Don't Tell My Wife About the Blog - Official Blog of Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader

Homework!

2011-09-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

Now that we have a full episode behind us, we are now looking onward, not upward, forward, not onward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling to the future of "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader."

Getting honest reactions out of people has been relatively easy. We've heard responses from "Why isn't this on Adult Swim already?" to "It's not my type of humor, but I can see how it's viable to certain audiences." Some feedback was more specific: that it needed a B story, that the scenes were almost too long, that the dialogue was too verbose, that there weren't enough jokes packed into the episode.

It's interesting to us that nobody noticed (or cared to mention) that Floyd's mole switched places, that his neck changed height between scenes, that the shadows for the characters flipped though the sun did not change positions, etc. More proof that when it comes to adult oriented cartoons, people are judging us by the content rather than the vehicle.

I wanted to paint a landscape of what went on behind the scenes to bring Floyd and friends to fruition. I'm doing this in part so people can see the amount of work that went into this pilot, but also for ourselves so we'll know how to evolve things in the right direction: more hominids, less protozoa.

One must realize that the writing, drawing, storyboarding, animating, and marketing was essentially accomplished by two people working on this in their spare time. We had a few friends give us valuable input, and certainly Mark Menza put his heart and soul into the sound and score. These two individuals never created an animation before 'Cult Leader' and never wrote anything for the small screen either. Besides Matt and his drawing skills, all things needed to be learned to create the pilot were done in real time.

Also, since we were two guys working on this project in our spare time, you can safely infer that we had no financial backing, nor did we have the better part of each weekday to devote our art. We would have loved to have a team of storyboard artists, character designers, writers, animation supervisors, editors, and dozens of others to make the pilot episode of "Cult Leader" as good as something out of the Golden Age of the Simpsons, but alas, we was just two.

For instance, the writing. Normally you have a team of writers who will take a script written by one guy, and they pour over it/beat it out/edit, and insert as many jokes (verbal and otherwise) to make the show as funny, concise, and smart as possible. One friend remarked, "During the Q&A, you two were so funny that I'm surprised your pilot wasn't at least equally hilarious." I thought the same thing and I realized why the pilot wasn't just chock full of jokes...

When Matt and I did our Q&A, we were just being ourselves, and we're damn funny when we're together. Now imagine if I had to write all of Matt's lines for him. Would it have been as funny? Would I have been able to write in all the nuances, the timing, the nonverbal gestures and facial expressions? Now imagine if it weren't just one person but 8 people and that these people weren't real, but fictional, and I had to create these fictional characters from the ground up. Then I had to put these fully formed fictional beings into a fictional universe where they react to fictional events that follow a logical sequence and have a logical plot that is true to the premise of what we created. Then imagine if we had to write jokes within the confines that I described and you can quickly see how joke writing is harder than it seems when it comes to a brand spanking new concept. I would wager that it might be slightly easier for Matt and I to write jokes for an established cartoon like "American Dad" or "King of the Hill" just because those characters are fully formed and there's less guesswork to how they'd react to any given situation.

Pacing, scene changes, dialogue... I am currently doing a "homework" assignment where I've taken a transcript of an American Dad episode and I'm marking where in the script the scene changes, the point of view changes, where jokes are made (visual or verbal), and getting a count of how many lines there are for each character and marking what scene is the A story and which scene is a B story. So far, the episode I'm watching is not even half over and it has about 3 times as many scene changes as our pilot. One of the reasons we cut down on the number of scene changes is that for each scene, you need a new background, you have to place the animated characters into each scene, size them up, space them out, and spend many hours just getting that first camera angle right. In 'Cult Leader', we have three settings, though we had two different time periods for two different scenes, so if you were liberal with the number of settings, it goes all the way up to five separate backdrops.

During the first 7 minutes, we were clever in having flashbacks, flash forwards and a lot cutting back and forth, and we feel that worked well, but it took a lot more time to set that up than to have just the two camera angles we did for the bookstore. Our bookstore scene was the longest, about five minutes, and I felt that if I were to do one scene over again, it would be that one. Also, it would have been helpful to have an editor, but again, budget and time were a factor.

Our goal along has always been to produce a 'proof of concept', and I believe wholeheartedly we did so. Our next goal is to get one network to embrace the concept and let us run with it. We're open to your ideas.

OH! And we'll see ya at the Angelika Theater on Friday, September 23rd at 10pm. Thank you VidFest for the opportunity.

For Floyd,

Todd

Timeline for the Cartoon

2011-08-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

Lots of people ask, "How long have you been working on this thing." Part of me wants to lie about the age of a show just like a woman lies about being 39, but the show has been 'in development' for six years, but the bulk of the animation has been done within the past 12 months. Here is the complete time line for those of you interested in the minutia.

2 BCE: Todd Steinberg posed the question to himself, "Wouldn't it be funny if there was a cult so secret that even the wife of the leader didn't know he was in a cult?"

1 BCE: Todd came up with the name, "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader" during a conversation with a couple of friends. Everyone laughed.

1 CE / 2005: Todd wrote treatment for "Cult Leader" late at night during the summer of 2005.

Early part of 2006: Todd wrote the first draft for the pilot of "Cult Leader"

Summer of 2006: Todd meets voice actor Kevin C. Carr during an excursion to Salado, Texas.

Summer of 2006: Todd entered "Cult Leader" as a 60-second pitch for the New York City Television Festival. Todd flew up to NYC with Andy Hogue and Peter Bandy as a finalist. It was here where Todd finally decided to entertain the idea of turning "Cult Leader" into a cartoon at the behest of Peter and a judge at the pitch contest.

Spring of 2007: Todd commissions logo for "Cult Leader" that is still in use today.

Spring of 2007: During a panel discussion with Todd Wagner, Todd Steinberg decides that a treatment/concept is not enough; "Cult Leader" needs a pilot.

Summer of 2007: Todd meets Robert Wilson, father of actor Rainn Wilson, during an excursion in Haifa, Israel. Todd gives a copy of the treatment to Robert, who in turns gives it to Rainn. This is the beginning of Todd and Rainn's friendship.

Summer of 2007: At the behest of Peter Bandy (he thinks) Todd contacts old mutual friend, Matt Rox, to see if he'd be interested in creating art for the cartoon.

Fall of 2007: Matt creates visuals and characters for "Cult Leader", a creative partnership begins.

2008: Cartoon turns into a cocoon, begins a metamorphosis that lasts for a good 18 months... lots of artwork generated, concepts fleshed out, and ideas nixed.

Summer of 2008: Todd reconnects with junior high classmate, Jayna Wallach, who will go on to become the voice from all the female voices.

December 2008: First recording session for dialogue begins at Menza Music, takes a day and a half.

May 2009: Website launches, first teaser trailer produced. Everyone gives each other high fives.

December of 2009: First minute of cartoon is created and put onto YouTube. Hundreds of people view the clip within a matter of months.

First half of 2010: "Cult Leader" is storyboarded extensively by Todd and Matt.

Summer of 2010: Todd meets co-creator of "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius", Keith Alcorn, and he advises Todd to make extensive changes to core concepts of the show.

September of 2010: Todd purchases ToonBoom Harmony, which is the premiere 2-D animation software on the market.

Fall/Winter of 2010: Todd rewrites pilot along with input from Matt, shortening the pilot extensively, cutting down the number of scenes and characters. Todd figures that he saved approximately 1 zillion hours of production time from this rewrite alone.

February 2011: Todd records lines of dialogue for the rewritten portion of the script.

April of 2011: Todd and Matt decide that the pilot will launch in September 2011, come hell or high water.

May of 2011: Todd books the Kessler Theater for September 3rd, puts his money where his mouth is.

Summer of 2011: Todd, Matt, and sound/music man Mark Menza work their hinies off to get the production finished by September 3rd. Promotion begins extensively.

September 3rd, 2011: World Premiere of "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader" at the Kessler.

September 23rd, 2011: "Cult Leader" plays as an official selection at the Dallas Video Festival.

For Floyd,

Todd

Meet the Musicians - Andy Sperandeo and Gray, the New Black

2011-08-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yo! Music fans, do people still start off sentences with 'yo'? Hey, and what's a biotch? Is that short for biotech? Well, these musicians are much cooler than me. By the way, I'm no musician; I just play the drums. Let's hear from Andy first...

CultLeader: So you wrote and performed the theme song for "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader." This was your first time arranging a theme song. Care to tell us how that went down?

Andy Sperandeo: This is my first theme song, but I've been writing and arranging for many years now. This project basically developed from the example Mr. Todd-0 Steinberg gave me. I tried to capture the sound he wanted for his show. I began w/ the progression on acoustic guitar, I then started layering most everything else (drums, bass, percussion, sitar, b-3 organ and other midi patches) and finally the electric guitar melodies and such.

CL: Why don't you like the song, "I Just Called to Say I Loved You" by Stevie Wonder? It's totally like my favorite tune by him.

AS: I love Stevie. In fact, in several groups I've played in, we've covered this song as well as Sir Duke, Superstition, I Wish, Overjoyed, You and I, Ribbon in the sky, Boogie on Reggae Woman, Lately, My Cherie Amour, As, Isn't She Lovely and Higher Ground. Honestly, I just called...., doesn't do it for me as much. Sorry!!

CL: Besides writing theme song for 'Cult Leader' what's been your greatest artistic achievement?

AS: What could be better than working w/ the great, late Dr. Todd meister Steinbrenner? Oh, he's still alive? still...... Well, i guess having the honor to arrange "A Shifting Design" (Kurt Rosenwinkle) that was performed by the University of North Texas's One o'Clock lab band and Kurt Rosenwinkle himself earlier this year. It's also been great writing and arranging Vahid Ndobe's, Zetti Carnell's and Kat Key's stuff.

CL: Do you think those hot pink v-shaped guitars will ever make a comeback?

AS: Did they ever leave? Man, I have to get in touch w/ the times. so....let me get this straight, people don't have cassette players anymore instead they use these little credit card looking thingies? Anyone want to but my Huey Lewis and the news Sports and Judas Priest Turbo Lover cassettes from me?

CL: You teach music, have you ever had to tell one of your students, "Kid, you just don't got it."

AS: No, I'm much more subtle than that. I smack 'em across the face and say No No No GET OUT OR I KILL YOU!!!!!

CL: It's a known fact you went to the greatest jazz studies program at the greatest university in the world, the University of North Texas, in fact you liked it so much you went back to get your masters. Tell us what you're learnin' and stuff this time around.

AS: We're doing an in depth study of all the greatest children's show theme songs over the last 50 years and how they changed the direction of our society. One of the most involved and complex being, "I Love You, You Love Me..." from Barney. It's mind bender I tell you.

CL: Thanks Andy, best of luck to you. I know Barney touched my heart as much as he did yours. Let's get with Mike, the songwriter, singer and guitarist of Gray, the New Black.

CL: You say you're a band whose sound is hard to define. Tell us who you are using a mathematical formula.

Gray, the New Black:

CL: What's the best advice you could give a 12 year old who wants to learn guitar so he can be a rock star?

GtnB: Your hands are going to get calloused one way or another.

CL: Why Gray, the New Black, why not a name that's something a little more colorful?

GtnB: We all participated in a government experiment in 1992 whereby we were exposed to extremely high levels of a yet undisclosed isotope of Argon, granting us superhuman musical powers, but also rendering us colorblind. Black is, however, the combination of all colors - so in a sense, we couldn’t be any more colorful.

CL: Any chance we'll hear a theremin solo at the 9/3 premiere of Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader?

GtnB: I just sold my Theremin on Craigslist London to some guy named Jimmy Page - maybe you've heard of him.

CL: Who are you opening for, one year from now, if you had your druthers?

GtnB: Wye Oak

You used prime numbers to promote your band on Facebook, that pretty much makes you a nerd band in my book. Here's your chance to redeem yourself. What kind of person is interested in your music?

01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 01101111 01101110 01100101 00001101 00001010

Well thank you Andy Sperandeo, who will be performing from 7pm to 8 in the reception area, and Mike from Gray, the New Black, who will be performing on the main stage after the screening. See you on September 3rd at the Kessler!

For Floyd,

Todd

Meet the Cast!

2011-08-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

Meet Kevin C. Carr and Jayna Wallach!

Between this chap and chappette, no less than six voices are given by them for 'Cult Leader', it is. Also, the last sentence was written convoluted on purpose. Let's hope the rest of the interview doesn't read like Yoda's dialogue lines.

First up to bat... Kevin C. Carr, the voice of Floyd, Max, Rawly and more!

Cult Leader: It says on your resume you were a clown. Any proof?

Kevin C. Carr: Proof that I'm a professional clown? Hmmmmm. Ok. I have my Bachelor of 'Fun' Arts degree from Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Clown College hanging in my office. I also have a high tolerance for physical pain. (ie. I've had my skull smashed in with a hand saw over 600 or so times and I have yet to receive any brain damage. That I'm aware of, that is.)

CL: We met at the Stagecoach Inn in Salado, Texas, five years ago this summer. And now you're coming up for the premiere of a cartoon which was at the time pretty much just an idea up in my head. What's up with that?

KCC: Weirder things have happened to me, dude! I've been pissed on by a Bengal Tiger, lit my skull ablaze breathing fire and been kicked in the balls by a muscle bound, Mexican dwarf (whoops, little person, I mean) named Arturo. And I'm still here and not institutionlized yet. All this being said and endured I still can't figure out how The Jersey Shore's Situation is still making money. And alot of it! WTF!? This awesome little cartoon and it's premiere is a sweet & nice reprieve from the insanity of my everyday life.

CL: What can comedians, writers, funnymen, etc., learn from Vaudeville?

KCC: Vaudeville can & will teach you that being a starving artist sucks! And that being successful in this business is inevitable if you're just a bit pixelated up there in that creative gray marble known as your own personal universe. Vaudeville rocks! And it's definitely NOT dead!

CL: An 18 year old comes up to you and asks you if he should become a clown or not, what advice do you give him?

KCC: Do it!! But be prepared to be hated, loved, feared, adored, spit on and worshipped all at the same time! It's a roller coaster ride of hysterically awesome yet terrifyingly cathartic, at times, proportions. And that's only if you're doing it right. Do it! It's worth it.

CL: What's the best advice you ever received regarding showbusiness?

KCC: The best advice I ever received was that it's a biz, first and foremost. And that without that strong sense of biz savvy ingrained in your brain you are nothing more than a humbled hobbyist.

CL: You play a cult leader on TV. In your personal life, would you say you're more of a leader, follower, or joiner?

KCC: I'm none of the above. I'm a gypsy-geek-goofy goon. I'm not of this world, but definitely a huge proponent of it. I'm not into stifling social castes. As long as I can still have my cheese and rub it on my armpits when I please, I'll be a happy man.

CL: Thanks Kevin, let's hear what your 'wife' and 'cult follower' has to say... Jayna, looks like you've been a freelance voice actress, model, graphic designer and such, but have you ever thought about getting a real job? What's the appeal of avoiding the misery of a 9-5 / 40+ hour a week job that so many of us cherish?

Jayna Wallach: Um, yeah. Last time I had one of those I picked up my caffeine addiction and realized why they give you those health benefits - you start to need them. I come from a long line of be-your-own-bosses. Gotta follow wherever your gene pool will lead you. I'm not a model, by the way. I'm short and I try to eat every day.

Chillin at the Studio: MC Jazzy Jayna and Gordan Freeman

CL: We've known each other since junior high and in high school you were a cheerleader. Would I have made a good cheerleader? Be brutally honest with your answer.

JW: You would've been better than I was. All I wanted to do was change around the words of the cheers. At one point, I made them all about milk and calcium. "Go Milk! Moo!" I was probably high on hairspray. My big hair made me do it. I'm sure you would've been a much more faithful and obedient servant of all-that-is-cheery. Whereas I used that time to perfect my scowl.

CL: As a Yale graduate, we know that you were most likely involved in either Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, Berzelius, Book and Snake, the Wolf's Head, or any number of secret societies that is headquartered at Yale. Since your totalitarianism agenda of corralling the earth's population into a global plantation is inevitable, please tell us what nefarious machinations and skulduggery we have to look forward to in 2012.

JW: But then I'd have to kill you, and that's a lot of work. *yawn* P.S. You forgot to mention the really good secret societies, the ones that are so secret, you can't find them on any ole internet search engine. Those were the funnest. I'm not so good about keeping my secrets, though. The "really good really secret secret society" threw me out after I went blabbing all over campus how I had beaten Dubya Bush in a heated bout of thumb war. He may have taken over the country, but my thumbs still rule over his.

CL: Besides voicing all three female roles in 'Cult Leader', which by all accounts will be your seminal/groundbreaking/magnum opus role, tell us your favorite all time voice actressing experience?

JW: I am "THE voice of Michigan Bingo" - meaning, you can go into any bingo parlor in Michigan and supposedly hear my voice calling out the numbers. But I also really enjoyed screaming a large variety of karate grunt noises into a microphone, as a Japanese character named "Hung Long", for a Sega video game.

CL: I realize I'm referring to you as a voice actress. Is that sexist? Do you prefer the term female voice actor?

JW: On my business cards, I refer to myself as "Voice for Hire" which is gender-neutral, just like me.

CL: You're gender-neutral? Oh, I totally have to introduce you to my earthworm... We both like Andy Warhol, but what do you tell people when they say, "Why do you even like him?" For me, I say, "He had me with his pink banana," but how would Jayna Wallach answer that question?

JW: Warhol was monotony on two legs - a deeply superficial person who made pointless things no one needed. He wore awful wigs. He would only eat candy. I'm sure he couldn't sing. That face could make you kill a puppy. Those paintings, of soup cans? Whatever. I only really like him because I saw him guest star on an episode of The Love Boat when I was a kid. Oh how I want to live inside an episode of The Love Boat, where everything is eternally exciting and new...

More interviews to come!

For Floyd,

Todd

Meet the Artists - Matt Rox & Deanna Molinaro

2011-08-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here's round two of the phalanx full of artists that will be strutting their stuff on 9/3. First round of interview questions go to Matt Rox!

CultLeader: Matt, I've known you since since 2nd grade, when you'd sneak in copies of TMNT and Maus to read while class was in session. Not much has changed, has it?

Matt Rox: Actually, a few things have. I'm no longer in 2nd grade, for one. Also, your memory has gotten worse because I have never read Maus, I was sneaking in copies of Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants. Maybe you were confusing the WWII animal-based autobiography with the spandex-clad mutants of fantasy. It's a common mistake.

