Greetings all,

Our article came out in the CJN. Read it here.T-P028-0715CL

HOLY COW!
WAY too long since I’ve updated.
In fact, I’ve updated the site, but not this page.
So, as I’m sure you’ve noticed the trailer is up, it’s a rough animation, but I think it’s awesome.

Lots of things are in the works, that I can’t really talk about just yet, but it’s all good news, guaranteed.

We are going to be featured in this week’s CJN, no idea what it says, thought I’m sure it’s going to be great, and a BIG thanks to Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf (the author of the article).

We have a youtube channel now.

Good things to come, woo!

Thank you everyone for your patience, and sorry again for the lack of updates.

Sorry about the lack of updates lately, we’ve been kinda running around.

Soooo updates!

Firstly, the trailer is almost done. We had some delays, but that’s okay. Glen and his team are working diligently, and solidly, and it should be done asap.

We also recorded a mini interview (about 17 minutes long) with the four main actors (and mention and recording of other actors). We’ll explain why we made that later. It covers the creation of the show, and character profiles and all that jazz.

Everything will be uploaded to the site when it finishes.

We ALSO have a facebook page now. Come on over and “Like” us, and send us out to all of your friends
We ALSO have a forum now. It’s basically empty, fill it with stuff if you want.

Hmm thirtieth entry... I think I should do something exciting...

Oh I KNOW! We recorded the trailer today!

Hurray! Everyone did incredibly well.

SPECIAL THANKS TO IAN MCLAREN the audio technician today! Amazing!

Check out the “Episodes” we added a 2 minute weird video
of us all exhausted after recording for a few hours.

Kennedy Animation Inc. is officially on board, I’ll be getting preliminary pictures tomorrow.

Trying to organize the actors all together to record the two minute trailer.

You guys should see the trailer up here by the end of April. WOO!

LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN!

WELCOME ABOARD GLEN!

Great news people,
I’m pretty sure we have just hired Kennedy Animation Inc. to do our trailer. It may need to be rewritten to shorten it a little, but that’s okay.

Since I’m expecting an incredible quality of animation, (if you know Glen Kennedy’s work, you’d expect that too) we might be slowing down on the production of the shorts... or rather... not starting, heh.

Once we have the best, we don’t want to downgrade.

What we CAN do with this though, is bring the trailer to some networks, and get some funding, and hopefully, be able to pay Kennedy Animation to continue to make our shorts and hopefully the full series.

This is very good news. Once the trailer is written to match the timeframe that Glen deems proper, we’ll begin recording.
Once that’s done, we’ll post the audio on the site.
Then about 30-40 days from that point, the animation should be done, and the trailer will be featured on the site.

As I see how the animation is, I’ll be posting my observations, and opinions. This is where the creation of this production blog comes into fruition. I made this blog so people can see what the process is, and now we’re incorporating animation, one of the aspects I’ve never been involved with before.

Let’s keep it going! WOO!

News news news,
The trailer has been written and pretty much finalized. It’ll be about 3 minutes long and should be tons of fun.

Unfortunately, Connor, our animator, dropped out today. 100%

He submitted a quick animation, and it was decent, but he decided it was too much work, and he didn’t think he’d do it justice. We wish him the best of luck in all of his endeavours, and hope he keeps in touch.

So, anyone reading this, if you know of animators, please contact me at main[at]thedarkcomedy.com

I do have a few others that are trying out, but we would like this sooner rather than later.

Okay, onwards and upwards.

I know I’ve been gone for almost a month, I really wanted to be able to pass on incredible news before posting, however, no dice.

I THOUGHT I had an animator all in the bag, and was going to post his demo work on here for you, but he hasn’t finished it yet. Understandable, since he’s in school still, but as it stands, we’re not sure if we’re keeping him. At this rate, short 1 would be finished in 2011.

On another note, Short #6 and Short #7 are now completed. 6 introduces a new hangout for the crew, while 7 puts them in a sticky situation. Both shorts are fun.

The cast as it stands:

DEADPAN: Izzy Benjamin
THE CON: Darth Israel
MARY-ANNE: Issa Bean
QUIZZY: Jasmine Israel

Yes, my 4 new actors have taken to using my name (I’m the writer). Since we’re online, well sure, why not?

More news to come, hopefully FAR sooner.

Greetings all,
No, I haven’t disappeared, and no the project is not dead, we’re just moving at a little slower pace right now. Though many things are happening in the background. Not much I can talk about just yet, but things are good, I promise.

Short #5 has been completed. It runs at a little different pace to the rest of the shorts so far, but we wanted to start expanding on the world, but I think it’s similar enough to keep with the flow.

