Animation, Filmmaking and Family

In Danger of Being Discovered

2011-11-03T18:04:00.004-04:00

"In Danger of Being Discovered" won best NH Doc at the 2011 New Hampshire Film Festival.

About the film: "Set against the backdrop of the flourishing mid 90's Portsmouth, N.H. music scene, "In Danger of Being Discovered" examines what it means to be successful in the music business through the soul searching eyes of the musicians themselves. In what could have been the 'next Seattle', some dreams were realized, some were lost and the magic that binds every local music scene in every small town was tested."

http://www.indangerofbeingdiscovered.com/

http://www.facebook.com/IDOBDMovie

Hosed -

2011-02-15T15:41:00.006-05:00

Hosed a comedy series about a volunteer fire department in Effingwoods NH. In this episode Ben (Juston McKinney) and Smitty (Gary Valentine) respond to a fire call. This episode co-stars Lenny Clarke (Rescue Me).

is a webseries created by Juston McKinney and Directed by Marc Dole

This is the playlist to watch the upcoming episodes

Find us on Facebook.com/HosedTV

Created & Written by Juston McKinney

Directed by Marc Dole

Starring
Gary Valentine
Juston McKinney

Co-Starring
Patty Ross
Tom Schillue
Bernadette Pauley

Guest Starring
Lenny Clark
Frank Santorelli

Produced by
Stanley Pavuk
Juston McKinney
Marc Dole
Karlina Lyons

Associate Producers
Michael Venn
Angel Smith
Scott Orlosk

Music by
Lost Nation Road

"New Dad State of Mind"

2010-06-15T18:58:00.005-04:00

After a few months of talking about it we spent the last few weeks shooting this music video parody. Many other parodies of Jay Z's "Empire State of Mind" have centered around regions of the country and of course Star Wars. We took the experience of being a new dad and added a beat.

The tech details:
2 days of shooting. Shot on a Canon 7D, Edited on Final Cut Pro and it was my first experience with LED lights, which were nice and cool to work around.

Credits

"New Dad State of Mind"
Juston McKinney, Lyrics & Vocals
Renee Dupuis, Vocals
Shaun Michaud, Music & Engineering
Bob Lord, Music Producer

Produced by Juston McKinney, Michael Venn, Marc Dole and Bob Lord

Directed & Edited by Marc Dole

Cinematography by Jonathon Millman

Still Photography by PT Sullivan

Art Direction - Rebecca Jones
Renee's hair by Carole Pucci

Grips
Alex Knuuttunen
Andrew Bohenko

Jib Operator
Dave Langley

Hair & Makeup
Carole Pucci

Production Assistant
Jessica Jule Rather

Special Thanks
Eyelook Optical
Jennifer McKinney
Wanda Dole
Karlina Lyons
Elizabeth McKinney
Colin McKinney
Stanley Pavuk
Marc Scully
Perry McKinney
Jack McKinney
Joshua McKinney
Perry McKinney
Jeff Koen

Meeting of Mito-Moms, & Dads & Cousins etc

2010-02-01T15:37:00.003-05:00

Mito-Kids is looking for people to get involved! We invite you to join us in our effort to bring attention to the subject of Mitochondrial disease through the production of the feature film "Mito-Kids." www.Mito-Kids.com

This week is the first official week that Connie Bottinelli as Executive Producer, and Darren Dodge as Associate Producer. They will be joining the award winning team of Karlina Lyons, and Wanda & Marc Dole and all the great people that have helped get us this far.

We are looking for people with marketing experience and for people to research into everything from potential corporate sponsors to current medical information on Mitochondrial disease.

We are also looking for people without marketing experience but have the drive to help us get this project in the public eye.

Mito-Kids works with the local non-profit Annie's Angels to raise funds that will help alleviate the costs of production. We are in the process of setting up an LLC for potential investors as we develop this groundbreaking film.

We would like to have a kick off meeting this weekend on either Saturday afternoon at the Hatchling Ballroom at 3 Congress St in Portsmouth, NH. Please let us know if you are interested and if you are available to attend. if you are interested but cannot attend please email us your skype or other IM name and we will try and do a live stream of the meeting.

please email us mitokids@gmail.com to RSVP and you can also RSVP on our facebook fan page.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/mitokids?ref=ts

Mito-Kids wins Best Documentary NHFF 2009

2009-10-20T16:17:00.001-04:00

2009 NH DAY & NIGHT WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
"Crooked Lane" & "Mito-Kids" Honored.

NH Film Festival kicked off Thursday with a packed house at The Music Hall to see Marc Dole's "Mito-Kids: Documenting Life" win NH Documentary Film of the Year and Chase Bailey's "Crooked Lane" win NH Film of the Year. Both awards were determined by the NH Jury.

In "Mito-Kids," Dole, the owner and founder of Hatchling Studios, told the story of his four teenage daughters who have grown up with disabilities that stem from mitochondrial disease, a chronic, genetic disorder that occurs when the mitochondria of the cell fail to function properly.

Mito-Kids PRESS COVERAGE
Foster's Daily Democrat
Seacoast Online

When Bailey's name was called for "Crooked Lane," the entire cast and crew joined him on stage, including stars Ann Cusack ("The Informant!"), Brett Cullen ("Lost"), Eliya-Quaye Constance, 9, of Brentwood; Noa Siegel, 11, of Exeter; executive producer Mark Constance and co-producer Bethany Constance (parents to Eliya-Quaye).

MITO-KIDS: DOCUMENTING LIFE and TWEET to have home town premieres at the New Hampshire Film Festival.

2009-10-12T10:35:00.009-04:00

PORTSMOUTH, NH (October 12, 2009) This week’s New Hampshire film festival will feature 6 films created with the support of Hatchling Studios. The documentary Mito-Kids: Documenting Life and the award winning short Tweet were directed by Marc Dole founder of Hatchling, which celebrated its tenth year in business in September.

“After ten years in business and offering many different services, we were very happy this year to be involved in so many great films that brought us back to our core skills as storytellers.” said Dole.