CL: In Goodfellas, Henry Hill said, "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." Did you always know you were going to end up drawing for a career?

MR: Nope. For years, my dad told me I would make my living off my art. I, doing the clichéd rebel against authority thing, said there was no way. My art was for me and my stress-relief. As an adult, I now realize the genius of doing what you love as your career. If I find a time machine, I'll let younger me know that he is a fool.

CL: How awesome is it to have had the opportunity to work with someone who's such a delightfully creative, charming, fantastically gifted, etc., etc., etc., person such as myself? Be brutally honest.

MR: Nothing is more exciting than having my own ideas rejected only to have them regurgitated to me as your idea a week later. Jerk. Seriously though, I think we have a good vibe going and this allows us to work well together. We do a really good job of tempering each other's humor and building on top of what the other person has imagined. (Now where's the money you offered me to type that?)

CL: Your digital black velvet thingym'bopper. Tell us the genesis of that brainchild.

MR: I was bored one day and asked friends through a Facebook post what I should draw. After a few suggestions, my buddy Tony said I should do a self-portrait. I was messing around with photos of myself in Photoshop, and thought it would be easiest to just draw myself on top of the picture. Through trial and error, the Digital Black Velvet format came to be.

CL: The executive in charge of programming at Comedy Central just called and said "we're thinking about cancelling South Park and replacing it with 'Cult Leader', tell us one good reason why should do this?

MR: Well first off, "Matt and Todd" rolls off the tongue way better than "Matt and Trey". Also, you don't want something great to go on too long. It gets old after a while, though still funny. And of course there is the marketing storm that would surround a new-concept like "Cult Leader". Plus, we smell better.

Next up, animator, artist, sculpture, and so on... Deanna Molinaro!

CultLeader: Matt and I are very jealous of your IMDb page. How awesome was it to see your name up there for the first time?

Deanna Molinaro: I thought it would be really exciting to see my name there, but it just ended up feeling a little surreal and still does. Same with seeing my name in the credits on tv. Kinda like a mistake made that no one has noticed and corrected yet.

I think I'll be more excited and accepting when I have an IMDB biography with interesting trivia, like my past relationships with Bill Nighy and David Tennant, being Kate Winslet's butt double, or how Guillermo Del Toro secretly asks me for creative advice.

I suspect you two will be on IMDB soon enough.

CL: IMDb has you down as an animator, why'd you go that route instead of civil engineering or bartending?

DM: There was art school and several odd jobs before I ultimately went back to school for animation. Civil engineering and many other routes were out of the question because I'm allergic to math. I was interested in nursing, but it had blood and math. I really wanted to be a super villain with my own tiny minions and a posh lair, but I was afraid I'd actually have to kill someone, or that my minions would kill me.

CL: Are you offended when people compare your art to that of Tim Burton? What if I spotlighted your gender and referred to you as the lady Tim Burton?

DM: It seems that he owns the category of "dark and whimsical" so if you do anything that fits there you are considered his disciple. I'm too old to have grown up influenced by him, but I do think we were both influenced by the same people. I can guess that he liked Gorey and Addams and Mad Monster Party.

I really like him so I can't be offended by the comparison, but if you call me the lady Tim Burton I feel inspired to beat you up for some reason.

CL: Pretend I'm a pimply teen who is deciding between going to school to become an animator and making strides to get myself a real job, what's the most important advice you could give me?

DM: First of all, there's a soap I can recommend for your skin. Secondly, animation is a great "real" job, but it can be really expensive to go to school and find out it's not your thing. My advice is to find beginner animation software and try it out at home, see if you enjoy it and have any knack for it before investing in tuition at a good school. There are tutorials all over the internet now to help people learn in or out of school, whereas I was taught with stone tablets and a chisel.

CL: The TV show you were heavily involved with, Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, seems like it was done forever ago even though it's last show ran just five years ago... how would you describe your relationship w/ the show? More like an ex-boyfriend, an old college buddy, a grown up kid? You may use your own metaphor.

DM: Jimmy does seems like a really long time ago, and running across him on tv is kind of sad and cool and weird. He's like an old friend who is still around as a ghost... and he's the little mascot of some crazy times. He makes me think of all the people working on the Jimmy movie and series, good/bad times, parties, long hours, silliness --- like a five year stint at a Jimmy Neutron school.

Jimmy will never know how many hangovers and ulcers he caused. He also inspired a few marriages.

You know have the inside brain scoop on two more artists that are showin' their goods on Saturday, September 3rd beginning at 7pm at the Kessler Theater in Dallas. RSVP on Facebook at www.tinyurl.com/CultLeaderKessler

For Floyd,

Todd

Interview with the Artists - Misty Boldish & Brian Hammer

2011-08-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

As we lead up to the Premiere of Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader, we'll be featuring the artists slowly and surely in order to facilitate your appreciation for the amount of work they are putting into this baby. I don't mean a literal baby, but if we're talking in metaphors, then I mean our creation, that I created without normal biology, like Frankenstein, but friendlier.

First up is Misty Boldish, who is organizing the art show, or as I like to put it, she is the art show's curator. Here's how our conversation went:

CultLeader: You're a member of the OTO, which means you practice magick, what does your Jewish father think of that?

Misty: He would say "Mazel tov!" My family is very open minded and has never judged me on my beliefs.

CL: You spend several months living in Ethiopia, besides learning that those Ethiopian jokes aren't as funny anymore, what was your biggest lesson learned?

Misty: Bring Wetwipes during the Apocalypse! Saved my life! And eat it, don't asked what it is.

CL: If you were in charge of Project Mayhem, what would be your first act of destruction?

Misty: Destroying corporate offices worldwide

CL: It says you're a poet. What's the significance of poetry in the 21st Century?

Misty: I have problems with the desire to define ...

CL: What's the best piece of advice you've heard in regards to creating art?

Misty: "Keep on creating"

Next up is photographer Brian Hammer. I meat Brian at a Pagan retreat (more like Pagan lite, but that's a different story), where we played "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode on stage for about 100 pagans and wannabes. Brian was on guitar and sang, and I played the cajon drum. It was the most ironic performance I've ever been played a part in.

CultLeader: What's it like to be named after something very useful? Has it helped you in life?

Brian Hammer: Well it gets old really. Dig the name, but do you know how many people want to call you MC Hammer? On the plus side someone said it sounded like a pro-wrestler name and that's the s****. (I guess you can censor the cursing if you need to)

Thanks Brian, I will, since this cult cartoon is aimed at parents and children of all ages.

CL: What irks you most about photography these days?

BH: Nothing irks me more than JC Penney and those kinds of places selling portrait "photos". And what's worse is they run adds for hiring people to work as photographers, and none of the criteria for the job is actually being a photographer. They get people in, line em up and push em through the glue factory till this lame ass product emerges like carbon cut rotten cookies.

CL: Your Lord Horsehead series that will be on display at the Kessler Theater on 9/3... what inspired it? Did you fall off a pony during your youth?

BH: No, I fell off a cult train to crazy town. The point of the series is to poke fun at the absurdities of religion, and cults in particular due to my experiences as a child. It also comes from my innate desire to be blasphemous and heretical. My friend Larkin supplied the horsehead and assisted in the project, so that's how the figurehead became a horse. A lot of art is using what's there in a way that applies to the concept you are creating.

CL: What's the worst thing about living in Austin besides the traffic and being so close to a seat of government?

BH: There's nothing bad about living in Austin really. Seriously. I could write a book on how great a place it is to live. Only thing that annoys me occasionally is how many aggressive panhandlers and swindlers you run into.

CL: What's the best piece of advice you're taken to heart regarding the creation of art?

BH: "Know thyself."

Thanks Misty and Brian, we're looking forward to seeing your art and some of your rivals/contemporaries on September 3rd at the Kessler Theater in Dallas. Be sure to tell everyone to be there at 7 before the icing on the cupcakes melt.

For Floyd,

Todd

The Full Lineup for the Kessler on September 3rd!

2011-08-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

At long last, below is a full tribute and description to all the artists who are contributing in one way or another to the Premiere of "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader" on September 3rd at the Kessler Theater. All music acts listed below are playing that night only and all works of art will be on display at the Kessler for two weeks. Below are my unique descriptions of the following artists. Please use your faculty of discernment to determine which facts are real, which ones are false, which lies have a grain of truth, and which grains are untruths...

Misty Amber Moore is an ordained member of the Ordo Templi Orientis so naturally her art will have a Thelemite feel to it... not to be confused with termite, the wood-eating insects that have a symbiotic relationship with foundation repair companies. Also not to be confused with the pyrotechnic composition thermite, which has a symbiotic relationship with Alex Jones and other 9/11 conspiracy theorists. An empowered woman, but not so drunk on the religion of feminism that she renames her masterpieces to mistresspieces in a vain attempt to give a big middle finger to the Patriarchy. Instead her middle finger is pointed inwardly rather than outwardly, then it's reflected back towards the viewer so that they can see the Bird Within their own own hearts. Misty has had exhibits all over Dallas and is excited to be the curator for the pre-screening art show at the Kessler. N.B. - all pics below can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Brian Hammer is a photographer and a surrealist. Fashion a clever portmanteau and Brian is now a pho-realist. His art derives from a unique struggle of his socio-political ideologies, portrayals of class war, and his own battle with blindness. Mr. Hammer takes umbrage over the expression "If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins looking like a nail." For Brian Hammer's more than just a tool; he's an entire toolbox. A toolbox that will pry your mind open, gently scoop out the contents and peel its eyelids back so it can witness the daunting portrayals of urban decay and whimsical irony as well the plight of the individual that suffers in an entropic, post-industrial society. It has been reported that Thomas Kinkade once tried to stare directly at one of Brian's panoramic photos and he burst into flames. No screams came from the burning man, it appeared as if Mr. Kinkade took his licks like a well disciplined Vietnamese monk. His followers placed his remains in metal canister and Brian Hammer was allowed exclusive rights to snap photos as the canister was strapped onto a rocket and launched into the quaint cottage in the sky. If only that were true.

Deanna Molinaro could be described as the female Tim Burton minus Johnny Depp and Danny Elfman surgically attached at the hip. An animator herself, her art could be described as coming from a female Tim Burton, but then again, I already said that and who wants to be redundant? Not me! Seriously who wants to be redundant? Instead, I would describe her art as being little monsters, whimsical animals, and frail looking children with big eyes, painted with dark colors, like brown and stuff. I'm no art critic, but I'm looking at it going, "gosh, this stuff is cute, but a little creepy, just like my sugar glider, the one with mange." I'm no art critic, but I'm looking at it going, "This is great for the someone who likes the style of 'Where the Wild Things Are' but wanted it to be a little less Max and a little more huggable. Deanna Molinaro is the only artist exhibiting tonight that has her own IMDb page. If you're unfamiliar with IMDb, you may want to get on the Internet and take a look around, there's stuff out there.

Carmen Menza is basically a real life Wonder Woman, rebooted for a 21st Century audience, with splashy special effects and a fresh theme that resonates with today's younger demographics. I am told that they were going to make a Wonder Woman movie, but the director couldn't decide on how he wanted the invisible jet to look. Carmen is a pop singer, fine artist and a mom. But for the art show, she's putting her guitar and her young son down so that her abstract art can really shine. Nine out ten boorish philistines look at Carmen's art and go, "Huh, I don't get it?," but if you actually have an eye for art, you'll understand her artist statement: "With an emphasis on gestural abstraction, Carmen Menza's original works of art capture life’s fleeting moments in bold, rich colors and texture. Working in oils and encaustics she employs layer after layer of paint to produce abstract expressionistic art that is a riot of texture and color." So if you're into encaustics or riots (Hello London), this art may be your bag. The rest of her statement went on to talk about the tension and release of negative and positive space, but then my ADD kicked in and ooh look a squirrel.

Kiki Ishihara, a name so difficult to spell that in 2009 no less than 18 ladies had to add his moniker to their smart phone dictionary after sending an embarrassing late night text that should have read, "I want you, Kiki Ishihara", but instead was autocorrected to "I want you, Kinky In Sahara." Undeterred by nearly two dozen requests for a rendezvous in arid North Africa, Kiki continues to paint, with water colors being his primary medium. He describes his art as "emotionally unstable monsters and characters with violent, psychopathic tendencies." In other words, he paints Smurfs. We are looking forward to Kiki's art as well as his wacky texts and hairdos on September 3rd.

Sergio Garcia started off as a graffiti artist and has branched out to spray paint, air brush and other terms synonymous with graffiti. Sergio has art all around town whether it's solo projects or through his collective Sour Grapes. Recently he has had his pieces shown in New York, Florida, Austin and France. In addition to painting, Sergio finds time to do sculptures involving bicycles and trikes. A few of those would make Pee Wee Herman a wee bit jealous, don't you think? This is the only artist I haven't personally met, so I'm going to go easy on him and just say I'm really looking forward to seeing his art back at the Kessler, with several new pieces that will be unveiled at the art show.

In addition to being the primary artist and a co-developer for "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader" Matt Rox is fond of drawing other things in the digital media including his patented Digital Black Velvet and Something Else that doesn't have a name, but it involves classic movie monsters such as Frankenstein, the Wolfman, and Michael Moore. He will be doing what is known as "Live Art" meaning he will have his Wacom Tablet on hand to do some drawing on his Mac in real time. It's basically like those caricature artists you see at Bar Mitzvahs, but this will be much cooler and the chances of you hearing "Hava Nagila" in the background are slim. No Jewish sensibilities were harmed in the making of the previous joke.

I have known Michael Cochran for years and as a stand up comic and filmmaker, I'm happy to be featured his short film, "Color!" that he wrote and directed. It's starring 17 children and we feel it's a delightful lead in to our pilot. I first met Michael when he was a student of mine in a public speaking class at the University of North Texas. His persuasive speech's subject was on why fat people should have their own section in the back of the parking lot. We've been friends ever since in spite of my fluctuating weight.

One featured musician is Andy Sperandeo, who learned his trade in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, the hometown of Bruce Springsteen, who is some musician guy who's big in the tiny music market of the United States of America and who has been popular for a small span of time, that is, from the 1970s until the present. After stepping away from the Boss's shadow, he graduated from the greatest music school, nay, the greatest college in the history of the universe, the University of North Texas. Since then Andy has recorded an album under the moniker Primal Point and teaches music to young ones who wish they could be Andy Sperandeo. He is too modest to say it, and he doesn't know this yet, but his greatest artistic accomplishment was creating the theme song for "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader." He and the rest of his band will be playing during the reception that begins at 7pm.

Our other featured musical act is Gray, the New Black. Critics have described this new Dallas band in one word: colorful. Two of the three bandmates originally hail from Michigan where they bonded in a tribal ritual in which they had to survive three days and three nights in the Hiawatha National Forest armed with only a guitar string, drum stick, and a kerchief that once belonged to Elvis Presley. According to the Music Genome Project on Pandora, their music can be described as having a vocal-centric aesthetic, a major key tonality, a tall non-fat no-foam latte, mild rhythmic syncopation, a carton of cage-free 100% organic grade AA hen eggs, extensive vamping, a subtle use of vocal harmony, a double double animal style with fries, acoustic sonority, mellow rock instrumentation, a gluten-free spelt English muffin, repetitive melodic phrasing, partially hydrogenated soy and/or cottonseed oil, and many other similarities identified in the Music Genome Project. The lead guitarist, Mike Hamilton names his influences as Jimi Hendrix, Tom Morello, John Scofield, Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp. I'm a music novice, so all I know is Jimi Hendrix and his tragic death when during an acid trip gone awry he fell up three stories landing in a stalactite formation made from his own vomit. I had to Google the other names listed and according to their Linkedin profiles, Mr. Hamilton is influenced by an eclectic group of professionals including an osteopath, a freelance industrial photographer, a pharmacy lab tech, and a recent college graduate who had to move back in with his momma. Gray, the New Black is releasing a CD later on in August and they are VERY excited about playing at the Kessler. They are coming on around 10pm.

Kevin C. Carr is the Swiss Army Knife of entertainment. For decades he's been wowing audiences as a clown, fire breather, fire eater, stilt walker, vaudevillian, actor, stunt man, voice actor, juggler, knife thrower and about a dozen other skills that would take me a lifetime to master. Tonight, he is yet another master, the master-of-ceremonies for the premiere. He will also be performing parlor magic during the reception. Kevin's greatest artistic accomplishment, and he doesn't know it yet, was being the lead voice actor for "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader."

Folks, we bring these people together for your entertainment and amazement. The event is free and is open to all. If you're in town on September 3rd, 2011, can you tell us one reason why you shouldn't spend the evening at the Kessler? Look me in the eye and tell me that it's not worth going to a 100% free event that includes food, drink, magic, music, art, a short film, two live musical acts and a 25-minute long pilot cartoon about cults. Go ahead, look me in the eye and tell me that. That's what I thought... so we'll see you on September 3rd at 7pm at the Kessler Theater. Peace out.

For Floyd,

Todd

Status Update: It's Coming Together Like Buttcheeks

2011-06-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

Wow, the past 30 days have been crazy busy, folks, but totally manageable and productive. Here's the lowdown:

1) On May 19th, Matt Rox and I attended a panel discussion on writing for animation that was hosted by the Dallas Screenwriters Association. We got to meet Will Nicholson, Steve Quentin, J. Schuh and we also got to see Keith Alcorn again. They spoke for a good hour and then they took questions from the audience. Matt and I were mostly happy with what we heard, because for the most part we've been right on target all along with the way we've been producing the pilot. The only thing disconcerting was to hear how long it takes for something to be greenlit 'til the time it hits the screen... years usually. After the discussion, we all went to Denny's and got to spend a good couple of hours chowing down with Will and Keith and they were very generous with their advice. Thanks again guys!

From right to left: Keith, Will, Steve, and J

2) Mark Menza recommended Jon Price to help edit the cartoon, to get it in shape so that Mark could more easily score it and add sound effects and the like. He met me at my house last week (a.k.a., World Headquarters for "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader") to take a look-see at the development. Halfway through the second clip he was practically begging me to be part of the production. Okay, that might have been an exaggeration, but he did agree to work on the project, so can I get an amen to that?

3) I've begun invited artists to be part of the art show at the series premiere on 9/3/11 at the Kessler. Their head honcho over there, Jeffrey Liles, is not only hip as they come, but he's super easy to work with and he's making our lives totally easy when it comes to setting up the place. We plan to invite four to six artists and my friend Misty Boldish, artist and slam poetess, will be organizing that aspect of the night.

