Joe Murray's Journal

My cat Millie and I enjoy our favorite position after a late night work session.

Online journals are hard for me. I usually keep things very close to the cuff. Especially with projects I’m working on. When I was in development on Rocko, I didn’t tell anyone about it for a year until right before I had to start putting the team together for the pilot. Disney wanted to sign me to a development deal, but I wouldn’t tell them about the project I was working on. At that time, it turned out for the better.

I have nothing against working in a traditional network situation, as long as you keep to your values, integrity and vision. In my experience, staying as independent as possible until the last possible minute insures the best deal for you, and ultimately more of your vision in tact. That’s why I try to stay as frugal as possible, and my overhead low so I’m not forced into a situation that is compromised. ( I was able to walk away from Rocko negotiations several times without fear of hunger. It was a little harder with Lazlo since I had kids, but still possible). I’m also doing more research on expanding my chapter in my book on alternative approaches to getting a series out there.

Now more than ever, we have the tools to do more of a prototype for a series, or even the film itself by ourselves. Granted, it may not be as good as putting together a team of specialized craftspeople as you would on a series ( yes, in my experience, pilots are never as good as the series episodes produced by about half way into the first season and after.) But I produced both pilots for both of my shows myself, and it really helped to iron out some details. Fish head is still moving forward, but there is also a prototype I’m working on with the help of two Apple G5′s, a Wacom Cintiq, Flash, After Effects, Final cut Pro 6,DVD pro, plus Pro Tools (with a digidesign M Box 2) and a library of sound effects thanks to Jeff Hutchins, Bill Griggs and several other sources. Granted these may not be available to all budgets, but It’s a fairly self contained studio. ( again without the experts, but I get to learn how to play with all of the toys.) 

I have to say though, that  producing my pilots have been the most enjoyable times of my life. I’m having a lot of fun right now. I know I’m immersed in my project when I let a half a cup of coffee go cold and forget to drink it. 

I usually don’t discover it until my cat Orson begins drinking it.  Life it good.

“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, artists, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”    - David Orr

I believe this quote is a repost, but from BH ( before hacking). It speaks volumes about our definition of success we use for our standing in the world. “Oh, you are a writer? Are you published? Are you on the bestseller list? Are you in the Oprah Book Club?”  After an onslaught like that, it would be hard for a writer to live up to the definition society has of one.

But they are still a writer. Same with artists, musicians etc.

My goal in life has always been to be able to eat and have a roof over my head with the earnings from my art, to do the least harm socially and environmentally and to do what I love to do. Now it has expanded to include my two daughters and myself.  I make sure I suit up and show up and let providence do the rest. All I know is, if I sit down to work, something comes through me and I write it or draw it. The only thing I can take credit for is sitting down and making sure my pencil is sharpened. From this approach, I’ve had some “successes” in outside terms. If some critic doesn’t like my work ( and there are many) that’s fine. If an animation fan doesn’t like my work, that’s also fine with me. There are many other extremely talented animators, show creators etc. who may speak to that audience.  ( There are also factions of fans that follow various animation “gurus” that make it very clear they don’t like me or my work. It cracks me up how much energy some of them expend on this. ) I just enjoy making my films and my episodes. They are not for everyone. Nor do I want them to be.

Money comes and goes. I can’t say I can tie in spikes in happiness with spikes in cash, or spikes in accolades. I can get caught up in “living up” to what others think of me, and it always leads to uncomfortable places.

Blah blah blah. Why do I feel a need to say all of this? Because while I’m working on projects, my head can spin, and I have to get back to my original, simple goal. To produce art I love, that says something, and to earn a living from it. My career has far exceeded my expectations, and I’m grateful for that.

Artists can be like nomads, where working on project can be like traveling a desert. Hopefully there will be water where the journey ends up. But there may not be. But there also may be a beautiful oasis that fills every cup, and supplies you for many more travels where there may not be an oasis. But the only thing certain, if you sit down in the desert and don’t go anywhere, you will soon be food for vultures.

Suit up. Show up. Learn. Have faith. Travel to distant lands, and have the courage to lose sight of the last oasis in order to travel to new places. Maybe you will meet a friend in the desert who needs your help.

Who knows.

Happy Earth Day!

Of course every day should be earth day. I’ve got my site plastered with the way I feel about the environment. Click on the story of stuff on this page if you have not done so already. It is really at the core of our crisis. It’s a simple problem we got ourselves into. In the last 100 years, we’ve started driving cars and  becoming a massive consumer machine. When it started it seemed harmless enough. But add billions more consumers and drivers ( a staggering rise in our population) and the constant need to keep the economy “growing”, and we’ve got ourselves into a mess.

But we are a smart species. I believe we can turn it around. But it will take sacrifice, extra work and letting go of the ego ( do you really need to drive around a monster truck that is designed for a war zone?)

We also have a love affair with the hamburger, which most people don’t realize the effect that has on our environment ( not to mention our health).

It’s starts with small steps. And they become habits. Pledge to carry on a conscience decision to reduce your footprint for 28 days. That’s when decisions start to become habits.