Mito-Kids: Documenting Life Produced by Marc & Wanda Dole and Karlina Lyons, Mito-Kids is about the struggles, triumphs and everyday life of a New Hampshire family in which four teenage sisters have grown up with disabilities that stem from mitochondrial disease, a chronic, genetic disorder that occurs when the mitochondria of the cell fail to function properly. The girls face challenges that include seizures, deafness, diabetes, immune disorders and severe learning and developmental disabilities. Yet despite these many challenges, Mito-Kids is an inspirational and relatable film about perseverance and family.

"I have always loved making and watching documentary films, I just never knew I was in the middle of my own documentary. But now that I am I hope we can bring awareness to the world about this disease." said director and father Marc Dole.

The Dole family has shot close to 100 hours of home video, beginning with the birth of their first daughter 20 years ago. The story starts before mitochondrial conditions were even a mention at medical conferences, let alone an area of genetic study. Mito-Kids follows the family through holidays and family vacations, seizures and hospital stays. Interviews with medical experts explain the role of mitochondria in producing cellular energy and reveal what happens to the human body when these cellular powerhouses fail. The incidence of mitochondrial disease is estimated at 1:3000-4000 individuals in the US and yet the disease is relatively unheard of in the public sector and poorly understood in the medical community. Mito-Kids aims to increase the understanding of mitochondrial disease and its connection to epilepsy, diabetes, ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Heart Disease and many other neurological disorders.
The premiere screening of Mito-Kids will take place October 15th at 4:45 PM at The Music Hall along with the short films Cinema 93, No Good Reason and Finding Someplace Like America. A second screening is scheduled for October 18th at 2:30 PM at the Moffett Ladd House along with Ear Whacks, Cinema 93, Happy Hunting and Finding Someplace Like America.

Tweet puts a social networking spin on the classic cop genre. Tweet won best director and best film at the 2009 NH 48 hour project. Starring fellow director, Chase Bailey (Crooked Lane) as officer J.P Jones, Tweet is a short comedy about a police officer who uses social media websites like Twitter, YourTube and Facebook to catch criminals. This 48 hour test of endurance and filmmaking skill included a 15 person team who worked non-stop one weekend to make the film. Producers Wanda Dole and Karlina Lyons were joined by other Hatchlings of past and present including writer J. Zachary Pike, and graphic designers Brian Meanley and Jeremy Clough.

Tweet, winner of Best Director at the NH 48 Hour Film Project, will premiere on Thursday, October 15. The festival is open to the general public.

From Producing to Editing and Visual Effects the Hatchling team has also taken part in Crooked Lane, Killing Dinner, Ear Whacks, and Drawing from Life.

“Whether it's a television commercial, or a corporate video, our daily work at Hatchling is to be storytellers.” said Dole “Working on independent films is just an extension of what we do day to day. The great thing about working on indie films is that it allows us to flex our creative muscles, and try new techniques.”

On Tweet Dole encouraged director of photography Jonathan Millman to use his Nikon D-90 digital still camera to shoot the video. “Using a DSLR camera allowed us to use prime lenses like hollywood features to create a rich cinematic depth of field.” said Dole. It also created many other challenges because the camera was not built for shooting a movie.

Four other NH films
On Crooked Lane the Hatchling team created a digital workflow based on the ground breaking RED One camera. The RED is a full size, high end camera used by many cutting edge filmmakers like Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) and is quickly becoming the predominant digital camera for indie film makers. Hatchling was there on set with laptops in hand transferring the files off the camera and starting visual effects and editing hours as soon as the first scene was shot.

“The RED allowed us a completely digital workflow along with a four thousand pixel wide image so we had a lot of data to work with to create the 15 visual effects we did” said Brian Meanley who was the Visual Effects supervisor for the film.

Looking forward to 2010 and the production of the feature length documentary Mito-Kids Hatchling also has an animated short called Super Service directed by Brian Meanley in production along with supporting 4 other live action short films made by our friends in the New Hampshire Film Community.

About Hatchling
Hatchling is an award-winning interactive, animation, and content creation company located in the scenic heart of Portsmouth, NH. With clients like MTV, NBC and ESPN to brands like Reebok, Charmin, Timberland and PC Connection. Hatchling's short films include The Toll, Endurance Challenge: Mordred's Isle and Tweet http://www.hatchling.com/

About the New Hampshire Film Festival
The New Hampshire Film Festival (NHFF) presents the best in recent independent cinema from throughout the United States and around the world to New Hampshire and New England audiences. Since its debut in 2001 as the New Hampshire Film Expo, the New Hampshire Film Festival has grown in leaps and bounds. These days, heavy hitters such as Avid and Regal Cinemas lend their sponsorship, while industry experts participate on panels and in workshops. http://www.nhfilmfestival.com/

www.Mito-Kids.com
www.Hatchling.com
www.CrookedLane.com

N.H. Film Festival previews 'best ever' program | SeacoastOnline.com

2009-10-06T15:05:00.004-04:00

N.H. Film Festival previews 'best ever' program | SeacoastOnline.com

By Gina Carbone
gina_carbone@comcast.net
October 02, 2009 2:00 AM

PORTSMOUTH — The New Hampshire Film Festival is like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Everyone involved seems to have five different roles on 10 different films, many shot by friends and colleagues on the Seacoast.
Several of those filmmakers and organizers gathered Thursday night at The Page for the NHFF Media Party.

The NHFF started as a "film expo" in Derry with around 70 film submissions and a program of roughly 50 films. Now it's entering its ninth year with more than 700 submissions from around the world and a program of 80 films from Oct. 15-18 in downtown Portsmouth.

"It's the best ever. The deepest ever," said Zac Gregg, festival finance director. "Some years it's been hard to fill the program. This year, it was hard to say no to a lot of people."

Headlining films this year include "Serious Moonlight" with Meg Ryan, Kristen Bell, Justin Long and Timothy Hutton; "Paper Heart," featuring Michael Cera of "Juno" and "Arrested Development"; and "Mystery Team," a comedy shot in New Hampshire from Manchester filmmaker Dan Eckman.

Some bold-faced names acting behind the scenes include George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh, executive producers of the documentary "Playground"; and Morgan Freeman, executive producer of the documentaries "Delta Rising" and "Prom Night in Mississippi."

The festival will include around 30 New Hampshire films, with several shot at least partially in Portsmouth. Some of those hyper-local films include "Crooked Lane," "Ear Whacks," "Killing Dinner," "Drawing from Life," "Tweet" and "Mito-Kids."