My big wish is that they put up a hot neon sign before the premier

4) Andy Hogue, who has been with us since the beginning, has been mostly aloof since landing a great gig in Austin a few years back, but he's always been generous as a sounding board while he's been down south. Turns out his gig is ending at the end of the month, and he's more than willing to help out now that it's clutch time. Andy's background as a journalist should come in handy, ya think?

5) Speaking of Andys, Andy Sperandeo will be playing some of his awesome jazz and light rock the night of the event in the reception area. He's a stellar performer and he always brings choice accompanists to back him up.

6) Tony Vandevoort (if that's even his real name) is going to give it his all in recruiting a documentary team from the Art Institute in Dallas. We're hoping to find a real diamond in the rough he will chronicle the early days of our nascent production.

7) Jennifer Vance is totally doing stuff I couldn't be bothered with but is nonetheless very important. These things include making hotel reservations for out-of-town guests, getting a menu together, and constantly telling me how awesome I am.

8) And here's the best bit of good news. Matt someone lands us spot at STRIP, the Dallas Webcomics Expo. Not only are we going to have a table to promote the show, exactly one month before the premiere, but get this: we're heading up a panel discussion! How's that for publicity? High fives all around.

Hurray! My first con and I'm a panelist!

9) On tap is merchandise, we're ordering up a thousands of "invitations", plus a trove of t-shirts and mugs. Be on the lookout, my children!!!

For Floyd,

Todd

Why Texas?

2011-05-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

Why did we set the show in Texas?

Floyd Welcomes You to Renton!

Reason Number 1)

Texas is a land of extremes. Weatherwise, you have extreme drought, extensive flooding, blistering heat, and F4 tornadoes. We have our share of mild weather, but you better brace yourself for the other other 51 weeks of the year. With industry, we have TI, NASA, and top notch cancer hospitals, but we also rank 50th when it comes to high school diplomas. With crime and punishment, Texans executes more prisoners than any other state, including the sought after 'tard demographic.

Texas Got Retarded Criminals, like Steve

We also have racially motivated citizen-initiated justice, such as with the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., but then in Dallas County, we've elected the first openly gay Latina sheriff, twice (though you should have seen what a flamer her Republican opponent was). Though the GOP rules the land of Texas with an iron fist fitted in a velvet glove, you can't get more liberal than Austin where bat watching is a tourist attraction and home to the only public clothing optional park in Texas.

Apparently, it's a popular place

There is nothing moderate about Texas. So when it comes to cults, what better place to set one in than this great state? Some of the more famous cults of late had connections here. The Branch Davidians of Waco made headlines with their involuntary burning and the Yearning for Zion Ranch was raided by the CPS after a series of crank phone calls. Honorable mention goes to the House of Yahweh in Abilene, but make sure you refer to God as Yahweh and Jesus as Yeshua or else they'll give you the stink eye.

Guess they picked the wrong religion

Guess they picked the same tailor

By placing the show in Texas, it gives us more license to do extreme things with the characters and story without breaking the suspension of disbelief.

Reason Number 2)

It's the only state we've lived in...

For Floyd,

Todd

Saturday, September 3rd will be the premiere of Don't Tell my Wife I'm a Cult Leader

2011-05-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

That's right, we decided on a release date for the cartoon and booked a venue so consider this to be your invitation to join us at 7pm for a reception followed by two screenings of the pilot for Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader.

Is the pilot finished? No, but this date gives us enough time to finish what needs to be done. The Wednesday before last, Matt and I hammered out a schedule for him to be able to finish the remainder of the art concepts by last weekend. Enroc, the Argentinian firm helping us w/ the art might take about a week to 10 days to ready the art for ToonBoom, and then that leaves me with a little under four months to animate, edit, and finalize the pilot in time to screen it at the historic Kessler Theater.

The renovated Kessler Theater in Oakcliff

I am just as confident in Matt and Enroc being able to finish their respective parts in a timely manner as I am in being able to finish my part. We've totally scrapped dozens of hours of work, rewrote, re-recorded and done everything the right way the second time around that we're sure we can finish in time for the September 3rd date.

This date is also slightly sentimental for a few reasons. It comes just a week before the sixth anniversary of me registering the concept with the Screenwriters Guild and just shy of the fifth anniversary of Peter, Andy, and me going to NYC for the pitch contest. Never in a million years did I think it would take six years to create one pilot episode, but given that I was literally starting from scratch, I had to make a treasure trove of mistakes along the way. Heck, if I had to start again knowing what I know now, it would take six months tops to get where we currently are.

I am going to monitor the work by starting off with two hours a day and see what happens. This means two hours with a short break in between. I'll Twitter every step of the way, which by the way, is the main reason I started a Twitter account was to have a timeline of the show's development, so expect a play by play for these next four months. Mark your calendars, my friends, for September 3rd at 7pm!

For Floyd,

Todd

Sound Booth, Part 2

2011-02-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

A little on the recording sessions, but first... Duke Nukem Forever.

There's a lesson to be learned from the making of Duke Nukem Forever, which was supposed to be the greatest sequel ever to the legendary Duke Nukem franchise, the last of which was released in 1996. With the First Person Shooter world eating from the palm of their hand, the developers aimed to deliver nothing less than the very best to their fan base. Consequently, Duke Nukem's success brought in numerous competitors that wanted a piece of that sweet Duke Nukem pie.

Instead of having a clear vision and striving towards it in an efficient, workable manner, they kept second guessing themselves to the point of insolvency. The developers kept adding features and revamping the graphics because they wanted to produce the best game ever, one that would put their competitors to shame. Fast forward 15 years, and Duke Nukem Forever has a release date for May of this year. No doubt, whatever fan base they had in 1996 has all growed up and has probably latched on to any number of first person shooter franchises, so you really can't parlay any of that anticipation that may have been around in say 1997 or 1998.

Likewise with this project, Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader, my only goal has been to produce a pilot that demonstrates 'proof of concept.' and nothing much more. I'm not trying to win animation awards or to get everything 'perfect.' However, it doesn't mean I'm not willing to revamp things if I think the payoff is significant enough.

Thanks to a meeting with Keith Alcorn, which you can read about here, I decided to rewrite the second half of my show, reducing the pilot script by about 70 lines of dialogue and 20 pages of script. I also sliced the number of scenes in half as well as the number of characters, including many animation sequences that would have been impossible for little ol' me to produce in a reasonable amount of time.

Naturally, when you spend a lot of time and money on a particular phase of a project, which in my case was recording dialogue, you're a little hesitant to convince yourself that change is needed. "It'll be fine" is what my inner dialogue said, but the Spock side of me was saying, "Todd, sure there's time and expense in rewriting and rerecording your show, but Keith is right on many levels with what he says."

Fast forward six months later, and the entire cast and crew were once again busy on 1337 Chemical Street to record dialogue. I flew in Kevin Carr, and Jayna Wallach reprised her roles as well. Naturally, Matt Rox was in attendance, and even our wonderful script supervisor, Eve Butterly, had the time to help out for a day. Our sound guy/recording maestro, Mark Menza, is so good and professional that I wouldn't want to work with anyone else.

We planned to spend a day and a half recording dialogue, but everyone worked so efficiently (e.g., working through lunch), that we basically got done in 7 hours. Below are some of the pictures we took and a little video to go with it too. Thanks Andy Sperandeo for the music. Oh, and here's the clip. This was my first go at iMovie. Enjoy it while you still can. PS, you may want to view the clip on YouTube's page until I get these columns working properly.

For Floyd,

Todd

How a scene is made (and I'm learning as I go)

2011-01-31T12:15:00.000-08:00

I'm now on Scene 3 of seven total scenes, and I'm now well aware of my limitations, technically, economically, and timewise. One of the reasons we're rewriting and re-recording dialogue is to make the pilot significantly shorter, easier to produce, and it'll actually be easier to follow.

I'm also getting a better sense of how to build a scene. For Scene 2, I did it all back asswards, and it took me a significant amount of time to finish. After getting advice from the folks at ToonBoom, I built the scene in such a way that cuts down significantly an the amount of time needed to go from Point A to B. Below is my workflow:

1) Create an animatic An animatic is essentially a talking comic book, where it goes from key frame to key frame (action to action) with the dialogue running throughout. You adjust the timing from shot to shot so that it flows like a well composed song. In one of Don Bluth's books, he talks about how musical composers make great animators because they have a wonderful sense of timing. Animation is all about hitting the right beats, they say. I'm glad I play the drum...

Number 1 is easy, that's what every animator does. Number 2 is where I'm unsure of what's the most efficient thing to do next.

2) Lip-syncing the dialogue Generally speaking, this is the least fun and most time-consuming aspect of the animation process. Fortunately, ToonBoom has a great tool that does between 60% to 80% of the work for you. I thought that this should be last, but upon contemplation, when the mouths move and stop, you get a better sense of timing. Once the initial lip-syncing is done, it becomes more intuitive as to where to put the eye blinks, head nods and other accentuating details.

We decided to create our characters with three mouths: neutral, happy, and sad/angry. With these three mouths, three different eye brow positions, and movable eyeballs, you can create a huge variety of expressions.

3) Eye blinks They say that with blinking, you should do it once per 'speech', that is, once every time the character talks. It's a good rule of thumb, and it's up to the animator as to when to add some extras.

4) Eyebrows Eyebrow positions can aid a lot in conveying moods... whether it's one eyebrow raised, both of them up, it's fun to play around with what position combination works best.

5) Head nods/arm movements For this cartoon, the speeches tend to be longer than most, and it pays to have a few head/arm movements to break things up a bit. Maybe Floyd tilts his head just so when emphasizing a point, or perhaps Gramm gives a slight lean of his head as he's processing his thoughts. Arm movements that are used for emphasis can be used sparingly.

6) The action My initial feeling was to go through steps 2-5, character by character, rather than keyframe by key frame. The main reason for this is efficiency. I cut and paste the eye blinks through the timeline, so it pays to just scrub through the timeline once per character, adding the blinks, then the eyebrows, etc. Plus as you're working on one character, you can hit a good groove, whereas if you switch from character to character, you tend to lose some mojo.

However, once I get to some interaction, like one particular shot where Floyd tickles Hannah, it would be silly for me not to do the actions for her too. So character by character is the rule of thumb, but if I have two characters where the actions are co-dependent, then that's how I'll roll for that bit of action.

Floyd Tickling Hannah Keyframe
(pre-facial expressions added)

7) Pro Tip for ToonBoom users The trainers at ToonBoom wouldn't recommend this tip, but it works for me. Over at ToonBoom, they recommend you animating shot by shot, rather than scene by scene. They feel you should take the individual shots that compose a scene and mending them together in Final Cut or some other editing software. Sounds great if I had a team of artists, animators and producers all working with me, but since it's just me, I need a shortcut.

So what I did was create multiple perspectives, at various places on the stage, then I just have the one camera zoom in the area that's being shot. Check out what I did below:

Looks silly from this vantage point, doesn't it?

Above you'll see that I placed Max's front view on the same stage as the over the shoulder view. This screen capture is zoomed out to show how it looks on my computer screen. The small black box around the clipboard in the bottom right hand corner is the camera's view and it's the only part of the board that will be seen when the scene is rendered. A close up of the shot is below:

Little does the viewer know that just a short bit away, there stands the full frontal version of Max. With a quick twitch of the camera, the background shifts and it there you have a nice clean shot of our Floyd's chief lieutenant.

By building the scene in this manner, I'm able to keep the continuity from shot to shot, and not have to adjust for timing in yet another program. So that's it for now, we'll see if I have to do an amendment to this post once I'm done with Scene 3.

For Floyd,

Todd

Highs and Lows of Wintry Animation Funness

2011-01-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

I can say that as of last week, we're officially finished with Scene 2. It was an arduous task for me for several reasons. All of which I will explain below in excruciating detail...

1) Learning curve on ToonBoom
As with all new software, it takes a minute to get up to speed. I had to relearn a lot of what I did in the more junior versions of ToonBoom, since the interface was a little different. Then I goofed big time, but it ended up being a big help in the end. Read on...

2) Don't use the Personal Learning Edition of the Software to actually do your work.
I purchased ToonBoom Animate and was working with that for a while, then Animate 2 came up. Before upgrading, I downloaded the Personal Learning Edition (PLE) to try it out, with the intent to purchase the paid version next billing cycle. As it turns out, once you start working in the PLE version, you can't convert it to the paid version. I had spent many hours assembling the puppets and working my scene and so I begged ToonBoom to help me out somehow.

Learning curve + PLE error made me feel like this kid

They took mercy on me after I explained the project I was working on... a little charity for the DIY guy, I figure. Then comes a salesman who tells me I should be using Harmony, which is ToonBoom's flagship edition of their software. They had an Enterprise edition which allowed me to lease it for a year, plus 24 hours of training via Skype.

After getting my files converted to Harmony, I began working/training in the new version. Then I bought a Mac. Trouble was, I had a dilly of a time getting Harmony to load on the Mac. After many hours, tech support and I got it to work and ToonBoom was kind enough to essentially reset their lease.

3) Momentum
Artists know that you go through dry spells where you just sit around expecting the art to create itself. But once you get going, you get on a roll and you begin producing. So once I got the software situation done, I finally sat down last Sunday and got about 2.5 minutes of keyframes done. Keyframes are like the panels in comic books. They are the main shots that convey the action and plot. Once the keyframing is done, you do the inbetweening, followed by finishing touches and such.

4) Meeting w/ Matt
Matt is not only the character designer and artistic director, he's also the main consultant for the show, so I took the latest batch of keyframes to our 'studio' last night. I was unsatisfied with the key shot and positioning of the characters. His advice was to break it up into two key shots to improve the flow. I liked that a lot, and when I sat down with it, I noticed another problem with my puppets I created. Another beginner's error...

5) Re-working the puppets
This is a little technical, so if you get tiredhead reading this, it's not your fault. So ToonBoom is a 2-D animation program. It uses layers just like Photoshop, with the top layer in your menu corresponding to the top layer in the view. Unlike Photoshop, however, you can space the distance between the layers using the z-axis so that if you zoom the camera in, the assets placed further in front will move at a faster pace than the assets in back. Picture a landscape scene with a tree in the foreground, the characters in the middle and mountains in the back. If you pan the camera, the assets move at different speeds giving the illusion that the characters are acting in a three-dimensional environment.

The way I structured the puppets utilized the z-axis. Floyd has dozens of parts, and the way I made them stack correctly was to use the z-axis. If you looked at it from the side, it would appear that the wrist is just a fraction of an inch in front of the forearm and so on. However, in Harmony, these minute distances are exaggerated once you put the camera in front of it. So all of a sudden I move the camera a little to the right or left and my characters look like a Picasso painting.

So what I have to do now is to go into each constituent part and set all the z-axis parameters to zero. Then I can order the puppet in the network view that Harmony has. I use cables to structure the puppet rather than the z-depth. This sounds tiresome, but I love it when I'm able to go back and do stuff the right way. I'll use the opportunity to add even more layers. For instance, there's definitely a need to put eye pupils on their own layer. You'd be amazed at what can be communicated in a quick glance.

This is the screen I use to properly order the characters

6) Storyboarding Lite
One of the many mistakes I've made (and I learn something from all of them) is that a) I did not need to get the full version of the storyboard program I bought and b) we did not need to storyboard each shot like we were the Coen Brothers. It's better just to spend time with the initial main shots and a few of the key cut shots, but to do the whole thing like we did was a waste of time. Since we are re-doing the second half, we'll be more economical with our storyboarding this time around.

That's the skinny friendly readers. I'm hoping that after our recording session in mid February, we can get this done by summertime.

For Floyd,

Todd

New Software Upgrade (again)

2010-09-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

So within a year, I've upgraded from Flash to ToonBoom Studio, to ToonBoom Animate, then ToonBoom Animate 2. While transitioning between 1 & 2, I downloaded the Personal Learning Edition (PLE). I didn't realize it at the time, but I was several weeks into a PLE project when I realized I couldn't open it in the full version. That stinks because even though the paid and PLE version have the same features, the PLE only outputs the videos w/ ta watermark, unacceptable.

So I begged ToonBoom to convert my project over to the paid version, which they agreed to, but in the meantime, one of their fellows called and sold me on an enterprise edition of ToonBoom Harmony, which is the industry standard for studios using ToonBoom to create cartoons.

At first, I balked at the price and the fact that it was too much power, like building a sandcastle with a bulldozer, but the salesman remarked how it's better to be acclimated with Harmony because when it comes time to get greenlit, there won't be any transition time, i.e., I wouldn't have to recreate any assets, but what sold me was the 24 hours of training.

ToonBoom's top-tier product

And it's not just training for training's sake, e.g., how to make a butterfly flap its wings, but training w/ my project in hand. So I'd be able to create my project in Harmony, run along as best as I can, and when it comes to a bump in the road, I can use a training session to smooth things over.

So it was an investment, but in the long run, it pays to build the cartoon in Harmony, and it certainly pays to learn from the developers how to use it.

This morning, my trainer and I went over on the proper way to build a pivot, how the networking screen works, and several minutes on the way different effects work. For now, I think a lot of it is great, but when it comes to man hours, I have to decide if it's worth it or if it pays to get it finished first. I'm thinking towards the latter, because if you compare pilots to the present day renditions of the cartoon, it's a lot cleaner and more professional, is it not?

It's just me, not a team of developers, so if I can get a really good shadow going on with just a little extra work, fine, but if not, we'll just run with it and hope that not too many people notice. That way, when the show becomes popular and seen by millions the early adopters can be like, "Pshaw! I remember when it was just Todd animating it and he had all the shadows reversed, but you know what, he didn't care. That's how confident that man was. God bless Todd."

For Floyd,

Todd

New Focus for the Project

2010-08-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, the guy who does my sound, Mark Menza, finally made good on his threat and introduced me to Keith Alcorn, one of the creators of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. I was much obliged to opinions on my project even if it meant to hear how bad my ideas suck, since the last thing I want is for people to tell me how special I am, as if I were in the first week of Kindergarten.

I showed Keith my promo, the first minute, and my show's treatment, and he agreed that it was a good concept, and he then asked a series of probing questions before making several suggestions that after mulling it over, really seen the best thing for the show. Essentially, this means turning up the adrenaline and the stakes, rewriting and re-recording a little dialogue. Given that I had a marathon recording session or two a couple years back, the last thing I want is to spend another day in the can, especially since one of the main voice actors, Kevin C. Carr, is living in New Jersey nowadays.

