The Trip: Day 2

Well we woke up reeeeeally early in the morning on day two. It was 6 AM, which is like, 3 AM, Alberta time. Needles to say, the 4 of us were exhausted. Regardless of this fact we all hobbled our way over from our hotel to the Chateau Laurier for the Buffet Breakfast and Keynote speech for the Television Animation conference. The breakfast was delicious and the speech was motivational, so that really helped distract us from the pitches we were so nervous about delivering later in the day.

For all of you that are curious, Brent, Kalvin, and I were all pitching the cartoon to different producers and executives in the industry, in something called “fast track”. In this, we have 9 minutes to pitch the cartoon to to the person. It’s pretty nerve racking.
We all took turns pitching and we all got much the same response. People were extremely positive about the pitch but the industry is in a slow period. That coupled with the fact that no on is really looking for adult material at this point made things very frustrating. Still the positive responses and the compliments on the idea were very encouraging.

One of the other things that we did during the day, was attend Panels and things of that nature. I found them to be pretty educational and I think I learned some interesting things at them.

Once the daytime events were done for the day, The Thunderfist crew arrived at the Television Animation Conference Happy hour to relax and network with others attending the conference.
At least those are the reasons we tell people we went for. I mean, what kind of Albertans would we be if we passed up any reason to attend an event serving free booze. We met many awesome people there and in true Albertan form we closed that party down.

Soon after that was the Opening Night Party. Which was one hell of a hectic event. Again, we met some cool people and we had a pretty good time with the guys from Brazil. We tried to teach them how to pick up Canadian women. We told them that really, they didn’t need to do much but be themselves. Kalvin added that they should portray themselves as strangers in a strange land , on a quest for love. Somewhere along the way things got confused and they started pretending to be Colombians. I still don’t know if that was of any help to them.

So, after a few more drinks, many Al Pacino and Robert De Niro impressions, and some “yaga balms” we headed out to get some rest. Of course, us being us, we ended up on some kind of damned ghost tour through downtown Ottawa. I ended up making fun of the weird, caped, “spooky” tour guide and Mason ended up climbing a bear… The night is kind of blurry from there but I think Brent took us to a ghetto McDonalds and Kalvin kissed a giant male snowboarder.
The four of us ended up back at the hotel safe and sound with one hell of an adventure behind us. We then went to sleep.

Day :3

Day 3 was the second day of the TELEVISION ANIMATION CONFERENCE. We Did many of the same things and pitched much the same way. Today we made pitches to Teletoon and The Cartoon Network. They were well received but the problem was much the same. No one seems to be looking for adult material.
This, coupled with everyone telling us how we should have been here last year because “everyone was looking for adult cartoons last year”, is becoming increasingly frustrating but we will persevere.

Anyway, we had a really nice dinner at the end of the day and we are now ready to head out for another networking event. We’ll keep you posted.

Goodnight!

This part of: Media by Cory

Day 1

I awoke in Edmonton Alberta at 5 AM, this morning and (as usual) immediately wished I was still sleeping. As per the new norm; the ground was covered in snow and the temperature was … well…cold. This would usually be enough to ruin a new day for me. Today though, I looked upon the shitty weather and early morning with a bit of smug defiance. As I knew that in only a few short hours I would be on a plane to Ottawa Ontario.

I know that the prospect of going to Ontario may not seem to luxurious to those of you who have been there, but to us at Thunderfist Productions, the trip is something the 4 of us have been looking forward to for over a year.
The Mission? Arrive at the Ottawa International Animation Festival to participate in the Television Animation Conference. Once there, we are to try and dazzle the masses with our pitch package for “Brainsick Jones”.

This was my motivation to shower and sit, waiting patiently, in my living room at 6 AM. Brent and his lady-friend Alecia, arrived at my home around 6:15. Like me, they had not really accepted the fact the the day had begun, and drearily asked if Kalvin had arrived yet. (we were to meet and take my car to the airport.) In time Kalvin came creeping up the stair from his basement dwelling and gave a casual hello.

We exchanged polite “how-do’s” and began to carry luggage to the car. Soon we were loaded up and ready to pick up Mason on our ride to the airport. On the way to Masons house, Kalvin began to share with us, and evil and dastardly plan he had concocted (but later abandoned) to craft a tin-foil gun and hide it in one of our carry-on bags. This, he thought, would bring a comedic start to the trip as one of us would be held up at airport security. Followed (I assume) by the taunting laughter of Kalvin, as he looked on.
We picked up Mason without incident and drove on through the winding confusing roads of Edmonton. trying desperately to make our way through the construction zones placed all over the south end in, what I can only describe as an obstacle course meant to keep people within the city limits.

Once we had made it through the south end of the city, it was clear sailing all the way to the airport. we said our “good byes” to Alecia and made our way in to the airport. Once inside, a whole new definition of the word “stress” was made abundantly clear to us as we gazed upon the line up to Airport Security. I don’t even know if I can describe the line-up to you, but try to imagine a line-up that streches to a horizon and then winds back to you…. three times: That’s as close as I can come.

We checked our baggage and wee told by the Westjet rep that the chances of making our flight were negligible.
I panicked.
Mason ran to the line-up to secure spots.
I ran after him.

Once all of us were in the damn thing, we began to crack jokes at security’s expense and basically act the fool.

I made it through security without incident.

Brent made it through security without incident.

Mason made it through security without incident.

Kalvin failed.

It seems “tinfoil gun” Lock, got held up at the gates because he had a metal belt buckle shaped like a gun.
I asked him later if the irony was lost on him. It wasn’t, and he did not seem amused.

The plane ride was a 3 hour long excuse to sleep or in Brents case, sit through a terrible movie.

At around 2 pm Ottawa time, we arrived. We made our way on to a shuttle to the Ottawa Westin. The ride was filled with some pretty interesting conversation with total strangers. Convos about electric flying sports cars and different kinds of future tech. This conversation eventually ended at our driver describing to us the challenges of making chainmail armor on your own. If ever there was an example of a conversational regression, that would be it. We checked in to the Westin, and admired the 15th floor view of the Parliament building. The room is pretty nice and once we saw we had a fridge it became apparent that we would need to do some grocery shopping. We went and picked up our Passes to the festival (the pick-up was conveniently across the streets) and were given a giftbag along with our festival guide books.
Like giddy school children we opened the books to the “Delegate list” and found each of us listed with a picture beside our descriptions. All of us but Mason, who for some reason did not have his picture printed.
This has been a sore spot for him all day and provides an excellent alternative to Kalvins Belt buckle for us to pick at.

For the rest of the evening we walked around Ottawa’s downtown area and tried to gain a little knowledge of our surroundings. This prevents us from ending up in odd situations if we party a little too hard.
We found the city to be really cool and often comment on how much better laid out it is than Edmonton. This could be just the city seen through the rose colored glasses of a tourist but then again…

Anyway.
Now we are sitting around munching on groceries, drinking beer and researching the industry.

The conference starts tomorrow.

We’ll keep you posted.

This part of: Media by Cory

Doesn’t this just make you want to see what’s going on?  Me too.

BRAINSICK JONES Theme demo

Want to hear the outro credits?

BRAINSICK JONES outro/credits demo

This part of: Media by Mason