Behind the Joke - Welcome to the Jungle
Dissecting a joke is like dissecting a frog. It’s interesting to see what’s inside but then you’re left with a dead frog. This section is not about explaining the joke but rather just to give a little fun facts and fiction about how it came to be.
The only ingredients I have for a joke are two things: they must be based in a truth but to get a good punchline, it’s usually exaggerated. So a truth and a lie.
Truth/Lie
The current animation market really is a jungle right now. This interview was all exaggerated but I’ve had my fair share of working with crazy directors. I’ve taken a few calls with no name studios that asked for story artists to do stuff way above their pay grade. The sad truth is that a lot of artists feel like they have to say yes to all the above.
The correct way to deal with a call like this is simply make it part of the negotiation. Tell them what you think is fair and reasonable and that usually works. Or not.
Geesh!
I did a little animation work (back when Flash was owned by Macromedia and played nice with Apple). Lots of work for little reward.
And then. The Clients.
Even in the early 2000s they thought computers did ALL the work and not just the tweening. But the worst thing was that anyone with budget for animation also had to run it by head office. Creative, funny little pieces would get blown out to inoffensive, bland cr*p. So your comic landed with me. Thanks, Tom.