On a recent trip to Kidscreen I had the opportunity to sit down and discuss distribution with Alison Taylor from Aardman and Ed Galton from Cake. With our industry undergoing so much change, I wanted to hear what it was like on the distribution side of the business, and how these two companies, with very different beginnings and operations were navigating the change. 

I also added some thoughts on the conference in general and the vibe I got while on the trip. 

Enjoy!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

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Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

This episode is a must-listen for anyone developing an original series and wondering how they'll get it off the ground. A combination of passion, perseverance, and a great partnership of the right people made the special sauce to get Stan & Gran into production. Based on an idea Jon Mason had a whopping 12 years ago, perseverance looms large here. His partnership with Natalie Llewellyn was pivotal as you'll hear in this conversation.
This is the third in a sporadic series looking at the anatomy of a project and rounds out the trio looking at an original series.
I hope you find it as informative as I did. Super interesting.

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

The Wild Robot is here - a film I and a lot of the industry have been looking forward to getting their eyes on since we first saw the teaser. 

Most of the major animated feature hits of late have been sequels and spin-offs, so when I got a glimpse of The Wild Robot from DreamWorks, I was very excited. First of all, I love robots of course. But there is something about the fish-out-of-water scenario of putting a robot into the wilderness that is immediately striking. Even the name of the film depicts so much and immediately you want answers to some questions that pop into your head. 

And no, it's technically not an original because it's based on existing IP, a book - but it feels fresh and new - and Dreamworks seems to do that a lot with book source material. Not only does it feel fresh visually - and stunning - but I was really curious about the process of adapting the source material. So in this chat with Director Chris Sanders, we talk about that in detail, as well as many other things. 

Just to let you know, there are some spoilers in this one - nothing devastating, but also because of the breakdown in the story and writing process, this one is best listened to after you've seen the movie. If you're a writer, I'd also recommend reading the book so you can better see the adaptation process.

Chris was super generous with his time, and we got to cover a lot of things, so I hope you enjoy it.

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Send us a text

Survive til 25 is a term thrown about a lot lately, but it got me thinking that it's August, and perhaps we need to think more about longer-term survival. So this is the first in a series of Survive Beyond '25 episodes looking at various parts of that equation, from business to innovation to mental health and creativity.

In this episode, Rick Mischel returns to chat about the general state of the industry and where we're headed. Rick recently bought a studio, so he has some optimism there! It's a fascinating conversation and I encourage you to engage in the ongoing conversation with us - we'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Also, head back to episode 30 for a longer chat about Rick's career.

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

How low can you go with a CG feature budget to create a very entertaining, high-quality-looking animated film? Listen in to this one to find out as I dive into the deal-making and production of The Amazing Maurice with Producer Andrew Baker.

Based on a Terry Pratchett book, The Amazing Maurice looks like it came out of a much bigger studio environment. It has a great voice cast, quality effects, and animation and is a great case study.

Andrew was very generous not only with his time, but the detail he delved into, and he has some great insight into the industry from his work as a lawyer before his role as a producer.

Hope you enjoy it!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

'The old shool house', 'speeider' and 'the sun is warming up' were just some of the memorable lines quoted by my kids for years from the original Megamind movie originally released back in 2010 - a very different animation and media landscape than exists today. The movie was fresh and fairly successful, but gained a cult following in the years after its release. Fast forward to this year and original writers Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, after selling the original screenplay as a spec, had the chance to revisit the iconic character with a direct to streaming feature and limited series with Peacock.
I got to chat with them along with Exec producer and showrunner Eric Fogel about the past and the present of all things Megamind, along with their backstories leading into these projects.

Hope you enjoy it!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

Welcome to our second annual Kidscreen Conversations episode. I headed to San Diego, not Miami this year for the first west coast Kidscreen. As always, it was a great event, although the sun decided to skip it this year!

Our guests this year are Rob Doherty, a consultant with great insight into the industry and founder of Festivus, an animation org that parallels the Creators Society in some ways in the UK, Sueann Rochester, Managing Director of Wild Child Animation in Scotland, and Lucy Murphy, director of kids content at Sky in the UK.

There are some great thoughts and insight here so I know you'll get something from these conversations.  Please excuse the on-location audio, a little rougher than usual, along with my voice.

Enjoy!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

Welcome to the 4th season of the Creators Society Animation Podcast. We're thrilled to have made it this far! As you know, our business is changing all the time, rapidly. But that means that there is more to talk about than ever, so we're going to be talking to different people and discussing different topics of change and importance.