Ann Cusack — sister of actors John and Joan Cusack and one of the stars of "Crooked Lane" — will be in attendance and serve on the Grand Jury.

NHFF Executive Director Nicole Gregg said the quality of the festival "improves exponentially every year."

"In addition to the headliners and probably our most accomplished New Hampshire Night ever, we have the most consistent program all the way through," she said. "Our most proud program through and through."

And there are new venues this year in which to showcase the films: Seacoast Repertory Theatre and the Moffatt-Ladd House have been added as screening locations.

"Part of the festival is to highlight Portsmouth," Nicole Gregg said. "It's really rounding out the program nicely."

Because the festival has reached out on a global level — with more than a dozen countries represented — Gregg said filmmakers are flying in from all over the world and putting themselves up in local hotels to attend the festival.

"Close to 90 percent of the films will be represented by filmmakers," she said.

On Thursday, at least 50 area filmmakers and supporters drank, talked and watched the debut of the 2009 NHFF trailer.

Among those mingling were City Manager John Bohenko; Marc Dole, writer/director/producer of "Mito-Kids," co-writer/director and actor in "Tweet," executive producer of "Ear Whacks" and producer of "Drawing from Life"; Alfred Thomas Catalfo, writer/director/producer and actor in "Ear Whacks"; Mark Constance, producer of "Killing Dinner" and executive producer of "Crooked Lane"; and Chase Bailey, who acted in "Ear Whacks," "Tweet" and "Killing Dinner," was an associate producer on "Mito-Kids," an executive producer on "Killing Dinner" and the Keira Knightley film "The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers," and wrote/directed/edited "Crooked Lane," starring Brett Cullen and Ann Cusack.

Cullen, whom fans may recognize from "Lost" and "Apollo 13," has featured roles in three NHFF films: "Crooked Lane," "Killing Dinner" and "The Burning Plain."

Cullen also co-starred in "The Life Before Her Eyes," which played at the festival last year and which was co-produced by Bailey. The two are both starring in "Killing Dinner."

In addition to executive producing the Keira Knightley film showing on N.H. Night, Bailey was also an executive producer on the 2004 Johnny Depp film "The Libertine."

Bailey has been a supporter of the NHFF for years — serving on the Grand Jury at one point and currently a member of the Board of Directors, along with Constance and Dole. He spent Thursday night chatting with local peers.

"This is my hometown," Bailey said. "I love it. And it's so well run."

Of the films he's not involved in, he's most looking forward to: "Mystery Team" ("I've heard nothing but great reviews about it"), "The Burning Plain" ("I really want to see that") and the documentary "Food, Inc.," which will include an appearance by Stonyfield Yogurt CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg.

One of the strengths of the festival is its small-town location, and Bailey hopes it keeps that appeal while also continuing to grow in quality.

"I want it to be the East Coast Sundance," Bailey said. "It's got a lot of years (to get there), but it could."

MITO-KIDS: to premiere at the 25th annual Boston Film Festival

2009-09-14T21:15:00.001-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MITO-KIDS: DOCUMENTING LIFE to premiere at the 25th annual Boston Film Festival

Boston, MA (Sept 15, 2009) The documentary film Mito-Kids will premiere on Sunday, September 20th at the 25th Annual Boston Film Festival. The film will play as part of a block of medical related documentaries covering Autism, Alzheimer's Disease and stem cell research. The festival is open to the general public and festival organizers will be extending a special invitation to the Boston medical and medical research communities.

Mito-Kids is about the struggles, triumphs and everyday life of a family in which four teenage sisters have grown up with disabilities that stem from mitochondrial disease, a chronic, genetic disorder that occurs when the mitochondria of the cell fail to function properly. Marc Dole is the father of these four special young women and the film’s director. Marc’s children face challenges that include seizures, deafness, diabetes, immune disorders and severe learning and developmental disabilities. Yet despite these many challenges, Mito-Kids is an inspirational and relatable film about perseverance and family.

"I am very proud that our premiere will be in Boston because our family's search for answers about mitochondria started at Childrens Hospital in Boston over 15 years ago." said filmmaker and father Marc Dole.

As a father and a filmmaker, Marc has shot close to 100 hours of home video, beginning with the birth of his first daughter 19 years ago. The story starts before mitochondrial conditions were even a mention at medical conferences, let alone an area of genetic study. Mito-Kids follows the family through holidays and family vacations, seizures and hospital stays. Interviews with medical experts explain the role of mitochondria in producing cellular energy and reveal what happens to the human body when these cellular powerhouses fail. The incidence of mitochondrial disease is estimated at 1:3000-4000 individuals in the US and yet the disease is relatively unheard of in the public sector and poorly understood in the medical community. Mito-Kids aims to increase the understanding of mitochondrial disease and its connection to epilepsy, diabetes, ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Heart Disease and many other neurological disorders.

The screening of the film will take place September 20th at 11am at the Kendall Square Cinema along with the medical documentaries Hope Deferred, The Sundowners, and A Vision of Wholeness.

About Filmmakers

Marc Dole, Producer/Director/Father of 4 daughters with mitochondrial disease. Marc is the owner and founder of the award winning Hatchling Studios, an alumni member of the New Hampshire Film Commission, Speaker, Panelist and Filmmaker. His films, including Tweet, The Toll, Endurance Challenge, and The Norman Rockwell Code, have screened at over 100 film festivals, with 14 “best of” awards.