However, the trade off is this: when writing the pilot, I did not take into consideration anything other than what I thought would make a good story. Consequently, the second half of the pilot is filled with many scenes, shots, characters, and plot turns that would require a heroic effort to illustrate and animate. By rewriting and rerecording, we can actually reduce the amount of original artwork and the amount of animation needed. So what I lose on the front end as far as time and money goes, I will make up for it manifold on the back end. So it's a net gain from an economic point of view. The best part is, by making a leaner, meaner version of the last 20 minutes, it should register with viewers in a much more coherent manner. As the adage goes, you only have one opportunity to make a first impression.

The next day, Matt Rox and I got together over some Turkish coffee and cobbled up an outline for the last half of the show. We were giving each other high fives throughout and both agreed that when all is said and done, the cartoon will be at least twice as good and require about one-fifth the effort to produce.

As luck would have it, Kevin will be in Texas in November, so I have plenty of time to rewrite the scenes for Kevin's homecoming. Jayna Wallach, the female voice orator lady person, will also be available, so Thundercats are go. I will need to tell Eve Butterly, my script supervisor, to keep a day open come November as well.

For Floyd,

Todd

--
If you received this email in error, then this message is to inform you that I'm a failure at even the simple task of getting this email to the correct recipients.

Congrats to Jayna

2010-07-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to Jayna Wallach, who does the voice of Hannah & Mandy (i.e., all the female voices) for signing with the Kim Dawson Agency, who will represent her for on-camera and voiceover acting. Based on her exuberance and the jubilation of responses to her status update on Facebook, I assume this is a really good thing.

This place must be good.

It's been over a year and a half since our last big recording session, and I'm optimistic that when Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader is finished and makes the rounds, it will not undermine her prominence and stature at KDA. However, upon her request, I will change her voiceover credit to Wayna Jallach or some other undecipherable anagram to avoid any undue embarrassment.

It's pretty awesome to be Jayna right now.

Congratulations Jayna!

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Update on the Show

2010-06-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

It's been several months since I've given you all a comprehensive update. I can say that for the first time in a while, I'm feeling very good about the show's progress and here's why:

I found a good illustration and design firm called Enroc out of Argentina. I found them in the most improbable way. Let me back up first. Last year, I found someone through Craigslist that was very good, but very unreliable. I posted another ad in Craigslist in January asking for an artist that will accept payment only after receipt of art (you can use your imagination as to why I was asking this).

One irate artist sent me an anonymous email (through one of those anonymizer services) ridiculing me for making such a demand; that it's the clients who rip off the artists, not the other way around. So upset was I for him to imply that I was a thief, I posted another 'want ad' eviscerating the guy who emailed me, telling him that if he were a real man, he'd send me an email that I could reply to. I felt like Omar from The Wire, hobbling through the streets of Baltimore, waving his pistol in the air and shouting to the whole hood that the drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield needs to come out and settle his unfinished business with Omar.

I received another email, this one from a kind lady who empathized with me and recommended that I use elance.com for my illustration needs. After both posts were flagged for being inappropriate, I wanted to post yet another message telling the guy that I know he was behind the flagging scheme and that he had one chance to come out of the shadows and settle our beef.

Instead, I checked out elance and knew right away that this was the right place to get stuff done. It shows all the providers stats such as how long they've been a member, how many jobs they've taken on, their rating for complete work, and also how much money they've raked in through elance. Best part about elance was the built-in escrow. Basically I give the money to neutral elance, and once the job is done, I release the money in escrow and then the provider gets funded. That way, you don't have to worry about the provider running off with your money, and likewise, the provider doesn't have to worry about not getting paid.

I signed up (which costs $10 to weed out amateurs), and made my first post in April, about three months later. I got about half a dozen offers and I realized that the job I wrote up was too broad and ambiguous, and I got bids across the board. So I scaled back and made a small offer to the Enroc firm (no relation to Enron I'm sure). They took the offer, and returned a cleaned up version of Floyd in no time. I then gave them a bigger job and likewise, they fulfilled the requirements to my liking and in a very timely manner.

Soccer is one of Argentina's national passions

Basically, it's all I ever wanted in an artist, to complete a chunk of needed work in a timely manner. So thank you Enroc for your work, you're making my project a whole lot easier to complete.

Enroc's First Assignment

On Matt Rox's side, we got a good thing going this past month; he finally got himself a decent Wacom tablet and he's been producing a lot of concept work for the show and he's been doing his own new thing with Digital Black Velvet. He too got an the elance account, and I'm going to start paying him through that service so that he can build up his profile there. As of June 18th, we have about 90% of the known props and character positions done for the first act (about half the show). I say "known" because as I'm setting up the first scene, it will become apparent when I need to use new art. I'm going to try my best to be economical, but I can think of several scenes in my head where I know I'm going to need team Matt and Enroc to produce some more finished art.

A sample from one of Matt Rox's other projects

There are a lot more characters, backgrounds, and characters to do, but I think with a lot of the minor characters, we'll keep the bodies more or less the same, and change the heads. The scene backgrounds will probably be the most difficult and expensive to complete. We'll have to take inventory of known assets and as we do the animatic, we'll keep tabs of the new art we'll need.

Oh, ToonBoom Animate is great so far. Once you're up on the learning curve, it makes short work of a lot of things that were time-consuming and cumbersome in Flash, and even in ToonBoom's amateur cousin, ToonBoom Studio. The best part so far was TB Animate's lip-syncing application, much more powerful than the one in Studio. I will post in a few days the test run for Floyd. Stay tuned!

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

New Workflow for Production

2010-01-12T11:57:00.000-08:00

Matt and I had a meeting last week and decided that taking the keyframe by keyframe approach to the cartoon's production would be arduous. The initial thumbnail sketches looked great, that is, each keyframe has superb poses, blocking, facial expressions and the like, but I knew it would require a vast amount of individual assets to create the cartoon.

The approach we're going with is called the paper doll or cardboard cutout approach. We basically build an inventory of all the assets we're going to use, based on the storyboards. The storyboarding is done, so we're able to see what characters, backgrounds, and props we're going to use. For now, we're going to do paper doll versions of the main characters. Below is an example of how we'll build the characters:
For us, we know we have five main characters, Floyd, Mandy, Max, Rawly, Hannah and Gramm. So I've taken the liberty of naming each assett we're going to need and putting it on a grid. The sheet below is just for the front view. I have four more sheets so as to include a front angle, side, back, and back angle view.

Since the main characters are in the majority of the shots, once they are done, we're well on our way to filling out the inventory. Next would be props, backround shots, and minor characters. With the minor characters, we won't need every angle or every single body part, which is why the storyboards become handy. Why draw a side angle of the mayor when we only have scripted for a single face-to-face shot?

From there, we create an animatic that will allow us to adjust for timing and such, but more importantly, it will tell us what additional art we need. There might be a shot of Gramm curled up sleeping on a cot, and we simply can't adjust the paper doll to make it look like Gramm is actually sleeping. Hopefully, we'll be creative enough with the paper doll versions so that we just need a modest amount of art to fill in.

Hopefully, Matt will begin on the character building in due time, then we'll pass the initital artwork onto the assistant artist, who will be vectorizing the pencil drawing and touch them up with shadows and others frills. Once the assistant is done, the assets go to me for production. The idea is that all three of us will be working in tandem until the cartoon is complete.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

A Little Update

2009-09-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

Matt and I got together for our weekly storyboarding session. Going a bit slower in this scene on account of the Civil War battle. He also provided a much needed establishing shot that I will hand over to Rick before the weekend starts.

Oh, and I finally came up with a promotional piece that is so dark it makes my whole body blush. We wanted something that would cut through the clutter if we decided to hand stuff out at a convention.

I don't want to give it away, but it involves Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson, and Adolf Hitler. No they did not walk into a bar, but I will be using their likenesses on a postcard. Yuck! I sometimes wonder two things: a) how I come up with these ideas, b) that I actually think they're funny, c) that I'm going to implement them, and d) how I say two things but I end up with four.

By the way, if you're reading this -- and you know who you are -- even though I work in dark subject matter, that doesn't mean the end product is somehow an aberration of who I truly am. I am doing this for the betterment of the world.

For Floyd,

Todd

To Do List...

2009-08-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

So you've been asking me... "Dude, how's the cartoon coming along? Here is the skinny.

1. Artwork and Animation

Matt and I have been dedicating several hours a month together storyboarding. We are more than halfway through with this aspect of production will probably be done in another month or two with it. It's made storyboarding a snap, however, I bought the way expensive version of PowerProduction's Storyboard Artist when the light version would have sufficed. Yes, I could have purchased the light version and upgraded if I needed to, but I got drawn in by a sale for the full version.

Once that's done, I need to piece together the storyboards for Matt. There was a glitch on one of the files that wouldn't allow me to add any more frames, so I created a new file on the laptop. Then one time we did some work at my home on the desktop. So basically I have a bunch of files scattered about that need to be put in chronological order, and then I have to add dialogue to the frames so that we know what the heck is going on in our own scene. As it was, Matt and I had a good flow just reading from the script and adding storyboard elements without the dialogue.

Not OUR storyboard, but an example of one

Matt will then take the printed storyboards and create thumbnails for our review. Once we okay it, he will then create the actual artwork that will be scanned in and vectorized. Right now, we're about 1/3 of the way done on the initial artwork for Act 1, Scene 1.

Since I've added Rick as a touch up artist, I don't vectorize the art myself. Rick does that, adds shadows and does other things to kick up the art a notch. For now, it's me on animation. I enjoy doing it, but will probably get helpers on that one as well. I still need to learn how to use ToonBoom, which I've done a really good of not doing as of yet.

I did create a 45 second animatic of the first scene in Flash, which looks pretty good, but I'm sure ToonBoom will improve it even more.

2. T-Shirts

So far I've sold three t-shirts, which is three shirts more than I'd thought I'd sell at this point in the game. Erich bought two and I don't know who bought the other, which is kinda cool that there might be a mystery fan out there.

I have to put the URL and/or logo on each shirt. Apparently, as my friends have pointed out, my show is not popular enough to just showcase the characters. Right now, some of the shirts have the title logo worked in just fine, but others looked good without it. So the idea is to add the title logo plus the URL onto the back of the shirt. Great idea since the company I was using allowed for two-sided printing at the same price for one side. Not anymore... they want three dollars additional for two-sided printing. So I'll have to think about how to incorporate the logo and URL into a design like this:

Awesome shirt, isn't it?

3. Interns

There is a lot of work that needs to be done, and the crazy thing about it there are people willing to do it for free. When I heard that this was possible, I couldn't believe it. Then I remembered the cute intern at the advertising agency who spent all day cutting out ads from magazines, thinking to myself, "They couldn't pay me to do that." And now I realize... they didn't! She did it for free!

Looking for talented people

I for one can think of at least a dozen tasks that I either don't want to do myself or pay someone to do for me. However, if someone would like to do it for free, NOW we're talking. Some of the tasks include, blogging, updating my social media sites, making little behind-the-scene movies, slicing up some dialogue and other post-production duties, research, and the list goes on. My alma mater, the University of North Texas, has plenty of interns in both the RTVF department and Comm Studies department.

Once I get these things up and running, we'll be able to form a better timeline to let you know when the premiere party is taking place.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

KFCC (Kentucky Fried Chicken Cult)

2009-06-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

After hearing so much about KFC's grilled chicken dinners, I went with a friend to give it a try. In spite of the poorly executed Oprah coupon debacle, I still appreciated KFC's attempt to reach out to a new generation of chicken eaters by offering them something a little more healthy.

I purchased a two piece chicken dinner, with mashed potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, Mountain Dew, and a biscuit. The chicken was fine, but perhaps a little on the small size... what do you want for four dollars, a chicken that lays golden eggs for you?

So now to the corn. I get a butter packet from the counter. It's in one of those plastic packets that they normally put ketchup and mustard in. However, it wasn't a butter packet; it was a buttery spread packet. Actually, a "Buttery Spread!" packet. As George Carlin once said:

Any time marketers add a 'y' to the name of a food, you can be sure they're yanking your schwantz. 'Real chocolatey goodness.' Translation? No fuckin' chocolate!"

So clearly, I was not eating corn-on-the-cob with butter. Can you still use butter as a verb when using KFC's buttery spread? Did I buttery spread my corn?

Perhaps the honey for the biscuit will be more genuine... Nope, it was 100% authentic "honey sauce." I flipped over the packet and read the ingredients: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, honey, something, something. Yes, honey was the third ingredient.

So thanks KFC! Until then I was the world's biggest skeptic when it came to people trying to sell me on the urban legend that Kentucky Fried Chicken had to change its name to by KFC because they weren't selling real chicken. Yes, thank you KFC for making me doubt again.

That's the deal with cults. They seem all buttery and honey sweet, but if you read the fine print you realize you're being fed something else all together.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Thus far

2009-05-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

Another milestone was hit today as we launched the official website on the official URL: www.dont-tell.my/wife

We've been in the planning stages for the better part of a year, but first pixel was laid down about six months ago then I began the animation sequence for Mandy. I finished the site toward the end of February, which is when I shifted gears and began working on the promo.

Those were the two major projects, and during this time is when I built several more sister sites including a Facebook page, YouTube Channel, Delicious page, a Twitter account, MySpace profile, a Skreened t-shirt store, iTunes podcast, and this blog. That pretty much covers it, don't you think? Here's the breakdown:

Facebook page: 199 fans
MySpace profile: 55 friends
YouTube channel: Added over 40 videos related to cults, in additional to the promo of course.
Twitter account: 45 followers, 200 updates
Skreened store: 20 t-shirt and accesory designs
Delicious account: 31 handpicked bookmarks
iTunes Podcast: 1 promo, up and running
This blog: 47 posts

Next step? Get the first episode done by end of year with a big party at the Lakewood Theater.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Matt & Todd's Excellent Scientology Adventure

2009-05-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

Matt and I have been getting together weekly for a couple of months now to discuss artwork, storyboarding and the like. Yesterday, we decided to do a little research and attend the Church of Scientology's Dallas location.

Last time I set foot in a Dallas Church of Scientology was about 11 years ago. Back then, the church shared a small part of an office building with a few other organizations that were probably less than thrilled to be using the same potties as the churchgoers.

When I left, I felt that the church's days were numbered with the advent of the Internet. There was no way, so I thought, that with the proliferation of negative information available to seekers, their chances of maintaining this level of service would continue.

I was quite wrong. Their building in Irving was about 20 times as big, with 10 times the number of employees and parishioners, and with about 100 times more money put into it. We're talking dozens of video screens, a coffee bar, multiple classrooms, a chapel, movie theaters, tons of giveaway materials, and even their own potties.

Our handler was cordial and his higher up tried his best to get us to stay and watch a 25 minute long movie. I knew better than that and urged Matt that we just walk around for a little bit before leaving. No coffee either, Matt.

I was really impressed with the level of sophistication and professionalism they had invested in the building. The experience made me come full circle with my attitude towards the church and with cults in general. I believe that if you become a member of the Church of Scientology, you do so with your own consent, and everything that happens to you from that point on happens because you allowed it. If they want to charge you $5,000 for a purification rundown, then it's not the church's fault for charging that much, it's your fault for paying that much. The church may use a heavy, high pressure approach to gaining your consent, but nonetheless, you have the power to walk away. The church cannot hogtie you and throw you into a man-sized safe until you give them the power of attorney.

The church, like any other organization that tries to persuade you into giving something up, dangles something in front of you just like any religion, business or non-profit group. Many Christians tell you that if you forsake the teachings of Christ you will go to hell. Wal-Mart tells you that if shop anywhere else, you are paying too much. Sally Struthers tells you that if you do not give to the Christian Children's Fund, Africans will starve. If you do not support the home team throughout the regular season and during the playoffs, then you are a faggot loser.

When Matt and I walked into the one of the church's classrooms, we saw dozens of people who chose to be there, to study their courses. The doors were unlocked. They elected to spend their time and money on a course that they believe will help enrich their lives. If they didn't believe that, then they would not have signed up for the course. As we walked by them, no one passed us a note asking us to help them escape. Their wrists and ankles weren't shackled to the desks. These were not brainwashed people. At least they were no more brainwashed than a Yankee fan who has socked someone in the face for being a Red Socks fan in the wrong bar.

For those who say the Church of Scientology was responsible for Lisa McPherson's death, then I have to say I agree with you and they should have paid the price. Unfortunately, the church was fined and no individuals were held responsible. However, if you feel this is the reason why the church must be stopped, then I disagree with you.

What large organization has ever been free and clear in not causing death, severe injury or emotional trauma in an individual? One of Wal-Mart's black Friday events last year killed a security guard who was trampled to death by bargain hunters. Should we call for the closure and liquidation of all Wal-Marts worldwide? The Baha'i Faith places a special duty on believers to not deny their faith under duress. This principle has cost the lives of many Baha'is. Should we start an online campaign asking the Baha'is to change their policy so lives can be saved?

The Church of Scientology's claims are dubious, their prices are outrageous and its origins are spurious, but at the end of the day, it still falls down to an individual making the decision to be a part of the organization. Scientology does not have the power to cajole enough people involuntarily into giving them all their money. If someone gave his life savings to Scientology it's because he wanted to. If someone wanted to spend his life savings on a signed Lebron James basketball, it's because he wanted to, not because of the machinations of some NBA cult.

It's true that the NBA spends millions every year creating a virtual culture that lures fans into its base at an early age, with the plan that the fans as an aggregate will give more money to the NBA than the NBA spends. Basketball is everywhere, on the clothing we wear, on the schoolyard blacktops, on TV, radio and the Internet. Halls have been built honoring the greatest players, arenas are built that are often funded by scarce tax dollars. No one raises a finger and says, "This is all made up bullshit that has no real value. You all are wasting your time and money!"

I went to a Dallas Mavericks game last year with two courtside seats that a charitable person gave to me. The face value of one ticket was over $1,000. I thought about how the owner of these tickets spent over $80,000 that year for tickets before he even paid for parking. They say that to achieve the level of "Clear" in Scientology, it costs about $50,000 and this is attained and paid for over several years.

