Hello! It is me, Jocelyn!
I had to shift the Tuesday publish week to Wednesday since I have academic obligations! Summer courses, to be damned! Just kidding, do your work, people! I do need my degree.
Anyway, enough of my theatrics; I want to discuss quality indie animation and its studios.
So you might be asking, How do I break into the indie industry if I want to produce one?
Good question: it's OK to have ideas, write down the concepts and ideas, and play around with them.
But the question that you should be asking yourself is:
Do I have time and expense?
To hire the team or do it yourself?
Is it a pilot, an entire season, etc?
Is it organized?
Voice actors?
Unpaid or paid?
Etc.
That's just a few questions, but when I started my indie show, I had little experience as a storyboard artist (I made stick figures for my film class in my first year)
Then I eventually realized that I wasn't even ready to join an indie production! So I applied for some jobs that allowed me as a university student to learn some software with the assistance of my professors and faculty. I managed to find one affiliated with my university and learned how to do Final Cut software. I learned how to do social media marketing; I was now aware of how consuming the post-production work entailed.
With COVID-19 and one year of working for them, I stopped working. Resigned, even. I looked at my old theatre class script and said, "Hm, I can do something with this."
There, Corrupted Memories started.
You have to learn how to do social media marketing, as well. It's a sad truth, but artists need to know how to market themselves, as one artist I have followed for a long time. If you want to pay, you must learn how to appeal to your audience. That's why we have to strategize our Kickstarters, Ko-Fi, Patreon, IndieGoGo, etc.
It's partly business because if you do hire the team, you have to learn how to stand firm to your ideas, besides it's something you have to act as their boss to make sure everything is done. No studio will complete anything without keeping them focused and having a healthy work culture.
Quality animation is complicated, and if you can't show the audience that you have what they want. Things will dwindle.
I have seen some mutuals of mine struggle. They try to learn how to balance the artist in them and the business in them. They have to make art to appeal to their show. You have seen successful Kickstarters for Lackadasiy, The Lovers, Boxtown, etc. They have to make art, lure viewers with the voice actors' announcement, or some sneak preview on Patreon, etc. They even do the merch if they even could in Kickstarter rewards. That's how you do quality marketing.
It's hard to do when starting, but it will take time, expenses, and other things you might encounter as the creator.
If it feels like too much work, do you want to make art for yourself or for everyone to see? That's the question that you should be asking before making a show.
Today, I will share the fantastic long interview with Pan-tatstique since it will take up most of the blog!
If you want an interview like this today, please DO email me or Twitter DM me. I am always happy to make something like this happen for you!
Swift Spark and The Defense Five: Pan-tastique
I had the incredible honor of talking with Pan about this fantastic show.
Swift Spark and The Defense Five follows a young teenager named James Riverdale, who turns out to be a superhero, taking up his father's secret identity to solve his mysterious disappearance. Protecting the city with his friends, he has to learn how to balance his life as a regular teen and the responsibility of being a superhero.
The characters in this show are Swift Spark (James), Occulta, Ebony Assassin, Phantom, and Blindeye, among many others.
The characters are lovably designed with much care and effort. They have all its personality, and Pan has shown us his journey on this pilot.
I think it's a pretty strong premise! A superhero who takes after his father, having to learn how to balance his life. I'm sure that we might see James' hijinks.
Do you have your superhero fix in indie animation? Here you have it!
During the interview, I asked a series of questions to Pan, and he shared some answers with us.
Pan arrived in the indie industry with the help of Frederator Network. He started his animation with the viral Youtube video, which stands in almost 3 million views today, but he doesn't like the said video or its subject matter. That video got him 1k subscribers and was in the Fredrator's sight. His former partner manager became his friend when they both worked to get Pan's growing channel to pivot away from that video that attracted his initial audience. Pan says that he is no longer associated with that fandom.
Around that time, he started developing Swift Spark as the animated IP. But sadly, it didn't work out as he wanted for a while, as his subscriber count dropped after attaining 12k. He says that he wants to be careful about the trend again.
He took his fellow manager's advice and started to dip into the water of the communities and eventually stumbled into the indie animation community, and things took off from there.
Pan came up with the name when he was 15 and wanted to use "five." Initially, it was called "The Fierce Five" without Swift Spark being a titular name. The idea was James' power was electricity based, like Electro from Spider-man hence "Swift Spark."
While writing the script, Pan kept The Amazing Spider-man movies on his mind often. Eventually, the electricity power idea was scrapped, but it kept the name and played around with the concept of the powers on another character.
For some reason, the "Fierce" ended up being "Defense" as he fleshed out the story. A reason? None, Pan said that it had a better ring to it.
I asked how the idea came about and how it started, and Pan answered that it depends on where it started. He came up with the idea of the superhero AU (alternative universe) for his OC (original characters) in early 2016. It was initially a tiny connection to an utterly different superhero story with a girl-trio he wanted to write long ago. Still, various circumstances led to another, and by the summer, he discarded that idea. It started in 2016 with the webcomic, but he didn't entertain the animated series idea until 2019.
It took him 6 years to produce the comic, and he started technically writing the pilot episode in January 2020 and made the animated teaser that same year. However, the script and teaser were remade and scrapped. He worked on his animation skills for a few years, made a newly updated teaser in early 2022, and started working on a whole episode in October 2022. He expects the full 22 minutes pilot to be finished in October later this year. So the animated aspect took him a year.