Karlina Lyons, Producer. Karlina has more than 15 years of experience working in international and domestic media production, focusing on producing educational content for children and families. From 1998 until 2005 she worked in the International Production Division of Sesame Workshop. She is currently a consulting producer for the Cambodian Educational Media Initiative (CEMI), a partnership between WGBH and the global NGO World Education.
www.Mito-Kids.com

About Boston Film Festival

The 2009 Boston Film Festival celebrates a Landmark year with a distinct program of films on September 18-24 at the Kendall Square Cinema. A schedule of feature films, documentaries and shorts will be presented at the 25th festival. Filmmakers, actors and supporters have the opportunity to network at various events hosted by Boston’s signature restaurants throughout the week. A variety of awards are given annually. As the origin of many illustrious storytellers, the region provides an idyllic setting to experience a festival of motion pictures. The BFF is "quickly finding its place alongside the great film festivals of America." The BFF has premiered 25 years of remarkable films such as; American Beauty, North Country, The Piano, Reservoir Dogs, Jesus Camp, The Ground Truth, Flash of Genius, Grace is Gone, Trade and many others. Additionally, a vast list of directors and talent have participated at the festival including; Greg Kinnear, George Clooney, Dane Cook, Sam Mendes, Sir Ridley Scott, Jerry Weintraub, Alison Eastwood, Robin Tunney, and many more. The Boston Film Festival is dedicated to supporting evolving filmmakers by providing a forum to showcase their artistic vision.
http://www.bostonfilmfestival.org

Press contact:
Karlina Lyons
mitokids@gmail.com
www.Mito-Kids.com

Making films is like making Sangira

2009-08-26T12:41:00.004-04:00

I am giving a 10 minute speech at a networking event called "Pecha Kucha" this Thursday night (August 27th) at the Gas Light in Portsmouth. My topic is "Producing a movie is like making a Sangria, everyone has their own recipe and thinks theirs is the best." Since I only have 10 minutes and 20 slides I am not going to say anything earth shattering but its basically a good ice breaker for a networking event. Maybe I can get a winery to sponsor me and I can head out on the road and give an expanded course at events all over the world and we can watch a film at the end and drink Sangria.
Hope to see you there
Marc

Tweet News

2009-06-30T17:13:00.001-04:00

"Tweet" is in the Digital SLR Online Film Festival on Dailyfilm
http://bit.ly/L5WvT - Please cast your vote!

Vote for "Tweet" in the Daily Film Online film festival.

This festival is dedicated to us crazy people that have shot a film fully on a Digital SLR camera like the Nikon D90

"Tweet" also made the "Best of New Hampshire 48HFP"
Screening and Awards Ceremony
Wednesday July 22nd at 7:30 p.m.
Red River Theatres
11 South Main Street, Concord
Tickets may be purchased online at
http://www.redrivertheatres.org/index.php (credit card required).

Here are the Best Films of New Hampshire 2009

"Stalling" by Wax Idiotical Films
"Arbor Day?" by Dooster Productions
"The Way They Were Inside" by Purple Finch Moving Picture Society
"Chasing the Red" by Umbrella Productions
"Order Up" by Banded Light Productions
"The Waiter" by Coruway
"Ungesehene Bewegung" by Team Name
"Music Killed My Parents" by Rotn
"Don't Just Stand There" by Root2
"Tweet" by Pineapple Pictures
"Dead Silence" by 3D President

"Tweet" the movie shot on Nikon D90

2009-06-30T12:20:00.005-04:00

From tracking leads on Twitter, to viewing videos of crimes posted on You Tube and Facebook. "Tweet" is the story of a veteran detective who is tired of his younger partner who does all her work at a computer.

Created for the inaugural New Hampshire 48 hour film project.
Shot Entirely on a Nikon D90 (because creating a movie in 48 hours wasn't hard enough)
Edited on Final Cut Pro

Pineapple Pictures
Directed By Marc A. Dole, Written by J Zachary Pike
Starring Chase Bailey, Sam Pannier, Jason Santo, Michael Venn and introducing Angel Smith as "Marie Otterbein"
Produced by a whole crazy crew of our best friends

Elements
Character: Max or Marie Otterbein, Waiter/Waitress
Prop: sunglasses
Line of Dialogue: "Don't just stand there. Move it."

Film Roundtable - 2 hours of Yada Yadah Yahdah

2009-05-20T10:04:00.001-04:00

After over 40 comments on my twitter, FB and IRL (In Real Life) I needed to move my reply to my blog because the micro blog replies were too long.

First Props to Van and Matt for putting in the NH filmmaker round table.

Second we can meet at a place that we can buy drinks or food and not have to let the state fund our meeting and that means we wont get kicked out. Even though "Alcohol is the lubricant in the Film industry" we dont have to meet at a bar.

So here are my notes and suggestions on what I like about Filmmaker socials, and maybe a roundtable is not a social.
Money talk is needed but it cant be the centerpiece. Its tough because a vocal few kept talking about it and others even helped to discuss the topic with answers so it may have looked like thats what the group wanted.
There is money in the state and good projects will find money. I have raised money for projects and had other projects I loved never raise a red cent. Thats an easy way to find out if you have a good project and if people trust you to do what you say you are going to do.
Filmmakers can make films without money and that's actually the point behind the 48 Hour Project which is a big event for the NH filmmaking community. So many things were missed last night about some of the projects people are working on and want to work on.
The Media Makers meetings are setup really well. You have 3 minutes to say who you are and what you are working on. Put a clock on it and go around the room. And the best thing any filmmaker can learn about money is a elevator pitch so that's under 1 minute. I vote that next time we go around the room and get 1 minute to say whatever we want. Then after all that open up the floor to whatever people want to discuss.
And in the fashion of good old Chuck Barris TV put a gong up so anyone can stop the current conversation and we can move on.

BTW put the gong on the opposite side of the room from me if you disagree. put it next to me if you dont :-)

Mito-Kids on ABC ch9

2009-02-25T22:30:00.003-05:00

Hi All

NH Chronicle will be airing a half hour special on our family documentary "Mito-Kids" Thursday night at 7:30 please tune in if you can. I hope they will also place it onliine and if they do I will be sure to send a link

There is a teaser here
http://www.wmur.com/chronicle/index.html

And more of the story here
http://www.wmur.com/chronicle/18739955/detail.html

I will be adding more video to www.mito-kids.com over the week as we do more interviews and take some vacation time

Thanks

Marc

Mito-Kids Documentary

2009-01-26T20:43:00.004-05:00

For years I have wanted to do a documentary based on the extrordinary lives of my 4 daughters and their battle with mitochondrial disease which affects each one differently. This is the initial teaser. I plan to do a 5 minute piece on each child over the next month as I develop the longer feature version

Virtual Film making

2008-12-04T22:41:00.001-05:00

I was recently interviewed for an article about using the web to produce your project. right after I was interviewed I started another project that used Google Docs more extensively as we have also started to use it at the office for Project management.

http://newenglandfilm.com/magazine/archives/2008/12/virtual

Autodesk buys Softimage - Long Live MayaMaxSoft

2008-10-24T08:13:00.005-04:00

In the beginning of the summer the Autodesk/Maya/Max rep visited our studios just to say hi. Our office is 40 minutes from the NH Offices of Autodesk and he was in the area. Around the same time I received an email from our new Softimage rep who is head quartered in London. I understand Reps move around a lot but this seemed very odd because our office is 50 minutes from AVID (parent company to Softimage) and we are a short 6 hour road trip to Montreal where Softimage is headquartered.

