About this project
Something that you should know about cartoons on television. All your favorite ones started with a short: Family Guy, South Park, and The Simpsons. All these cartoons began with a short video that got their creators to the next level. This project will be our stepping stone to the next level. We have hopes that through people we know we will be able to present this short to executives at Comedy Central and Fox. Our cartoon falls in a similar category as Family Guy and The Simpsons. This will be the second short cartoon Mason produces, so he has the experience on how to get the job done.
The cartoon world that we intend to create takes place in a busy small town. The area is inhabited by all types of animal people. This society is a reflection of our own humanity with animals living our lives but with their natural instincts still kicking. It is a rousing comedy from start to finish. The go to quote for this show is always going to be "Aren't we all just civilized animals in the end." We believe no matter how civilized we as humans get we will always just be civilized versions of our wild selves. Help us break down this wall of humanity.
The actual show will have more main characters similar to the hit television show Friends. Somewhere around 3 or 4 young men and 2-4 young women living life trying to find the right job for themselves. We intend to have each episode be a reflection of real life but through our animal characters. But since this Kickstarter page is for the short let me tell you about it below.
In this short we are going to concentrate on only two of our main characters for the show, Hershel the deer and Dylan the orangutan. The short will follow these two young men as they leave their apartment to just get groceries. The journey will be about 5 minutes (the length of the short) and along the way they will encounter four other characters: Buck, Lady, Gerbs, and Old Man Scruff. Each character has a funny mishap with our protagonists before the two move on to the next place in their adventure.
Unfortunately we can't share our script with you guys on Kickstarter because we want to protect our characters and writing. We will however tell you that the short has a climax involving a love triangle between the three deer. Hershel falls for Lady but is confronted by Buck before he has a chance to tell her how he feels. In a parallel situation to the cliche of two guys chasing one girl; Hershel and Buck end up feuding for Lady. But since these characters are animals at heart, their animal instincts come out and the mating dance/ritual begins. In order to find out who ends up getting the girl, we will need your financial support.
We have spoken with a few different animation studios and have chosen one. (They have told us that they want to remain anonymous until it is for sure that we will be working together WITH A CONTRACT, so once the funding is successful I can sign a contract and reveal the company to you all.) They will be using Toon Boom Harmony which is the program used for shows such as Spongebob Squarepants, Futurama, The Simpsons, and many other familiar shows that you have probably heard of. We chose this studio for their competitive pricing and excellence in communication.
The first step in the Pre-Production process is acquiring the funds to begin development. The character designs were done by Devin and Mason and the art for the characters was created by the talented Pierre Jackson. Mason and Devin will be handling the storyboard art and background designs all needed before the production can begin. Following that, the last step before animation is producing the voices which we intend to record in a professional studio.
Once the animation is completed we just need to go to our sound effects studio, HandSound. They will provide us with all the sound effects for footsteps, punches, slurping, crunching... basically any sound needed that isn't done by a voice. Once all of this is put together the last thing to do would be to add in music to build moods.
After all of these elements are put together we can create the cartoon and send it out to all of you backers. We can't do it without your help.
WHERE THE MONEY WILL BE SPENT
How did we get the number 15,000?
Good question! First, most of our budget will actually go into animation. For 5 minutes of animation the studio we selected charges $2,500 per minute of Toon Boom Harmony animation. This accounts for $12,500 of our budget. We estimated our sound effects studio cost at $200. The recording studio cost will be around $225 for 3 hours of studio time at $75 per hour. Music cost is estimated at $175. This so far totals $13,100.
You are probably asking yourself right now, what about the other $1,900? Well Kickstarter and Amazon have to wet their whistle through our project. According to Kickstarter they can take 8-10 percent of our funding if the project is successful. This would bring our budget up to $14,600. The last $400 will cover extra fees or costs that we might run into, as well as some extra cash to help make sure we fulfill our prizes that we offer to you guys.
Here is the great news if we get extra funding. Mason and Devin have planned ahead in case Kickstarter gets them a lot more money than they anticipated. If $50,000 is raised through Kickstarter, they are prepared to produce a full length pilot. This would be in the format of a full 30 minute television program. All the prizes still apply for the pilot, just instead of a DVD of the short you get a DVD of the pilot, it's even better. So best tell your friends to back us as well.
Risks and challenges
Since we have the character designs already completed the next step is to go and record voices. Recording voices should have no challenges or risks because all we will do is schedule an appointment and record the voices, should be done with in 3 hours for all the dialogue for this short.
The next step however serves to be the most difficult. We will be working through the internet with an animation studio. Mason has done this once before on a 10 minute flash animation. Since we are doing Toon Boom it should be a much higher quality product. The risks here are not that it won't ever get finished but that it might take longer than projected. If there are any snags in the animation, then it could take an extra month to complete. However, we are confident that the animation studio we are working with will get it done on time. In production there will always be snags but we have enough experience to ensure its completion.
After the animation is completed it is time for post production. Sound effects and music must be added as well as creating credits. Since we will be creating the footage for the credits ourselves, I can guarantee it will be completed on time. As for the sound effects we are using a professional studio that we have used before so we are confident in their abilities to work when we need them.
In the end the biggest risk is the animation process because the storyboarding will have to be just right to get it done on time. Both Mason and Devin will be fully involved in the storyboarding to insure it will be completed as planned.
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Funding period
- (30 days)