Inspiration

Genevieve Cote

Author...Illustrator...teacher...

An incredible human being.
My first introduction to Genevieve was through her book, Mr. King's Things. I did not know the woman at that moment but I was captivated by the books cover. Its pure white background juxtaposed with a sketchy black charcoal line and mediated by a gentle yellow wash of watercolour fill. I instantly wanted to dive into the book and see more. Doing so did not disappoint. Each page had more of the same appeal but then I met MR. King. His character so different. A slightly selfish little lion whose action resulted in an unexpected outcome. Mr. King meant well but was a little short sighted. However, in the end he realized his mistake and found a uniquely creative way to fix his mistake.
 The story was so full yet so simple.
 I turned to the back flap to see who had created such a wonderful story and who was responsible for the lovely illustrations.

And that was my first introduction to Genevieve Cote.

The first time we met in person was when I pitched the idea of the show/series to her. We sat in one of the board rooms, she was instantly recognizable. We had several questions for her regarding the origin of Mr. King and some thoughts she had for him and his world. I then launched into my pitch, which couldn't have gone better. I believe she thought she was witnessing a magic trick as everything she had described about Mr. King was in the pitch. The main strategy being to maintain the "Look". I know she was prepared to sacrifice the "Look" in favour of production. I smiled  and grew increasingly excited/relieved having one more trick up my sleeve. The animated promo. We brought her to one of the editing suites which had it ready and waiting. A minute long the promo brought her creations to life right before her eyes. The sketchy lines. The watercolour texture fill. But the part that sealed the deal I believe, was the spirit and message presented. She turned to me and said something in french, the only phrase I recognized was "Mon Dieu". But she was very happy which obviously made me very happy. Whether she understood the significance of it or not I told her I was hopeful that we would have a similar relationship as Charles Shultz and Bill Melendez had. (Charlie Brown Christmas, etc.)
We have met many times since then and though we live very far apart, Montreal/Toronto, we seem to pick up exactly where we left off from her previous visits. Mutual admiration and, I believe, inspiration.

Nissae Isen AKA Mr. King and
Genevieve Cote

Season 2?

So a few weeks ago The Remarkable Mr. King was brought to MIPCOM, a bi-annual trade show for animation and children's entertainment. Apparently MR. King was the 'sleeper hit' for Nelvana. I hear a few sales were made...Finland, South Africa, Middle East, Israel... and am told many more to come.
As a result I have been given the go ahead to start thinking about and writing 6 scripts for another season. Posted below is my first Springboard/premise for Season 2 of The Remarkable Mr. King.

The Remarkable cast of The Remarkable Mr. King

I couldn't have asked for a more amazing cast of actors to work with. And with us in all of the photos is the incredible Kim Hurdon, voice director extraordinaire. I can't think of one record session where our stomachs didn't hurt from laughing so much. A remarkable experience for all of us.

The Art of Mr. King

If there ever were to be an Art of Mr. King it would start with these...

A full colour opening

Animated by the very talented Brian Grzech.
Music by Erica Procunier

Art Director vs No Art Director

The short story...

Don Gauthier is my Art Director. He helped expand/create the visual world of Mr. King from Genevieve Cote's original illustrations in her books. Currently Don has been pulled away to work on establishing a style for another production. This is a problem. I still need my Art Director.

Long story...

Genevieve's illustrations were what drew me to Mr. King right from the beginning. However, moving from book to series meant we needed to expand her world while staying true to her style. Although I had a pretty good idea of what this world would look like I needed an experienced Art Director to help bring it out. This is where Don came in. We were able to work back and forth, honing what I refer to as the stylistic language of the series. Moving into production Don has been able to provide Keys for settings indicated within the scripts. Keys providing our background artists a guide to ensure the locations indicated in the storyboard are on style and adhering to this stylistic language. 

However... Due to studio requirements, and perhaps an assumption that he had created enough momentum for our BG artists to continue on by themselves, Don was moved off Mr. King and on to another production. In my opinion, this has been too early and his guidance is still required. 

You see my opinion is that an Art Director is a full time job on a production. It is an immense responsibility to oversee all BG artists interpretations of the Art Directors keys. A mentor to facilitate the language and to interpret how the Director may be reacting to their work in order to keep the production on style. Since he has been gone I find 90% of my time looking at designs for approvals has been spent on backgrounds. Not very efficient from a production point of view. I have voiced my concerns with my producer and am hopeful that I will have my Art Director back, at least in a 50% capacity, in the near future.

But lesson learned...Do Not underestimate the value of a good Art Director.

Animatic challenges

The Remarkable Mr. King is comprised of 3 X 7 minute shows per episode, for a total of 13 Episodes.
The scripts have translated into boards which, when assembled into their animatics,  come in around 7:30. That's pretty accurate writing! That's pretty clear boarding!

However, There was a moment which I remember where I sort of lost focus on scripts. I believe it was around the time the animation department started up. There may have also been a bit of script fatigue. I use this term to describe losing touch with my own rules on what is necessary for the story. (There are 39 of them you know.)

