Ottawa International Animation Festival Podcast

Creator, animator and executive producer, Butch Hartman shared his do's and don’ts of animation and comedy writing. Familiar with major studios, he offered insights into creating a successful pitch and how to get it noticed. Hartman is best known for creating The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom and T.U.F.F. Puppy, as well voicing various characters on Family Guy and taking on various roles on Johnny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls and many other successful animated projects. Recorded as part of the OIAF's Professional Development Day on September 22, 2012 at the National Arts Centre Studio.

Alan Gregg, Athena Georgaklis, Joan Lambur, and Gavin Friesen explore the development of the Teletoon At Night Pilot Project, while also discussing the business aspects of show creation and the future of web television. Teletoon also presents the winning films from the Pilot Project with their awards. Recoroded at TAC on September 21, 2011 in Ottawa's Fairmont Chateau Laurier.

Moderator Ben Joseph seeks to clarify the process of giving and receiving screenwriting notes in animation, with the help of industry veterans Jennifer McCauley, Phil McCordic, and Lienne Sawatsky. Recorded at TAC 2011 in Ottawa's Fairmont Chateau Laurier.

"We R Robotz" was created in the middle of the insane tumult of the Ottawa International Animation Festival 2009. Each year animator Gary Schwartz brings his Guerillamation production on-location at the festival to produce a short animated appetizer. This year's treat is a short stop-motion robotic interlude. No robots were harmed in the making of this film.Director:Gary SchwartzSINGLE FRAME FILMSSound DesignSANDWICHSEAT.COM

Josh Selig (Founder and President of Little Airplane Productions) presents the first day's keynote address at the 2009 Television Animation Conference.

Josh Selig was born in New York City in 1964 on Manhattan's Upper West Side. As a preschooler, Josh was a child-actor on Sesame Street during the show's first two seasons. In the early 70's, Josh, along with his mother and brother, moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico for a year before returning to the U.S. and moving to the town of Woods Hole on Cape Cod. Josh returned to New York as a teenager and attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York where he studied poetry and theatre and became a juggler, unicyclist and fire-eater. After college, Josh worked briefly as a street performer and Circus Arts Instructor before returning to Sesame Street at age twenty-four as a writer. While at Sesame Street Josh became a filmmaker for the series and began working as a Producer for Sesame Street International. He won ten Emmy Awards as a member of the Sesame Street writing team and was the Resident Producer of the historic Israeli-Palestinian co-production of Sesame Street (winner of The Japan Prize, 1998).

Josh founded Little Airplane Productions, Inc. in 1999 with the simple goal of creating the most innovative preschool television programmingin the world. Josh was the Creator and Executive Producer of Oobi! on Noggin (winner of a 2001 Gold Parents’ Choice Award). Josh was also the Creator and Executive Producer of Go, Baby! for Playhouse Disney.

Josh is currently Executive Producer of The Wonder Pets! the critically acclaimed series he created for Nick Jr. The Wonder Pets! has been airing on Nick Jr. since 2006. Josh is also the Creator and Executive Producer of the new series 3rd & Bird, a co-production of Little Airplane Productions and the BBC. The show premieres on CBeebies in 2008.

Josh's short film, The Time-Out Chair, was included in the Tribeca Film Festival in 2003, and has since been acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Seth Green and Matt Senreich of Stoopid Monkey (Robot Chicken) present the keynote address at the 2008 Television Animation Conference.

Seth Green is co-creator, executive producer, writer, director, and main voice talent for the Emmy-nominated Robot Chicken series, now wrapping up their third season on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Green directed George Lucas in the Robot Chicken: Star Wars special last year and the stop-motion animated show was the #1 TV DVD upon release. Green has starred in films starting with Hotel New Hampshire and his acting credits include stints as Scott Evil in all three Austin Powers films, The Italian Job, Party Monster, Without a Paddle, Can't Hardly Wait and dozens more, including Disney's upcoming Old Dogs with Robin Williams and John Travolta, and Sex Drive released this fall. He's been voicing Chris Griffin on Fox's hit Family Guy since the animated show's debut 10 years ago.

Matthew Senreich is the co-creator, director, producer and writer of the TV series Robot Chicken.

Matt began his entertainment career in 1991 at the early age of 16, when he worked as a summer intern for Marvel Comics. Throughout his attendance at Wesleyan University, Matt arranged other internships within the comic book community, like Defiant Comics, Broadway Comics and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, where he gained more personal hands-on experience. Finalizing his string of internships, Matt returned to Marvel Comics in December 1995.

Upon graduating college in 1996, Matt secured a job as an editorial assistant at the New York-based Wizard Entertainment. After two years with Wizard Entertainment, Matt rose through the ranks and became editor of ToyFare. One year later, he was promoted to editorial director of all Wizard Entertainment publications.

Matt soon met up with actor Seth Green, who was a fan of Wizard's magazines. This new found partnership between Matt and Seth spawned the creation of a series of stop motion animated shorts entitled Sweet J Presents for Sony's Screenblast.com in 2000 and 2001. Based upon these 'webisodes', Cartoon Network's Adult Swim committed to 20 episodes of Robot Chicken. Green and Senreich, through their production company Stoopid Monkey, have produced three seasons of the show and are also producing an upcoming stop-motion animated holiday movie titled Naughty or Nice and a live-action film as well.

The official video trailer for the 2009 edition of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Edited by Matt Rosen. Enjoy!

Starting off discussions for 2008 is a panel that deals with responsible television animation for children, exploring topics in child development, gender representation and violence. The goal of this panel is to give the TAC audience access to information that will give them the tools and knowledge to better the landscape of media for children now and for future generations.

Speakers: Jonathan Freedman, Professor, University of Toronto; Beth Stevenson, Partner, Executive Producer, Decode Entertainment; Cathy Wing, Co-Executive Director, Media Awareness Network; Moderated by: Linda Simensky, Vice President, Children’s Programming, PBS.

The 2008 Signal Film, created by Fake Studio and directed by Ian Lagarde, was made as two versions. One was shown during Competition, Showcase, and any adult-themed screenings, and another version that was less, ahem... explicit for family-friendly audiences. Enjoy!

Japan is a market that has been self-sufficient for years, but many Japanese producers there are seeing the need to enter the global market. This panel examined ways that Japanese producers can work with their North American counterparts. What business models already exist? How have North American producers been working and getting around the system? What is a road map for the small to mid level companies working together? Is it even possible?

Speakers: Eric Calderon, CEO/Concept Creator/Script Writer, Wild Boar Media; Doug Murphy, President, EVP and GM of Corus Kids, Nelvana Ltd.; Shuzo John Shiota, President & CEO, Polygon Pictures; Moderated By: Anthony Jiwa, Director of Marketing, Studio B Productions