This is just basketball, take a minute and ponder how many man hours are spend following all other sports not only here in the US, but worldwide. How many hours are spent collectively downing beer after beer watching soccer in pubs all around the world? And yes, there are those who don't self-identify as hardcore sports fans. For them there are movie franchises, World of Warcraft games, and soap operas. How many celebrities are spawned from these arts and worshipped by their fans? How many people spend their wages in ways to better conform to their chosen celebrity's fashion, cultural tastes and other affectations? Think about how much of our GDP is spent on health and beauty. The long term maintenance of optimal beauty is fruitless and the practitioners know that the longer they get in years the more money they will have to spend for inferior results. Maintenance of one's body is like the maintenance of one's drug addiction.

Take nationalism. Because of accident of your birthplace you are now part of a group that somehow produces a better stock of offspring than those born on another part of the earth? What could be more false? If this belief were innately true, then a child's formative years wouldn't have to be spent nursing from the teat of mythology about how wonderful it is to be a part of the nation, race, tribe or ethnicity. They wouldn't have to be lied to about the group's superiority and that preserving the groups's superiority is so important that it's your duty to serve the group, even die for it.

Cults are everywhere. The world is nothing more than a concoction of cults competing for members. Are you still worried about the Church of Scientology, fellow cultist? How many have you joined in your short life here on earth? I think it's time you come back. Come back to what exactly? Hmmmmmmm...

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Cult Facts

2009-05-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

I pulled this off Nat'l Geographic's site. There's a video on there about the Strong City Cult, which apparently puts a big emphasis on virgins laying naked with their leader, who is the Son of God. Interested? Check out the video here.

Cults by the Numbers

From Heaven's Gate to Jim Jones, cults have been behind some tragic headlines. Today, there are a surprising number of active cults around the world. Here's some astonishing facts...

The word ‘cult’ is originally derived from the Latin word ‘cultus’, meaning “care” or “adoration”.
One recent estimate suggests that there may be anywhere from 3000 to 5000 active ‘cults’ in the US alone.
Over the last two decades, there may have been up to 20 million people involved with cults.
Researchers have suggested that between 2,000,000 and 5,000,000 Americans are involved in cult activity at any time.
It is estimated that there are 180,000 new cult recruits every year.
The world’s worst cult-murder was allegedly carried out by the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. In March 2000, up to 530 members of the sect died in a fire at their church in Uganda, which police believe was started deliberately. Further police investigations found more bodies in various properties owned by the leaders of the cult, bringing the total body count to 778. Many of those who did not die in the fire had been poisoned or stabbed.
Michael Travesser’s apocalyptic ideas might seem radical, but similar ideas are surprisingly common – a survey in 1997 revealed that nearly 1 in 4 Americans expect to be alive when Jesus Christ returns to usher in Armageddon and the ‘end of the world’ as we know it.
Not all cults are doom and gloom – the Iglesia Maradoniana is a ‘church’ of 15,000 members devoted to worshiping Diego Maradona, the Argentinean football player. They meet to celebrate his birthday, October 30th, and regard his autobiography as their ‘bible’.

A few good facts, but that's certainly not all of them. For a more comprehensive study of cults, check out my delicious links on cult reference sites.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Cult Humor: from The Onion

2009-05-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

Please note that The Onion has somehow stolen my idea of alluding to Oprah Winfrey as some sort of cult leader. That's fine if The Onion wants to borrow from me, just as long as they don't forget the OG of recognizing Oprah as a cult leader...

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Extracurricular Cult Humor

2009-04-27T08:25:00.001-07:00

I stumbled upon this video today looking for blogs about cults. Based on the 700,000 plus view this video got, this reinforces my belief that there is a market for a comedy about cults.

He makes light of the dark aspects of cult life such as intimidation, cannibalism, forced labor, kidnapping, statutory rape, endless consumption of cult propaganda, and unbreakable life time contracts. And just like cults, it starts off all warm and fuzzy before the bait and switch begins. Enjoy!

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

It's All About the Story

2009-04-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

When I think back to my favorite Simpsons episodes, one of the ones that come to mind is the episode called King-Size Homer, where Homer gains weight so he can work from home. Here is the plot and details from the Wiki:

Mr. Burns organizes an exercise program at the nuclear power plant that Homer is not a fan of. After learning that someone who is disabled can work from home, and thus be excluded from the exercise program, he tries to find a way to achieve this goal. Homer soon discovers that any employee that weighs 300 pounds (136 kg) or more qualifies. Homer decides to gain the 61 pounds he needs to reach 300. Homer begins eating excessively, despite Marge and Lisa's repeated warnings that he could severely endanger his health. With Bart's help, Homer soon reaches his goal, and Mr. Burns installs a stay at home work terminal in the Simpson house.

Homer is given simple duties, but he still fails to understand his duties as a safety inspector. He also finds he can no longer fit in his clothes, and he takes up wearing a muumuu as a result. Looking for shortcuts, he leaves his terminal, with a drinking bird to press "yes" on the keyboard and goes out to see a film. Refused admittance because of his size, Homer is angered after the cinema manager who offers Homer a garbage bag of popcorn if he calms down. Homer declines the offer and quickly leaves, claiming that he is not food crazy and that overweight people are as hardworking as anyone else. Returning home, he finds that, in his absence, the nodding drinking bird fell over and that a nuclear meltdown will take place at the plant. As he is unable to stop it via the computer, Homer tries to run, skateboard, and drive to the plant, all of which fail as a result of his obesity. He eventually gets to the plant by stealing an ice cream truck. Homer arrives at the power plant and climbs up to reach the shutdown button, but ends up accidentally falling onto the gas store, blocking the release tube with his buttocks. As a reward for stopping the "potential Chernobyl", Mr. Burns gives Homer a medal and guarantees that he will make Homer thin once more. After failing to achieve any results through exercise, Burns decides to pay for liposuction so Homer can return to normal.

What made the jokes so funny in this Simpsons episode is that they were borne naturally from the core of who Homer is -- a fat and lovable lazy slob. Imagine if Jerry Seinfeld gained 65 pounds to work from home; it wouldn't be as funny because that's not who Jerry Seinfeld is.

All the writer for this Simpsons episode had to do was to come up with a predicament that the audience would accept. Once accepted, the predicament becomes an automatic joke generator.

Create predicaments that are true to the characters, and the jokes come naturally -- no force is necessary. A good joke should be like drinking an ice cold Coke from a glass bottle on a hot summer day: effortlessly twisting off the cap and gulping down the refreshing beverage in measured swallows. Once finished, you place the glass back down on the counter with a resounding clink and go 'ahhhhhhhhhh'.

A bad joke looks like someone trying to force open a jar of pickles: first using all your arm strength and making ugly faces and grunting noises. Then tapping the jar on the floor so as to loosen it up, perhaps running it under hot water for a minute or so. Finally, after 10 minutes of fruitless actions, the lid pops off, spilling pickle juice everywhere in the process. Then you stick your dirty fingers into the brine and pull out a single pickle before putting the jar back in the fridge. Next time open up a relish packet.

That's why we're excited about Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader. The show's premise allows for innumerable and acceptable predicaments that are ripe with humor.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

A New Milestone

2009-03-26T21:31:00.001-07:00

So two months ago, I agreed to give a talk about the Baha'i Faith at a Baptist college here in town. It was just an email exchange or two, nothing fancy. I didn't give my life story; I just agreed to come up to the class at such-and-such date for Dr. James Walker's class.

Our talk followed one by the Nation of Islam, which coincidentally was the first time I ever met anyone from the Nation. So after the break, I was introduced by the teacher, and he introduced me as, "Todd Steinberg, the creator of Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader."

He apparently Googled me and found out all about me. I think he did that to catch me off guard, which it certainly did, so that's the last thing you want a group of Baptists to know about you as you're about to speak on a little known religion.

Regardless, this was the first time anyone told me about my show without me having to tell them first.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Fastidious Framing Far From Frustrating

2009-03-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

For those of you keeping up with my Twitter account, I'll occasionally post about the nuance of a particular set of frames, such as this one, and yet I don't feel that it is a waste of time.

In the above example, I'm creating a loop of a warbling musical note, with the intention of conveying to viewers that the character, Rawly, is singing out of tune. I decided to build the clip with eight key frames at double exposure. At 24 frames per second, that's a little over half a second of animation looped for about six cycles, or three seconds of total animation.

So with the first go at it, I didn't like it at all. I was just like 'bleh.' I produced all the keyframes randomly, but it was just a little too random. It jumped around and looked a little too artificial and contrived. I wasn't following the original note Matt drew to any degree of fidelity, so it looked pretty contrived.

I started over, this time trying to stay within the constrains of the original note, and every other keyframe I made slightly bigger, thinking that would be a cool effect, but it wasn't.

The third time was a charm, as I just made slight changes to the original note, and it looked a lot better. I may give it a fourth try just to see how much I can improve it, just to see if it was worth it.

The point is, none of this was frustrating, as I feel as though it's all makes for a learning experience and it's all part of the art of animation. Now I know how those old-timers were able to slog through frame after painstaking frame -- they loved what they did.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

The Comedy of Cults

2009-03-15T20:27:00.001-07:00

Cults can be funny; it's just that all the well known ones end in mass suicide, which by all accounts are not funny, at least not in a mainstream way.

However, if you take death out of the equation, cults can be humorous. Take a look at the Heaven's Gate cult starring Marshall Applewhite. You have this old googly eyed senior citizen who convinced a bunch of people to get funny haircuts, worship him as a god -- and for the males -- remove their testicles. And while they await a spaceship hiding behind an incoming comet, he has them build and design websites in San Diego. Rimshot.

Then you have David Koresh. I can imagine the conversation he'd have with the adolescent females... "Hey Sarah, guess what? I'm Christ returned! Guess what else? I'm going to make you my wife and sleep with you! Don't worry, you have about four or five sister wives you'll live with to keep you company. Laughtrack.

Unfortunately, death comes along and ruins the comical characteristics of voluntary castration and polygamous teen marriages. Nothing like a little suicide applesauce or ATF gunfire to ruin it all. That's one of the reasons why I decided to create a show about cults: I can keep in all the comic situations and leave out all the doomsday stuff. That way we can all have a laugh and not feel guilty about it.

So here comes Floyd, a guy whose cult is so secret even his wife doesn't know about. What's more is that Floyd really dislikes being both a cult leader and a husband, and the only thing that keeps him from calling it quits is the hassle it would create. He he just gives enough attention to both his cult and his wife to keep them from getting upset at him. Yes, Floyd is both a slacker cult leader and a slacker spouse. He may be an surly and pugnacious human being, but he'll never kill anyone. So yes, it's cult, and you're allowed to smile.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Original Pitch Video

2009-03-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

Below is the original pitch video I submitted for the IFC contest. I'm also testing Blogger's video upload tool to see if I convert this into a Podcast feed.

Oh and here are two logos that I'm using for the Podcast. Again, just an experiment. I'm using Blogspot to host the images and can only do it by linking them on a blog.

Production Update

2009-03-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

As you can see to the right of this blog post, I've had over 70 updates regarding every step I've taken since February 22nd as it relates to the project. The Twitter updates begin when I finished with 95% of the website and started work on the two minute promo piece beginning with the scanning in of Matt's pencils for it.

To bring us to up to speed, here's a condensed update from Thanksgiving 2008 to what's happening now:

At the end of November, I began earnestly working on the website, starting with the hardest part, the 45 second cartoon intro. The more I worked on it, the more I tweaked it here and there, reviewing animation tutorials, consulting books, etc. That took about a month to get it where I wanted it.

During Christmas break, I began work on the rest of the site, again finding cool things to add and tweak as I created the website. I devoted a lot of time to the various animations, watching the same clips dozens of times in a sitting to the point where I began to dream in frames. Also at the end of the year is when I recorded the dialogue, which not only kicked my butt in terms of real work, but also as far as my wallet is concerned.

Fast forward to February 2009. It took me a week or two to finish the artwork for the promo and at the same time I had a web guru take my website and optimize it, reducing it from a 1.1 MB file to about 600K. That means the whole website takes about 3 seconds to load on a regular DSL line.

Now I'm creating an animatic of the promo, and I will most likely add some limited animation to spice it up. My sound guy promised me some quirky music to play during the promo. I'm hoping to get the promo done in two weeks, maybe three or four depending on how extensive the animation is.

After that, I need to integrate the promo to the website, and concurrently, I will build my store, and finish the theme song, which still needs guitar solo and to be mastered. After all web components are solid and after all secondary websites are up to my standards, that is: YouTube, Twitter, Delicious, MySpace, CafePress, Facebook, this blog, and whatever music downloading service I choose, then I will post the website on a Malaysian URL, so as to create what's known as a domain hack, or in layman's terms, a witty URL that takes advantage of top-level domain name, in this case a .my domain name.

Hopefully I'll have this all going by end of April. After that, it's up to us to storyboard the first scene and from there, we'll find out really quickly how long it will take to animate this sucker. Fortunately, I found some storyboarding software that should make quick work of the pre-production.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Cult Leader TWIT

2009-02-25T18:12:00.000-08:00

So Twitter seems to not be going away. My friend James introduced it to me a few months ago. I tried it out and was unimpressed. For those who are unfamiliar, Twitter is like Facebook, but only with the status updates.

When developing the website, I put in an area that has numerous outbound links for YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Delicious and this blog. I thought about putting Twitter in, and ambivalently decided to do it, thinking it might be a waste of time.

Then for fun, I added a Twitter update to this blog, and thought, "okay now what?" So I just updated it from a production standpoint. And lo, my Twitter account bore its purpose before my eyes. First purpose, if we do get a fanbase, they'd probably like to see what we're up to in real time. Secondly, for me, Twitter is now a real-time diary and a to do list. Awesome, it's not a waste of time. Yay for ingenuity, as always.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Floyd & Friends, Pic 1

2009-02-24T05:45:00.001-08:00

From left to right: Max, Gramm, Floyd, Rawly & Hannah

This is the first image we're using for the 'coloring book' and web promo. As usual, Matt is fully responsible for the conceptual artwork and the original pencil images and I take responsibility for the digital inking and coloring. Jayna Wallach is doing the voiceover as Hannah. We'll hopefully get the full thing up -- along with the website -- in about a month or so, maybe two.

Join Us!

2009-02-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

Every good show needs a fanbase of dedicated fans. We pledge to produce a show that's more than just entertainment, but actually an artistic production chock-full of satire and send ups that take aim at the fact that so many of us do not question unwanted authority.

We promise to put all that we can into our work; we just need you to stay in touch with us as we progress. Obviously, if you hate the show, then by all means, go do something different, but if you love the show, or even like-like the show, and want to see how it unfurls, then there are numerous ways for you to stay up to date.

Firstly, become a follower of the blog. Read the postings and make comments. Link to us in your own blog. Compel people through the use of gentle coercion to subscribe to the blog, perhaps by making veiled threats against their family or utilize simple blackmail for those who prefer cunning over brute force.

Follow the Blog - Click Here

YouTube is an obscure website that allows users to post and share their own videos easily and rapidly with others throughout the world. We're not sure if the idea will take off, but we consider ourselves to be a daring group of pioneers, so we choose to take the plunge and use the so-called YouTube website. Who knows... it could become the place that virtually all Internet users go to for their video viewing and sharing needs. Please visit our YouTube channel and become a subscriber by following the link below.

A Video Sharing Website, but will it work? Click Here

MySpace is where we met Tom. Tom is a great guy and became a friend right away. He messaged us, made us feel welcome, and encouraged us to upload a picture and our personal information, which we did. We began to add people we knew online, who accepted our friend request. Now we're hoping you will accept our friend request. Facebook is like MySpace, but it's missing Tom and about 90 percent of the ads you encounter on MySpace. We'd be pleased if you became our friend on one or both sites.

Red Pill - Friend us on MySpace

Blue Pill - Friend us on Facebook

Anyhoozit, now that you've been added to the fold, expect us to contact you when there are updates. We'd love to hear what you think so far. Please send us an email when you get a minute.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Work for Us!

2009-02-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

Help Wanted

In the near future, we will need our fans to accept our money in exchange for using your spare time to promote the show. We believe that you'll be hitting the streets and other public places, passing out souvenirs and promotional materials, and filming your exploits. If this sounds like too much, please spread the word telling other people know about the show online, however, we wouldn't be able to pay you for this -- the deed itself is its own reward in this case.

Since we're not quite there yet, please send us an email, telling us your name, your location and any experience you have promoting stuff. We will contact you when the time is right.

Development Timeline 101

2009-02-07T08:05:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been lost and thought and went, "You know what would be funny? If ______." In my case I asked myself this question after pondering the absurdity of a cult so secret, even the wife of the cult leader was unaware of its existence. Thus began the quest, to make this observation a reality. For a long while, it was simply something I worked on in my head, telling my friends how it would be funny if there were a TV show about a guy who ran a cult and his wife didn't know about it. Originally, I planned for the show to be live action. Over time, I started asking myself the following questions:

What kind of people would be in this cult?
What kind of cult leader would this guy be?
What kind of wife would this guy have?

It took me quite a long time to come up with the show's title. I would ponder upon it, but nothing struck me as being good enough. Lo, the name of the show came about spontaneously one night. I was with two other people in my apartment kitchen, one of them was hearing about the show for the first time. He asked, "So what's the name of the show?" I replied , "I don't know... how about 'Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader'?"

All three of us laughed immediately. I knew I had the show's title. Over the years, 90 percent of the people who I tell the title to laugh out loud.

Months later, after breaking up with my significant other, I later that night roughed out the main ideas and characters between 1am and 3am that night and filed for copyright shortly afterward. This is known as "The Treatment", a synopsis of the show, complete with character descriptions and background information. I fine-tuned the treatment over the next year, and gaining one fan in particular, Andy Hogue, who would become my partner in crime about a year later when we set off to New York City.

Ah, New York City. By chance, I came across a contest where all you had to do is upload a minute long pitch to the Internet and hope it's good enough to make it to the semi-finals where friends and family could then vote on it. If enough of them did, you'd become a finalist and pitch it live to the Independent Film Channel at the New York Television Festival. Fortunately, out of the thousand or so entries, mine was in the Top 50 and at that point, I went on a campaign to find everyone I knew and pleaded with them to vote on this one particular day. I printed up business cards, built a website (which was encouraged by Microsoft, one of the contest sponsors) and did a lot of glad-handing. Coincidentally, that little website I cobbled together is still the top search engine pick if you google "Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader."

The way the finalists were picked was thus: from Monday until Friday, 10 clips were shown on the website, the top two vote-getters from each day became a finalist. Mine was on Monday, and everyone had 24 hours to cast their vote(s). On the day of the voting, indeed, all of my networking paid off, as I was one of the chosen.

