Please tell us about the projects you worked on before making ‘9-1-1 (not a 911 parody)’. How did you start, and how did you learn to make animation?
The first project I ever worked on was: little stop motion films using clay and playdough where I turned purple ball into octopus and then in reverse. The way I learned about animation was by reading books like “Animated Cartoon” by: Edwin G. Lutz and “The 12 Principles of Animation” another book on the subject by Disney’s best animators. From there, I wrote a couple novels for Book Baby “Martians” and “The Life of Bob & Jean”. From there, the next animation I worked on was with paper cutouts like South Park used (in the pilot) and Monty Python. I cut out famous people’s faces and made their lips move up and down and afterwards, dubbed their lines in. After that, I went straight to paper and did hand drawn animation. To copy each frame, I redrew the background scenes using the lightbox, then did the in between drawings by flipping the paper up and down.
I used to listen to Matt & Trey of South Park (commentary minis) where on the DVD of every season they’d discuss how each episode was made. They had a list of emotional stories and funny ideas then sort of weave them together (or to the worst of my knowledge) and that's literally how I learned to write, constantly pushing yourself to do better and improve each joke or line or character to be better and better. In a world where everyone loves feeling comfortable all the time, in film you must criticize yourself always otherwise you can't grow as a writer or voice actor/actor. In the U.S. Marines, for example, they teach you to push yourself to the edge even if you've done 1000 pushups you can do 5 more. Even when you're hurt you keep going - you can’t quit, it’s not an option. It’s my personal philosophy to leave my feelings out of my work to make the animation or script funnier, otherwise I can’t push myself to the limit. David Goggins (Navy Seal, Army Ranger, Air Force) says “set goals that you can’t achieve” because goals should feel impossible, otherwise, you wouldn't feel how hard they are to achieve. If you think they are impossible, then it’s your mindset - it should seem impossible. Exercise should only hurt cause you're getting stronger.
Tell us about ‘9-1-1 (not a 911 parody)’. How do you describe it?
“9-1-1” is a parody of what happened on 9/11 2001 or 2002. It came out of watching The
Towering Inferno (1974) which reminded me so much of the towers falling over. I am not
making fun of 9/11 and saying it was a joke. Sometimes in comedy, things can be funny without taking the event/existence out of it. Things can be funny because they are ridiculous or absurd. I process things slowly and this 6-minute story is a way to revisit something historical without getting serious about it and getting ptsd from the smoking and people yelling in the streets.
Sometimes you must think like a crazy person to be an artist, they say artists are emotionally frustrated and I think I certainly am in this day and age not being able to express ideas freely and write really messed up stories. Ask questions like detective casey, or max payne. Movies aren’t supposed to make you comfortable; they’re supposed to make you uncomfortable. Otherwise, how would you ever learn anything? Terry Gilliam (the genius filmmaker once said) “The great difference between Kubrick and Spielberg is Spielberg is more successful. Hahaha. His films make much more money, but they’re comforting, they give you answers. And 2001 had an ending. I don't know what it means, but I have to think about it. It sparks a discussion with the person you're talking to and ideas come out of that. Spielberg and the success of most
films in Hollywood these days are down to the fact they’re comforting. Tie things in bows and give you answers.”
Please tell us about your favorite filmmakers.
My favorite filmmakers are definitely the weirder ones like Phil Tippet who made “Mad God” (2022) which is an absolute animation masterpiece. The whole thing is a mess, and we get to see inside the mind of a totally mad minded artist. Sometimes you have to visit the darkness of something to find the truth. Lots of my work is inspired by Bill Hicks who talked about dark things even though they weren’t really dark they were funny as hell. Some of the other weird, animated films I loved were Fantastic Planet by Rene Laloux, Gerald Pottersons’ Heavy Metal (1981. From 7:00-19:00 minutes in) and most of Ralph Bakshi's films like Heavy Traffic and Fritz the Cat.
Steven Spielberg back in the early 90s had some underrated films. They’re bad, but at the same time they’re also very good. Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Out for Justice. Were very good and there’s this modern fascination with bad movies like how “The Room” suddenly became popular, and I think with the absence of comedy movies in this culture with the invention of romantic comedies people mis movies that put them at ease.
Mel Brooks is probably one of the most underrated filmmakers of all time. I don’t know why he’s not up there with Lucas and Spielberg to be honest. With every parody he made Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Spaceballs really felt like its genre. What he does well is get into each genre and gives it that fantasy type imagination tone. Blazing Saddles felt like a western without being one, there wasn’t some set of bad guys who came waltzing into town or a girl needing to be rescued. He’s a real genius with those films then with the horror
one, Hitchcock and Space one all felt like you were in that world, that realm but anything goes. It’s all silly and goofy without being a dumb movie. He’s not some avant garde director with the right motif but still set the way for movies like Airplane and Naked Gun.
