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Thoughts After the Show-runner Panel

After reflecting on the animation show-runner panel, I really appreciated the candidness and humbleness of each of the speakers. Mike Mayfield from Mr. Pickles! , Chris Savino from The Loud House, and Brandon Vietti from Young Justice all painted an earnest picture of what being a show-runner truly entails.  Often it means long boring meetings about budgets and schedules. But it also means  “putting on different hats” and having a say in each part of the production pipeline. Because of this, every day is different for this job. Show-runners experience gut busting laughter in the writer’s room as well as reviewing storyboards made by amazing artists. According to Chris Savino, it takes a certain personality to become a show-runner, you have to be obsessed with making the show as close to its original idea as possible.

Along with gaining a better understanding of what being showrunner is like, each of the speakers gave invaluable advice about the industry.

All the speakers expressed there are three essential characteristics in order for someone to be hireable- they are good at art, are kind and a team player, and are punctual with deadlines. They all expressed that they would rather help a not as good kind artist become better than work with a rude good artist. Furthermore, reputation is important because animation is a tight knit community and finding work relies on personal connections made with other professionals. Also bad reputations like being rude or turning work in late can stick for years. Chris Savino expressed he had to overcome his reputation of being someone who complains years after he worked on Ren and Stimpy.

All the speakers voiced that they did not think that they would have their current job. They all took career changing opportunities instead of being fixated on what they thought they wanted. They advised to immersed in current jobs and create the best work and relationships possible. The journey is unpredictable and as long as you do your job well and are genuine you will be fine. The panelists also suggested to specialize in what you want to do and not appear desperate. Desperation often comes from fear and hinders achieving ones goals. Also Chris Savino stated to stop comparing oneself to others. There’s a difference between what we think  we need to achieve and what our actual calling.

Lastly, it’s important to remember why we make animation. As Chris Savino said “entertainment isn’t frivolous”. The art we create can mean so much to people. It can bond families and help people through tough times.

I’m glad that I went to this. I feel more confident about my future in the animation industry and it helped me learn to enjoy and soak up the journey instead of only focusing on the end goal.  I’m excited to integrate their advice into my life and who knows maybe I’ll be in their same position one day.

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The Importance of Independent Creators for Diversity In Animation

Like Sapphire told us, industry professionals look to online creators via social media to see what and resonating with people. Because of social media, consumers and independent creators are helping create a market for animations with more diverse characters.

From fan art and fan fiction to independently made comics there is an online push for characters with identities other than “white heterosexual male”.

Image result for give elsa a girlfriend tweetFor example the hashtag #GiveElsaGirlfriend trended on twittered since her “conceal don’t feel” song is analogous to feelings of closeted queer people.

The animation industry has a lot of room to improve with the representation of women, LGBT people, and people of color. Fortunately recent shows like Steven Universe, Bob’s Burgers, and Avatar: The Last Airbender showcase diversity, feminism and fully developed nuanced characters. But there is still issues with getting characters with different identities on screen. For instance, when we had our discussion about LGBT representation in class, Sabrina Contugno described the great difficulty and ultimately failure to put a lesbian couple in Gravity Falls. Sabrina even described how she intentionally desexualized these characters by making them older and only having them hold each other instead of kissing.

Independent creators do not experience the same obstacles previously described. Luckily with the internet these artists are able to work full time through different avenues, like selling prints, doing comic book covers, and making books etc. Some independent artist who do amazing work and display diverse identities are:

Image result for markus prime BRUH

Markus Prime  (instagram @markus.effin.prime) who is known for publishing B.R.U.H.: Black Renditions of Universal Heros. Markus draws black female renditions of famous characters from Naurto to Buzz Lightyear to Wonderwoman.

Sophie Campbell (tumblr mooncalfe) is a comic artist known for her works Wet Moon and Shadoweyes.  Afropunk.com describes that her illustrations “tend towards adolescent females or young women, a departure from many mainstream comics which usually center around male characters or a single female character often portrayed as a sex icon. In contrast, Campbell’s characters are diverse including various races, body types, sexual orientations as well as differently-abled characters” Image result for tj and amalEk. Weaver created the online comic The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal, which is about Amal who recently comes out as gay to his parents. After, he gets drunk and promises a stranger- T.J. -to let him travel with him to Providence from Berkeley where Amal is going for sister’s graduation. This is a beautiful comic that represents queer people in a realistic way.  This comic has won multiple awards such as the 2016 Harvey award and the 2015 Lambda Literary Award.

On both an individual level and in the grand scheme of the industry, independent creators have a profound effect. Independent creators make well-rounded diverse characters that consumers crave. Also these artists show that stories that include different identities can be successful. Consumers should keep being vocal and independent should keep fearlessly creating.