Do you remember last year when I got my first SAG-qualifying voice acting job? (If not, here’s a reminder about My First Movie.) The movie was supposed to go direct to DVD, but the producers lost their original distribution deal. Eh. These things happen all the time in Hollywood, and I barely thought about it at all. Flash forward to last night, when I was checking out the new arrivals on...
Back at Cosmic Toast Studios, creator/composer/actor/singer/goofball Andy Pagana has released the first album of Nonsense Box songs on iTunes! Nonsense Box is a very silly collection of very silly skits involving puppets, animation, goofy dialogue and songs intended for kids and silly adults of all ages. (Think Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but for a younger audience.) Practically everyone...
Our Slangman’s World page at gpbkids.org has just launched! You can: Play our awesome new game, Gizma’s Robot Builder, in which you build a robot while learning the names of body parts in various languages! Watch all ten of our fun, music-filled Slangman’s World episodes! And yes, this gives you an opportunity to see my entire voice acting oeuvre. Don’t forget to watch...
As I may have mentioned, our all-new episodes of Slangman’s World have been airing on Georgia Public Broadcasting (the 3rd largest PBS affiliate in the US) since October 5th. But now, for the first time, you can see three of the 90-second episodes on our Slangman’s World website! (Just click on the “Videos” icon. Flash required.) Aside from enjoying some awesome animation...
The Veritas Studios website has gone live, although we still have some work to do on it. Take a look and feel free to give me your feedback. We’re already aware that the color combination makes it a little hard to read. More important, we’ve launched our Veritas Studios blog! (That links to the first post, but there are several more.) Bookmark, add us to your readers, and feel free to...
As some of you know, I have recently landed a voice acting part on one of my studio’s animated shows. I’m proud of myself for trying out in the first place, and frankly astonished that I got the part. (And even more astonished that they seem to be serious about me keeping it.) Today was my first official recording session. Up until now, I’d never done any acting (unless you...
I’m famous!
Well, okay. Not really. But I am on IMDB — Jenn Reese!
*dance dance dance*
Please share in my silly joy!
Geek legend Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple, aka “The Woz”) visited our studio for a few hours today! Alas, I’ll be keeping most of the details to myself, but I will dwell on this: He and his (awesome) assistant brought two Segways! I have always wanted to ride a Segway, ever since I eagerly awaited the unveiling of the “invention that would change the world” back...
As many of you know, I’ve been working on a TV show called Slangman’s World since February. The show stars my buddy David Burke, and introduces young kids to foreign languages and cultures. Basically, we want the world to be a better place, and we think cultural awareness and understanding is the place to start. Check these out: Slangman’s World temporary website with Episode 1...
The production studio where I work has a beautiful new logo. You can see it here, on the Veritas Studios website.
Just wait until you see it with the animation and music… Blows me away every time.
A few weeks ago, I took some pictures of my office. Not my home office (which is the sofa and my laptop), but my work office. Here’s my desk: Working with other geeks has had some bad side-effects. Notably, the fact that we all have display areas near our desks. While I was looking for some inexpensive geekery to fill mine out, I fell in love with these animated-style Star Wars statues. I...
From Wired, “Solo Animator’s ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ Makes Tribeca Film Festival.” They say: Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues…tells two parallel stories: the ancient Hindu epic the Ramayana and the breakup of Paley’s 21st-century marriage. It does so through four distinct styles of animation, a “greek chorus” of Indonesian shadow puppets...
Not much of a surprise, I suspect, but I’ve been crazy busy the last few weeks. The day job (and can I still call it “day” job when I’m there into the night?) soaks up most of my available hours. In the scraps that remain, I try to write, hit kung fu class, say hi to Chris and Cairo, and take care of miscellaneous life stuff. Haven’t been so good about that last one...
Today my job took me to the mall, where I went hunting for costumes for two of our upcoming shoots. Some interesting rules I have to follow: 1. No whites! White stuff glows supernaturally bright against the green screen and totally messes up the white balance of the cameras. This rule is a pain, however, since the picture I’m using for the costume involves a white shirt and white socks...
Saturday night, my new company hosted a screening party for our new animated short, “Pronto!” Although I joined the Slangman team after the song itself had been recorded, I did get to see the process develop from script to storyboard to shoot to animatic to finished animation. You wouldn’t believe the amount of work that goes into something like this, and the amount of heart. I...
[EDIT: “Maison” is no longer available on YouTube. We’ll repost it after some changes.] The only thing that could tempt me back into a full-time job was the opportunity to work with my buddy Slangman again, which I’ve been happily doing for the last few weeks. Back after the dot com bubble burst, I worked with Slangman and my brother Jason for a few years. We operated out...