Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

[Danimal]

That link worked. Definitely better than the last intro as far as animation, that song is still a bit grating though.

Do dogs get scabies? I thought it was farm animals. I suppose it doesn't much matter.

[Lukas]

Love the show, this is better than spongebob squarepants and adventure time combined! please let us know how Nickelodeon and CN respond.

[Scabiebabie]

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[sargumphigaus]

If you have contacts with Nickelodeon, how much Gak can you secure for me? I need a lot of gak for my experiment. I'm trying to make build sentient goo.

[AmigaMan]

I did see your orginal post but didn't have time to respond then.
I think your idea, if developed, could be quite good and the sort of zany cartoon series that seems so popular with kids at the moment. It's okay trying to do everything yourself if you are a great writer and understand how stories are constructed and can design appealing character's etc. I don't consider myself a great designer by any means. It takes me a long time to get a drawing to the stage where I'm anywhere near happy with it. You say you have a writer working with you now. It would probably be worth finding a good character designer before you start any animation at all. I'm sure you know this but concentrate on getting the story absolutely perfect first and make the character's individual personalities shine through before you do any animation.
I wouldn't use the character Wizard at all. Rig your character's and animate the walks and everything else yourself. Your character's need individual walks that help define them and not some generic walk cycle. It might help you to do one of the online animation courses such as Animation Mentor. I know people that have been transformed in their animation ability after completing AM. In your animation you appear to cycle almost everything but the cycles don't match up and things 'pop' and slowly return to a certain pose. It was difficult to understand why you hadn't noticed that? You obviously enjoy the creative process and doing the work yourself and I do admire you for doing so many films. Quite long films at that. Most animation enthusiasts never finish an animated film and you've done several so you deserve some credit for that atleast.

I'm at a loss to understand why it cost you so much to obtain the contacts list you have as all those are readily available in any one of the animation directories that can be purchased or simply by researching online.

People can just pitch their own projects. There doesn't seem much point in complicating things by involving someone else until it comes (hopefully) time to sign contracts.

I'm glad you've decided to stay with the forum. There's lots of help and advice available here and it would be silly to turn your back on it.

[Scabiebabie]

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[AmigaMan]

I suppose it depends who you are pitching to. My experience has been exactly the opposite of yours. Years ago I pitched a short to a broadcaster here in the UK. I had an animatic with me and screened it. They said "The animation would be better than that wouldn't it?". I had to explain again that it was just an animatic and not completed animation in any way. Luckily we did get to make the short so it must have been okay.

After that I pitched a pilot for a TV series to BBC. This was before DVD and I just had a copy on a VHS. The first thing the commissioning editor said was "Er, the colour isn't very good?" I had to explain it was a second generation VHS and the colour on the original 16mm film was perfectly fine

My experience is that those commissioning series often can't imagine anything beyond what they see infront of them. However, not all people are going to be the same I guess.

[lwaxana]

I thank the ones that told me about the name because "Scabies Babies" are plural and I had "Scabie babies" and that was wrong

I am not sure. "Scabies Babies" is like saying "dogs babies" or "humans babies." In this case the noun should be singular because it is an adjectival noun (being used as an adjective). But in the case of scabies, I don't know if there is a singular. It looks like the singular would be "scabies mite" rather than "scabie" or "scaby" because the word "scabies" originally described the scratching caused by the mites rather than the mites themselves. So the only way I can think of to make this grammatically correct would to go with "Baby Scabies." So baby is the adjective and scabies is the noun. But I wonder why not go with fleas or another type of mite that doesn't have the stigma associated with scabies?

[Danimal]

But I wonder why not go with fleas or another type of mite that doesn't have the stigma associated with scabies?

I would guess because of the rhyme factor. Baby Scabies is a better name, I think. It doesn't sound like it's trying to take from Muppet Babies.

[ddrake]

But I wonder why not go with fleas or another type of mite that doesn't have the stigma associated with scabies?

I would guess because of the rhyme factor. Baby Scabies is a better name, I think. It doesn't sound like it's trying to take from Muppet Babies.

What a journey it has been catching up on this thread! Wow. Just....

Not sure that the Title is the largest concern in the long run, but considering a "pitch to Nickelodeon and The Cartoon Network," I would agree that avoiding "Scabies" in the title (as well as in the real world) would probably be good advice. ;P

Although, that seems like it's supposed to be part of the "draw" to this particular concept. So I would say that Baby Scabies is most the "pleasing" to me for grammatical reasons. Yet, for some reason I feel like the poster username "ScabieBabie" has the most satisfying ring and look to it, both from keeping the rhyme intact but also upsetting the plurality of BOTH words to make it feel much more intentional.

On that note, project-wise, I would probably be more interested in a series that tells the story primarily of ONE "Scabie Babie," (who may or may not have a bunch of friends/family to interact with.) That way the story-telling can be much more focused. Now, I get that KIDS don't necessarily consciously care about "character" the same way an adult audience would, but that doesn't mean that you can or should ignore the development. It's not like "Hey, kids are stupid, so let's just show them some wacky cartoons hopping around and maybe make some money off of it." (not that I haven't seen that either)

But personally I would hope that character development and story are an integral part of EVERYONE's projects, especially if they are aimed toward children. It's more like "Hey, kids are "stupid" because they haven't lived that long yet. Let's try to HELP them learn about communication and interaction." (and maybe make some money off of it.)

Anyway, not to get on a rant about preferred content, just wanted to weigh in and wanted to keep it short.

So to sum up:

- Interesting concept. Needs some work in execution.

- Realistically identify audience. Simplify and focus for whatever that audience is.

- People in general aren't big fans of Scabies, but there's some humor to be found there. (but most likely "adult humor")

- Don't dumb things down for kids. (too much)


And while I'm at it I guess, for Lwaxana's suggestion, if it strikes you to go a different route than "scabies" you could try:
"The Wee Fleas" or uh, "Mini Mites"... alliteration instead of rhyme.

"The Cootie Kids" or "The Kootie Kids" (against my better judgement, but if you must MUST have a letter match if you've forsaken the rhyme.)

Or hey! "The Petite Puerile Parasite Pack" ?? Well, maybe not...

Ok. I need to stop now.

[Danimal]

"The Kootie Kids"

That's actually a great suggestion. Everyone knows what cooties are, especially kids!

[Scabiebabie]

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[ddrake]

here goes... "the Chrocicles of Heather and her Monster"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071Xwk29keA

Ok, well... this is something different. Sort of. I'm only 6 minutes in, (and may be biting my tongue as I say this) but it probably should be a thread topic of its own?

[neeters_guy]

here goes... "the Chrocicles of Heather and her Monster"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071Xwk29keA

Ok, well... this is something different. Sort of. I'm only 6 minutes in, (and may be biting my tongue as I say this) but it probably should be a thread topic of its own?

Here it is from several years ago: The Chronicles of Heather and her Monster

[heyvern]

Here it is from several years ago: The Chronicles of Heather and her Monster

I knew something didn't smell right. Scabiebabie, Toxicink, Animation taxi, same crap different name.