So it now all makes sense 3D will soon be one happy family, or 3 brothers that fight all the time while their father AutoCAD tells them that when he was their age there were only lines and not solids and they only had 2 dimensions

I think Newtek may be a bit upset because the article mentions that Softimage was the last major independent package out there. All the products have always had their followers, strengths, weaknesses, and vertical markets.

Rumor has it that Autodesk is also looking at Houdini and Blender. But Blender is shareware and they are not sure how to buy it. Blender may become that cousin on the Brady Bunch that is brought in to show how cute the show is after the rest of the kids grow up. And so few people use Houdini and its so expensive that Autodesk plans to repackage their regular MayaMaxSoft with an install code that makes the program randomly disappear from your computer.

Long Live MayaMaxSoft

Softimage Press Release

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=12022457&siteID=123112

MontrealGazette

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=3bad0262-e86a-4ac3-98b3-6345b62a96d0

"The Birk plan" dont bail out AIG

2008-09-25T10:12:00.001-04:00

I cannot take credit for this, it is an email forwarded from my friend Tracey B, who is a film producer in LA. I just think that this out of the box thinking is what people are always looking for in marketing, but when will it come to politics?

------

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00. My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $595,000.00. What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college – it’ll be there
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car – create jobs
Invest in the market – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG – liquidate it.

Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest. Kindest personal regards,
Birk
T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic

PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it’s either good for a laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

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Sarah Palin the First Lady of VPILF

2008-08-31T09:40:00.017-04:00

I always wonder who comes up with the new "In Saying" or anachronim.

Who was it that first coined the term "MILF"
A MILF (Mother I'd Like to Fu#k) is a mother usually over 30 and under 50 that is very sexually attractive.
Well a VPILF is a "Vice President I'd Like to Fu#k"

So with the announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate a new site was born, or was it planned months ago??? At this time I would like to thank the site owners for not including Joe Biden, the Democratic Candidate for Vice President, I guess he is technically eligible for this new anachronim lets focus on the Hot Mom.

http://www.vpilf.com The site has Sarah Palin's 1984 Miss Alaska beauty pageant photo (She won "Miss Congeniality"), a link to an 1988 video from when the then Sarah Heath was a sportscaster in Alaska.

Wikipedia has already forwarded the term VPILF to the Sarah Palin's regular page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VPILF

A clip from the Craig Ferguson Late Night Talk Show, where he described her as having a Naughty Librarian vibe.

And what has to be my favorite example of "What is that guy thinking" where John McCain introduces his new VP Candidate and the camera catches him looking over at her, and then starts to give us a voice over of what is happening in his head. The VO also captures the cameraman following the "Bro Code" and zooming in on Palin as it becomes very apparent McCain is staring at Palin.

With such a new term, I wanted to dig a tinny bit to see who gets credit for the term V.P.I.L.F. There were 2 user generated videos that mention this term. Both came out between August 29th and 30th which makes sense because Palin was announced as the VP Candidate on the 29th. What I thought was odd was that the website URL VPILF.com was registered on August 4th, and in McCain's home state of Arizona. Of course there were rumors of 7 or 8 potentials for the VP job over the last few months but to have a new term coined 25 days before the actual introduction or event shows it was an inside job. There is a link saying the people at moviespoilers are responsible for the site. but one quick look at that site shows that VPILF, was done much better so is it the moviespoilers people behind it or was it someone in the McCain camp. I think the further icing on the cake showing it was a Republican job was the site was only registered for a year. Dont they know if McCain wins Palin would be a VPILF for at least 4 years? And besides that I am sure other VPILFs will appear in the future.

The term MILF is specific to Mothers usually but VPILF could become a term for male or female Vice Presidential Candidates.
Now there's Playboy cover for you, Yeah I want to see that right after their special issue "Disrobing The Women of Congress".

Like many words an anachronim can have multiple meanings
a CD to a teenage is something old people listen to music on. To a banker its a "Certificate of Deposit"
DNC is not just the "Democratic National Committee" its also a painful female medical procedure. If I ran the Democratic DNC I would spend a lot of money re-naming and re-branding that.
But this other anachronim for MILF is all sorts of wrong.
Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, an attraction at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom
Hopefully this comes up if you have NetNanny turned on and your teenager hasnt disabled it to do a search on MILF.

About me:
I usually dont discuss religion and politics in public or private. I have way too little free time. But I did want to state that I am an Independent Voter who has never actually voted for the Guy that one. But this was such an entertaining political move and one of the first times I think there was a Republican connection with connecting with the younger voters (Especially the 18-34 y/o males) I just had to comment.

Marc

Wii Britney

2008-08-03T11:02:00.002-04:00

After searching 7 months to get a Wii my family has had a lot of fun playing the games and especially the use of the motion controllers that are really the way we all used to play the old Nintendeo games. Turning the wired controller to the right, as we lean our bodies to that side. Sometimes hopping a bit in our seats as Mario needed to jump a Koopa.

My Daughter Britney is 18 years old, 4'10" and has had developmental delays because of seizures she has been suffering since she was 6 months old. Her cognitive skills, and physical reaction time are that of a 4 -6 year old. Not one of those 4-6 year olds that play Guitar Hero on Hard and blindfolded on YouTube better than I play it on Medium but an average kid.

Before the Wii we would involve Britney in video games by giving her an extra controller while the rest of us played with active controllers. She even had her own Pink Barbie Guitar that she would play while I played Guitar Hero.
Now with the Wii Britney is able to keep up in Mario Kart to a decent extent but better yet she now has "Disney Princess Enchanted Journey" she is playing the game all on her own. For some reason she switches the controllers from hand to hand a lot depending on the challenge at hand, but the gaming allows for multiple ways to move and wave the wand so it works out well for her. She is getting better spacial recognition within the game. She still needs about 20 feet of play area in front of the TV because she walks around the livingroom as much as her princess character walks around the screen.

