Mike Milo's Journal

Three years ago I created a seven minute animated film called “Flavio” for Nickelodeon/Frederator Films, about an over-emotional goat who works as a dishwasher in a pizzeria and longs to be a famous inventor like his hero Leonardo DaVinci.

I have not been able to post it on my site because it had to air on telivision first to be eligible for Emmys and Annies and all that stuff that only animators care about. Anyway, I can finally show it. Please check it out and as always I love to here your thoughts!
You can see a production blog about the making of Flavio at Frederator.com and learn more about Flavio here.

Click the flag to see Milowerx Journal in Italian!

I thought whoever still reads this dang blog might like to see the last few Flavio bgs…

So I’ve been working on my cartoon Flavio for about 3 months now and I’m nearing completion on it. It’s been alot of fun and I’m sad to see it come to an end but eh, whattayagonnado? Ya know? Anyway, here’s a few panels from the final storyboard that I did for it. the main panels are my intial pass at the posing but the added thumbnails are after the dialog was recorded (did I mention I did Flavio’s voice?) and I needed to add more nuances to the acting. Click the pic to get a bigger version.

It’s interesting to note that these drawings were all done digitally on my brand spankin’ new tablet PC which I have to say is increasingly becoming my favorite thing in the world! No pencils were hurt in the making of these final boards! YAY!

Well I am down to the last few weeks of my production of Flavio. Went fast didn’t it? Today we will be putting together and editing the animatic which is the storyboard synched to the sound track. After that all that’s left is the exposure sheets.

Well there are also some backgrounds to do and the painting of those backgrounds and also coloring all the character art but most of that is being done by others so for me I am getting towards the end. Anyway, here is what will be my THE END card. it’s a little homage’ to an old Bugs Bunny THE END card. If I could find a pic of it I’d post it as well.

I don’t remember all of these but I can relate to probably about half of them!

01.You have at least one relative who wore a black dress every
?day for an entire year after a funeral.

02. You spent your entire childhood thinking what you ate for lunch
was pronounced “sangwich.”
03. Your family dog understood Italian.
04. Every Sunday afternoon of your childhood was spent visiting
your grandparents and extended family.

05. You’ve experienced the phenomena of 150 people fitting into 50
square feet of yard during a family cookout.

06. You were surprised to discover the FDA recommends you eat
three
meals a day, not seven? ? ? ? ? ? ?
07. You thought killing the pig each year and having salami,
capacollo, pancetta and prosciutto hanging out to dry from your shed
ceiling was absolutely normal. (Wow, that’s really Italian!
08. You ate pasta for dinner at least three times a week, and every
Sunday, and laughed at the commercial for Wednesday is Prince
Spaghetti day.

09. You grew up thinking no fruit or vegetable had a fixed
price and that the price of everything was negotiable through haggling.

10. You were as tall as your grandmother by the age of seven.
11. You thought everyone’s last name ended in a vowel.
12. You thought nylons were supposed to be worn rolled to the ankles.

13. Your mom’s main hobby is cleaning.

14. You were surprised to find out that wine was actually sold in stores.
15. You thought that everyone made their own tomato sauce.

16. You never ate meat on Christmas Eve or any Friday for that
matter.

17. You ate your salad after the main course.

18. You thought Catholic was the only religion in the world.

19. Your were beaten at least once with a wooden spoon or
broom.

20. You thought every meal had to be eaten with a hunk of bread
in your hand. ?

21. You can understand Italian but you can’t speak it.

22. You have at least one relative who came over on the boat.

23. All of your uncles fought in a World War.

24. You have at least six male relatives named Tony, Frank, Joe or  Louie.

25. You have relatives who aren’t really your relatives.

26. You have relatives you don’t speak to.  Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

27. You drank wine before you were a teenager.

28. You relate on some level, admit it, to the Godfather and  the
Sopranos.  I maka a meata ball you can’t refuse!
..forrgetttabbboutit! badda bing! ~

29. You grew up in a house with a yard that didn’t have one
patch of dirt that didn’t have a flower or a vegetable growing out of it.

30. Your grandparent’s furniture was as comfortable as sitting on
plastic. Wait!!!! You were sitting on plastic.

31. You thought that talking loud was normal.

32. You thought sugared almonds and the Tarantella were common
at all weddings.

33. You thought everyone got pinched on the cheeks and money
stuffed in their pockets by their relatives.
34. Your mother is overly protective of the males in the family no
matter what their age.

35. There was a crucifix in every room of the house.

36. Wakes would be held in someone’s living room.

37. You couldn’t date a boy without getting approval from your
father.
(Oh, and he had to be Italian)

38. You called pasta “macaroni”.

39. You dreaded taking out your lunch at school

40. Going out for a cup of coffee usually meant going out for a
cup of
coffee over Zia’s house.

41. Every condition, ailment, misfortune, memory loss and
accident was
attributed to the fact that you didn’t eat something.

42. Those of you who get this…KNOW who to pass it on to!
CIAO!

Well I finally got my Flavio Blog on Frederator so I won’t be posting Flavio stuff here much anymore. For the next few months it’ll just be personal stuff from time to time. Check out the new blog and post a lot so they think I’m important over there! ;-)

They ask each of us short creators to do a piece of art to hang in the atrium here at Frederator. Most of them are done in chalk so i did mine that way on a piece of black Foam Core. I tried in some small way to get some sense of character in his pose; I figure that Flavio is an Idea man so he should be in an “idea” pose.  this is taken with my crappy lil’ camera phone so it doesn’t really do it justice, but i am happy with it. I’ve never done a chalk painting before so I don’t know what else I could have done to make it better. maybe make it a bit lighter but that was hard given the 10 colors I had. What do you think?

When you come to Frederator and do one of their nifty lil’ cartoons, the first thing you have to do when you start the short is repitch it to the team here so they can officially give notes and suggestions. I have been told that you don’t necessarily have to “take” those notes and use them but to not listen would be foolish as the team consists of all pros and any insight into trying to make someone laugh should always be welcome in my book.

Anway, so on Thursday I repitched Flavio and it went very well despite the fact that I was not happy with my performance. Pitching a cartoon is in some ways like doing a standup routine except you have the luxury of having art there to propel the humor. Either way you have to make an ass out of yourself and really get into the characters, by doing voices and acting out the actions to get it to work well. I’m usually pretty good at making a fool of myself as some of my friends will attest but for some reason I felt I was a bit “off” during the repitch. They seemed to go for it anyway and laughed in all the right places which is awesome.

So I basically got a few small thoughts and suggestions but only one real note and even that is just re-wording dialog so the board is pretty much done.

Next step is to transfer it to official Random Cartoon storyboard paper. There are still a few notes forthcoming from BS & P (Broadcast Standards and Practices) and also the Network has yet to give me their thoughts but hopefully that won’t be too big of an issue as they too have seen the board once before. The major thing I was worried about with Flavio saying “I poop better inventions that you!” ended up being a non-issue and instead one line where Flavio mentions Bossman dying is actually more likely to get cut. Funny what the Network allows and disapproves.

I’m still working on the models and will pst Flavio’s boss Bossman soon.