Thursday, November 8, 2007

Pitch Night Meets NEXT Thursday, Nov. 15th!!!

Guess what? No, the answer's not "chicken butt"- it's time for another pitch night! Stop by the Animation Guild NEXT Thursday, November 15th for a rollicking good time! Please Note: This will be our LAST pitch night of 2007. So if you have something to pitch, now's the time!

Sign up to reserve a spot in the audience OR for pitching. E-mail me at jesskreig@gmail.com to RSVP today.

Storyboard Pitch Nite
meets NEXT Thursday, Nov. 15th
7 pm to 10 pm at the
Animation Guild
4729 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood 91602

As always this event is FREE to WIA members, and only 5 dollars for non-members.
See you there!

~Jessica Kreig

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Hurry! Sign up today for "So You Wanna Make a Short?"

Short films used to be the red-headed stepchild of the animation business. Everybody had a story they wanted to tell (that Christmas elf tale you came up with in the Eighties, for instance), but there was no market for them and no funding to make them, so ideas languished in desk drawers all over town.

That was five minutes ago. Suddenly, shorts are hot. Shorts have EXPLODED onto the Internet and television. Did you know that Disney has aired 17 brand new five-minute shorts since last fall, mostly from creators outside of its own studio?! So how do you get a piece of this action? How can I get my Christmas elf on the air?

What you need to do is come to WIA/LA's next General Meeting: "So You Wanna Make A Short?" We've gathered a terrific panel to discuss the artistic and pragmatic issues of short film creation:
Nick Conafalone, Development Coordinator, Walt Disney Studios shorts program
Peter Gal, Vice President of Animation Development, Nickelodeon
Eric Homan, Frederator Studios
Rusty Mills, MyToons
Moderated by Sarah Baisley.

If you've ever wanted to create something that's ALL YOURS, don't miss out.

Join us at Dreamworks (1000 Flower Street, Glendale, California) on Friday, October 26th, 2007. Schmoozing and networking begins at 6:30 p.m., and the meeting proper starts at 7:00. Food and soft drinks should be available.
To RSVP, please call the Hotline at (310) 535-3838 or email LAchapterrsvps@aol.com before Wednesday, October 24th.
Non-members are asked for a $10.00 donation: members are free. We look forward to seeing you!

Pitch Night Meets THIS Thursday, Oct. 18th!!!

Has it already been a month?!! Well, then it must be time for another pitch night! Stop by the Animation Guild THIS Thursday, Oct. 18th. to get all your questions answered!

Sign up to reserve a spot in the audience OR for pitching. E-mail me at jesskreig@gmail.com to RSVP today.

Storyboard Pitch Nite
meets NEXT Thursday, Oct. 18th
7 pm to 10 pm at the
Animation Guild
4729 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood 91602

As always this event is FREE to WIA members, and only 5 dollars for non-members.
See you there!

~Jessica Kreig

Monday, October 1, 2007

Sept. Event Recap

What a great meeting! With a good-sized group of attendees, guest artist Melissa Suber in attendance, and an awesome short screened, there was something for everybody at September's pitch night.

Wendell Washer began our meeting with a suggestion of sketch improv. Although it started off rocky (that after-work fatigue slowed us down), it was a good way to get the creative juices flowing. Next, I asked Melissa Suber to introduce herself and her work. She was more than happy to regale us with stories of her experiences as a board artist and children's book illustrator. After answering a heapful of questions, Melissa took a break and we had our one and only pitch for the evening.

Erik Kuska, currently a board artist on American Dad, came for his first pitch night AND brought in a short film he's been creating in his spare time for about a year. It's currently in the animatic stage and titled, "Buffalo Lung". He screened it for us that night, and got just what he wanted- a room full of laughs. Erik's careful crafting of story and gag-building really paid off. The only suggestion we offered was to trim it down. Erik has all the laughs he needs, now he's got to trim out the fat and start animating. Go Erik! Hopefully he'll keep us in the loop on his progress.

After the pitch, Melissa opened her bag of goodies, and showed us some of her original mixed media paintings and concepts for possible future books. She also passed around her portfolio filled to the brim with gorgeous work. What a great way to cap the evening off!

Enter the Annie Awards Now!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Save the Date- October 26th!!

Save the date- WIA's next general meeting titled "So You Wanna Make a Short?" is Friday, October 26th at the Dreamworks campus!

It's going to be a GREAT meeting for all you pitch night fans out there! If you've been slaving over a short or always wanted to know how to go about getting support to make one (financial, mental, etc) then you need to come to this meeting!

We're still ironing out litte details, but expect to announce panelists very soon.

Check back here for updates!!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Pitch Nite Meets NEXT Thursday, Sept. 20th...

It's that time again, folks! Come down to the Animation Guild next Thursday, Sept. 20th for WIA's monthly Storyboard Pitch Nite. We'll have a special guest in attendance, Melissa Suber, who is currently working on story for Hoodwinked 2, as well as illustrating/writing children's books. She'll be a great asset to the evening-- so if you have technical questions or want some feedback on your project, this is the month to stop by!