You can read more about the trip to New York here. And for those of you who find the tale especially compelling, please read the two retro blogs from MySpace that I reposted here and here. I didn't win the contest, but I gained two important things: one was that people other than my friends thought the show had potential, and secondly, I had another thing to tell people when they asked me, "So what's up with your show?"

Pleading my case before the judges.

In 2007, two significant things happened. First, I reconnected with Matt Rox, who I would choose to craft the characters. It took a while for him to warm up to me, you can read about that encounter here. The second thing was that I went on pilgrimage to Israel, where I met Robert Wilson, father of Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight Schrute on the award-winning show The Office.

I happened to bring a copy of my treatment to Israel, and naturally I gave it to Robert Wilson to read, who then forwarded it to Rainn, who then contacted me to give feedback and encouragement. Rainn invited me out to a promo photo shoot of The Office, and naturally I went out to meet him and all the other fellows. Rainn couldn't have been nicer; it was like we had been friends our whole life. Rainn declined to be involved in the project, but asked me to send him updates when they became available.

Rainn and I, kicking back.

Since then, Matt churned out the characters while we fine tuned the pilot script together. Andy is a great sounding board and continued to aid us whenever possible. This past year, we've got the whole 'Floyd Universe' down pretty good, with dozens of episode ideas and story arcs. Late last year, we recorded the voices for the show, which you can see and read about here.

Now that we have that out of the way, it is up to us to get the website up, the promo out, and begin cranking out the good stuff. Wish us luck!

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Mind Control Made Easy (or How to Become a Cult Leader)

2009-02-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

This Carey Burtt short film communicates a succinct, entertaining and informative video about how to start a generic cult. I took the time to study the video and transcribe the narration. For your reading pleasure, I included it below:

Mind Control Made Easy

Don't you want devoted followers who will leave their families for you? Give their money to you? Give their bodies to you? Give up their lives for you? And will kill for you?

1. Have most benign and helpful features on the outside; controlling and evil stuff on the inside – much like an onion.

2. Use deception – don't tell them who you really are. Lie. Leave out important information. Distort information.
a. "Are you trying to recruit me?"
b. "No, I'm just trying to share something meaningful with you"

3. Establish front groups.
a. "We're a Bible study."
b. "We're a world peace organization.

4. Promise to fulfill their dreams.
a. "Don't you want to live in a world of unconditional love?"
b. "We can teach you special powers."
c. "You can join us and be special."

5. Offer them something free so that they feel obliged to give you something in return.
a. "We bought you dinner, the least you could do is come to our weekend retreat."

6. Tell them time is running out and they need to make a decision before it's too late. Don't give them time to think.
a. "This is a decision you need to make now."
b. "This is an issue of burning urgency."

7. Diminish doubting commiseration by separating recruits from each other by putting them with happy true believers so that when they doubt, they do what everyone else is doing and believe that it's normal.

8. Love bombing – surround them with unconditional love and attention. The cult family should act friendly and interested. Get them to give you personal information so that you can comb for weak spots and then use the information to manipulate them.
a. "Tell us about yourself."
b. "Take this personality test."

9. Gradually, you can shape the recruits behavior by granting or withholding the attention. After they have bonded you can start making demands on them.
a. "Nothing in this world has value unless it relates to the leader or the 'ultimate purpose.'"

10. Control their behavior.
a. "Wear these clothes."
b. "Eat this food."
c. "Come live with us."
d. "All you need is two hours sleep."

11. Prescribe a rigid schedule.

12. Keep them active and with as little sleep as possible. If you can, restrict their diet to low protein foods.

13. Control their thoughts.
a. "Our ideology answers all questions to all problems."
b. "Let our doctrine think for you."

14. Control their emotions, induce guilt.
a. "The United States dropped the bomb on Hiroshima."
b. "People are dying of starvation."
c. "You are not living up to your potential."
d. "You cheated on that test."

15. Use fear.
a. "The enemy will capture you, kill you, or take you away from here."

16. Control information. Keep them from knowing all things about the cult. Block out info that is critical of the group. Encourage the other members to spy and report on one another.

17. Separate the recruit from himself by attacking him and inducing himself into a mental breakdown disguised as a spiritual awakening. When he freaks out, has side effects or hallucinates, tell him that this he is flushing out the bad stuff.
a. "When I was meditating, I felt infinite emptiness, it was utterly terrifying."
b. "No, this is good. It means you are transforming. Do it more."

18. Make them paranoid about their bodies or thought processes.
a. "You are battling your sinful nature."

19. Tell them there is part of your mind that they must eliminate to achieve happiness.
a. "Your ego is the source of all your problems."
b. "I don't know who I am anymore."
c. "Good, that means you're free – in fact, there was no 'you' to begin with."

20. Claim authority.
a. Divine Source.
b. Bogus Scientific Research.
c. Special Knowledge.

21. Make up stories to boost who you are.
a. "I invented air!"
b. "I have special access to the aliens."
22. Start slowly: a good con man takes a little bit of truth and a lot of lies and pulls the wool over the eyes of the ignorant.

23. Induce trance states and self-hypnosis by practicing thought-stopping rituals and repetitive acts like dancing, spinning, singing, over-breathing, or chanting.
a. "Stamp out doubt! Stamp out doubt! Stamp out doubt! Stamp out doubt! Stamp out doubt! Stamp out doubt! Stamp out doubt!"

24. While in these suggestive states, revert them back to childhood dependence and mindless obedience.

25. Encourage separation from their friends and family.
a. "It sounds like your friends and family won't understand, maybe you should stay away from them.
b. "It doesn't sound like they really love you if they won't let you do what you want." c. "Stop wasting time with non-believers."

26. Encourage dependency and conformity and discourage autonomy and individuality.

27. Have confessionals where people demonize their early lives and praise their new lives. Rewrite the past as terrible, even if it was great.

28. Isolate them from the rest of the world. Make them feel as though they are part of an elite group.
a. "One day landmarks and monuments will be created to commemorate us and our sacrifices.

29. Tighten the cohesiveness of the group by establishing scapegoats and enemies. Demonize others as less than others, biased, or conspiring against the group. Develop an "us vs. them" mentality.

30. Fighting resistance – tell them their critical thoughts are evidence of crimes against the group. Start investigating them and begin to make up crimes.
a. "I think I want to leave."
b. "You must be insane!"

31. Make them feel guilty.
a. "We're doing important work here."
b. "You think saving the world is easy?"
c. "Just when things are getting tough, you want to give up."

32. Indoctrinate with fear. Tell them they will be doomed, possessed by evil spirits, and suggest that if they leave something bad may happen to them.
a. "I'm just warning you, without us, you may get sick or even die."

33. Make it easier for them to die for you by calling their bodies 'containers' that can be shed to evolve into higher life forms.

34. It's that simple.

Comedy Writing Guidance - Sol Saks (Part 1)

2009-02-03T14:54:00.000-08:00

In a book about writing sitcoms, Sol Sak's Craft of Comedy Writing, was referenced. Luckily, the Dallas Library had an ancient copy in circulation, so I checked it out and studied it. It was a fun read, full of copious and concise statements that helped me as a comedy writer. If Sol Saks is still breathing (couldn't confirm it), then I hope he doesn't mind me sharing a few gems of wisdom with those who might be interested. This is Part One. You can read the whole series here.

Part One of Gleanings from Craft of Comedy Writing, by Sol Saks

To write comedy–or any other form for that matter–requires a combination of arrogance and humility.

The famous and the beautiful don’t have to be funny, except for their own amusement. We others need to be, if we want to be invited back.

Art is the manipulation of someone else’s imagination.

If you fail, you go down the tubes. So if you succeed, make the audience pay. Make them buy you the Mercedes, beg for your autograph, thank you for your kindness, and make up for all past hurts. You’ve earned it.

Modern man walks a very narrow ridge between boredom and hysteria. It's the artist's function to help him maintain his balance. The humorist's function is to help him forget his fear. Man is the only one of God's creatures who feels guilt and is aware of his own mortality; he is also the only one who can laugh, an accomplishment probably given to him so that he can deal with the first two.

We are all of us crazy in some way or other. Fortunately for our civilization, most of us are crazy in socially acceptable ways. Successful humor is that which appeals to those tolerable insanities.

There have been successful comedies about death, terminal illness, infidelity, physical handicaps, ugliness—because the writer saw them that way. Anything is funny if that's your way of telling a story. One word of caution: if it isn't your way, don't mess with it.

You will find that anything humorous, if not always hostile, is, without fail, based on conflict. A little hostility never hurt anybody and wit tempers it at both the receiving and giving ends. A hack composer showed his maestro a requiem he had written for Schubert's funeral. The maestro read it and sighed sadly. “How much better all around it would have been,” he said, “if you had died and Schubert had written the requiem.”

One of the most potent manifestations of hostility is humiliation. Wits humiliate: comics allow themselves to be humiliated. Which is why you may admire the wit but you are more at ease with the comic. If you want to be the life of the party, drop your pants, spill wine over yourself, tell them how you can't make it with the opposite sex, how terrible your spouse treats you, how awful you look, how clumsy you are, and they'll not only laugh, but they'll love you for it.

Those in authority don't have to be witty. If they do try, it's just for fun. We others do if we want to stay around. We do it for survival. There's plenty of rest for the wicked; it's the oppressed who have to keep dancing.

Laughter does not necessarily have any relationship to wit, humor or comedy. We laugh when we are nervous, when we are embarrassed, when we are frightened. We laugh in relief, also. When someone falls down, looks ridiculous, or acts stupid, we laugh because we are relieved it isn't happening to us. So wit, a more acceptable reason to laugh at the above humorous situations, is doubly welcome.

Comedy Writing Guidance - Sol Saks (Part 2)

2009-02-03T14:46:00.000-08:00

Part Two of Gleanings from Craft of Comedy Writing, by Sol Saks

Ridicule is a powerful weapon. When used insensitively it is often cruel. When used against injustice it can bring the male-factor to his knees quicker than physical force.

Humor is a great weapon, but how do you create comedy out of such disagreeable subjects as prejudice, bigotry, persecution, hypocrisy, injustice, etc.?

First you get their attention.

Start by choosing a provocative subject. This is very important. As important as the farmer picking the right soil for his crop. No matter how expert he is, or how hard he works, he'll have a better harvest from good fertile bottomland. A provocative subject is one that is compelling, within the realm of your audiences' experiences or pertaining to their fears and dreams. In short, one that will pique their interest.

It is also usually one that is familiar and controversial. The clerk makes jokes about the customers. Army humor is almost always directed toward the ranking superior.

When you've got them where you want them, you can view that injustice from a new angle, strip it of its protective covering, perhaps exaggerate to show it in its absurdity. And if that unexpected resolution can also show how the prejudice is stupid, persecution intolerable, bigotry laughable, etc., you have provided the laugh you were brought there for, and struck a small blow against injustice in the bargain.

It is apparent to anyone that to find something tragic about an incident, situation, or person, one must feel concerned. What is not so apparent is that to find something humorous or comic in an incident, situation, or person, one must feel equally concerned.

Humor is used for feelings that are too deep for tears. It can bring to light things that can hurt as well as delight—and once they are brought to light, they never seem to hurt as much.

Comedy is no more superficial, trivial, or ineffectual than tragedy. Very often quite the opposite. But for some reason, to the dismay of humorists, it is often relegated to the confectionery department of our culture, which is why comics want to play Hamlet.

Tell a joke that isn't funny and it will be greeted with derision; tell one that's been told before and it will be met with an accusatory reminder; but tell a dull, repetitive, serious story and the listener bears his boredom and pain in silence.

Specificity is always funnier. Albany, or a cocker spaniel, is funnier than simply saying a city or a dog. For instance: “I tried to drive my car between two oncoming trucks. Anybody want to buy a tall, thin Chevrolet?” is sharper than, “Anybody want to buy a tall, thin automobile?”

Jokes are almost always made of, by, and for the oppressed.

The ingredients of comedy are, not necessarily in the order of importance, simplicity, clarity, relevance, exaggeration, surprise, irreverence, incongruity, identification, precision, and, by all means—by all possible means—rhythm.

The difference between rhythm in other forms of prose and the rhythm in comedy is like the difference between the motor in an automobile and a single-engine airplane. They are basically similar, but if the motor fails in your car you get a lift or walk home. If it fails in your plane, you crash.

Comedy Writing Guidance - Sol Saks (Part 3)

2009-02-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

Part Three of Gleanings from Craft of Comedy Writing, by Sol Saks

The only way to achieve rhythm, the above masters eventually agreed, was through “feel,” an instinctive facility mastered only through experience. Read your lines aloud.

“Who was that lady I saw you with last night?” “That woman was not a lady. She happens to have been my wife.”

Now feel the easy, smooth rhythm in: "That was no lady. That was my wife.”

There is no magic formula to attain rhythm. Just as a cook puts in a pinch of this and that and keeps tasting until it is just right, the writer of a comedy line keeps saying it over and over until it has a smooth, easy rhythm.

Clarity and simplicity are desirable in all writing, but necessary in comedy. They are crucial ingredients because in comedy you must have your audience's undivided attention.

The best comedy has precision, which, put simply, is the exact word in its proper place.

Identification is also a valuable tool in comedy. Used by writers in the sense of “to identify with, “ identification means the listener or reader can relate to your characters.

When your audience can identify with the character, then everything that happens to the character happens to them, and you, the writer, have the omnipotent influence on the mood of others that all artists dream of.

The closer you can get to universal emotions or problems, the better chance you have to win identification. If you have a problem in your own home about who carries out the garbage, notice how your interest sharpens at the mere mention of the problem of carrying out the garbage. And because they are everyday problems that are happening right now they have the further advantage of being relevant.

The identification, recognition, and relevancy inherent in very common problems ... “The other day a cop stopped me for going through a light. ... Well, here it is income tax time. ... I decided to ask my boss for a raise. ...” bring camaraderie and an anticipatory smile at their very mention.

Misfortune, fear, prejudice, pomposity, inadequacy, and conceit are the fertile soils out of which we cultivate comedy; identification, exaggeration, incongruity, irreverence, and surprise, its most potent fertilizers.

Exaggeration and incongruity are first cousins, and by their very nature lend themselves to humor. We loved them as children and we find them just as delightful now. We are charmed at the premise of the elephant who falls in love with the sparrow, and intrigued by the man who hasn't spoken to his wife in forty years. Humor gives us the license.

So, be bold. In comedy there is much less danger in going too far than there is in not going far enough.

Surprise is vital in storytelling art. If we knew exactly what was coming, we wouldn't have to read, watch, or listen.

Quoting Tennessee Williams: The audience should know something the character doesn't, the character should know something the audience doesn't, and the writer should make something happen neither of them expects.

Comedy Writing Guidance - Sol Saks (Part 4)

2009-02-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

Part Four of Gleanings from Craft of Comedy Writing, by Sol Saks

We must go from what audiences know to something they didn't expect, and point out a resolution they never thought of.

A strong ally to surprise in comedy is misdirection. We achieve misdirection by establishing the familiar, pointing toward the predictable ... and then opening the trapdoor.

In creating the humorous line or situation, the writer first establishes an identifiable situation. He will then do well to try to think of the obvious and predictable answer his audience expects—in order to be sure not to give it to them. Then with that obvious, predictable answer as a springboard, he can use incongruity, exaggeration, irreverence to get his laugh.

Deference, respect, and reverence are antidotes to humor.

Politeness is also inhibiting to comedy. Irreverence entails fearlessness and resistance to conformity, two very productive qualities in writing funny lines. Humor itself is a trampling over boundary lines, rebellion against social standards, and usually takes an adversary position.

Obviously, fear and conformity, handmaidens of reverence and deference, make humor difficult if not impossible. That is why the humor in totalitarian countries is almost always underground.

All comedy is storytelling, from the pratfall to the full-length play or feature picture. All comedy, as all drama, has conflict, and all comedy, as all drama, is based on the three-act construction.

The first act, or straight line, as it's called in comedy, establishes the situation and characters.

Now let's add the second act—the development.

Then the third act—better known as the punch line.

The third act is the resolution, basically the same in comedy as it is in any form of writing. It only differs in mood and attitude. The unorthodox point of view, exaggeration, surprise; that's where the comedy writer earns his money.

It would be counter-productive for the writer, while trying to create the funny line or situation, to inhibit the creative flow by consciously conforming to the rules of construction and techniques. It should be used only if the comedy isn't working. If it works, don't analyze it; if you don't understand it, don't mess with it.

At its best, the construction of comedy is like the gears under the carousel—invisible. There is no apparent first act. It is burred and expertly camouflaged in the situation and character. The most gratifying laugh is the one you get from something that doesn't sound like a joke, that has no obvious straight line, that is a natural, seemingly random line. But this seemingly random line is securely fastened to strong invisible foundations.

The most difficult and ineffectual way to write a joke is to try to provide a third act for a prefabricated first and second act. Provide all three acts. He can pick a situation and characters that are appealing to him, provide them with an identifiable problem and resolve it in an amusing way.

Comedy Writing Guidance - Sol Saks (Part 5)

2009-02-03T14:23:00.000-08:00

Part Five of Gleanings from Craft of Comedy Writing, by Sol Saks

Pick a good story and tell it well—that's all there is to it. Be bold, be brief, be decisive, and speak out loudly.

And be honest. James Cagney's advice to young actors bears repeating to young writers, “Plant your feet, look them in the eye, and tell the truth.”

So, what's a good story? Where do you start and where do you end?

The last two are the easiest. You start at the beginning and end when you're finished. This is not a smart-ass answer. Start exactly where your story starts—not one word sooner—and stop when your story is told—not one word more.

Start by picking a story you think is a good story. That's what they came for. That's how you pay the rent.

Once you've succeeded in getting their interest, they will want to know how it comes out. They're waiting for the third act. First acts are easy; star-crossed overs, the strange cowboy riding into town, the mysterious murder, etc. The second act is a little more difficult; the development of the problem presented in the first. But that damned third act...

Did you ever wonder why the strip-tease was more enthralling than simple nudity? It's because instant nudity has no third act.

So how do we get a third act? First, remember you want a resolution to the situation rather than just an ending. Look for what should happen, what could happen, or what might just possibly happen. Then tell it in a logical, dramatic, and compelling way.

There is, obviously, no sure-fire formula to finding that third act. ... I will usually work backward in this respect. If I have a sound third act, I know I can always manufacture a usable first and second.

