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!!

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

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!

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

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

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