Behind The Scenes

So many great lines are in this, but the best ones are at the end, of course: "In the end we're making cartoons, but cartoons are for everybody" and "To me a cartoon is an art form that can do the impossible."
The great thing about this is that Cartoon Network is acknowledging that it's all about the creators. It's not the studio or the budgets, it's not the story or character even as much as the artist and artistic vision behind the whole thing - "Our shows are less about the idea that is inside of them than the people behind them." Well, there you have it. It's about the artist. The individual creator.
I am soooo happy that these creators are at Cartoon Network, right now, at a time when Cartoon Network is focused on the creator. Because of this, these creators have a lot of distribution strength behind them, and that means a lot of people will get to see a lot of their shows. For those not at Cartoon Network, fear not! You have the secret potion, the magic bean, the elixir of life, the holy grail, the lucky feather, the eye of the tiger, the one ring to rule them all - you've got you. You, yes, you. Right now, the individual IS the studio, and YOU are the individual. DO the impossible!

The Animation Micro Studio in the Cloud is the New Animation Production Model

If you are an animation artist, jump into the new paradigm! What you really are is an animation micro-studio that has potential direct connection to any major or minor production going on around the world. Also, YOUR micro-studio production has access to talent worldwide. This CTNX round table calls it the Virtual Production Model.

The Studio Has No Walls: The Virtual Production Model from Creative Talent Network on Vimeo.

Why would a major studio use a micro-studio for production? Last February, Dreamworks made a decision to layoff 350 animation employees due to one box-office let down, that's one bad box-office after a succession of 16 box-office hits. Rhythm & Hues declares bankruptcy earlier this year after completion of Oscar winning production on Life of Pi. And from the video, above, Richard Chuang, founder of Pacific Data Images, leaves his own company, after almost 30 years, to create CloudPic Studios, because he wants a production dynamic the next generation of creatives can build upon. The BIG studio system is changing, or has changed already.

So, I'd like to introduce the new studio head: YOU!

Dangerous Dreaming... or, Can a Whale be a Super Model?

Are your dreams too big? Are you dreaming dangerous dreams? I'm talking about your waking hour dreams: your aspirations, what you hope to do (or be) that is just out of your reach - or miles out of your reach, maybe. Are you in danger of disappointment, because your dreams just don't seem to match your current reality sufficiently enough? Maybe you, like Tiffany the whale, have dangerous dreams.
Last night I watched Tiffany the Whale: Death on the Runway, or If Looks Could Krill. Tiffany the whale, and her story, was originally designed for a comic strip format by her creator, Bill Plympton. Tiffany had been ported to animation with hopeful intent that she will have an ongoing serialized platform for her adventures as a supermodel. That has not happened, yet, but her first episode is available on the Dogs & Cows compilation DVD from Bill Plympton's studio: Plymptoons.
Tiffany is a whale that dreams of being a supermodel. I guess her real dream is to be with her true love, who is a male supermodel that only dates... supermodels. How should we counsel her? "Oh, sweet, dear Tiffany. Your dream, not unlike your body, is dangerously big. Those small designer dresses will never, ever fit you. Wouldn't your rather find a nice, available, male whale. The ocean is full of them, and you were built for the ocean, not the runway."
I certainly have dreams in the Tiffany category. I can imagine that you do, too. Here are some points that may help you cope as you make effort to move from the ocean to the runway:

1. You can't force others, but you CAN force yourself - One of my big dreams was to have a cartoon that I make get nominated for an Academy Award. That's fine, except there are people making those nominations, and if they don't like what I do, my work never gets nominated. I have no real control over others, but I can have self-control. I can make myself do the work. So, I re-worded my big dream to: I want to make a cartoon that qualifies for an Academy nomination. In other words, it meets the requirements. THAT, I can do. I can push myself to create something that competes in the same arena where the big dogs run. Look at your dream from the perspective of what you do to make it happen, not what you need others to do for you. This doesn't mean you do it alone. No doubt you will require, and attract, a team that wants to help. It's more about moving away from blaming the system, and moving toward a focus on doing the work to get your project done.

2. Disappointment and failure are part of the cost - How much can you afford? Any goal, big or small, has the potential (and inevitability) of degrees of failure. If you are hammering one nail, you may have 100% success. If you are building a house and hammering thousands of nails, you will probably smash your thumb. How much thumb-smashing can you handle? (two on the same thumb is my absolute limit... for the day, anyway). The bigger your dream, the more disappointment and failure you will experience on your way to success. ON YOUR WAY... to success. So, break your huge dream into segments that you can "afford". Do you see what I mean? Split the dream into goals, and the goals into projects, and the projects into to-do lists. The smaller the segment, the more manageable potential disappointment, and then failure becomes just a (small, hopefully) problem to be solved before you move on.

3. The journey toward the dream builds your strength to live the dream - Dangerous dreams are dangerous because they are sooooo big. We don't actually have the appropriate frame of reference from where we currently stand to see what life is like over there in the world of the dream. It's different over there. The air is 'rarified' in that place. We build muscle on our way that allows us to thrive, to breathe the 'rarified' air, once we arrive. I guess I am saying, "embrace the journey". Once we get to our destination, the journey is what we tend to talk about the most. It's certainly what other dreamers will be asking you about.

"So, dream big, Tiffany. Don't start with the 20" stiletto heels on your fins the first time on the runway. How about the flats to start? But work those flats, girl!"