The next sorta comedy geniuses are the Zucker Brothers. They made Airplane, Naked Gun and the Scary Movie’s throughout the 2000s we all remember and love. What's great about them is you don’t have to follow some complicated story, it's just a fun movie, it doesn’t matter and that's what comedies are supposed to be. Comedies aren’t some heartfelt drama like a Judd Apatow movie, they’re supposed to be silly like Tex Avery Looney Tunes short where none of it it matters. Comedy can’t be scripted. It's either funny or it isn’t and that's the magic.
If you were given a good budget, what would be your ideal project?
My ideal project would be a live-action feature length comedy like “Airplane” or “Naked Gun” and really go crazy with gags and jokes even a crazy fun cheap TV show - a punky sort of Jackass stunt type Television show. I believe you should have to make things cheap, that way it allows you to get creative with production. The best example of a low budget filmmaker is Markus Rothkrantz. He made some of the best Hollywood films creatively cheap - and did it well.
Describe how you would ensure that production is on schedule. What steps would you take?
Well, there's a set order for things, the script, then it’s building a team and finding shoot locations and props and things. And once you make an order of hardest scenes - to easiest, you can start casting and then you start your schedule. The key to filming is hard work and preparation. It doesn’t matter how long it takes; it took Terry Gilliam nearly 30 years to finish making Don Quixote and took Oliver Stone 10 years to get Platoon made. That relates to me because it took me well over a year to make 10 animated shorts and I’m glad it took that long because I didn’t settle for less and built a team of people I can trust with my scripts.
What was the hardest part of making ‘9-1-1 (not a 911 parody)’.
The hardest part of 9-1-1 was writing it. 9-1-1 (not 911 parody) and Camp Riga! are these very taboo subjects and you're not supposed to talk about them in a funny way or goof on them.
They were literally 2 last minute ideas. I had written 5 animated sketches and these 3 20–30minute short movies. I kept on thinking; wouldn't it be crazy to make a 9/11 animated parody? Or even a Holocaust one? Honestly, after that, was finding someone who would animate it. By luck I was going to school in Israel at the time (Reichman University) and looked up animation groups on Facebook or something and found this guy (who will remain unnamed) in Nigeria. We started working on little animated shorts. Each one took a month rather than doing them all at once, cause I need to know I can trust someone with my scripts, cause they’re very personal it's like reading my journal, my heart or something. I do have to give credit to Matt Parker and Trey Stone of South Park because they inspired me to start making animations (sorry Trey Parker and Matt Stone). First of all, it was tough getting people to act for my Politically Incorrect scripts, but also, they say on those DVDs (paraphrasing) “We’re still figuring it out as we go along.” And if they don’t take themselves that seriously and are that funny, then I probably could too. The lack of animation is what makes those shows so funny. It's simple and basic. So in 9-1-1 is why you see the mouths moving that way and walking the way they do.
If possible, tell us about your next work. What plans do you have for your future work?
In the past 2 months I have written a 150 page+ feature movie called “The Movie” it's in the works and it’ll be the feature-length comedy (I spoke of before) its wacky and crazy. It’s a guy adventure movie sort of like: Trains, Planes, Automobiles meets Airplane or Naked Gun.
The other script I wrote was an adult film (rated - x) it's called Maga Boys. It’s about a group of college freshmen who wanna go out and get laid and are sick of feeling like boys and wanna become men. And set out on an adventure to win over the college girls and the obstacle in teh way are the football jocks. This idea came out of watching old 1970s/1980s adult p movies like Deep Throat, Debbie Does Dallas, Flesh Gordon, Taboo.. and realizing back then those movies (as “gross” as they were) captured cinema much more than that filed does today. They had real original music soundtracks, professional cuts and transitions, scenes in cars, by pools, on boats, because nowadays it's inside someone’s house for 45 minutes and it doesn’t feel like the story is even going anywhere! Nothing’s happening! So, the idea IS the Goonies meets Debbie Does Dallas. If anyone is interested, my scripts are available on my Film Freeway account:
After that, I got a couple ideas for some independent TV Shows. A Jackass type stunt show on the street, a very Tom Green-Eric Andre esque street interview but with crazy stunts. and perhaps a podcast inside a bar where people play games because there’s nothing more boring than watching a podcast where the only thing that moves is their mouths. Why not throw in a chess board? Or a dart board? Or.. by a pool table while they talk.? I chose Film Festivals after learning about how Quentin Tarantino and Mike Judge used film festivals to get their start. If you even look at animators like Don Bluth for instance, you understand how it’s better to create something yourself completely independent without losing sight of your vision.
Anyhow I’d like to thank the Tokyo International Short Film Festival. They are absolutely amazing! I don’t know why they’re not on Film Freeway! But they deserve to be. Big shout out to Mr. Hashimoto, huge appreciation and gratitude for recognizing “9-1-1 (not a 9/11 parody)” along with me and (Mikeson Animation Studios).
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