The first 10 pitches opened so many doors. I became a director at Spacestation Animation, almost got a full greenlight for “The Unsingable Song” soon after that. And when that door closed another possibility opened and another. This lead me to supervising and animation at Steamroller Animation, the best studio I’ve ever collaborated with.

The process was the same: develop 50+ ideas, narrow them down to 10, ask for votes to narrow them to 5, develop like mad, get lots of feedback, and get Tarzan/Enchanted/A Goofy Movie director Kevin Lima on a call to chat about them.

But this time, for your viewing pleasure, you can get all 15 pitches in just over 15 minutes … or watch the extended versions.

Which Pitch is YOUR FAVORITE? Let me know in the Youtube comments.

Before Nathan Riddle (producer) and I came on in August, the small talented team Shonduras and Jordan Nguyen assembled to animat the 1st episode of A for Adley had been churning for over 8 months. We helped them finish in about a month.

Episode 02 took 3 months to animate, but we also re-designed and re-built the character and main environment, shifted to Unreal, and did our first NFT drop with Quarter Machine.

We hired more people and refined our processes to get Episode 03 done in a month and a half, Episode 04 done in a month, and Episode 05 in a month as well.

Of course, each of these has a month for storyboarding/concepts and a month of modeling that happens 2 months previous to production, for a total of 3 months for the overall process, but we’ve gotten better at overlapping the processes for monthly releases.

Full Momentum

Episode 05 felt like a sweet spot for many of us. While working on episode 03, we decided that it was time to start developing the new series so we can someday release one of each every month. To do this, I began to hand off directing responsibilities to other team members while I took time to storyboard episode 05 to give that production one last push. The goal was to layer in more poses to speed up the animators, to get more production design done along with the boards, and push the clarity of storytelling.

One lesson learned when it came to productions is that I should have done the first pass on the concepts. My lack of communication there caused a lot of rippling complications. But we have such a great team that we ironed the problems out and delivered a great episode:

[Edit: Animation industry colleagues have reached out to me asking why the quality of lighting/animation/texturing/rendering went down so far from episode 04. These kinds of conversations are important to a director because they inspire improvement. When the storyboards were presented to the team, there was such an excitement about the quality of the boards that we began saying, “this episode is going to be fast and easy.” On episode 04, the plan was to hand off responsibilities and become a co-director. On episode 05, the plan was to hand off the co-directing role because the new series required so much attention. The further episode 05’s production went along, the more I jumped in to fix many things, worried we might have a quality issue on our hands. It was important to keep team morality high, as we had another episode and an NFT project starting immediately after the 3 weeks of animation finished. I was concerned about quality, but everyone around me was talking about how great it was. In retrospect, I should have done at least rough concepts along with my boards and communicated more at the beginning of the episode production. There are many other small things we could have done better. I’m grateful for these lessons because they’ll make me a better director in the future. That said, this is still projected to be our most successful yet in terms of views.]

Of course, in showing that video out of order, I’m denying you the privilege of watching how our team pushed quality steadily higher with each and every episode. Here’s 1-4:

The Next Chapter:

As some of you know, a potential partner and I almost funded “The Unsingable Song” feature film back in August, but it’s actually good that hasn’t happened yet. Spacestation Animation has been an amazing place to learn and grow. I’m constantly saying, “Glad I learned that lesson before directing a feature film.” It becomes more true each passing month, especially now that I’m developing this new series.

And that next series is shaping into something fun and special, with fantastic collaborative voice artists(tba), story artist Brant Moon, and character designer Shawn Boyles! More on that exciting development coming soon … once it’s ready to share!

Thanks for all of your support these many years and I hope we have even more inspiring content coming for you soon.

~Scott

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts, so after you’ve watched the video, please leave a comment on youtube.

And if you are a producer, executive, or investor and would like to officially review the pitches, please go to scottwiser.com/collaborate. Apply to see the pitch packet complete with full-size posters, pitch essays, links to exclusive animatics and digital copies of the books, etc.

As I share my 2021 New Years’ resolution here. I hope you’ll share yours with me down in the comments!

My Goal: Direct an original animated film in the capacity of director, with a producer experienced in financing independent films as my main collaborator.

And since I’ve come to realize that the more experience I have developing feature-length content, the better, I’ve decided to pull out all of the stops and put out 7 feature pitches in addition to the 3 I typically display on my website.

New Pitch #1:

As I’ve done with some of my former animation pitches, Misfit Supers, Vanishing Ink & Cirque De Solitude, the first of these 7 new pitches is formatted as an illustrated novel. Unlike the other books, however, the illustrations are in full, glorious color!

I have a couple of publishers considering adding this book to their lineup and I anticipate that with a bit of rewriting, it will be ready to publish soon. Depending on how negotiations go, however, I may still consider self-publishing as I did with the other books, just as my friend Isaac Stewart did with his new book, even though he has a robust network through his employer and New York Times bestseller, Brandon Sanderson.

