Thursday, February 19, 2009

After Thoughts: Superjail! Q&A

Tonight was yet another Q&A panel, and I'll tell you right now, it was far better than the James Franco one the other night. This was about one of Adult Swim's more recent program's, Superjail!, a series animated right next door in Brooklyn, NY, which has already aired its first season of 10 eleven minute episodes. The panel included, from left to right: Dan Meth (Moderator of the panel), Christy Karacas (Creative Director, voice of Alice and Jackknife), Stephen Warbrick (Creator, After Effects Editor, voice of "Fat Cellmate"), Britt Myers (Sound Designer/Mixer), and Richard Mather (voice of the Twins).

Superjail!_01
The only shot I managed to take, but that's because I was actually interested in what they had to say.

Around 7:10 (yes, I take note of this everytime) the event officially started, with Dan Meth asking the four members of the Superjail! staff a series of questions. These questions ranged from how the show came to be, and other standard (if you will) questions. Although I found it a bit annoying that Christy Karacas was basically answering all these questions by himself, it was still pretty insightful to hear what he had to say. During this time he also mentioned that a second season of Superjail! was 90% green lit, however they are unsure if Augenblick will still be the studio behind it. A part that, for me as an animator, was interesting to hear was that despite the series being made in Flash, they wanted to give it a very handdrawn feel, and pointed the finger at awful shows like Total Drama Island for basically missusing the program; just good to hear that someone in the field agrees.

At 7:48, the two part season finale of Superjail!, titled "Time Police" (Parts 1 and 2). Interesting note, the Part 2 that was screened was actually an uncensored version, and considering it's the episode with the most amount of swearing, it was kind of odd hearing it at first. Afterwards, the Q&A with Dan Meth continued, bringing up questions like how the staff gets away with the excesive violence and hidden messages.

At 8:00, it was now time for an open Q&A with the audience, which included a number of questions. Luckily, I was able to get a word in about something that left me curious since the season premired (after the pilot): The pilot episode had the song, "Rubber Bullets" by 10cc, a track I enjoyed so much I bought it, as it's opening theme. However, when the series premiered, the song was removed for another, but similar track. Finally got my answer; turns out they couldn't get the rights to the song, despite the actual band being for it, the publishers of the song demanded too muh money and Christy's own band, Cheeseburger, did the opening tack instead.

And lucky me, because of my question we also got to see a music video for Cheeseburger's opening track, in it's full unedited form, which was pretty amusing. After a few more questions, it was already 9:00, and it was over. I have to say, this, at least for myself, was the best panel yet because it delt with a part of animation that I'm really interesrted in, and was of a show I happened to enjoy as well. No word on any more panels though, I'm Q&A'd out for the week.

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