I asked how he felt confident about his show having an audience, and he admitted that he had not always felt that way. The initial reception to the pivoting attention to Swift Spark was very negative, and DeviantART was dying in the late 2010s. The interest was waning, then it took some time for the comic to take off, but after stumbling into the indie animation community, the enthusiasm has grown a lot, and he's sure there's now an audience for this show.
I asked how he felt about starting this idea and having people to be on board for this project. He replied that as far the animation goes, he's the only person wearing many hats, such as an artist, animator, and writer. It wasn't an issue. His project was paid for from the start, which meant he had various choices for voice talents and composers. He had some visuals to appeal to the audience, so feeling lucky and grateful for everyone who had applied for his show. He had his share of the handful of people to offer their service unpromoted, and he felt honored to have that. Embarrassed to admit it, he told me that he wanted to choose two specific voice actors. One is in talks currently, and Vincent Martella.
There's the story for that! He spent a year trying to get Vincent Martella's attention on this project, and the tweet that got him to reply was the final one before Pan gave up the quest to recruit him.
From that, he learned that it was very simple to contact someone's agent if you wanted to get hold of someone. Pan shared that it was fantastic to have Vincent on his team. Vincent and his agent are super kind and patient with him, especially since Pan is a newbie in a production like this. Vincent's enthusiasm for the pilot pleasantly surprised Pan, who is grateful for such a kind voice actor.
Pan joked, "If you get Phineas involved, you know Ferb's not far behind" Ferb's voice actor, David, contacted Pan, saying he wanted to audition after the final casting call. It took a lot of perseverance, but glad he didn't back down on his quest. It has been a humbling experience for Pan, and all he can say right now is that he hopes he will do it again.
His childhood inspires the themes of this show. Looking back on his childhood, with what he has watched as a kid, he found LGBTQ themes remarkably lacking in the cartoons in the late 90s to 2000s. He would like to see Swift Spark as that cartoon from that era, with the mindset of modern today. Mental health is one of the essential themes he wanted to touch on. Navigating the world as someone who is neurodivergent will be in central theme in some episodes. James has ADHD, and Antonino is autistic, like Pan. Episodes dealing with those topics will be written from personal experience.
He lacked content that he couldn't put himself as a kid; that doesn't mean he didn't have any show to obsess over, but it just wasn't him. Until Phineas and Ferb came along, the hyperactive kid with big dreams, loads of optimism, and his quiet "older" brother struck the cord with him. It reminds him of himself and his older brother. (Pan tells me that he found out that Phineas is an older brother, which added to my shock because my brother watches it, and I thought Ferb was the oldest, but oh well, thanks for that fun tidbit!)
Phineas and Ferb are from when LGBT rep in children's media was strictly forbidden. (Oh, I know, thanks, S&P in Disney TVA, thanks a lot)
The chance of getting any of it was nearly slim to zero. The experience has driven him to create characters that he knows his younger self would have resonated with and pick the storylines and themes he found lacking in the cartoons - even today.
There's the forgotten category that Pan says, that is "teens." Teenagers don't have shows that cater to them, and Pan hopes that indie animation will change that. In the industry, Y-11 or below and 16+ get animated content. The slightly older kids between childhood and adulthood are forced to watch along either target age range. Swift Spark aims precisely that.
I asked if he had plans for this show, especially in the future. Pan says he has some pitches waiting for a reply, but that's been on hold since the WGA strike started. He had submitted the pitches in late April, just before the strike started, so no new shows can be optioned from the struck companies, meaning the studios are holding off the development right now. As they should- WGA deserves a fair deal.
As a new creator, he doesn't want to make any illusion that the pitch will be enough; he wants to finish the pilot and make more plans to make more episodes eventually and independently. Wanting to hire the team to make the process smoother, he couldn't do so right now as his financial level for this show isn't where he wants it to be.
He has big plans, and the voice actor he discussed earlier is a prominent and beloved Youtuber who is releasing his first feature film later this year.....maybe you heard of him?! [gasp]
He has enough financial resources to make an episode, but he wanted to prevent his burnout, as the current production means 6 months of non-stop animating for almost a year. The first half of the episode won't be released until 2024, and the second half will be in mid-2025. That can change if his financial backing grows.
He keeps a list of people he wants to work with in the future.
Since the idea's inception, it took Pan 7 years and 5.5 months to produce the project. But most of the animated progress was made in the past 8 months.
Pan shares that the indie community had been a blast being part of the community, but he quickly learned that every community has its dark side, and not everyone is as friendly as they appear. Most indie creators like him have been incredibly kind, and it's an actual group effort in which everyone wants to see others succeed.
Bad apples are quick to be put in their place, and before finding this community, Pan says, he felt a little alone as he thought he was standing at the bottom of the tall corporate ladder and the next sport to get on the industry was too far above his head to reach. But the people in the indie community had helped him reach it, and he now wants to help others get there.
He says, "...and we'll all climb to the next one together."
Pan wants to share the advice for all of you:
Any advice for indie creators who are just starting?
Try not to compare yourself to what others are doing too much - you don't know what they have going on behind the scenes, and their situation and resources may differ from those available. Don't be too self-conscious that you might not "match" the level of the work that inspires you - instead, watch them, follow them, and try to learn from what they're doing.
They didn't get where they are overnight, and neither will you. It takes time and hard work you'll have to be willing to put in. Don't push into a big production when it's your first time. Make something small; teach yourself how to animate if you don't know how. A short story, a short comic, a 30-second animation - start small, and build from there. Do not see other indie creators as competition but as friends and potential mentors.
[Edited for clarity]
Pan is from the Netherlands, so I will end it by thanking him in Dutch.
Dankjewel! [ Thank you very much ]
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