I can’t wait to share more about this project with you soon!

New Pitch #2: (This might be the one!)

Seeing that my short film Layers has been a great tool in attracting potential producers with chats about a feature-length version, I have begun to realize that books may not be my best strategy to get a feature financed and off the ground.

In August 2020, I saved up enough in my animation freelance business to write the opening song to this Animated Musical Fantasy Pitch and then storyboard rough drawing to create an animatic for the first 5 minutes of my film. Music composer Michael Bahnmiller was an excellent collaborator when it came to creating a demo version of the instruments and a create an excellent surrounding score. Megan Heaps, Myself, and Aimee Geddes were the vocalists.

The animated and accompanying video pitch, which I revised at least 5 times, did so well with private screenings for potential producers that I actually may have a producer who wants to put money into animating a high-quality teaser trailer (which I’ve already planned out in animatic form), and help me get the financing to produce this lush animated musical!

This may be my lucky break, but why stop there?

New Pitches #3, #4, #5, #6, #7:

After challenging myself over a couple of months to come up with more than 50 film ideas, I narrowed the list down to the 11 ideas and had peers privately vote on their favorites to narrow the list down to 5.

These pitches will be different in that they won’t be as developed as my former project. They will each include a poster design (featuring unique character designs and styles) and an essay about the film I want to make, as my animation Idol Hayao Miyazaki does when proposing his films. This may sound easy, but each essay will include a comprehensive story summary along with my unique vision for each film.

As I recently learned pitching along with 8 others to Sergio Pablos at the recent CTNX Pitch Perfect Bootcamp, creating a concise and compelling pitch for a film is extremely challenging. And being an animator who is passionate about storytelling, developing 5 at once is shaping up to be the perfect challenge for this point in my career. I’m currently reviewing every screenwriting book, recall every lesson I’ve learned, and studying great stories, such as Aesop’s fables, deeply.

Conclusion

So when will I be able to share this new content publicly?

Well that depends on how my freelance goes and how the chats with this potential producer goes. But from past experiences, I can tell you I will be learning and growing from whatever collaborations come my way.

When can I share them privately? Well, I could share them anytime with the right person, as long as that person is an experienced producer or executive who believes in my work and wants to collaborate.

And while I wish directing an animated feature as my full-time job, I have to say I have been having a blast collaborating with independent directors like James Bourne on his short The Abandoned Block (samples below), directors Bryan Lefler and Travis Deming in their work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (sample below), and many others. Each collaborator has inspired me with their unique vision and talents.

Oh, and I can’t forget the great lessons I’ve learned from the many guests I’ve interviewed on The Directing Animation Livecast. You’re all so inspiring to me and I can’t wait to create work that will inspire you in return!

The 1st episode launched September 10th and several more monthly interviews are coming soon!

Here’s the first episode:

In episode was, we discuss:

• Tony Bancroft’s book, Directing for animation – would he add anything?
• His experience directing Animal Crackers in contrast to Mulan
• What are key factors for a successful virtual animation studio
• What it would take for a person like me to obtain the opportunity of directing a full-feature film remotely or virtually.
• What moral obligation does a filmmaker have to the world culture
• One of the biggest stresses of directing a full-feature film
• And more!

Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode:

And Finally, if you have any questions you’d like to ask or any suggestions whatsoever, let me know in the comments below!

Thanks!

Without any introduction, because the Kickstarter page explains everything
Here’s the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottwiser/cirque-de-solitude-an-all-ages-illustrated-novel

On the first day, we were the most popular in the fiction section. As more news comes, I’ll post it below!

[Edit: So far, reviews have been glowing. Buy your copy on Amazon!]

We just won the Startup Ogden Grant that will fund Layers!

While this grant isn’t the big budget I was hoping for in the Kickstarter, I’m so grateful to have it and I’ve realized it will be enough money to enable me to finish Layers myself. I’ve filmed the animation reference for the whole short, purchased a cintiq, and I’ve already started animating. Here’s the first shot I animated to test the look of the film:

My current goal is to have it finished in time for the Ogden Film Festival in June. Because I’ve finished at Funded Today and I’m now running my animation business full-time, other projects may cause delays, but we will cross the finish line eventually and keep you updated along the way.

You can sign up for for updates at: scottwiser.com/Layers

And please let me know here in the comments what kinds of things you’d like to see in the updates along the way!

Thanks for all of your support and we’ll see you soon!