I’ve begun writing Short #6, and it too will expand on the world a little more.

Liz has declined the role of Julia, and I’m sad to see her go.
Sydney, will be playing the part of Mary-Anne
We have auditioned a few people for Quizzy, and I’m pretty sure I know who I want. I have a few more people to read for her, but we’ll see.

With the casting, for the shorts, nearing completion, production will hopefully begin soon.

Things are still rocking, and I’ll update you with more when I find out more.

Also, check out the Dark Thoughts, section, those blogs are starting up again, though at a slower pace.

Hi everyone,
So I’ve been pretty low key for a bit because there was a LOT of stuff rolling around.

On Tuesday, I pitched the show to Decode Entertainment. We were pleasantly turned down.

I say pleasantly because all of the reasons for the rejection were positive.

I went in, the pitch went well. They liked me, they liked the content, the characters, the whole thing. However, there’s no market for a show like ours on TV anymore. 10 - 15 years ago, the show would have sold in moments, but not today. People don’t have the patience to invest in a serial type television show anymore. Television, apparently, is something people watch to veg out and not thing at all anymore.

To quote the lovely woman I pitched to, “Your IQ is far too high for this medium.”

They liked me enough, that if I come up with some children show ideas they want to hear them, but not this. It’s too complicated and involved.

It’s good news because we’re not setting the bar low, we’re going all out, and I’d not have it any other way.

SO! I need an animator still, and we’ll see where we can go from there.


Adam, has made some changes to the cast, and as it stands, though this isn’t necessarily permanent, Sydney will now be playing Quizzy and Mary, Liz, will hopefully be playing Julia, but that is up to her. The size of Julia’s role with depend on whether Liz plays her or not.


Well, let’s hope things pick up again.

Work news.

Well, we have possible great news, that we’re not going to share just yet. You’ll have to wait until next week.

Other good news, we started building our studio. The frame is up. Though due to warped walls we’ll need to buy caulking.

Tomorrow, we’re going to buy a staple gun and attach the insulation and the plastic covering.
If we have the time we’ll buy and attach upholstery to make it look pretty.
In the evening we’re going to drive down to my cousin’s place and pick up his old soundboard. Attach it to my desktop. Then grab my mic and stand.

Then Saturday day, pick up the second mic and stand. And if we can, carpeting for the floor, and carpeting or a comforter for the ceiling.

THEN Saturday afternoon, Syd and Liz will be there for our FIRST ever read through with the girls. (Of course it’s not a full read through because Andrew can’t be there, but that will come)

That’s it for now, more updates soon.

Rapidfire updates,
We are now Portmantoe Productions. I registered it last night.

We’ve chosen our Quizzy, welcome aboard Sydney Kondruss.

I’ve begun writing Short #5, should be done sometime today or tomorrow.

Beginning to build a studio today, which I hope to be done building by friday.

If all goes to plan, we’ll be recording Short #1 by this Friday or next.

I have a few ideas for animators, so hopefully this whole thing gets cleared up.

Update you soon.

Hi everyone,
Happy New Year to all of you who celebrated it.

Short #4 has been completed. It’s an amusing story... at least I think so. Writing it was interesting. I wrote it super fast. Fired it off to Adam, who immediately shot it down. Stating it was far too much of a sitcom. He worked on it for a while as we argued, and he shot it back to me. I shot down most of his reworking of it (he kept my general storyline and flow, he changed the dialogue). We argued a bit more, and fleshed it out together, and I have to say we have a decent end product that we’re both pleased with.

We have some animators contacting us, which is good. We’ll have to see where we’ll go with that.

I’m going to start Short #5 today.

No word from our Quizzy, but I’m pretty sure the girl we had in mind is still available.

At the pace we’re going, the first short may not be available by February 1st as we had hoped, but we should have about 10 shorts prewritten, and if we can we’ll at least have Short #1 recorded.

Anyhow, that’s where we are. More to come soon.

Hey all,
Quick update.
Short #3 has been rewritten and I can safely say it’s a full collaboration of Andrew, Adam, and myself. It’s high in action, has a great story, and has wonderful dialogue.
I am giving MAJOR kudos to both Adam and Andrew, they did a phenomenal job.

Now all we need now is an animator.

More to come.

More updates,
So Andrew wrote Short #3 tonight, I’ve given it a once over rewrite and will be further editing it tomorrow. It’s really good!

Short two is solid and good to go.

We have a potential voice actress for Quizzy, so hopefully all goes well.

Another update! WOO!