 Anyway, by not concentrating as hard as I should have I had a few animatics come in at a whopping 9:40!
9:40 on a 7:00 show is quite significant. (Please note the page count in the scripts were still 10-11 pages which has been standard throughout the season.) But thankfully it only took a couple of days to get the animatic cut back down to time without sacrificing the story. This was with very minimal re-boarding and only a few additional pick ups. How was this possible you may ask?

I asked myself that same question and have come to the conclusion that because our stories follow a strict 3 act structure everything I needed to tell the story was there. Mr. King has his like that leads to his Big Think. His Big Think leads to a few mishaps as a result. His Thoughtful Think where his reflection leads to his resolution. It's there in every script. So what I ended up cutting was some funny dialogue, some business with secondary characters which was fun but didn't significantly advance the story.

Animatics in both of these cases were sent out for notes at our standard rough cut time. Notes from the group were minimal and not unlike any other episode I've sent out.

*Though Mr. King is an internally produced series I believe that by having a good story structure with clear characters in place you will be able to solve many challenges whether dealing with internal or external clients.

R & R

Retakes and Revisions

When working in television/episodic you often have to make a choice regarding the quality of the final product. I have worked on series where the budget is quite large, resulting in numerous retakes and revisions in order to get to the highest quality possible. Mr. King does not have that budget. Not even close. In fact, we have one of the smallest budgets in recent memory. So when it comes time for calling retakes/revisions one has a difficult decision to make. What to call? What is the level that one aim to achieve. This goes for all departments. Storyboards, Location design, Animation, FX, Music.

What do you do when time, money and crew are short?

In short...Know your show.

Know what show you are making.

Ensure the show you are making falls within the budget attributed to it.

Be as clear as possible with your direction, in all areas.

Find a common language with each department to ensure efficient and accurate communication.

And, you don't have to settle. You do have to be able to adapt however.

Sometimes things don't go as expected. You pick your battles but you still have battles. Push for quality but have realistic expectations for what is possible without losing the morale of your crew.
We're all in it together, along for the journey. And at the end of the day I want everyone to be proud of what they've created and to look back on our production knowing it's the absolute best we could do.

Oh, and so far, Mr. King has exceeded my expectations, from all departments.

The pressure of an opening

I was tasked with coming up with an idea and subsequent board for the opening credits of Mr. King. The one catch was that it needed to be 30 seconds in length. Normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem as most opening themes today are on the peppy/high energy side. The plan for MR. King however, was to be a series that had a quiet type of energy. I also wanted to steer clear of an opening that had lyrics. " Mr. King, yeah, Mr. King, yeah, he's so remarkable...that Mr. King, yeahhhhhh."

Booo...

I've always loved the opening musical theme to Babar. Thought it was sweet, pretty, and beautiful. And recognizable. Norm Beaver, one of the heads of our music department, cast the net and we received 10 submissions of various themes. Long story short I chose a piece, the rough version you'll hear in the attached video, from Erica Procunier. Now that I had the piece of music the boarding could begin. My initial thought was for the opening to have a series of backgrounds representing each of the characters homes, pop up like a pop up book. One BG swinging toward camera only to be replaced by another. I tried this first and determined it didn't work. Back to the drawing tablet I tried another version where each location would" paint on. Again this didn't work as there were too many characters homes to show. I then tried a different approach entirely by having Mr. King paint his castle home as each character came to watch. Though it kind worked time wise I finally determined that no one, the audience most importantly, would know what the heck was going on. I grew increasingly more frustrated and also knew the clock was ticking as far as deadlines go.
On a Wednesday night, a week ago from this posting, I decided to just throw in the towel and stop. I'd have to ask for some sort of extension in the morning. Went to bed. The next morning I arrived at work and decided to open the very first pass/attempt that I had boarded. I stared at it for about 30 seconds then decided to cut my first background, which was Mr. King's house. This was all it took and it timed almost perfectly to the music. Obviously I had to climb a mountain to fully understand what I had at the base. Thankfully it has been well received by our group of commenters and I am happy to share the leica for the opening, with rough temp music, below.
Looking very much forward to the final product.

Animation, almost the final frontier

When our production started I knew our studio was going to be very busy. I also knew the city was going to be very busy. As a result when it came time for crewing up animators I knew it was going to be a challenge to secure senior type animators. Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with junior types and in fact readily welcome them. But there was a fear that I would be "stuck" with an entire team of inexperienced animators. Animation, after all, is what this is all about.

Judy Leung, our studio manager, was tasked with crewing up Mr. King. It was a challenge to be sure.
Long story short...We hit the Jack Pot! Judy has managed to put together a great group of animators that to date have pretty much nailed the look which I was hoping for. All but one of the animators are new to our studio. All of them have fantastic attitudes. All seem very happy to be working on the show. And most importantly, we have a great balance of experience.

I like to think the series is animator friendly. It helps that I was an animator for many years and thus have structured the show to allow for achievable deadlines. I will post samples of some of this  beautiful work in the near future.