Today we chat with Sean Charmatz and Peter McCown from DreamWorks about their new film Orion and the Dark, which is out on Netflix.

This one is super interesting to me from a few perspectives. When I saw the trailer, I was intrigued - it was written by Charlie Kaufman, so you had me interested in seeing what he'd do with an animated film right there, but I was also intrigued by the creative execution, how that vision was executed on a streaming film budget, and its directed by Sean Charmatz, a long time story artist who spent a chunk of his career on Spongebob.

If you haven't had the chance to watch it yet, I encourage you to do so. One thing I've noticed after chatting with several people about Orion is that it sparks discussions. It's interesting to me because it deviates from a regular linear narrative, which it easily could have followed. However, this departure from the norm fosters dialogue and, I believe, adds depth to its storytelling.

Hope you enjoy it!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

Today we have a treat as I chat with Mike Lasker of Sony ImageWorks. I don't know about you but I was blown away by Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - and actually when it finished, I sat there with so many questions - mainly around the theme of 'how the hell did they do that?!'

I have long had a fascination with render styles that veered away from realism, playing with toon shaders and compositing techniques in my own work and trying to find new looks that were fresh or different. Of course, Sony's recent films have been an explosion of fresh and different, starting with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, then Mitchells vs the Machines and now exploding again with Across the Spider-Verse.

So when I had the opportunity to chat with someone at Sony about this film, Mike Lasker, the VFX supervisor seemed the perfect choice. But when I got into this chat, I actually realized what a pivotal role he's had in helping to change the way we look at animation styles. Mike worked on Into the Spider-Verse and also Mitchells and Across the Spider-Verse, bringing a wealth of experience from both live-action and animated films - something we often see with Sony ImageWorks folks that seems to broaden their range and perspectives and help them to adapt to challenging briefs. 

Mike was a delight to chat with - and I only really scraped the surface of some of the amazing tools and development work they did on these films - we really could have chatted for hours.

Hope you enjoy it!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

In today's episode, we have a conversation with Sandy Wax - a former Discovery, Disney, and Sprout executive. Sandy is delightfully curious, and that curiosity really paved the way for so many things - from her interest in research, to how that ties into content development and marketing and branding - and what led to her becoming CEO of Sprout for over over 10 years. 

Branding is something we don't talk enough about, so I loved diving into this with Sandy - and she's had 3 different and major experiences with brand building in our industry that I think we all can learn from.

I hope you enjoy this one!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

For this episode, we're breaking down The Inventor with an 'Anatomy of an Indie Stop Motion Film'.

We first had Jim Capobianco on the show almost two years ago! In that chat, he talked about the stop motion feature project he'd embarked upon. With the Inventor releasing in theatres on Friday, September 15th, we thought doing a deep dive and breaking down how it made it to screen would be a great idea. To do so we were joined by Jim, the film's writer and director (Jim was also Oscar-nominated as co-writer of Ratatouille), Co-Director Pierre-Luc Granjon, and Line Producer Kat Alioshin. 

When looking at how a low-budget film came to be, Kat's role as Line Producer was key. And since Jim came from the 2D and CG world, Co-Director Pierre-Luc, with a wealth of experience in stop motion, was also key. 

All three joined me to walk through the project, which itself is a charming depiction of not only Leonardo Davinci's latter years but also captures the spirit of creativity and curiosity of a man who gave the world so much. 

Really hope you enjoy the podcast - but also the film! Go see it!

- - 

If you enjoy the show, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam
Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller
Music by: Rich Dickerson
Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam
Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

If you're looking for some career inspiration, look no further than this episode with guest Bobby Chiu. Bobby's career is an example of tenacity, purpose, and a drive to not only be a great artist but to be great FOR artists.

We start out early in his career journey and talk through all the obstacles he encountered before his big break, which was really a big gamble that turned into a big break.

Our industry throws up continual obstacles, whether it's a no from a pitch, a no from a school, being part of layoffs caused by Wall Street's whims, or a myriad of other barriers, this episode will encourage you to keep going and to help others to keep going.

Enjoy!

- -

Show Notes:

Bobby Chiu Instagram
Check out Lightbox Expo here
Watch the Lightbox Expo 23 Trailer
Visit Schoolism here
Visit Imaginism Studios here

- - 

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media if you enjoy it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam
Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller
Music by: Rich Dickerson
Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam
Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

In this episode, I got to chat with Kirk DeMicco and Faryn Pearl, the director and co-director of DreamWorks Animation's latest film, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.