Now if we can just get the cat to master the Nintendo DS we will be all set

The Seven Year Itch - Employee Changes

2008-08-01T11:19:00.006-04:00

A 1955 film by Billy Wilder starring Marilyn Monroe (The film in which her dress is blown up past her waist as a subway passes underneath) has created a phrase used to describe failing interest in the monogamy of marriage or disinterest after the honeymoon period of a relationship.

Marriages are not the only relationships that can have a seven year itch. The average lifespan for an employee at a creative studio is 3 years. From running the studio I know there are a few people that dont workout within the first year and that offsets the people who last much longer. In March of 2008 after 7 years, the first employee hired at Hatchling, Jeremy Clough, decided it was his time to go on his own. Personally this was very tough for me since he had become one of my closests friends and my most trusted compatriot. As a creative person Jeremy needed to push new boundaries that were not in line with the rest of the companies skillsets. While his departure did become a great opportunity for 2 very creative people previously under him, it took a piece of my heart and love for working that took me a few months to get over, and finally be able to write about.

When Jeremy opened the door for leaving after 7 years another person who I used to call my brother from another mother took the opportunity to announce his departure as well. Dustin was our main client representative on the interactive side of the business and they all loved him. With these 2 very key people gone our new President who was hired in late January took the opportunity to instill some more process that was not working out with the few of us that still did things as if we were 4 cowboys doing all the work. This process changed really helped unify team members.

In Early July it was clear that the though the new president had some great ideas they were not in line with what drove me to start and continue to run the company so we parted ways. With him another long time staff member is taking a part time role in the company because as we focus more and more on rich media and less on backend web development and databases he is looking for other opportunities that will help him grow.

These 3 key players and friends helped shape the company as to what it is today and they did it with having very few years of experience before they came to Hatchling. That is a similar story of many of the people that come to Hatchling, a real New Englander mentality of we can do it.

With departure comes opportunity and because of their great work and the comradery among all the team players the word on the street is very positive about working for us and the last 6 or 7 people I have interviewed are extremely excited about the opportunity to work at Hatchling. And often they are leaving a place they have been working for 7 years or so and are just looking for a change.

July update

2008-07-19T20:43:00.001-04:00

We went shopping when the power went out today. We finally found a Wii
and used the gift cards I had been saving since Xmas to get all the
accesories but Mario Kart was sold out.

Have not touched "In The Cards" in 2 weeks since I got back on the
sales bandwagon.
Episode 3 of "Endurance Challenge" goes into animation this week.
Our game for ECMI is also in development
Working a few sales leads for August work but mostly setting the
groundwork for September work.
Zack wrote a new trailer for Flare and we are storyboarding that as
well as building a few of the characters in 3D for a new investor pitch.
The SF Producer who is working on getting development funds for Flare
has taken our list of AList actors to see if he can get them attached.
Met with an Account Exec I tried to hire last year and things look
great for him joining this year.
And my meeting with a guy who is a major player at a Boston/NY agency
went great and I hope to continue conversations with him about a
lasting partnership

Marc

48 Hour Genre is Comedy!!!

2008-06-20T19:34:00.001-04:00

Stephanie reached into the bag of Genres and fished around and pulled
out COMEDY!!!

Character is Thomas or Thelma
Description: Former Attorney
Prop: String Instrument
Line: "I cancelled my plans for this"

Does anyone have a connection with a cafe or deli or small restaurant
we can shoot in?

Wheels Up at 9 heading to the NYC 48

2008-06-20T09:07:00.001-04:00

Once Stan showed up it was quite clear we needed more space so we
loaded up the Sequoia. 4.03 a gallon for gas and 1.99 a gallon for
artificial fruit drinks. Has anyone thought of artificial gas? Maybe
that's what ethanol really is.

California Wine trips and some films too

2008-04-16T18:16:00.004-04:00

In the past month I have been very fourtunate to have had business twice in Califonia's wine country. My trips covered Napa, Sonoma, and Lodi.

The main thing I learned, which many wine lovers probably already know is that the wineries keep the good stuff for themselves. Even the best wineries send their lesser wines to the stores.

I toured at least 4 wineries in each county and I has only ever tried wines from no more than 2 of them, either they don't distribute outside of their own wine club or just not in the places I frequent.

I was amazed that my favorite winery was not in Napa or Sonoma but in Lodi. The Lucas Winery is a very small wine

ry with huge attention to detail and they sell 90% of what they make to their wine club. I would encourage anyone who loves finely crafted wine to visit there, not only for the taste but the prices are amazing for the quality.

I was in Sonoma for 2 days touring because of "The Toll" was in their film festival. And at the recommendation of a friend at the Tiburon Film Fest we started the day with Bubbles at Gloria Ferrer. We stuck to the bubblly and some chocolate for my dad. We sat out on the patio and looked over the vineyard and it was a great start to the da

y. Maybe too quick for Wanda because the bubbles went right to her head. Oops wrong time of he day to get her tipsy. Later that night we were accross the street at the Jacuzzi Winery who threw a great opening party and Wanda was a knockout in her black dress ( I wasnt the only guy starring at her). We came back the next day for a great and economical tasting and left with a case of wine a club membership and a few tasty bottles of olive oil.
Benziger had the best tour by far ( bought a case of some real quality stuff and signed up for 6 bottles quarterly) Pay the extra couple of dollars and taste in the private room and do the tour that includes tasting in the caves we were only the 2nd tour allowed in the caves and while it was an extra $30 each it was a blast. Arrowhead (bought 1 very nice bottle) and Imagery were very good Mayo was a great surprise and I totally reccomend their pairing restaurant which is located north of the wineries store. I bought a case of heir Pinot Noor that as on sale for $13 a bottle. We didn't make it up to Wattle Creek but did their tasting in Ghiradelli square and they were a great value and taste. (bought a case and signed up for 4 cases within a year)
The biggest disappontment unfortunately came from Kenwood. They were a sponsor of the festival and each day i avoided Their festival tent because the wines wee outside in the sun. Well at the closing party they were the only wine in site and I said what the heck be went for their reserve ( Pinot or Syrah I forget ) I only had 2 glasses and got 1 headache, not good!