So short number one is 100% done. Edited, accepted, and ready to rock and roll.

Short number two is ALSO done! I’m going to be leaving it alone for a day or two before trying to edit it. It’s hilarious... at least I think so.

Again, Adam and I came up with it in the car, and once again, fleshed it out and I wrote it super quickly. Then Adam and I edited it on the fly, and it’s good.

We have some fun ideas for character blogs, and they’ll be going up soon.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season.

Pistons pumping

Well, I’ve written the script for our first animated short. It’ll likely run 5 - 10 minutes. It’s the first script of MANY to come.
Got the idea tonight with Adam in the car (around 21:00), and I’m surprised at how quickly we fleshed it out and even more so, how quickly I wrote it. He hasn’t seen it yet, I’ll send it to him tomorrow, let’s see how that goes.

Episode 1 ROUGH read is online.

Please keep in mind, animation makes a BIG difference (I just realized this).

Most of the jokes will make less sense without the actions and scenery visible.

The voices and perhaps some voice actors and dialogue are subject to change as we approach the actual pilot episode.

This is just for the die hards, who wanna see hear what we have so far.

Enjoy.

So now it’s been a VERY long time since the last update,
I wonder if you guys have noticed the differences in the site? Hmm? I know it’s really subtle but if you didn’t notice... EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT!

Well, here’s the deal. We are starting to do some off show work now. I can’t get into all of the details, but if all goes to plan the full relaunch of the website and all that jazz will be February 1st 2010.

We have LOTS of new stuff coming. But check out Dark Thoughts, which is a blog for all of the characters.
For example, right now there’s a post from The Con.... oh just check it out... reading will explain it better than I can.

As well, the show has been registered as an entity (as much as a written project can be copy-written).

As well, I’d like to officially welcome Elizabeth Larter onto the staff! Her position will become clearer in the near future, but she is now an official part of the team. So WELCOME WELCOME!

Okay,
It has been quiet long enough, so here we go with a few new updates.
I wished this would only be positive news, but I really should post the ups and downs of the whole experience, so I can recall it all.

Firstly, I spoke to an old teacher of mine, who is a vocal director, and he expressed interest. I haven’t told him much about the project yet, but hopefully once I do he’ll be fully on board. I don’t know how much cartoon directing experience he’s had, but I’m sure he’s great.

Secondly, I had a meeting with Jon, and I was informed, that because I don’t have any writing credits under my belt, I’m not going to be taken seriously. He is right. I need to buck up and get this pitch to be perfect. The rectification of this is that I need to get 3 Writing Executive Producers to be on board. Who will all read the script and help me edit it. The issue is that they need to be people I trust 100%, and they have to have proper credits under their belt. I just have to make sure that the show doesn’t get stolen.

The show idea is great, but if I’m not protected, I’ll just get fired, and have the show stolen from me. It’s a nice wakeup call. I feel as though I’ve fallen back a few steps though. Finding credited writers is tough enough, but I have to trust them to not steal from me... that seems near impossible.
I have one, Elley-Ray, and she agreed to let me put her name on the project. (G-d bless her!!!!)
And I think I have an idea for the other two, we’ll just have to wait and see.

So it’s not really bad news, but a wakeup call.

Thirdly, Jon and I will be reviewing pitching techniques later in the week, and all that jazz to prepare me for an upcoming meeting.

Lastly, I’ve let this faze me a bit, but not for long. I can do this!!!!

Slow update today,
No news on the big front yet. I will when it happens.

On a productive note, I wrote audition pieces for the characters today... well rather yesterday.

I think they pretty much explain who the characters are, and have a wide enough range for voice acting. I’ll post them up here once they’re all done.

More updates soon.

Hi all,
Well the bibles are printed, and BEAUTIFUL! Thank you Adam Zimerman!!!

I have mini versions to give to the staff at Decode, and that meeting is coming up, hopefully this week. Jon will tell me tomorrow.

I’ll keep you posted.

Here’s a teaser picture.

It’s been a few days once more; sorry about that.

Alright, more big news coming your way.

The content of the bible is COMPLETE! (Adam Zimerman is AWESOME!)

It looks incredible, and I’ll be printing it later this afternoon, HUZZAH!

So far only Adam, and myself have seen it, (and I forwarded a copy to my girlfriend.)

Some form of it will be uploaded here at some point or another.

I’ll keep you all informed as this week goes, hopefully, I’ll be meeting with Jon and Decode.

(Excuse the lack of sense this post might make, it’s 4:30 am)

Well big entry 10, so I should have big news....

WHICH I do!