As with most films, what we see onscreen is only part of the story. If you look at the math, Kirk's last directorial project was Vivo, released around 2 years ago, which means Ruby was a sprint from when he came aboard - pun intended. 

This film is refreshing in that it's focussed on a young female protagonist, and the entire thread of the story focusses on 3 generations of women - well, kraken women. 

The production design on this project was just beautiful. I understand the focus and fawning over experimental looks in recent films, DreamWorks films included, but design and shapes take centre stage here for a really cool look that I enjoyed. Combine that with awesome bioluminescence and you've got a beautiful looking film. 

Ruby is Faryn first co-director role, and Thoroughly enjoyed chatting with her and Kirk and hope you enjoy it!

- - 

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media if you enjoy it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

In this episode, we chat with Gary H. Lee, a layout, pre-viz, and cinematography guru who has also directed a couple of amazing shorts. Gary has an amazing career story that we know you'll enjoy, from working on one of the biggest film franchises of all time at age 19 to working with Ang Lee on Life of Pi, he has an incredible amount of experience and insight. We discuss his career, his thoughts on where pre-viz is going with Unreal, and how he used pre-viz to get his ambitious short films into production.

Check out the trailer for Gary's short Aden here. We'll let you know when it's live online. 

And check out "The Magician's Elephant" on Netflix.

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media if you enjoy it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

In 2022 Animation Magazine celebrated 35 years, so I sat down with Jean Thoren, a serial encourager, to talk about her's, and the magazine's journey.

Jean and Animation Magazine have seen so much change in the industry over the past 35 years, and we chat about how it all got started when Pixar was emerging, Disney was changing, and the evolution of animation from being pigeonholed for kids to having the wider audience it has today. 

Jean and Animation Magazine also put on the Animation Summit in LA each November which we also chatted about.

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media if you enjoy it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

Sometimes you see artwork that leaps off the screen - almost like visual click bait! Joseph Feinsilver's concept art did that to me when I spotted it on Instagram, so I wanted to chat to him about his story, his process and his work on Puss In Boots: The Last Wish.

Joe shares his story about breaking into the industry just out of college which is really inspiring if you're painting day and night, posting online and wondering what's going to happen next, and also chats about his process and tips for using color in storytelling.

If you're a fan of great art or interested in an Art Director's role in the pipeline of an animated film, I think you'll enjoy this episode. I did!

Show notes:
Check out Joseph's ArtStation here
The speed painting video I reference can be seen here

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media if you enjoy it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

This week's episode is a bit of a departure from our regular format, as I chat with 3 people from Kidscreen Summit in Miami and share some of my own thoughts.

First up is Tom Bancroft, a well-known and very accomplished animator who worked at Disney for many years and recently started his own studio, Pencillish. Tom was visiting Kidscreen for the first time, so it was a great opportunity to sit down and chat.

I then spoke with Dylan Edwards from Copernicus Studios in Canada about the journey of the show they're just beginning production on but which had a 10-year development cycle.

And finally, I spoke with Rich Dickerson, an Emmy Award-winning composer who has been part of this podcast from the beginning as he created the music for our theme. It was great to sit down and chat with Rich about his journey.

We would love to hear your feedback on this episode so please get in touch.

Show notes:
Pencilish Studios can be found at Pencilish.com
Check out Tom and his brother Tony's podcast - The Bancroft Bros Animation Podcast
Copernicus Studios can be found at CopernicusStudios.com
And Rich Dickerson can be found here

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media if you enjoy it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

Getting to have these conversations is such a treat for me, and I really enjoyed getting to have this conversation with Jonas Rivera from Pixar.

After starting as an intern on the original Toy Story, rising up to producer on UP, Inside Out, Toy Story 4 and helping to shape Soul, Jonas has 4 Oscars under his belt and is now Executive Vice President of Production at Pixar. 

That would be a great story itself, but there are a lot more ingredients mixed in here, and really, this conversation was so enjoyable because Jonas is a super nice guy, gracious, humble and obviously absolutely loves what he does.  We talk about the early days of Pixar, touch on all the films he produced and his work with Pete Docter, chat about a producers role in the brain trust, and lots more

I know you'll really enjoy this one and Jonas was really generous with his time, which was essential in sharing such a long and interesting career. And Jonas is still a pretty young guy, so there's a lot more career to come.

The book referred to toward the end of the episode is 'You Negotiate Like A Girl' by Amy Trask.