I was going to save the Napa trip for anothertime when I had more time. But I called my favorite winery that my brother in-law Derek enjoys and the could fit us in. A huge difference in Lodi to Napa is you need to schedule a tasting to get into the good places.

We decided to take the 35 minute over the mountains instead of the 1 hour trip around them ( well thats the at the GPS read at least ) mullholland drive in LA has NOTHING on the curves and steep dropoffs seen on this shortcut thru the mountain, its not a trek for the faint of heart an especially the buzzed driver!!!

We arrived at Honig Cellars 30 minutes early so we ventured back to the main road and tried Elizabeth Spencer, now I am not saying the wine was vinegary or had a bad nose and ugly body but it was the first place I elected to spit or dump any extra in the glass. We didn't even finish the tasting choices. We headed back to Honig just in time to restore my faith in Napa Valley. Honig was a very small tasting area that was off the beaten path. The parking area had huge rosemary bushes and I think even speariment you knew walking in that this was not a tourist trap, there should have been a sign along the quarter mile driveway that read quality wine ahead. Kelley guided us through a very relaxing tasting with great conversation and a reccomendation for a great dinner place in up the street ( Market, we all loved this place dispite a few mixed reviews on Yelp ) Honig was the first place we bought a magnum, I ask Wanda for it to celebrate my 40th in a few (couple) years. This place was not cheap but it was all delicious. Along with an order for a pretty decent wine club I left with a hat that reads "friends don't let friends drink chardonnay"

The next day I returned to Napa to visit the local Mac dealer ( Napa 1 ) and stopped in at V Sattui winery. I mailmy stopped because I finally saw a sign that matched more than just cheddar cheese with wine. I was delitefully surprised with an extremely drinkable rose "Gamay Rouge" which will be my new hot summer afternoon refresher.

I signed up for more wine to be delivered and wine clubs than just 2 of us can enjoy so I think we will host a few parties.

I will be adding reviews of each place to my yelp page soon

Very happy to have a designated driver! Thanks Mom!

and please forgive spelling and grammar this was my first post from an iPhone and i suffer from fat thumb syndrome.

Google addict

2008-04-08T08:28:00.001-04:00

I am caught up in all these google apps like gmail, docs, calendar, and desktop and they are all listed as being 'Beta'.
Is google just the worlds largest drug dealer hooking us up on the free stuff and prepping to charge us through the nose when they release these apps for real?

George Orwell's MAC

2008-04-07T17:43:00.001-04:00

I don't know if I have asimilated a MAC persona or my inner MAC has been brought into the light. I always hated people calling their laptop 'My Mac' or worse yet, 'My MacBookPro' with Leopard. For crying out loud its a laptop and it only as good as the operator.
Maybe these people want a sense of belonging that MAC ownership gives them. Is it like being a high tech frat brother? Do you get invited to better parties now?
My father in-law used to call his TV 'My Sony' and my kids wore Pampers and we wiped their faces with Kleenex. So brand names are very often in our common vernacular. But I have always felt that saying 'My MacBook' showed a weakness in character of someone grasping to be included in a larger high school clique.

I write this from Interstate 95 South on my way to Cambridge in My Toyota 4 Runner Sports Edition, onto my Palm Treo 700zw. I will log on later tonight to fix any spelling mistakes on My MacBooPro.

Big Mac Migration

2008-03-31T08:59:00.000-04:00

Last Friday I finally gave into the Mac pressure. My last apple ( besides an iPod) was my apple IIe in High School . After that I went to Amiga, and broke down to buy a PC 2 years after Amiga went belly up. So for almost the last 15 years I have been a windows pwrson and our company was a windows shop. I have always had problems with PCs but they were mostly due to the cheap nature of most of the other consumers who kept pushing for faster and cheaper, where Apple always keeps high quality control. Dispite these problems and the huge amount of video and designer peer pressure I stayed PC. I just couldn't see loosing that right mouse button. So OS X comes along and then the switch to intel chips. Those moves and Paralells so I can still run the windows apps I have to allowed me to migrate. Well that's not giving enough credit to Microsoft for releasing Vista which was the final straw that broke this deal for me. 3 of our 5 new Vista based Laptops at the company can't connect to our Windows based network with any regular consistancy.
The last few programs we run that don't run on Mac at least run on Linux and our tech people in the Animation Dept (Brian) have been testing that for a while. So a year from now I would guess our Windows based company will be all Mac and the remaining systems will be a party of my computer museum which also includes an Amiga 1000 and a few Newtek Video Toasters, or they will be relegated to jukebox like my old SGI O2 was for so many years.

The Toll screens at Tiburon

2008-03-15T15:41:00.001-04:00

I try and use my cameraphone to videotape the screenings of the films I make. This proved very helpful the first few months of "The Toll" because we re-edited the open and re-timed a few other edits to allow for the laughs to play thru. W.C. Fields was a master at the re-edit to allow for comic timing.

Tiburon film Festival

2008-03-14T16:29:00.000-04:00

My first time to Norhern California. Tiburon is on the bay with a great yacht club, a downtown market area that is like a small coastal New England town with less parking but more ferrari dealerships but great wine tastings all around.

Get out of my own way

2008-01-24T13:57:00.002-05:00

Many years ago I was told to get out of my own way because my indecision on some growth opportunities were slowing business. So today we added Mark Samber, a longtime business associate who started and ran a very similar company in the late 90s. Mark will stick to business and growing our very good partnership basis and allow me to concentrate on the Creative part of the company.

I have often been told that I did my career backwords. This is the way most people do it

Intern
Work for a big firm
Freelance
Start your own firm
Consult for other firms

Well I went from Interning to Freelancing to Starting my own firm. Skipping the working at a big name place wasnt in the cards for me because I didnt want to leave New Hampshire where I had a great family base to help with my kids. I have noticed that people who have even spent a year as VP of Animation Development at XYZ studio get their projects funded a bit easier than I have.

