Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Alright, folks, Iāve finally had a moment to sit down and process the fact that The Lion's Blaze is officially...well, dead for now. Itās been 8 years. EIGHT. Iāve poured my soul into getting this show made, and thought I sold it twice (yes, twice), here we are. First to Warner, right before the Discovery merger and then to another network I wonāt name because, honestly, they were great to work with. I mean, absolutely stellar people, but the industry is rough right now, and itās just not happening.
Got hit me with the olā, "We really like this, but originals are just too hard to get made right now." Ahh, yes, the industry equivalent of a bear hug followed by a soft whisper of, āNot today, pal.ā I get it. It hurts, but I get it. Maybe The Lion's Blaze is just the right idea at the wrong time, and thatās okay.
And listen, I know people are gonna say, "Kickstart it! Go indie!" And while I love that energy, Iāve got my sights set on Godspeed right now, and I want to give it my full attention. Maybe The Lionās Blaze comes back in a different medium down the road. Who knows? For now, itās sleeping... like a lion. A tired, frustrated, still-kinda-awesome lion.
Man, the animation industry these days feels like trying to swim in a pool with no water, and I keep asking myself, āIs it time to get out of the pool?ā But hereās the thing: Iāve fallen in love with this art form. I donāt want to leave the pool, but at some point, youāve gotta ask if itās worth it to keep splashing around in sand. I know a lot of you feel the same way, too.
Itās like development right now is a game of darts, but as soon as youāre ready to hit the bullseye, the dartboard teleports across the room. So, you recalibrate, throw againāBOOMāit teleports again. A foul, mischievous mistress, that dartboard.
Now, I have to shout out 20thāworking with Marci, Chris, and Jasmine was one of the best experiences Iāve had in development. It was like they just dropped me into a sandbox and said, āGo wild!ā And even though the project we worked on didnāt sell, it never felt like a waste. Iād rather fail doing something Iām passionate about than succeed with something I donāt believe in. Every. Single. Time.
Maybe animation was always supposed to be a short-term, wild love affair instead of a long-term relationship. I donāt know, but Iām tired of writing into the void. From the outside, it probably looks like Iāve done nothing for yearsāand let me tell youāthatās what messes with me the most. Have I been wasting my time? Was this all for nothing?Ā
I'm sorry to all of you for making you wait while I wrote into nothingness. I can nothing to show for years of trying
The entertainment industry can be brutal. Itās been full of failures, heartbreaks, and a few successes. Iāve met some incredible people along the way.
Iām not giving up on animationānot yet. Iām just gonna be way more selective about who I pitch to and who I work with. I canāt afford to waste any more time. Iām also going to pivot into new ways of telling stories and creating. My schedule is official freed up for the first time in over a decade.
To all you aspiring creators out thereāchin up. Keep pushing. And if the pool dries up, maybe take a break, pivot to something else, and then come back when that pool fills up with water again.
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Big Godspeed Update!
So, after exploring every single avenue to make a series of animation, almost 10 months of searching. I think we found the partner we are going to link up with. They are excited, they want to do it, and will help us secure a budget to make an ENTIRE SERIES.
It is NOT a major studio. It's not even in Hollywood.
I mean, even just to see if it was an option, we tried to set up pitches, and no one was doing anything original. We had an Amazon pitch set, but THIS is not an Amazon show, so I pulled the plug on that pitch.
I even tried to get a major sponsor in Japan, haha. I tried EVERYTHING.
I reached out to every executive from social media to independent and met up with major animation studios to discuss if they would want to throw their hat into this ring.
This was the one place that fits the project's ethos, which was always about finding hope. I don't want to say WHO it is right now because we don't have a deal yet, and I've learned not to say anything until the ink is on paper.
Now, it could take them a little time to find a budget for a WHOLE series; however, they seem very optimistic and have even pledged some of their own money to help secure investors to come to the project. And they want to do multiple seasons, ambitious! But I've learned to focus on the goal, which is season 1.