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media if you enjoy it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

This episode is a chat with Julie Kane-Ritsch, Talent Manager and Head of Animation at The Gotham Group. It's a fascinating chat that shows that managers and agents have all kinds of paths into the industry, and Julie's journey is really cool. 
When Hanna Barbera's shorts program produced 12 shorts, with 4 of them being Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, Dexters Lab, and the Powerpuff Girls, Julie was there. 
We chat through how she got started, and touch on various parts of her career, before chatting about the state of the industry now, the cyclical nature of original IP in the marketplace, and how to stand out from the crowd when shopping around yourself and your ideas. 

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media if you enjoy it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

In 2022 Sony Pictures Animation celebrated its 20th birthday, and Kristine Belson has been president for around 8 of those years, overseeing the industry-changing hit "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse", and a growing number of film-maker led projects with varying styles and storytelling techniques. 

Join me in this conversation with Kristine as we chat about her career, which started in live-action, and traces through the Jim Henson Company and DreamWorks Animation before she started at Sony. 

We touch on "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and talk about how it impacted the industry, the development process, and ethos at Sony, including working with ImageWorks, Phil Lord, and Chris Miller, touching on the upcoming k-pop movie and the agent Elvis series. So I really hope you enjoy this and get as much from it as I did. 

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media if you enjoyed it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

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Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is fresh off a Golden Globes nomination and being widely praised - along with a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes as I write this.

Join us as we jump into a nearly hour-long chat with Director Joel Crawford and Co-Director Januel Mercado.

These guys were so fun to chat with and they were very generous with their time in a week where they probably did a hundred interviews. What's cool is that Joel and Januel are really close friends, and got to work side by side on a movie which is really a fun ride. And you can tell they have loved making this - it comes through in every frame. It doesn't matter if you've seen the previous Puss In Boots or not, or any of the Shrek films, this one stands alone. It's fresh in style, darker in tone in places with a real depth. We get to chat about a lot of that, but somehow I felt like we were just scratching the surface. And we stayed pretty much out of spoiler territory I think so that you can listen to this before or after you see it - or both.

Show notes:

• If you want to check out Joel's student film, you can find it here. Well worth the watch.

Please remember to like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch. 

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.plus

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If you've been taking in all the animated features this year, you no doubt have The Bad Guys as one of your favorites. For me, it's one of my favorite films of the year, animated or not. 

And it certainly has its own flavor, a flavor which is really fresh, reminiscent of great heist films, and infused with a lot of today's guest, director Pierre Perifel. 

We chat about Pierre's career journey from studying in France to DreamWorks, and we touch on a few projects, including canceled while in production projects - which may speak to many people affected this year - to his feature directorial debut.

Pierre clearly had a great time making this film. 

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

A few notes from the show:

• Highly recommend you watch the teaser animatic that Pierre put together to sell the project internally can be found here. A great example of how to sell a concept.
• Pierre's short film from Goblins can be seen here - Super fun!

Please remember to like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch. 

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.plus

Send us a text

I bumped into LP Vermette and Virginie Lavallée in Annecy this year and right away was intrigued by what they're doing. LP and Virginie are Canadian producers who have pivoted to focus on training producers in the industry. What is wonderfully refreshing is that aside from being super capable and experienced to teach other producers, they're taking the angle of wanting to turn out producers capable of balancing the well-being of their role and their team with everything a role in production entails.

Aptly named the Happy Producers, we had a wonderful conversation talking about their careers, their approach, and really their mission to have a lasting impact on the mental health of the industry. Of course, they're still hands-on producers in their own right, keeping them in touch with everything that's happening within the industry and their field.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

You can find out more about L.P ,  Virginie, and The Happy Producers here.

Please remember to like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch. 

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

Daniel Ross has worked as a voice actor for many years and does a vast array of voices, including many legacy characters, and new ones, big and small, in various shows. We chatted about his journey into voice acting, and the craft. Getting started into acting is a challenge, so you'll love Daniel's story of how he landed a role in a transformers video game to kick off his career.

Daniel is the third actor to voice Donald Duck for Disney, a role that recently earned him an Emmy nomination. 

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Please remember to like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch. 

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text

In 2017, when the industry caught sight of the first teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, our collective jaws dropped. The rest is history of course as the movie went on to win just about every award imaginable. In this episode, I chat with Josh Beveridge, Head of Animation on Spider-Verse, and we talk through his career, all of which has been at Sony Pictures Imageworks, and how the animation on Spider-Verse was a culmination of things that had been building for years, and how that first trailer drop allowed them to breathe a sigh of relief. 

Josh was also Head of Animation on Netflix's surprise gem, The Sea Beast which premiered earlier this year.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Please remember to like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch. 

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Zoe Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation, and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us a text