Oh boy… we made a thing.
I work a lot. And like most people, I work hard and a I love what I do. Most of what I do though is pretty disconnected from me emotionally. I mean, I do work for clients who are (mostly) happy and it’s an all great and good. But I’m taking their ideas and concepts and manifesting them, so ‘good’ and ‘bad’ don’t really come into the equation. At least not in the way that generating your own ideas does.
But, when you concoct a character and a story and you make a thing and put into the world… oh, boy… is it nerve wracking. You love it and care for it and then set it free and wonder if they are all going to laugh at you. Even when they're SUPPOSED to laugh, you want them to laugh WITH you, not AT you.
And that brings us to Bean and Banana in ‘Existential Crisis’
I came up with these two characters about 15 years ago and wrote a bunch of dumb little comics that I never showed to anyone, though I thought they were pretty good. Like most things, it’s easy to get busy and just shelve ideas. It’s certainly easier emotionally!
They are a little bit Abbot and Costello, a little bit Daffy and Bugs and a little bit Mike and Angie. :-D
Recently, a festival date approached, and the animation I’ve been working on producing for it just wasn’t going to be done… so I panicked and decided I’d take 3 days and make SOMETHING! Out came the well of sketchbooks as I looked for simple ideas I could board, illustrate and animate all in 72 hours! And so the dust came off of Bean and Banana.
And, since I’m actually trying to get this scene by a wider audience, counterintuitively, I can’t share it here! X-D We’re submitting it to a bunch of festivals and hoping it gets accepted and shown. According to Bill Plympton, that’s a great way to make money from your animation. I don’t understand how… but we’ll see over the next 6 month how it goes. It feels SUPER weird to send some dumb thing I made to Annecy and Cannes. Yes, THAT Cannes.
However, If you would like to get a screening (and I hope you do), reach out and I can share a direct link for you that still keeps it’s precious status as ‘un-premiered’. It won't change your life, but I hope it makes you laugh.
We had a private screening last week with a team we do work with and it was a smash. That feels like an overstatement… I’m not sure a 1m animation can smash anything… but people laughed and I was walking on air.
Two things came out of this process…
Keeping it simple is the way to go
Real artists ship
I am working on more Bean & Banana. So look for that in the near future.
Loved that we were among the ones that witnessed Bean & Banana for the first time in public. They are brilliant and I hope to see more of them. I also loved that you shared how nerve wracking it is to put your stuff out there. That is relatable! And glad you did.