FATKAT WANGED BY PENNY ARCADE

Last year we did an animated short for the Classy dudes at penny-arcade for some cash and advertising on their site. We haven't taken up the op'to the advertising as of yet but they had WANGED us just recently. Check it out!!!

CAST AWAYS

Here's some rejected designs from a recent project. I still like them.



Does he look like Broccoli? I think so.



Does he look like Corn, yeah, a bit.

GAVIN'S VISIT TO FATKAT

Gavin surounded by the cast of Hopper.

About a month ago Gavin Smith; a producer from The Comedy Unit based in Glasgow Scotland, came over to Fatkat to jumpstart our new co-production. The project, a pre-school show called Hopper which Gavin created and is now Fatkat's first official Co-Production Project teaches children about teamwork, diversity and multicultrualism.

We're currently working on a short teaser trailer on the show, of which I'll be posting in another month's time. In the meantime, here are some photos from Gavin's stay.



Neven, Mr. Stevenson, Dan and Patrick all sharing a laugh over a pint of beer.



Neven toasts up.



Gavin, Mrs. Stevenson and Mick all enjoy a giggle.



The profile of an evil genius.



Tara after a few too many. :o)



Andy on his usual tear of the studio. He likes to devour a six pack and walk about telling everyone their peices of turd.

jokin...he's really a swell guy.

FATDOG?

Oh yes, we now have a new representative from the animal kingdom. Our Mascot should in all rights be a kat, but when Eddie arrived with Gwen and applied for the position of studio mascot, well his charm was overwhelming.

Eddie, we're glad you're here! Now stay away from my bagels!! :)

GRADUATED!

It's that time of year again. Summertime! - Fatkat has expanded - people are getting shitfaced out on the river, toobing, boating, jetskis. But to kick it all off, folks are also graduating. Here are just a few that are linked to Fatkat.

My wife Tara who graduated from the Youth Care worker program with honors. Tara has enough experience in taking care of pubescent minds with all her hands on training with me.

Brian Roy (aka Salad) a Fatkat Animator who graduated with honors from the Animation fundementals program and my nephew Robert who graduated from high school. Robert's going into Video Editing and has recently bought himself a killer workstation.

CLOSET SALAD ANNIE

I knew it.

I had a sneaking suspicion that someone here at Fatkat was living at the studio. The amount of beer in the fridge was at an all time low, instead there was actual groceries. The other clue was all the hygiene products in the bathrooms and the abundance of blankets in the lounge.

Well you've been ousted Salad! We now know it is you! Damn yoo! DAMN YOO ALL TO HELL!!!
:0)

HELLO FROM ITALY!

Here's a cool drawing sent to us from Andrea Maccarini in Italy. This guy can draw!

You can check out his works online just slap his name into Google yo!

Thanks Andrea, we hope to work with your talents soon!!

~Gene.



FATKATS AT BANFF TV FESTIVAL 2005 - PT.3

Wees Famous!

Pictured here in the Tuesday edition of the Banff TV Festival Newsletter is Drew and I pitching Hopper to Domenic Friguglietti from ABC. He really dug it, the half hour meeting lasted over an hour! Now that's cool.

I hope he likes it enough to send bags of cash so we can develop it for him! We'll know in the upcoming months as we wrap up our animated teaser on Hopper and iron out more details on the pitch for him and the other interested broadcasters.

Stay tooned.

Gene.

FATKATS AT BANFF TV FESTIVAL 2005 - PT.2

On our last day we met up with our good pals at DaCapo Productions out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. These guys are top shelf dudes that handle most of our music, voice recording, sfx and mixing. They run a super type studio and are most accomodating even on short notice; which seems to be the case most of the time. I love these guys.

After some drinks in the rundel lounge at the Banff Springs hotel. The four of us got a hankering for some wild boar and elk burgers. We jumped in Olaf's VW and hightailed it to downtown Banff; to Wild Bill's Restaurant. Clint chewed up some elk, I with some Salmon, Andrew with his healthy filling of Chicken and dumplings and Olaf with his healthy portion of chicken vaginas...ahem.. I mean Fajinas, FAJITAS!

- A long story that if told quick would last half as long as you would enjoy.

It was only after dinner that I remembered I had a camera. Olaf and Drew have sweet teeth and they were in luck as Banff is full of chocolate shops and candy stores.



With Olaf buying, what the hell, let's do it!

I loves me nut clusters.

Drew had a hankering for some buffalo chunks. Thankfully we found these, as the next step would have seen us combing the golf course.

Clint, Olaf and Drew endulge not only in chocolate but into heavy hearted conversation...