So we still need to make an actual deal, and more importantly I'm going to fight to ensure there are benefits for all of you. I have lots of things I want to ask for in this deal. It's not perfect, but 100% creative control and the ability to hire some out-of-work animation workers on an original animated series made during one of the WORST times in animation is rare.
So, my attorney is on the case and has started to engage them on the next steps. I think there could be a reality we will have a writer's room going by the end of the year. And if they find the money, we'll be animating next year. (fingers crossed) So, there is still more to do, but we are making progress!
More soon! Thanks for all the patience!
-Olan
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Want to say thanks to everyone encouraging me along this process of coming back to Youtube. The only way I can describe the process is being out of shape and starting to work out again.
I know Haunt Hounds didn't take off on here on my main channel, it took a while to find the rhythm, were on EPISODE 7 now (comes out this Friday) We finally got on that every 2 week schedule again, I've been uploading it to it's own fresh channel. And it's been a blast! Don't care about the views just finding that rhythm and in the process I got that itch to create again. I finished up the shooting of "How to Make Animation" series, Ep.2 it's on my Patreon right now, after a couple more tweaks I'll be posting here. And then I'm bringing back Rollin With Olan with Jake....we have a really fun take on it, he's experienced DND player and I have never played it lol plus we get to keep the name! We shooting episode 1 tomorrow. I'm not going to post it until I have a two schedule schedule on lock. That's my new goal, I've been really like that for me. In fact I'm thinking of shooting sequels to all my classic sketches lol I think that could be really fun.
I'm getting in to the swing of things again, I apologize it took so long. I just had to finding things that excited me again, that were different and new. I will say I'm even thinking about starting a new fresh Youtube channel to try things out on and then keeping this for big videos like Godspeed. I'm still thinking about it.
Anyways it's a long winded way of saying thanks for being patient with me, re-igniting that creative spark for Youtube has been a challenge.
O
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HEADS UP! After EPISODE 3 ALL the rest of HAUNT HOUNDS will be uploaded to its own channel.Ā
You can watch EPISODE 4 over there right now.
youtube.com/@HauntHounds
We'll be starting to upload over there more regularly.
I'm still figuring out what I want to do with this channel. I'm booking some live shows to shooting some more comedy focused stuff. I'm working on my "How to make Animation' series but beyond that...I'm going to be trying a few things, I've been having fun experimenting and Haunt Hounds might be the most fun I've had on Youtube in a while but I think it needs it's own home (Channel) Appreciate you, letting me experiment a bit. They all won't be smash hits out the gate haha
Onwards! More coming! -Olan
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So I got 2 new video ready to go but I need someone who knows how to design Youtube thumbnails, anyone know anyone? I need to set up my game on this and I know no one who does this.
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Godspeed won TWO Gold Telly awards in the Short Form Animation and Non-broadcast categories! The win for Non-Broadcast is all thanks to you amazing Godspeeders voting for us #tellyawards2024 š„š„
That makes 5 festivals wins so far! Thanks for all the support on this!
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EPISODE 1 of SEASON 1 of HAUNT HOUNDS TOMORROW?! :)
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1ST HAUNT HOUNDS EPISODE is about half way done! It's about an HOUR long haha it's a beast, currently trimming it and once I get the tone and style of it I'm handing off all editing on this project to a editor thanks to the Starscreamers on Patreon THANK YOU for the support! So far we have about about 12 episodes shot, over hundreds of hours of footage! And all the "How to Make Animation" series shot too. I'm also planning a new tour to shoot all new stories for the channel. Onwards! -Olan
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THIS FRIDAY!!! GODSPEED WILL PREMIERE RIGHT HERE! ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL! December 15th/ 10 am EST
The trailer is on my socials, I would have posted it to my Youtube but was worried it would hurt the premiere. This batboy is 24minutes long! It's huge, a year and a half of work! SO EXCITED TO SHOW YOU THIS THING!
-Olan
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Godspeed will actually be the longest video I've ever posted on my Youtube.
We're racing towards the finish! Looking like early December it will be complete. :)
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What you love to do shouldn't be defined by how much money, fame, or worldly desires you acquire but by how much fun it is to be doing something you love.
My contact email is olanrogerscontact@gmail.com