Actually, before my own updates, I ‘d like to share this video essay  by my acquaintance Adam Westbrook. It really somes up how my work has felt for the past year, and it’s also something every artist should see:

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/151128399″ width=”1280″ height=”720″ class=”frameborder=’0′ allowfullscreen”]

And now for my own “painting in the dark”:

1. My professional animation career has taken off. I’ve created animation for the upcoming Barbie Spy Squad DVD, the Emmy winning series All Hail King Julien, and now the exciting, upcoming feature film Henchmen. All this work has meant less time for personal projects, but I keep working on them slowly and steadily.

2. Vanishing Ink has been opening doors all over the place. As I’ve been pitching the project as a feature film at four studios and counting, there’s been so much to learn and so many possibilities. No studio has optioned Vanishing Ink as a film yet, but my next project is becoming much stronger due to the lessons learned.

3. Cirque Du Solitude, my next book, is currently in the outline stage and the next step in this project is to flesh out the cast of characters. This project is constantly in the back of my mind, and would be my prized side project if it weren’t for …

4. Layers, the short film I’m creating with Nimble Collective. Nimble is the brain-child of former DreamWorks talents who want to empower filmmakers to create projects with unique voices not typically heard in Hollywood. The project has been an incredible learning tool, and with my collaborators Lauren Chaikin and Tegan Clancy, we have some great concept art and an animatic that should be finished in the coming months with music from the fantastic Ryan Leach. Once we receive funding, we’ll get to produce the full animation and finally share this story with the world!

This may seem like a tough balance, but it’s pretty simple. I just work in the morning on one project at a time and then log a full-day’s work at the animation studio. Patience is the real challenge, but when we enjoy the journey, the wait is manageable.

So what about you all? What projects are you working on this year?

The original hand-drawn short was intended to promote a new cause at the Weber State. As you can see in the video below, I was planning to step up my game with full-color animation. I had the story and layout in place with color scripts and was planning some beautiful music to pull it all together. In my mind, it was going to be fantastic!

But after an encouraging lunch meeting with the inspiring DreamWorks director, Kevin Lima, I realized this project might be too ambitious for one little animator. I also realized I might not have much time left to finish (because of conversations with my current employer, Rainmaker Entertainment).

The last thread snapped when the marketing director told me he was not yet a fan of this project. He liked the cause, but he personally wanted a more inside-the-box, straightforward approach. Knowing he was right, I asked for a meeting with the marketing and store directors. Willing to throw out the current project, I expressed  hope that we could create something else to serve the same purpose. They agreed and so began these 4 phases toward recovery.

Phase 1. Trim The Fat, Keep The Meat : Fortunately, my project wasn’t all dead. We kept the story’s core (faculty, students, and the store working together) and some of the aspects of the character designs. There are times when an entire project must be scrapped, but I believe there are generally a few great ideas in even unsuccessful projects.

Phase 2. Where’s the sparkle? : In another meeting, we sat around a table and threw out ideas for a new, shorter commercial. I was careful to observe which ideas interested the marketing director and which I personally felt would be dynamic. When we found an idea that sparkled for all of us, we wrote them down. When we had 3 great ideas, we considered them for a few days until we narrowed them down to one.

Phase 3. Optimized Process: In animation production, we want to find a balance between efficiency and breaking new ground. Having created several shorts, I figured that simply using great video reference would inherently improve my hand-drawn animation. I knew I could finish quickly if I set the scene against a blank background and stuck to black & white line drawing. I also chose to use Photoshop, which froze less than Flash and allowed for me to throw in blur effects if needed.

Phase 4. Production:  This can be the longest phase when it comes to animation. I animated first in rough, red sketches. Next, I compiled the Photoshop files in After Effects and layered the sound and music in Premiere. Once I showed the short to several people and made changes according to their feedback (which would be great material for an entire post on how to respond to various levels of feedback), I cleaned up the animation with the black line work you’ll see in the short below. Of course, the process was more complex and less linear than I can describe here, so flexibility was necessary.

In the end, I personally feel this final short film is a much stronger project than the original would have been. And what a valuable learning experience! If we are willing to listen, communicate, and let go of our favorite ideas, we might find ourselves producing even better, creative work. Hopefully these lessons help you as you plan and navigate your next adventurous project! Let us know how it goes!

Technically, Vanishing Ink was one of the many ideas I was playing with as I was animating Chipmunks at Rhythm & Hues. But the idea truly gained momentum when you, my readers, voted it your top pick for my next book. And now, for the past week,  we have been on of the top projects in fiction and publishing on Kickstarter! Of course we still need your pledges, social media sharing, and more online journalism to help us reach our goal.

You may wonder why I would write a book when I’m generally so focused on animation. Simply, I wrote this book to prove I would make a great addition to a film development team. Of course, I loved the process so much that I’m already planning on writing another.

To hear animation superstars calling this story: “amazing”, “beautiful and unique”, “a fantastical adventure for the whole family” – that is more than I could have asked for.

Click the image below to read the 1st chapter of the book. Now that the Kickstarter has passed, you can purchase a hardcover copy on Amazon!