Jacob All Trades #318
Bees, Baseball Circus, Yo-Yo Ma, PBS Pinchback, Charlie Brown Goes 3D, Seinfeld Meets the Zoomers, and a College Short I'm Still Proud Of
Last week I was sitting outside under our gazebo writing this newsletter. Our cat, Batman, was next to me on an outdoor couch. My wife and I had been stationed outside in shifts because we didn’t want to miss the emergence of a butterfly chrysalis we’d been watching that had entered the ‘any moment now’ stage.
I heard a buzzing sound that was growing louder. It sounded like a transformer or something. I looked up and saw a dark grey cloud moving through our neighbor’s maple tree, over our fence, and right toward me. It was alarming before I knew what it was… then, I realized it was a dense swarm of bees.
I grabbed Batman, ran inside, and started yelling to Heather to make sure the windows were shut and confirm the kids were both inside (they were).
We watched from our kids’ bedroom window as the swarm of bees settled in our compost and localized. After about five minutes, they were relatively calm. I went back outside to get my phone (which I’d forgotten by the chrysalis).
In those short five minutes, the butterfly had emerged from the chrysalis we’d been watching for days. It felt like a metaphor.
In the last two weeks, we’ve been dealing with mold in our garage, a sick cat, sick kids, and now… bees. Best laid plans.
Here’s a newsletter for ya,
Jacob
THIS SHOULD BE A DOC
I keep a running list of things that would make great documentary shorts or features. Frequently, I also text these ideas to friend/collaborator/Chef’s Table EP Danny O’Malley because he has a production company and will continue to do so until he asks me to stop. So far, the closest I’ve gotten is a “yeah, there are too many ideas and not enough time.” To which I say, Amen. Here are some fascinating things that I’ve finally admitted I will not be making a documentary about… but you should, I’d love to watch it:
There are a dozen more on this list that I’m keeping for myself. If you’d like to collaborate on any of these docs, or are someone with a shit ton of money you don’t know what to do with and want to hire me… my DMs are open.
CONSUMPTION JUNCTION
Three things I’ve seen, heard, or otherwise experienced recently that have been on my mind.
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s commencement address to Middlebury College. Dr Johnson is an outspoken climate advocate and one of the most inspirational people I follow on Instagram. This speech will inspire you and should be required listening for human beings.
The first time I watched The Peanuts Movie I cried. Okay, sure, I was on a plane. I was also on Xanax. But, I’ve watched it several times since now that I have a kid and I maintain that it’s great. I think one of the things that makes it really feel like Peanuts is the visual style. So, how did director Steve Martino and his team adapt famously 2D characters to 3D while maintaining their look? They made dozens of different models of the characters depending on what angle they’d be shown from and then they limited themselves to the angles Schultz used in his comic strips. The above video shows how – but it’s from one of those aggregating channels and isn’t sourced. I’ve been searching for about an hour for the original source and am giving up, but here’s a Cartoon Brew interview with Martino that has a bit more.
From 2012-2015 I co-hosted a podcast called Before You Were Funny where guest comedians brought on their earliest and most embarrassing material for a blind table read and discussion. We had some huge and wonderful guests, and read through bits of sketches, features, and more – but always talked about mounting a full feature-length read-through if someone ever submitted the right material. Well… some upstart named Conan O’Something did just that with a never-made 1991 script called “Hans and Franz: The Girlyman Dilemma” written by him, Robert Smiegel, Dana Carvey, and Kevin Nealon. And… it’s great. Thanks to friend of the newsletter Daniel Schraer for bringing this to my attention.
LIBRARY OF COOLNESS
Okay, is this Library of Congress pun dumb? I have so many ‘libraries are cool’ posts I want to do. This week: The Los Angeles Public Library has announced grants for their 2023 Creators In Residence and YOU SHOULD APPLY!
