This blog post is inspired by the absolute vitriolic fallout that came from the Boxtown production Indiegogo announcement.
What this is, essentially, is just me, an indie creator, expressing my feelings. My perspective. What I think, see, and fear when I read the quote tweets and replies to this indie pilot.
Many of them were positive, encouraging, and wonderful. But a lot were mean-spirited, ignorant, and downright vitriolic.
It’s okay if you don’t love or like every piece of indie animation. There are two particular popular series that, whilst quality productions that revolutionized the indie animation industry, have failed to get my interest. What do I do about this? I don’t watch the show, I don’t follow the creator. During writing this blog I actually found that I dislike the creator in general for personal reasons.
Once again – this means I just don’t interact with them. Block, mute, ignore, whatever you find necessary to move on.
So I’m not saying that just because you feel Boxtown isn’t appealing to you, you don’t support indie animation as a whole. You have a right to criticize them over hiring a voice actress that is Anti-Vaxx, works with one of the most toxic and arrogant show creators in history (no, I’m not referring to anyone on Boxtown), and uses her platform to spread harmful ideas. That’s actually the most
The difference is in the vitriolic reaction to the series as a whole.
The first comment that struck me as ignorant was ‘It’s not Indie’, because one of several reasons:
-The creator of Boxtown has industry experience.
-The voice actors have industry experience.
-It’s nepotism. Everyone’s working on this show because they’re friends.
-The art style looks similar to that of other shows.
-They’re asking for an ‘industry’ budget, not ‘indie’.
-It’s not a noir comedy if it’s not a black-and-white detective story.
Now the first two have me howling with laughter. During the HBO Max debacle, we suffered WEEKS of people saying ‘all industry animators had to do was go indie, and the animation industry would be saved!!’ And here we have an animator that’s worked in the industry, that’s worked as a showrunner, that knows how to get an animated series off the ground, doing exactly what these dim wits demanded.
Only… now they’re not welcome anymore because of said experience.
Same goes for the voice actors. ‘Because you have worked on a Disney/Nickelodeon show, you are not welcome in our community. Shoo!’
The saddest thing is that a lot of these people consider themselves to be young indie creators who want to work in animation someday. And then they spend all day fighting other indie animators on Twitter and insulting the people they claim to want to work with someday.
With that attitude, expect to get marked as ‘incredibly unpleasant to work with’, if not outright blacklisted, before you even have your first demo reel ready.
‘Indie’ means nothing more than: a self-funded series, not produced or distributed by mainstream outlets. So… a film produced and distributed by Disney? Not indie. A series produced by, say, Bardel Entertainment, and distributed by Netflix? Not indie.
A series produced by a former Disney employee, distributed on YouTube? Indie. Despite what your envious little heart may want to claim.
You can’t in one breath claim that you want industry veterans to ditch the industry to save animation, and in the same deny industry veterans access to our community because they have certain connections we don’t have.
And then there’s the issue with voice actors… I hope these people realize that voice actors just want to work on fun projects – and all you have to do is go through the proper channels to hire them.
No, the majority of them will not work for free, and yes, certain voice actors’ rates will be out of reach for tiny productions. But despite what Hollywood might tell you, your show doesn’t need Chris Pratt to be successful.
Any independent production can apply to become SAG-AFTRA signatory. There’s some paperwork involved, but if you’re willing to do the extra legwork, you’ll be able to hire any union- and non-union voice talent your budget will allow.
I know, because I’ve done it for Swift Spark and the Defense Five. And I’m not an industry veteran – in fact, I’ve never even worked for an industry studio. Not even as a Production Assistant.
So… I guess that obliterates their second argument – it’s all nepotism.
I had 0 connections. Just determination and just enough boldness to seek out a voice actor’s agent and ask. I worked my ass off to be able to pay the actor’s rate.
I wanted it. And I made it happen.
You can make it happen, too – if you’re willing to put in the work. Just like Charlie worked his way up to the jobs he’s had. That didn’t happen overnight, either.
The argument in regards to the art style – it’s so popular with studios because it’s cheaper to produce. The character designs are simple, clean and easy to draw, and the cartoony proportions allow for more room for error without looking off-model.
That immediately rolls into the next argument I’ll debunk – they’re asking the same as a Disney or Netflix production would spend on an episode.
The Boxtown production fund is $80k. That’s about $72k when you take off Indiegogo’s fees. Wow, that’s a lot! That’s more than my dad makes in a year before taxes (I’m not American). I get it.
Studios easily spend ten times that on an episode. They’re not asking for a massive budget.
The Simpsons budget per episode goes over a million. South Park spends 250k on each episode. Does South Park ‘look’ like something that costs 250k to you? What does that even mean, ‘looking like x amount of money is spent on something’?
You’re all supporting the WGA. You’re all supporting TAG. And yet… you’re not supporting an indie creator working 2 (if not more) jobs, one of which is being worked far below the median industry pay, because you think they’re ‘asking too much’.
Animation is expensive, and certain art style choices are being made to keep the budget as low as possible. South Park’s unique art style was a result from this, and you can see that it’s effective to keep the per-episode budget incredibly low to this day.
Executives left and right are already trying to price gauge us for our work. Don’t tell us you stand with them when it’s your time to put your money where your mouth is.
You don’t have to help fund every show. But you can also choose to not run your mouth when you think an art style isn’t appealing to you.
$80k for an animated series of the calibre of Boxtown is nothing. Sure, shows have done similar for less, but also take ages to get made (like Long Gone Gulch – production was slow, because Zack and Tara took on so much of the work by themselves, for free). So… in that case, they’d be complaining about how long it takes to get one episode out… no winning there.
Now, let’s talk about how none of these people seem to have taken an art class in high school. Not the art history classes I was offered and attended, at least.
The ‘noir’ in ‘noir comedy’ stands for ‘black’, or ‘dark’. This refers to the humour, not to the colour of the goddamned film. Just because it’s also a detective story, doesn’t mean it’s intended to be a black-and-white detective film!
Those parodies you all keep harping on are based on the writing style of detective films and crime shows from the 1940s and 50s! That’s Film Noir – something entirely different…
But, ignorance is bliss, and social media algorithms love stupid arguments.
Anyway. My advice to other indie creators is: don’t listen to unfounded arguments from ignorant social media kids. Don’t try to argue with them directly either – if you have a voice actor you want to work with, go for it. If you want to pitch your show to a studio, make sure you know what you’re doing so you don’t get taken advantage of, but go for it. If you want to work for a studio aside from working on an indie project, go for it.
Be welcoming. Be open.
Don’t gatekeep.