...and bear hugging.

Olaf hiding behind his camera, he says he's too fat, oh stop it Olaf, you're so silly.

A good shot of Clint close up and personal.

There you have it!






FATKATS AT BANFF TV FESTIVAL 2005 - PT.1

Well, it was off to Banff, Alberta for another turn at networking with big wigs and pitching our cartoon shows. This year Drew and I teamed up to tackle the wild rocky mountain network executives in an attempt to show them the light at the end of the tunnel which is a remarkable Fatkat Kartoon!

This years cartoon priority pitches; a action/comedy series for 8 to 12 year olds entitled 'Shadowboy' and a pre-school series that we're co-producing with The Comedy Unit out of Scotland called 'Hopper'.




We pitched these two shows pretty steadily througout the festival. Andrew handeling the duties on Hopper and I on Shadowboy. It's funny you know, the networks you most readily prepare for, or even cater to with the pitch; you'd think would lead to a connection that would result in them gobbling the idea up and sealing it with a bag of money. Drew and I quickly found out that again, this business is totally unpredicatable; largely in part I think due to the fact that Art is open to oppinion and taste. So sometimes it's best to not only gear your pitch towards the network's mandate but also to the personal taste of the person you're pitching to.

But enough of that, here's some pictures of Drew and I getting shitfaced.

HEY! We met up with our writer pal Johanna Stosik, she's fantastic and also a platnium blonde this year!

The reverse, Arny picks his nose while drew and I reflect on our long flight in form Toronto.

Drew's sister Meaghan, no resemblence there. Meags was nice enough to host us while we were in Banff. Thanks so much!!

You know it's party time when Drew breaks open the guitar case in search of old Betsy.

Gene flakes out on Boddington's cream ales...

...then continues with his Grinch impressions.

After more embibing of the liquid goodness, drew takes it up a notch adding some serious facial expressions to his routine.


I contemplate the serious meaning of the Jack Cheddar Dorito...

...and it's ties to the meaning of life.

Then passed out on the floor.





MICK'S SEND OFF

As you all know the great Mick Harrison has been working at the kat for the past 6 months. Well, he's gotten sick and tired of all the damn sillyness, rotten cartoon gigs, drunken stupers and the whole Canadian experience in general. Can't say I blame him.

So Mick and I both agreed that it was time for his ass to return to Monkey Island for a few months so that he may get rejuventated in the ways of tea and crumpets. In England Mick will continue to work on Fatkat projects such as the Hopper gig. Which we are pitching at the Banff TV Festival this year.

Check out that afternoon's events.

Andy and Beans getting it on the old, fatroline.

Jon flips this ATV about 3 minutes after this picture was taken. Off the Bridge, into shark infested rivers.

Gene gets some air action.

Gene gets some Matt action.

Patrick takes Beans around for a scoot.

Beans came back without Patrick, he will be missed.

Drew gets some air.

Melanie has trouble letting go.

On the way back to Mick's apartment, he realized he locked himself out. So we had to bust a window and Mick slipped in undetected.

Although, I saw fit to give him a hand...

...by tickeling his feet.

Adios Mick! See you in September!


ANOTHER FATKAT COMES BACK!

Every once in awhile an ex-fatkat comes back to the litterbox to see how wees is doin.

Last week my good friend Rodrigo Amador came back to Miramichi to check on Tara and I and to make sure we we're not dishonouring that beautiful logo he designed us back in the day. Yeah dude, this is that guy.


Rod is currently working in Ottawa for Amberwood on the Zeroman feature, he's a jack of all trades this guy. He's doing storyboards right now on the feature but back in the day with Fatkat he did everything. Even before that we both worked on designing characters for the 3rd season of Freaky Stories together. Then on to For Better or For Worse.


When I think of a versatile artist I think of Rod. He can draw he can paint, 3D, video editing and even directing. He knows how to make cartoons and boy I tell ya, if I could just persuade him to stay in this little town, Fatkat would be all the better for it!


While we were here we had some drinks with Mick and Tara at my place. We broke out the dark rum which was probably a big mistake on my part, I'm famous for getting a wee bit out of control on the dark and dirties. That night we went to an industry bash at the local pool hall, some dudes from Ubisoft were there as well as instuctors and students from the local animation college. Being the class act that I am I proceeded in calling everyone dicks and even poured beer in some guys fucking shoe!

Rod summed it all up the next morning via a neato doodle.


There's always a story made here at Fatkat, at least once a week someone does something stupid or as a group we decide to do the silly or truculant.

Anyway, it was great to hang out with my dear friend again. Come back again soon Roddy!

~Gene.