LAPL is looking for “creators from a wide range of disciplines — including but not limited to: artists, photographers, designers, architects, landscape architects, storytellers, filmmakers, poets, illustrators, cartographers, composers, writers, podcasters, and creators of any media.” Creators will be granted a $20,000 honorarium to “contribute to the Library’s broad mission of providing free and easy access to information, ideas and technology, engaging and inspiring the public, and interpreting critical stories from the collections it holds and the communities it serves.” Applications are due Friday, July 14th, 2023.
To apply, you’ll need a 500-word answer to describe yourself and your creative practice and another 500 to explain your broad interest in working with LAPL or a specific project or idea. Otherwise, it’s a standard resume, website, etc. Good luck!
WORK I AM JEALOUS OF
Now that it’s streaming, young people are watching Seinfeld for the first time. A lot of young people. Here’s a quote from one of the articles I just linked to:
“As long as I can remember it’s been on syndication every weekday night. Really no excuse,” tweeted one younger fan, while another commented, “I’m 30 and SEINFELD reruns after school were just what we did. Baffling that there are people who didn’t watch it all the time in syndication.”
I’d like to briefly tell you my Seinfeld bonafides… 1994-1998: I’m one of a small group of 9-13-year-olds who watch avidly and quote the show all day Friday (after it aired on ‘Must See TV Thursdays’). 2001: My friend Joel works at a skate park with a guy who has a CD burner and gifts him eight CD-ROMS with avi files of ‘every’ Seinfeld episode (we later found out a handful were missing). 2003: I make friends in my college dorm by burning copies of the copies of the cd-roms that Joel made for me to give to other kids. My roommate and I host pre-streaming, pre-DVD viewing parties. 2004-2012: I buy every ‘box set’ of Seinfeld DVDs when the season comes out. Yes, they used to drop tv season releases on DVD as if it was a big deal. And, it was! The DVDs had so many special features that they remain one of the ONLY physical media I’ve kept over the years. 2019: Seinfeld in Syndication is looking for a rebrand of their Instagram channel to reach a new demographic. I work at a creative agency and lead the pitch… which we win. I lead a team of copywriters and art directors to create the new ‘look’ and ‘tone’ of Seinfeld.
TL;DR – I would have loved to come up with the brilliant trailer for Seinfeld that some nameless Netflix editor cooked up. They really should be credited for this because it is 100% Seinfeld, while also 100% seemingly like a new sitcom for Gen-Z.
CREATIVE RESOURCES
I’ve been spending a lot of time looking into grants and one of the best resources I’ve found is Grants For Creators, a substack by Danielle Desir Corbett.
She curates specific (and regularly updated) lists as broad as for podcasters and as specific as for women-owned businesses with no deadlines.
This is a great resource for anyone in a creative field but probably even more valuable if you’re a person of color, since there is special attention paid to resources for groups that are underrepresented in media.
I MADE THIS FOR YOU
I found some of my college films on an old hard drive and recently posted them on my Instagram - but I thought I’d share one here too.
This was the fourth of five films and I made for USC’s CTPR290 and is essentially a shot-for-shot remake of one of my favorite animated shorts by Louis Clichy. It stars Elizabeth Triplett and Kevin Brian.
The premise of the class was that every three weeks you make a new film. You’re supposed to spend a week writing, a week in production, and a week editing. Not everyone did that because (being USC) I had some real trust-fund situations in my class. One guy spent about $50k on one of his films. I didn’t have my own camcorder so I had to check in and out one from the school. It’s pretty low res because they were shot and mastered on mini-DV tapes. You used to have to transcode the footage by hooking up your camcorder (or a deck if you were rich) to your computer with Firewire and recapturing the footage in real-time.
It’s wonky for sure but it holds up. After this screened in class, one of my professors — legendary cinematographer William Fraker — asked if he could buy me a drink at the bar around the corner. I declined because I wasn’t 21 yet. He told me to come back once I turned 21 but I didn’t… because I wanted to make something of myself first and come back once I had ‘a career.’ He passed away a few years later unexpectedly. That’s probably a metaphor too.
Alrighty, that’s it for this issue. Feel free to leave a comment or share the newsletter using the links below.
Party on,
Jacob
Have you watched Merpeople on Netflix?! It seems like something right off your docs list, except thankfully someone has already done it.