Sign up to reserve a spot in the audience OR for pitching. E-mail me at jesskreig@gmail.com to RSVP today.

Storyboard Pitch Nite
meets NEXT Thursday, Sept. 20th
7 pm to 10 pm at the
Animation Guild
4729 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood 91602

As always this event is FREE to WIA members, and only 5 dollars for non-members.
See you there!

~Jessica Kreig

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Hot August Nights


One more pitch night down without a hitch. It was a smallish crew of intrepid pitch nighters, but a good time was had by all. I was happy to meet a group of Art Institute students who ventured up to see the workshop from Orange County. Their teacher suggested WIA's pitch night as a valuable resource for students to meet professionals in the industry and network. I completely agree. Students and professionals attend regularly, as well as voice over actors, directors, writers, and fans of the industry. Every month is different so you never know who you might meet!

This month was no exception. Our first pitcher of the evening was Ken Roskos. He pitched the third part of his short roughly titled "Pandora's Box." Ken had a lot of active shots, and put more focus on his main character this time around. After he pitched, the audience clambored for him to return with more of his ongoing saga. It just goes to show that when you know your characters you can really make a story shine.

Next up was Joanne LeCocq. She brought in a test for "King of the Hill" that she recently completed. Everyone was very impressed with her gags and that she followed the essence of the show well. Bravo, Joanne!

Lastly, Dahveed brought in TWO projects to pitch (honestly, I don't think this man SLEEPS). The first was "Supa Pirate Booty Hunt" which he pitched to us last month in rough thumbnails. This time he had an animatic put together as well as some quick gag panel ideas. Dahveed got a lot of great input the month before, and really used it to further his project. It's going to be fun to watch this one develop. His second project was "Joey the Whiny Tapeworm." It's almost completely finished in animation, and there's some nice gags and writing. The critique focused on just tightening up a few spots in the narration that seemed slow.

Congrats everyone to another great pitch night-- see y'all next month!

Monday, August 6, 2007

Next Pitch Night...August 23rd!!!

Everybody have fun at Comic-con? Well now that it's over, come on out to the next Pitch Night and tell us all about it! If you didn't attend comic-con, and were feverishly working on your next story installment, then stop by and show it off!

PLEASE NOTE: I will be out of town on our usual night of pitch night (the third Thursday of this month) and have RE-SCHEDULED pitch night for THIS MONTH ONLY to be Thursday, August 23rd. It will still be held at the Animation Guild. More details to follow...

Sign up to reserve a spot in the audience or for pitching. E-mail me at jesskreig@gmail.com to RSVP today.

Storyboard Pitch Night
meets THIS Thursday, Aug. 23rd
7 pm to 10 pm at the
Animation Guild
4729 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood 91602

As always this event is FREE to WIA members, and only 5 dollars for non-members.
See you there!

~Jessica Kreig

Friday, July 20, 2007

Pitching Frenzy

We had another good pitch night last night at Ye Olde Animation Guild. We took three pitches from attendees Ken Roskos, Dahveed Kolodny-Nagy, and Doug Wolf with his business partner Eric Gamache. It was really great to see such a wide range of work.
Ken's working on a personal project entitled "Pandora's Box". He showed us part two last night. Overall people appreciated the diversity of his characters and quirkiness of story, but felt he needed to focus on following one main character to avoid confusion.
The ever prolific Dahveed had another project up his sleeve for the evening- a supah rough musical opening to a new concept he's collaborating on. There was a lot of discussion about the rough thumbnails. Everyone seemed to like the idea, but thought there were some conflicting visions between the storytelling and the main title song lyrics. Dahveed took the critique to heart, and hopefully we'll see another awesome iteration of this amusing project.
Lastly, we had Doug and Eric's pitch of their project called Tiny Oaks. They came to pitch night to get feedback on their sizzle reel and pitch bible for a potential series for young children. The work was undeniably good-looking, well produced and animated. A fellow attendee, Mark Murphy, who has had ample experience in pitching concepts to studios, gave them some good pointers for their upcoming meetings.

Good luck to all and I hope to see everyone at future meetings with further developments!

~Jessica

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Next Pitch Night...July 19th

Hi everyone,

We had a GREAT pitch night last month with new faces in the crowd, and LOTS of creative ideas pitched. Let's keep 'em up, people! Just in time for Comic-Con, it's pitch night- this Thursday, July 19th. Want to warm up before showing your portfolio at Comic Con? Have you tweaked your story since the last time you pitched a board? Show us what you got!

Sign up to reserve a spot in the audience or for pitching. E-mail me at jesskreig@gmail.com to RSVP today.

Storyboard Pitch Night
meets THIS Thursday, July 19th
7 pm to 10 pm at the
Animation Guild
4729 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood 91602

As always this event is FREE to WIA members, and only 5 dollars for non-members.
See you there!

~Jessica Kreig