How Did I start

2008-01-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

I am an eager self starter that started working professionally in my 2nd year of college. I had 2 kids by the time I graduated and didnt want to leave New England for Tinseltown or Gotham. So I started freelancing as an cameraman, editor and eventually an animator. after a few long projects for series on PBS and Discovery Channel I took a job as the head of CGI at a stop motion animation studio named Wreckless Abandon. 2 years in to the company they had to lay off everyone while they were waiting on the next big gig so I went into my garage and started what became Hatchling Studios.

Hatchling is now 25 people strong and the largest animation studio in the state (ok so its a small state). in 2006 we released our animated CGI short "http://www.thetollmovie.com/" which has now won 12 awards. We have also created a web series starring Billy West http://www.endurancechallenge.com/, which has been invited to over 10 film fests and won 2 best of awards. Now we sit working on our day to day commercial gigs as we keep developing more animation and live action ideas, and we work and wait untill one sells.

Starting the studio and why do the blog

2008-01-02T09:54:00.000-05:00

I have been asked many times how did I start my animation studio and a few times I have been asked to articles and even a book about my experience. I have never been able to spend enough time concentrating on one thing to get more than a small 2 page article completed.

I am no John Lasseter (though I would love to be) But I did start an animation studio 3000 miles from LA and I hopefully have some wisdom and insite as to how you too can create something outside the norm in the area you want to live in.
So I start this blog at my companies current state, and I will work my way back to the beginning. trying to post backdating the info.

I hope it educates and entertains you.

Thanks

Marc

Even freebies have a value

1999-06-01T23:19:00.000-04:00

Since Mike now had a sales partner they got a bigger volume of work and started to hire freelancers locally and my workload was finally picking up with video companies and Ad Agencies in Boston and north to NH.

As in any business you need to establish yourself. If you dont have a name from a previous job or a rich family you need to start with small jobs, spec jobs, and jobs that you beg the producer to let you do.

Back in 1996 I finally got my first gig for Discovery Channel because I had bugged the producer so much and one day he was caught in a deadline and the regular Animation Studio couldn't meet the deadline so I was in. Now the Producer (Lance W) and I had done a long project for PBS together in 1994 (Yeah I was 24 and I had a 5 person crew working under me to produce 114 shots for a series called "Presence of Place" it was a big high for me) Discovery had their approved list of vendors and I was not on it. I bid on the job at $6,ooo thinking I was going to make some real cash. But I could never crack them. I found out that the company that was getting all the work was charging closer to $20,000 for the same work and the other producers didnt think I could do the work at the quality they needed. This was amazing to me that they would rather wait another month to get a job done and pay 3 or more times what I was bidding.

So make sure you dont underbid yourself, you will have to learn the art of negotiation and reading people. Sometimes they want to know your worth it, othertimes they want o see yo usweat. And it always seems no matter what you have for credits you will have to do things for free to show you can accieve a different style, or speed or technical skill, and give it away for free a lot. There is a old term among women who work on the streets on London "Close your eyes and think of the queen". I now its an odd phrase but it has alwats stuck with me. I learned it at one of my freelance editing gigs at a company that I re-edited old documentaries and training videos to remove dated references and corporate propoganda so they could be re-sold in the educational market. Now what a video about London Prostitutes is doing being sold to schools is a whole other question.

Day 1

1999-05-26T23:07:00.000-04:00

After being laid off from a job you love is a tremendously difficult thing. It took me 2 months to get back to a normal work schedule. Well I did do odd jobs for my Dad's business and my Grandfathers business, But driving a car delivering dentures and doing construction demolition are not exactly in my resume. My friend Mike A, who was a couple years older than me but started as an intern at Wreckless, and is an Amazing painter and airbrush artist, got a project freelanced to him and asked me to help him out. So was born M2-3D. The name actually came from another animator at Wreckless named Geoff who one day said to Mike and I "so what is M2-3D going to do" meaning when we all got laid off (he saw it coming i guess).
Marc and Mike 3D animation did a few jobs in the summer of 1999 but towards the end of Summer the distance of the partnership (Mike in Ct me in NH) got tough pitching projects and Mike brought on a sales person (Another former WA person). This didn't leave me in the cold but I kept the name M2-3D (saying it meant Multi Media 3D Animation) and Mike Started Xvivo, which now does AMAZING medical animation, I mean the stuff really blows me away. To this day Mike and I still get on the phone and talk about clients, employees, and fixing the Amiga (The old computer system we used before we got real jobs).

The Day Before it Started

1999-03-26T22:29:00.000-05:00

Finding a start date to anything is very tough when you really start to think about the backstory that got you to that point. On March 26, 1999 (The day before my 29th Birthday) I recieved a call from the owner of Wreckless Abandon. Wreckless was a stop motion animation company that I freelanced for as the head of CGI for 2 years (we had 2 -6 people in the dept at any one time). WA was located in East Granby Ct (Not the mecca of stop motion animation but next to an airport with Fed Ex Drop off and the owners house). I worked 4 days a week at WA often sleeping at co-workers houses, the motel 6 or the pullout couch in the loft that was the CGI Dept. I only worked 4 days a week because East Granby was 3 hours away from my house in Newmarket, NH and my wife and I hadn't made the leap to moving our family so far from our family support system in NH. (our older 2 girls have epilepsy and required frequent hospital stays).
Back to my point. Mark B called me and said that they were laying off the 6 people that were left at the company and sticking with a 4 person crew (the 2 brothers/owners an assistant and one other if i remember correctly) The layoff was due to the effort to pull in some really big jobs and the turn around time of pulling these jobs in house is very long. As furrious as I was I understood. The 2 brothers had basically accepted me as their 3rd brother. I was able to see both sides of all the arguments (discussions) the CEO was always Black and White about his decisions and how things had to be done. The CCO was always White and Black. The 2 were almost always taking steps towards the same idea, solution, or answer but since they spoke 2 different languages they never listened to each other. I usually found myself moderating these discussions. Sometimes I was asked to refrain from commenting but sfter a while the 2 understood that I saw the world in levels of grey and I helped each of them to see what was going on and they if they took a breath and listened to each other that they were talking about the same things just from different angles.
In working at WA and being privy to some of the more complex business decisions, HR conversations, and creative meetings. I believe that these 2 years of tireless hours fo work and commuting were the foundation of what to do and what not to do if I was to ever start my own company.