Executive producer had a great meeting with Decode Entertainment, so, in the following weeks yours truly will be having a meeting with them.

Notes from Jon's meeting: Good artwork, good story, good characters, good project.

So, there we go, nice big news for Entry 10.

Let's see where we go!

Wow another 8 days,
So here's a brief update of what's up:
1) Jon has a meeting with Decode Entertainment this week.
2) Adam Z. is back in town, so well be designing the final bible.
3) Episode 3 is half done, and flowing well.

Well howdy everyone,
Today was a pretty big day. I met up with Jon Gross who took the script for episode one, and the bible, and the art from me. He did a quick flash through and basically said, "I'm going to talk to some animation companies, and we'll meet on Thursday to discuss pitch tactics, and then we're going to pitch it to Teletoon."
Then he expressed his interest in being the executive producer, and that means we're getting this going!

Second important news. I spoke to Scott McNeil on Saturday night. I offered him a role, specifically Tarpit which I wrote for him, and he graciously accepted. However, I think if it comes down to it, I just might give him Deadpan, and then I'll take Tarpit. Let's see how it goes and how much creative control I get.

So, welcome Jon and Scott to the project. Let's kick some BUTT!

Well happy halloween everyone.

Tonight Adam and I finished editing episode 2! It's very action heavy and a little lackluster in the dialogue department, but the episode REALLY flows well.

I also had the art printed up today and it looks INCREDIBLE.

Hopefully everything continues to go as planned.

Tomorrow, I think we'll begin work on episode 3.

KEEP ON MOVING!

It's annoying when things seem to grind to a halt.
I've been promised a phone call today, so we'll see how that goes.

The good thing is that I just received a phonecall from a different producer about a completely different project. If he likes my work on that, maybe I'll toss this one to him. I am focussed on the original producer, and company, but we'll have to see.
I just don't want to be jerked around. (That is a note to remind me of what happened so if I'm ever in that position I won't do it to someone.)

On a side note, it's just 8 days until Adam Z. comes back from his trip, meaning the bible should be ready afterwards.

Another fun thing, I decided it would be fun if I was able to cast my main character list in the exact way I wanted. I took a few moments to do it, but I did.

Jeff - Creator 1 of the series
Thomas - Creator 2 of the series
Mary - Not cast
Sam - Her model
Doug - A teacher from my old school (Who kind of sounds like Stan "The Man" Lee)
Eddie - Ed
Benjamin - In my dreams Kevin Conroy (More likely Adam P.)
Derek - The program coordinator at my old school

It was fun writing that up, we'll see how it goes.

Anyhow, if things pick up again, expect my blogs to become more frequent.

Woo, it's been 9 days since the last update.

Okay, HERE's the deal for now.

I have the final Art for the main 4 characters. I did some colour editing to them and I think they look great!
Jon called and we have a meeting on Monday.
My friend Adam is going to remake the bible for me into a presentable book, that'll be done when he comes back home, so November 6th or 7th.

Things are moving along. Adam and I still have to rewrite episode 2, but things are going well.

Okay, update over.

Here's a quick update.

We have the final main character 4 sketches coming in at some point today. More sketches will be coming over the weekend. The pitch meeting was delayed until next week, hopefully it'll be Monday. Major restructuring of the characters and their dialogue starts today, we'll see how that goes, since I need it to be done by Monday for the pitch.

Gotta keep this going!

Happy Tuesday,
I'm awake due to this annoying cough I have. However I want to write an update in my cough syrup induced fervour.
Daniel sent me the 4 pictures of the main characters and holy cow! I love them, I'll pass them on to Adam in the morning and see what he thinks, but I LOVE THEM.

Time to call Jon!

Let's get this going! WOO!

Just because I want to update, and no other real reason.
I edited episode one and the dialogue flows a little better.
I'm eagerly waiting for an email that should be coming tomorrow from Daniel that will contain the final character designs of my four main characters.
As soon as that happens, I'll be making my phone calls for the pitch meeting.

I'll keep you guys updated.

Also, look for new pages to pop up with character descriptions and the sort.

Alright, so I decided to make a production blog for the creation of this show. Hopefully I'll keep up to date with it, and things will actually move along.

So here we are.

So a quick list of what we have so far.

• We have two episodes, that need a little bit of editing for character flow, but for the most part, they're done.
• We have an AMAZING artist, his name is Daniel Simon and he KICKS ASS!
• We have Sketches for Deadpan, The Con, Mary, and Quizzy.
• We have a show bible (that will be uploaded to this site soon)

As more information becomes available I'll post it here.