BSA303, Pop-Up Workshop visit, 29 June, 2017

I spent an hour and a half talking to Jeremy Dillon, creator of The Moe Show, and a tour of the studio.  I got to hear about how he came up with show, worked with their commissioner, and have continued to evolve the show over the 5 years it's been on the air.  And he looked at my pitch bible and gave me some feedback!  It was really awesome.  I got to see the set where they film everything (it's built high above the ground to accommodate performers with puppets raised over their heads), edit and hold meetings.  They took over an old fabric warehouse so they'd have filming and office space.  It's a nice space.  They avoid post -production fixes by doing everything on camera: what I thought was a green screen and animated scenery is a giant scenery painting, suspended cotton wool clouds, and tree branches that wave in the "wind" thanks to a strategically placed fan.  The clouds are pushed along during the show so it looks like things are changing naturally outside.  It's a little touch that he reckons makes hte world more real for the viewer.  The puppets are made by Pasha in Texas.  They have had to replace them over the years but try to avoid it as it's very hard to get exact duplicates.  They mostly have a pull tab that operates eyelids or wings and Gilbert is the most mechanical of them all.  When their mechanisms break, they get sent back to Texas for a fix up and the schedule gets switched around to cover their absence.  Pasha is coming out to NZ in October for ten days to be on set while they're filming the Christmas special so they can keep to schedule.  

These are some of my take aways from Jeremy's comments:

On what he learned from doing his shows:
let your characters have insecurities.  Perfect characters are boring!
Really think about what life was like for you when you were a kid.  Think about what's a problem for the kid, in their life, and not what their parents think they should be learning.  ex. Can you do a show about eating your vegetables?  Kids see right through that.

He started with Moe then brought in the other 3 characters, and they've  now developed to the point where they host their own segments of the show.
Base your characters on someone you know and let them grow from there.  Gilbert Gecko is based on Jeremy's cousin with short man disease. lol
Animation is more expensive than filming puppets.
Find a character who kids can relate to as their own best friend who nobody else has:  he thought about Elliot from the original Pete's Dragon, ET, and a labrador puppy when he was designing Moe's look and personality.
Be open to things changing from the original idea.  changes can comes from the outside, commissioner, or the inside, puppeteers getting a better feeling for their characters.
Fern the Fairy has developed from a girl who whines when Moe doesn't do what she wants to do to someone who says "your loss!" and goes on her way.  He said they struggled for a long time to take her from being manipulative to independent, which he feels is the right message for girls to take away from the show.  She and Moe are best friends who also disagree.
Frank is a fantail but people mistake him for an owl, which has become a running joke on the show.
The funding process is changing and they're developing a new show, too.  After 250 episodes, Moe has pretty much seen as much of New Zealand as he can.
Gilbert's character was going to be a stoat but the commissioner pointed out that NZ kids are taught to hate stoats because they kill kiwi birds.  So he became a gecko, a lizard that lives on the Coromandel Peninsul, the setting of the show.

On what he saw in my pitch bible:
 Get your main character (Jellybean) sorted and figure out how the others react- what do they bring out in each other?
How can your show's premise be expanded so it's possible to make a 5 year series?  Networks want a hit and you may be out of material after 7 shows if you cover one emotion per episode.  If it's the choice between sinking money into a one-year or a five-year show, the 5-year show wins.  Jeremy's idea:  make it a problem solving show where they can deal with emotions or math, or learning, or anything in the world.  Jellybean takes the girl to the Imagination Warehouse where the crew helps her figure things out.

Keep thinking about things from a kid's perspective and find a core story from your childhood to help ground you.  Jeremy referred several times to a memory he had of being afraid of the hydroslide and not being able to admit it or to try it when he got more comfortable with the idea.  His dad pretended to be nervous and asked Jeremy to go down the slide with him.  Jeremy got to "help Dad out" without the risk of looking bad and didn't miss out on doing something that he had changed his mind about.

Moe with Jeremy in the art department