In every good story, every funny situation, we find in the third act a point of some kind. Most professional writers don't choose a moral, then try to find a story to fit. They look for a good story and if they find it, the point usually comes built-in. Dickens wrote whopping good tales exposing the abject poverty and inequitable legal system. Which came first, the storytelling urge or the motivation to make a better world, we don't know. But it is interesting to note that long after the social inequities he described have disappeared, the stories remain as powerful and readable as ever.

Style is really simple honesty. No one is exactly like you. If you write with integrity, nothing will be exactly like it and there's your originality and your style.

Style can be called the personality of your writing, and, like your own personality, it becomes awkward and dishonest if you are self-conscious about it.

Those who disguise and deny their feelings are condemned for their deception to boredom and loneliness.

Honesty in art is more than a virtue; it's an indispensable ingredient. It is not only the best policy, but has long ago displaced cleanliness in its position next to godliness.

Honesty is as important in the work of a comedy writer as it is in a bank president. Chekhov said that if a character is drawn properly he cannot say a false line.

It's not cheating if you tell a story about a talking pig. A charming aspect of all audiences is that they only want to know what they're to believe, and they'll give themselves up to it with an almost childlike trust. And if you introduce us to a pig that talks, that articulate porcine had better provide the punch line.

Relevancy comes in the package with honesty. If you use an irrelevant line just because it's funny, it's dishonest writing.

Working on comedy, writers will often be tempted by a funny line they know is untrue to the premise or character. The good writer resists the temptation. Jack Benny played a miserly character who had a vault in his basement guarded day and night, a pay telephone in his home, etc., and we accepted it. But he could never deviate from that character without irreparable harm.

Relevancy means relating to the present characters and situations. There is an anecdote about a man who had only one story to tell, about the time that he had shot a bear. At every gathering he would somehow find an opening to get this story into the conversation. Except at one party, when he could find no way to bring it up. So, in the midst of the conversation, he suddenly exclaimed, “What's that shot?” When the others all insisted there was no shot, he went on, “Well, since we're talking about shooting, let me tell you about the time I shot a bear. ...”

If the audience knows what to expect, if they have to listen to information they've already heard, they will get restless. In comedy, you must give them information they don't have or an experience they don't anticipate. That's what makes it a creative art.

Just tell the story. That's style. When you try to look good telling it, when you try to be cute, it is as if you're putting a Christmas ornament on a blossoming apple tree.

Comedy Writing Guidance - Sol Saks (Part 6)

2009-02-03T13:59:00.000-08:00

Part Six of Gleanings from Craft of Comedy Writing, by Sol Saks

The Ten Commandments of Comedy Writing

Thou Shall...

1. Thou shalt be brief
2. Thou shalt be simple
3. Thou shalt be clear
4. Thou shalt be bold
5. Thou shalt be relevant
6. Thou shalt be recognizable
7. Thou shalt be controversial
8. Thou shalt be unpredictable
9. Thou shalt be original
10. Thou shalt be salable

Thou Shalt Not...

1. Thou shalt Not Honor Thy Mother or father or any of thy predecessors
2. Thou shalt not be courteous, reverent, or obedient
3. Thou shalt not have a false straight line
4. Thou shalt not go past the punchline
5. Thou shalt not explain
6. Thou shalt not apologize
7. Thou shalt not be innocuous
8. That shalt not conform
9. Thou shalt not be tentative
10. Thou shall not be untimely

Seven Deadly Sins of Comedy Writing

1. Timidity
2. Deference
3. Obscurity
4. Pomposity
5. Blandness
6. Bad Timing
7. Imitation

The Four Essential Steps to Writing Comedy

1. Pick something readily identifiable
2. Zero in on the conflict
3. Take an unconventional point of view
4. Surprise us

The Three Indispensable Attributes of the Comedy Writer

1. Motivation
2. Courage
3. High tolerance to suffering

Delicious bookmarks

2009-02-01T07:37:00.000-08:00

Delicious.com is a great website for saving links to well referenced websites. In my case, I created a delicious page for all links pertaining to cults, mind control, manipulation and other related topics.

I've tagged each link primarily as either a video, audio clip, website, article, or essay, and each one has secondary tags such as cult, mind control, etc. I can assure you that each one of the links is personally interesting to me, educational for you, and relevant to the show. Below is the link cloud. Please take a moment to check out some of the links, and if you're willing, become a fan/subscriber to my delicious page.

In the near future, I'll be blogging on specific links that I find extraordinarily amusing and relevant.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

It's not Matt, it's Power Matt!

2009-01-27T13:31:00.001-08:00

Todd on Hannah

2009-01-26T16:46:00.000-08:00

I got the idea for Hannah based on any number of clingy women who have vied for my attention over the years, but the essence of Hannah (and her relationship with Floyd) is captured in a live recording of The Doors at the end of their performance of Roadhouse Blues.

JIM: Alright! Alright! Alright! Hey, listen! Listen! Listen, man! listen, man! I don't know how many you people believe in astrology...

GROUPIE: Are you a Sagittarius?

JIM: Yeah, that's right...that's right, baby, I...I am a Sagittarius.

GROUPIE: I love --

JIM: The most philosophical of all the signs.

GROUPIE: I know, so am I!

JIM: But anyway, I don't believe in it.

GROUPIE: I don't either!

JIM: I think it's a bunch of bullshit, myself. But I tell you this, man, I tell you this: I don't know what's gonna happen, man, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames. Alright!

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Todd on Max

2009-01-25T21:22:00.001-08:00

I came up with Max by combining the two people in a married couple I know. The husband is a working class native from the city of Leeds, Yorkshire County, England. As a Yorkshireman, he believes the only proper way to prepare fish and chips is to fry them in beef drippings. The wife is a black Hispanic New Yorker who traces her ancestry to Honduras. She also knows judo. The husband is very patriotic and hates being called British and prefers to be called either English or a Yorkshireman. Originally, I was going to make Max just as patriotic, but realized that not many people understand the difference between Britain and England, so I let it go. I'm pretty sure that Yorkshiremen of African descent are underrepresented in the cult/cartoon universe, so I should get a lot of support from that demographic.

UPDATE APRIL 3: I was told that the female half inspiration of Max knows Taekwondo, not Judo and that if I want to learn the difference she can show me.

Todd on Kevin

2009-01-25T17:01:00.001-08:00

I met Kevin randomly halfway between Waco and Austin in a town called Salado. There, the Stagecoach Inn is both the name of the motor inn as well as the restaurant. The dining room serves Southern comfort food by waitresses who have been working there for decades. They recite the daily features rather than give you a menu. It's the kind of place you'd take people who have never visited Texas and who don't plan on returning anyway. Kevin wasn't a waitress, per se, but a bartender who worked the second floor of the Stagecoach Inn's dining room. On that second floor is a long wraparound porch, which according to historical record, Sam Houston gave an anti-secession speech from that porch, while drunk.

People think it's amusing to know that Sam Houston got drunk on this porch, but in truth he was always drunk. His Cherokee name translated to "Big Drunk." So remarking how Sam Houston was drunk during his famous anti-secession speech is like remarking how Cheech & Chong were stoned when they filmed that one scene.

Sam Houston got drunk here one night...

While sipping a beverage on the balcony, I struck up a conversation with the server about my plan to create a series based on my idea. At that time, which was July of 2006, the idea was nothing more than a treatment, with rough ideas for characters and background info. Kevin, the server's name, told him he liked the idea, to not give up on it, and proceeded to tell me his career history of being a Barnum & Bailey clown, and most recently a stuntman. He was in Salado to get away from the lake of fire known as Los Angeles and to work as a Vaudevillian actor for the Silver Spur Theatre, also in Salado.

Kevin C. Carr on Stage
Lifting up one's suspenders means "I'm a clown."

We exchanged MySpace profiles and went on our way. Fast forward 18 months later, I need a voice for Floyd and a few others. One phone call later, Kevin got the job. I was especially impressed that he knew so many British dialects. Cockney, Irish, Northern Irish, Yorkshire, Liverpool, etc., he does them all.

Kevin came up to Big D back in December of 2008 to record. Besides our now famous recording session, we bonded like two brothers who haven't seen each other in 10 years. I look forward to working with him in the future as my Floyd, Max, Rawly, or whatever else comes down the pipe. He's like our very own Harry Shearer, only this guy can do a killer pratfall.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Todd on Jayna

2009-01-25T10:03:00.001-08:00

Jayna does the voices for both Mandy and Hannah and it would be good for you to know how she landed the roles. Jayna and I attended junior high and part of high school together. In Junior High we both had roles in the same play, Li'l Abner, which is about a psychopathic country boy who terrorized his neighbors in the backwaters of Appalachia.

Jayna played Stupefyin' Jones, which if I recall correctly, was a character that had no lines, she just jumped out of a box and stupefied anyone who gazed upon her. I played a bit character called Speedy McRabbit, which apparently is such a minor role that Google asks if I meant to type 'Gonzalez' instead of 'McRabbit' at the top of the search results page. That's what I get for being an underachiever.

I remember Jayna being a very attractive junior high school girl (is it legal to say this?) and at the same time, she was not stuck up or on the cheerleading squad. With someone like me, Jayna had every right to not give me the time of day, but she talked to me anyway. The tradition continued through high school when Jayna was the only man between the two of us who skipped school and went to the first Lollapalooza concert ever. She bought for me a now classic lollapalooza t-shirt, which I still have to this day. I am sure that I lied and told people how cool it was to skip school and see Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction, and the Butthole Surfers when people saw me wearing the shirt and asked how I liked the concert.

Jayna left my high school and graduated from some hoity-toity private girls' school and went on to Yale, which does not have a campus in Texas. I only know this much about her life because of a Facebook binge I went on about six months ago where I found and added everyone I knew to my friends list. Jayna was one of those people, and that's where I discovered her schooling history, and that she rehabs dilapidated homes with her boyfriend. Most relevant to me, however, was that she makes a living in part doing voiceover work.

Jayna still appeared attractive and was still not in a cheerleading squad nor did she stop giving me the time of day. We chatted about our experiences in Li'l Abner and though she did not remember the Lollapalooza t-shirt exchange, she informed me of a shared experience or two that I had completely forgotten, so there. After 15 years of no interaction, your memory slips a little, I suppose.

When I conveyed my plans to create a cartoon, Jayna was immediately interested and since she was not starving or homeless, I assume that she truly was interested in the project and not for the money that she is now rolling around in since landing the two starring roles. I remember calling Jayna shortly after getting paid from the recording session and she informed me how she was too busy diving into her room full of money and that she'd call me after a few laps of doing the backstroke. Later that day, I arrived at her home with tightly wound sticks of hundred dollar bills so that we could light our Cohiba cigars in style. We shared a laugh as we leisurely puffed our stogies in Jayna's smoking room as her housekeeping staff attentively emptied out the ashtrays and poured us warm brandy in her brand new snifters that I awarded her as a bonus.

Todd and Jayna wonder what they ever did when they were poor.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Gramm - Cult Member

2009-01-24T17:53:00.000-08:00

Gramm is the one cult member who occasionally has doubts about the veracity of the cult. When Gramm does question his dear leader, Floyd must administer another pill for Gramm to consume so that he can go back to "normal." Because he is so often subdued by his medication, Gramm has to be prodded and prompted along by the other members to keep up with them. His silence, aloofness, and disassociation with the rest of the group are only occasionally broken up by abrupt spells of lucidity.

Rawly - Cult Member

2009-01-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

Rawly is extremely enthusiastic about being a member of the cult, but doesn't have the right social skills or for the role, or any role for that matter. He tends to get caught up in the moment and becomes very vocal and fired up about what’s at hand. Although Rawly is aware of the group’s “little secret,” he has to be reminded frequently to keep it down and zip it up or the cover will be blown. Rawly is always coming up with ideas that would hopefully earn the cult more prestige with the community at large, but Floyd and the other members have to coax him into dropping his ideas because they are hugely embarrassing at best.

Hannah - Cult Member

2009-01-24T17:34:00.000-08:00

Hannah is an emotionally starved teenage runaway who looks to Floyd as a father figure. She adores Floyd and is always trying to please him, which usually is the exact opposite of what Floyd needs or wants at that particular moment. Her unrestrained attitude often leads to trouble, as it will arouse suspicion in the wife and with the community at large. Hannah is pretty, but is unkempt and her emotional immaturity kills any sex appeal she might have.

Max - Cult Member

2009-01-24T17:21:00.000-08:00

Max is Floyd's chief lieutenant. A short black man with a tall hairdo, he hails from the city of Leeds in Yorkshire County, United Kingdom., Max is Floyd’s right hand man in many respects. He keeps the others in line when Floyd is not around. He gets special treatment from Floyd and perhaps Max is not in the cult for spiritual reasons, but for “easy living” and the “prestige” from being the number-two man. Max talks about his hometown often and wishes to return for a visit if it weren't for some "problems" that have yet to be resolved.

Mandy Landers - Cult Leader's Wife

2009-01-24T17:18:00.000-08:00

Floyd's wife of three years, a recent PhD recipient in anthropology -- not much else is known about the enigmatic woman who married a misanthropic cult leader. Her research keeps her busy and preoccupied and it's turned her into a workaholic with tunnel vision, thus shielding her from the reality of her husband's secret vocation. Floyd, being so self-centered, is willfully ignorant of Mandy's university career, which she actually appreciates since her first husband was always interfering with Mandy's confidential research projects.

Floyd Landers - Cult Leader

2009-01-24T17:15:00.000-08:00

Six years as a cult leader has taken its toll. Floyd, a college dropout in his early 30s, is suffering from severe burnout as the leader and grows weary from constantly keeping his secret life under wraps. He doesn’t need to spend much time maintaining the mystique of the cult as his followers are completely under his spell. Though mellowed out in some respects, Floyd has frequent episodes of superiority and a perceived need to control. The constant flux between lovable laid-back boss and hard-nosed egomaniac keeps the cult members on their toes.

About the Cartoon

2009-01-24T16:59:00.000-08:00

Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader is a sitcom very loosely based on creator Todd Steinberg's real life story. Every week will chronicle the wacky adventures, ironic life lessons, and paradoxical insights that come along with living a double life as a hapless family man and a struggling cult leader.

Floyd Landers, while being a marginally competent cult leader, strives to maintain a smooth relationship with his wife, Mandy. Conflict and humor occur when his two lives converge and Floyd must weave intricate tales and create a Byzantine web of lies to keep his wife – and the community – from discovering his dark secret.

Intertwined into each episode are allusions to deeper societal issues such as how the wrong people get in power and stay there, how information is controlled to manipulate people and how the masses fail to investigate the truth even when presented with obviously flawed facts and reasoning.

A Study of Real Life Cult Leaders

2009-01-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

We aim to not only to entertain, but to skewer as well. The underpinning philosophy of Don't Tell My Wife I'm Cult Leader is to bring to the viewers' attention the blatant disregard the masses have for investigating the truth. Obviously, cults smoothly operate partly on their leaders ability to keep truth away from their followers. They do this knowingly and unknowingly.

Marjoe Gortner was a child preacher who grew up and became a Pentecostal conman. He filmed a documentary about how he was able to use his charisma to win over believers. The film won an Oscar for Best Documentary, 1973. He wasn't a cult leader, per se, but he did posess enough qualities to put him in the same ball park.

In my opinion, Jim Jones went from being a little too egotistical to someone who went absolutely beserk. My personal belief is that I don't think he was quite right in the head the night he ordered the mass suicide and murder of his followers Guyana. Of all cult victims, I feel sorry for these people the most. So many of them went out to Guyana with high hopes for the future, and when they got there and decided to leave, damn, they were stuck in the middle of a jungle between an armed militia and a madman at the helm. A little bit of trivia: his followers consumed Flavor-Aid, not Kool-Aid for their last meal. In a documentary I saw, Jim Jones used the term "Kool-Aid" generically since he was actually pointing to crates full of Flavor-Aid.

I believe Marshall Applewhite, the Heaven's Gate/Hale Bopp Comet cult leader, thought he was a space alien to the very moment he ingested his spiked suicidal applesauce. To me, this guy was truly a giant in the cult leader pantheon, because he not only got his followers to commit suicide, but he got many of them to castrate themselves as well. That takes balls.

For me, the jury is still out on L. Ron Hubbard. As someone who took Scientology courses over a period of six months, and who is still technically on the books as a Scientology member, I think either L. Ron Hubbard went crazy and secluded himself a la Howard Hughes or he one day decided to quit all the crap and go back to being an author but before he was able to, his chief lieutenants shanghaied him and pretended he was alive a la Weekend at Bernies -- a very long Weekend at Bernie's, since Hubbard's "self-imposed" seclusion stretched for decades.

Then you have the typical conman who let his followers get a little too carried away: Shoko Asahara of the Aum Shinrikyo cult out of Japan. His group went rogue and gassed dozens of commuters on a Tokyo subway. In my opinion, Shoko was just another guy who bilked rich business men out of their fortunes. Shoko promised disciples the ability to levitate even though he would never demonstrate it publicly demonstrate since it would "cheapen" the act. However he did distribute poorly Photoshopped brochures of Shoko and his closest followers floating off the ground. Some leaders know they are frauds, where others are outright delusional and truly believe they are divine; I think Shoko had a good thing going for himself and just fell asleep at the wheel when it came time to reign in his most radical followers. He now faces a death sentence.

Floyd Landers, star of Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader takes on many characteristics of many of the cult leaders I've researched as well as traits from what I call 'everyday cults.' You can read more about Floyd here.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Todd on Todd: Comedic Influences

2009-01-15T04:53:00.001-08:00

Instead of describing my whole self in one of these blog entries, I'm going to focus today on my comedic influences.

I can safely say that my comedic perspective was crystallized at an early age thanks to the mass consumption of both The Three Stooges and The Far Side. I probably watched at least 4 episodes of The Stooges from age 3 to about about 14. Those are pretty much my formative years.

I also read The Far Side nearly every night since age 8 all the way through college, and after college, I always received a Far Side calender as a holiday present. The one thing I can say about my relationship with The Far Side is that the jokes I thought were funny at age 8 aren't as funny now, and the ones that didn't register back then are hilarious to me now.

Sure, I've watched Seinfeld, Cheers, The Cosby Show, a little Monty Python, but nothing in the dosage range of either of the aforementioned media. The Three Stooges and The Far Side have transformed me into a cyborg: half human, half slapstick absurdist.

I didn't realize how much The Three Stooges in particular influenced me until I started watching the shorts again on DVD. One of my running gags is anytime a goat is mentioned, whether it be goat's milk, a petting zoo, Lucifer, etc., I always baaaaa something out.

"How's the goat cheese, Todd?"

"I l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ve it"

"Isn't that a cute baby goat?"

"Y-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-s!"

"Do you believe in the devil?"

"He's b-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-d"

I always thought my goat voice was something original, and then again, I'm wrong. A month ago, I'm watching Curly milk a goat (you know where this is going), and he fills up a jar and pours a glass for him and a girl. The begin drinking the goat milk and both of them begin bleating and talking like a goat.

I was like, "So that's where I got that from... Damn."

With The Far Side, I think you can see it's influence in my life in that I always find humor in the most improbable of situations. Somehow Gary Larson is able to stack up many layers and levels of absurdity and it never gets in the way of the joke. Like the one about the obese cavemen watching a slide show on Stegosaurus anatomy. First of all, cavemen had to be fit, and they certainly did not have the technology to host a slide show presentation, plus their language skills would not have allowed them to speak of Stegosauri with such nuanced detail. NEVERMIND the fact that dinosaurs and humans never lived together (no offense Creationists)...

Somehow, Gary Larson was able to diffuse our aversion to such improbabilities and directed our attention to the punchline. What's more ironic, is that the anatomical part the cavemen were speaking of, the Thagomizer, has now been adopted by the scientific dinosaur community.

So what started off as off-the-charts surreal, has now become a peer-approved part of reality. Yay for Gary Larson.

When it comes to Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader, I basically see The Three Stooges and The Far Side in its pipes and plumbing. Floyd's cult is nothing more than a Stooges entourage and the fact that Floyd is married to someone who is not aware of his status is the Far Side element that everyone not only accepts, but enjoys.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Read more about the Creative Team.

Retro Post - 8/21/2006

2009-01-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

This blog entry was originally posted on August 21, 2006 regarding my attempt to get as many people to vote for me on the given date. -- Todd

YO!
Who do you love?
ME?
Why soitenly?
Wanna see me get to the finals and make y'all proud?
Then click the link below. Scroll down and vote for me.
Tell your friends to do the same.
If so inclined, reload the browser and vote again!
Thanks!
Love you!

If you came across this without reading one or the other complementary posts, I suggest you do to get the whole story.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Retro Post - 9/5/2006

2009-01-14T20:00:00.000-08:00

This blog entry was originally posted on September 5th, 2006 regarding my recent luck in becoming a finalist for a contest at the New York Independent TV Festival. -- Todd

Dear friends, as you know, I entered my TV show idea, Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader, into a contest where 700 participants were narrowed down to 50 and narrowed down to 10. I now fly to NYC on the 13th (my 30th birthday) and pitch the show on the 14th. Thank you for voting back on the 21st. I know so many of you took time to vote a lot, so an extra thank you to you guys.

It took a while to get official word because some folks were cheating by setting up voting programs. For example, on my day the vote tally was 17,000 and on Wednesday it was 1.6 million.

For those of you wondering what happens between now and when I win the contest, please read the following that came from the festival director:

The live pitch event will run as follows:

One at a time the finalists pitch videos will be shown on the big screen. They will then be asked a question or questions by the panel of judges. Based on this the 15 finalists will be reduced to 5. The 5 remaining finalists will be asked a series of questions by the jury. They will definitely ask about details of your first episode. They will definitely ask how you see your show fitting in on IFC (I would recommend spending some serious time watching IFC). Other questions will be tailored to the specific pitches. Based on this round, the winner will be decided.

If any of you have advice on how to pitch a show, lemme know. Otherwise, thanks again for voting.

Todd

If you came across this without reading one or the other complementary posts, I suggest you do to get the whole story.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Retro Post - 9/20/2006

2009-01-14T19:56:00.000-08:00

This blog entry was originally posted on my personal MySpace account on September 20th, 2006 regarding my experience in a contest at the NYC Independent Television Festival that happened the same month. -- Todd

The Verdict

Sorry for not posting earlier. You probably figured that I'd post right away if I won, and I didn't.

But I'm not sad, despondent or giving up.

Instead, I am focusing on new means to create the show and get it up and running.

The trip to NYC helped give me clarity and focus on how to achieve my goal. So if I didn't go to NYC as a finalist, I wouldn't have gone to the seminars on Saturday that helped me hone and shape my idea and how to sell it. Besides, it's not like I was waiting around for this contest, I was still developing it even before I entered it. So there.

For those of you interested, the winning spot was "Dictator Island", a cartoon about 10 dictators trapped on an island, competing in activities and in each episode one of them dies. The other four that made the final cut were zany/flashy upon first glance: Da Bidness: an important black poet turned hip-hop artist; Team XMA: a black belt karate kid who fights terrorists; Pick-a-Flix: the Internet audience picks the plot, scene, budget, etc; Clown School: a show about a prestigious four year university for clowns.

After my clip was shown, I gave a two-minute pitch about the first show followed by two questions: "What will you do to make sure the lead female character is nothing more than a bumbling idiot" and "Have you thought about making your show into a cartoon?"

I gave an in-depth review of the character to assure her my lead female wasn't a stereotypical idiot and I told her in regards to the second question that I'd be open to the idea of turning the show into a cartoon, I just haven't met any animators. Oh, she did say that my show was way off the charts in creativity.

Looking back, my show simply wasn't what the Independent Film Channel was looking for... one of the panelists offhandedly said that they get a lot of new viewers through channel surfing and I inferred that to get people to stay, they're looking for something wildly visual, as exemplified by the five who made the final cut.

So no, I didn't kick myself going "Darn, if only I made my show into a cartoon..." because the Todd doesn't lick boots -- if I were to turn it into a cartoon, I'd do it because it was the best way to tell my story, not because I wanted to please some random TV exec.

Besides the pitching experience, which was great and thrilling, I got to meet lots of cool people like other tv show developers, agents, writers, etc. I sat on the first row of every seminar and was the first to ask questions "Mr. Producer, I have to two 'quick' questions and my first one is..." I asked a followup question during most seminars too.

I didn't get anyone's contact info partly because a) there wasn't anyone there who I thought could REALLY be the one to REALLY help me, and b) my conscience kept telling me "don't bother." Those who know me know I don't hold back so if I had a feeling to be reserved, then I'd best stick with it.

Next steps/Big Picture: 1) Put together a business/creative proposal -- good enough to attract quality people (talent, producers, business people) to my team. If I get a good team I can 2) produce a killer scene for big wigs and the public to view and 3) come up with a killer marketing plan so that the public joins the bandwagon and important people view it and once the important people call me, we're definitely cooking with gas.

Todd

If you came across this without reading one or the other complementary posts, I suggest you do to get the whole story.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Pitching the Show in 2006

2009-01-14T19:30:00.000-08:00

During the summer of 2006, I happened to find an contest that the Independent Film Channel was hosting in NYC. All they wanted was a minute long pitch for a TV show idea and the winner would get a budget and chance for the show to really be on the IFC.

Stephanie and I filmed the pitch and I uploaded it and crossed my fingers. A few weeks later I got an email stating that my pick was one of the semi-finalists and it's best I tell all my friends and family to vote online on such-and-such date because the top 10 vote-getters become finalists.

I busted my hump, even to the point of printing up business cards and passing them out to everyone I knew. The time came and indeed I made it to the top ten. I felt really loved that night; so many people knew about my idea and made an effort to help out. Thanks to everyone that voted.

Peter, Andy and I flew out to NYC on my 30th birthday. We ate at the Carnegie delicatessen and settled in for the night. The contest venue was a dark theater. The contestants were seated on the first two rows. I made friendly with the other contestants, hoping that I could sniff their fears and spot their weaknesses. I was contestant 2 (or was it 5?). They showed my pitch and people laughed! It was amazing -- complete strangers liked my idea! Then came questions from the panel: "Your wife character... how are you going to avoid making her into a stereotypical bubblehead?"

The judge asked a good question, since at the time, we were creating Mandy to be someone who was very much in love with Floyd, but at the same time, too busy with her career to be pay much attention to Floyd's activities. Another question asked was whether or not I thought about turning it into a cartoon. I told her that it seemed like an idea that could be explored, but I had zero experience with producing a live-action show much less an animated one.

Funny she mentioned it, when it came time to narrow down the selection to five, I was not one of them. The ones picked were somewhat eccentric in their style, much like a cartoon generally is. One was a show about ninja kids fighting terrorists, another was about a clown school, the third was a puppet show where people could vote for next week's plot, and I believe the fourth was blingy hip hop entourage type show. The one that won was a cartoon: Dictator Island. The concept was nice, 10 dictators, one island, the winner gets a jet ski. I found out just last month that he actually produced the show, and here it is............!

So we didn't win the contest, but I did learn a lot. The most important thing I gained was that for the first time, I knew that people who didn't know me liked the idea. Until that point, it could have just been my friends being nice to me.

Clearly, these judges don't know what a good idea is.

It gave me a lot to talk about too. Whenever I brought up the show, I now could tell them about my experience in New York City. This came in handy when I met Rainn Wilson's father since I asked him where he was from, he said he was from outside NYC. I said I just came back from there... pitching a TV show. He said, "Do you watch The Office? My son is Rainn Wilson."

For those wanted to read more about what went down the days before and after the contest, please read one or two of the reposts.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Todd on Andy

2009-01-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

The Andy Hogue

I met Andy a long time ago, at a bowling alley far far away. It was my cousin's graduation party, several months before he had his epiphany to attend seminary school. At the party, there were many people I never met, Andy was one of them. He was wearing a Transformers t-shirt, many years before the live-action movie came out and even before wearing ironic t-shirts became ubiquitous.

I normally don't talk to strangers, especially at parties, but I recognized the Autobot logo and made some sort of comment to Andy. Somehow he segued a discussion about Optimus Prime into a conversation about eternal life. Andy then invited me to a Bible Study and we've been friends ever since. He's actually moved to Austin and is now friends with one of my friends. Whatever... he was my friend first.

Nowadays, many years have passed and I am still a Baha'i and Andy is still a conservative evangelical Christian. I attended many of his Bible studies up in Denton and he even attended some Baha'i firesides down in Dallas. Unlike other religious people who resort to violence when opinions differ, Andy and I solve our theological disagreements over a thumb war, always best two out of three, and no false starts or psyche outs allowed.

Andy always liked the idea of the show idea and was with me during my biggest break when I got invited to pitch the idea at the New York Independent TV Festival back in 2006. Ever since then we've been collaborating on episode ideas, story arcs, and characters. His sense of humor is different enough to where there's not a lot of overlap.

The first time I heard Andy cuss was in 2002 during the movie Star Trek: Nemesis. I remember a scene where Data got sucked into outer space and was flying around. I turned to Andy and said, "I think this is where Star Trek jumped the shark." He laughed and said, "No Shit."

He's cussed since then but it's usually when quoting someone else.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Todd on Matt

2009-01-14T18:08:00.000-08:00

I want to tell you about my friend Matt. Matt and I met in Hebrew School in third grade. He was one grade higher than most of the kids in our class. So you know what that meant? He was the tallest.

Matt was not only the tallest Jewish child in our Hebrew School, he also had the thickest glasses of anyone I knew. Come to think of it, he still has the thickest glasses of anyone I know.

Sadly, we weren't very close friends in Hebrew School. We didn't invite each other to our Bar Mitzvahs. You see, you invite everyone to your Bar Mitzvah, so the fact that neither one of us got an invitation, it shows you how far we drifted apart at the onset of puberty.

Fast forward six years later, it's my senior year in high school and Matt and I became friends again since we both happened to have the same mutual friends. Then I graduated and went off to college. I wasn't to see Matt for at least another 10 years.

After my historic trip to New York City where I pitched my show to the Independent Film Channel, I learned that perhaps I should animate the show. One of my friends, and I don't remember who, advised me to talk to Matt. He said that Matt is still into comic books and might be a good match.

In Hebrew School, I remember Matt always having comic books. Two in particular I remember was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (way before it became a cartoon and action figure line) and Maus, the comic about the mice and cats in Nazi death camps. I also remember Matt drawing pictures of us during my senior year in high school. So I figured it would be worth finding out if Matt fit the bill.

So I found Matt, working at a bookstore, and he seemed interested in the idea, though a little weary. I invited him out for pizza dinner and I busted out my laptop and gave him my proposal. After much trepidation (I'd later find out that Matt thought I was selling him on Amway or blackmailing him), he drew the first sketch of Floyd. After that initial sketch, I hired Matt to draw up all the characters and then some. I think he loved them as much as I have.

A year later, Matt and I are more comfortable with each other, which is great since a good Amway salesman such as myself needs to be patient with his potential downline. This also means that he's collaborated on the script, added some great jokes and concepts, and has lent his voice to Gramm and Mr. Stegman the Bureaucrat.

Look at us now! So handsome and smart!

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Hallucinating Lines

2009-01-14T14:18:00.001-08:00

This happened a while ago, but it's still worth reading now.

Matt had been drawing up the art in pencils and I've been scanning them in and learning Adobe Illustrator so I can digitize it. To digitize the work, you basically create a layer over the pencils and use a Bézier pen to trace over the pencil lines. Once you do that, you can easily fill in color, squash and stretch the art to any size or position, and best of all, you can export the art into Flash so you can animate the stuff.

Learning the Bézier pen isn't easy at first and it requires some lead time to learn all the ins and outs. After many hours of sitting in front of the computer with my Wacom Tablet in my lap, I've mastered the Bézier pen like Inigo Montoya mastered fencing. What took me three hours to do on one day, only too about 20 minutes about three weeks later. I found the six-fingered man.

However, this did not happen without consequences. One night, after a long day of digitzing many of Matt's sketches, I was having dinner with Moms. We're in the waiting area, having a beverage, and I start looking at the corner of the wall where the crown moulding pieces meet. Just then, out of the cracks, black lines started following the crown moulding all around the ceiling, then the lines continued down the wall and onto the floor where all the tiles began to be traced with lines.

I was involuntarily digitizing my entire field of vision.

This meant I had at the very least, earned my yellow belt in Illustrator. I had broken through the beginner level and I knew this because I began hallucinating.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

For those still interested in transcendence, read the Dreaming in Frames entry.

Dreaming in Frames

2009-01-14T13:58:00.000-08:00

So the other night, while my neighbors were partying, I fell asleep and began to dream. Mind you, this was after pulling off another day where I was animating for about five hours. I dreamed that I woke up and walked upstairs to tell my neighbors to keep it quiet. I was outside my body I began to direct my body to the door with my mind.

My body approached the door too quickly and I was like, "CUT! Too fast, let's add about 8 frames to stretch it out. Rolling... okay, good speed but let's cushion in so that when I approach the door, it conveys a little hesitation. Rolling, perfect! Now cue, the door knock... dammit, the sound file is about two frames too late, cutting back... rolling, okay great! Let's take five and we'll work on the three-second-long door opening sequence, which we can finish in about two hours.

Anytime I've ever tackled something new, I needed to become one with the project. When I was in cancer education, I learned everything there was to know about prostate cancer; when I spent a semester learning about Malcolm X in graduate school, I became Malcolm X. Even when I began to learn Illustrator so I could digitize Matt's artwork, I started hallucinating lines.

There's always that moment when you know you've begun to master something, so when I start dreaming in frames, then that's a good sign that I'm getting the hang of this little Flash animation program,

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

The Soundbooth Sessions

2009-01-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Here's an update on what has been my busiest single day since officially starting the Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader project three years ago.

So the script has been written for a while now, I've learned enough Flash to animate cartoons, and subsequently I've been working on the animated short for the intro to the website. At a certain point, I had to record voices so I pulled the trigger the other day at Menza Music in Dallas.

I was being ambitious in thinking I could record all 350+ lines of dialogue in a morning, and about 35 lines in and an hour and a half later, I knew that I'd have to pick up the pace. I ended up recording about 80% of the dialogue by 4pm.

Here are my thoughts. I think they'd be valuable to those doing anything similar:

Firstly, I'm glad I got professional voice actors to do the brunt of the voiceover work. You need people who are in their element, know the nuance of the art, are able to take direction well, are able to be in a box for a while without their voice giving out, etc. It's cool to have a few cameos from friends if they are unique enough.

Secondly, Mark, the sound guy, was right in saying to hire a script supervisor. This person marks all the takes you like and will inform you of any missing lines and other things less detail-oriented people would miss. They are invaluable in saving you time and money in the editing booth.

So if I had to do things different, this is what I'd do. First of all, I would have saved enough money to do the job over three or four days so that we could start each session refreshed. At a point, I had to hurry things along since Kevin had to go back to Austin that night and getting him back up to Big D would have been difficult. Hat's off to Kevin, who was a real sport in staying late and upbeat the whole time. Same goes with Mark and Eve (the script super) who worked later than originally planned. Also to Jayna who got put off to the margins while we finished up with Kevin.

When you are hurried, you end up recording less takes than you should and you risk compromising on quality since there's a payoff between getting exactly what you want and getting as much as possible done. Thankfully, Kevin is a real pro and 95% of what we got down is just what the doctor ordered. The big plus in stretching it out is that you can have a meeting with the sound editor and voice actors in the afternoon so that you can review what is recorded so that the next session is that much better.

For instance, the voices Kevin created were still new and fresh and varied a little here a little there. One of the voices needed to sound like a fast, yet neurotic John Wayne, and at a certain point he started sounding like a drunk and despondent Grover from Sesame Street. I was able to catch it and retake, so no problem, but it would have been great to record a little bit of the three main characters he did, listen to them together and then make adjustments and additions for the next session.

Mark also recommended recording takes with maximum variance (do one take angry, again as groveling, and a third one of something in between) because you never know what you'll ultimately want once you start editing. I didn't have the luxury of doing that too much, but on the whole, I did get enough variance for each character to make them multi-dimensional.

In short, I wish I was able to make this my full time job so I could get everything exactly as I want it. Until then, I will work hard to make sure I produce an uncompromised product, even if it takes a little longer.

Enjoy the slideshow.

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg

Introduction: The Purpose of this Blog

2009-01-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends,

The purpose of this blog is to inform you about all relevant aspects of the show, including its beginnings, its contents, some behind-the-scenes info as well as anything else that's both interesting and relevant to the upcoming cartoon series: Don't Tell My Wife I'm a Cult Leader.

Some of the mainstay categories will include:

1. Characters
2. Origins
3. Behind-the-Scenes
4. Future Plans
5. The Creative Team
6. Research

For Floyd,

Todd A. Steinberg