We all love cartoons, and animation and art. But our kids need to have a planet to enjoy them on.

Peace out.

“What lies behind us and lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s getting hot again in my loft. LA weather is as volatile as it’s people. Cold one minute, and warm the next. Or is that the way my life seems?

This morning I was walking my daughter to school, my mind off  in a place worrying about this or that. Then my daughter says “Dad, I wish I had a life like yours. You take us to school, and then go to your studio and make funny stuff.” 

I laughed because in my head, things are much more complex than that. But they really don’t need to be, do they? I told her sometimes I wish I had a life like hers, where all I needed to think about was school, and who I was going to play with at recess. She thinks I’m crazy.

Of course thats true.

I think I’ll try and make some funny stuff now.

When I did Rocko, I had no intention of becoming a “television producer”. I was an independent filmmaker whose project for television was, for me, a personal form of expression. When you get into the commercial realm, others attempt to coax you away from having something to say for a broader appeal of just comedy for comedy sake. Nothing wrong with comedy for comedy sake. I love it. But it’s hard for me to get enthusiastic about a project without something personal behind it. 

In order for expression, I need to live life outside of the entertainment bubble. It can be a festering quagmire of audience chasing, money wasting, goop of mass distraction.

Anyone who wishes to offer something different in animation, or a different form of cartoon, this is the time to do it. We have many avenues of showing it these days. And it’s best to operate our labs outside the corporate influence. Just like mixing too many colors will cause “gray” so too does many executive inputs from several directions eliminate the bright, vibrant expression an artist can bring.

Independent can meld into commercial once the vision is in place. In fact, it will revitalize it!

“Speed is irrelevant if you’re traveling in the wrong direction.”  - Gandhi

“Give yourself short assignments, and do shitty first drafts”.- Ann Lamont

I stole this last one from Bruce Elkin, who stole it from Ann Lamont. Bruce is a good guy to work with on simplicity and achieving your goals while living simply. I have to keep remembering quotes like these, because I’m so used to working with big crews, I want things to all happen right away, and not allow myself time to do things over that are not right. I do anyway, but I have to stop getting so frustrated with it. I’m waiting to bring on a larger crew, but I don’t enjoy managing them. I’m enjoying working by myself, and want to keep that as long as possible. But it’s also important for a project to have the best foundation possible before starting to eat up overhead.

Another dilemma I have. I am really flattered that so many people want drawings and autographs from me. I’m not saying this here to boost my ego, but as a plea. At times I try and accommodate these requests when I tie them into charitable events, but for the most part, if I fulfilled all of these requests, that’s all I would be doing all day. Every day. Again, I am flattered, and I feel bad. It’s an honor for others to cherish something like this, but I’m sorry. When I’m working on a show, I have people who put the paper in front of me, and a sharpie, and then after I draw and sign, they do the rest. But my studio is very small and simple  right now, and I don’t have those people around.

Anyway, I’m sorry. I can’t fulfill some and not the rest, so I have to say no to all right now. Thank you for understanding. It’s a luxury problem to have, and I’m grateful I have this kind of problem.

Chocolate hangover today from helping the girls bite the heads off their Easter bunnies. Back to the work, or the play I should say. A little sore from clearing brush yesterday. Make a good pot of Sumatra. 

Had lunch last week with my good friend Mark O’Hare. At times it felt like two curmudgeons griping about the state of the world and the animation biz. But then, always laughing about it. Mark and I always looked at the dips working at Lazlo like riding a roller coaster. Its a wild ride this life in art. Mark did this great comic strip called “Citizen Dog” that ran for awhile in the LA Times and lots of other papers, and since a comic strip was originally how I wanted to express my cartooning, it was always great to live it vicariously through him. He worked with me on Rocko and got his comic strip shortly afterwards. With the shrinkage of the newspaper industry, it was hard to keep it going.

Mark is one of those great artists who is a genius talent, without the ego. What a joy.

My Belgian girlfriend told me about how where she grew up, bells would fly from Rome and bring gifts on Easter. She wondered how in America it turned into bunnies.

In my cynical way, I explained it was probably hard to sell cute plush “bells”, so they changed it to cute bunnies. (Or was it hard to sit on a “bell’s” lap at the mall and get an overpriced picture taken? Who knows?

Does anyone know?

Spring

“There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; Whatever steps we take, they’re necessary to reach the places we’ve chosen to go” - R. Bach

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” -Nelson Mandela

So I watch the peach blossoms bloom again from a tree that looked extremely dead in my front yard a few short months ago. I see the poppies and the daisys come out.  Yes, at times the economy looks dead and the job market is pretty anemic, but there is never new growth without the fertilizer of death. 

So what else is this except a trite metaphor for rebirth, and phoenix rising from the ashes? Maybe because whenever I go through a dark time, I think maybe this time it will stay dark forever. I’ve sold my last project. Every piece of work I do from here on out will suck, and I will curse the executives who ever decided to cancel a series of mine, or stop reprinting a book.

But the fact is, I’m not owed anything. And I’m extremely grateful for the episodes, films and books that I’ve produced that have touched a cord with a couple of people, and that businesses have chosen to support them. And when I read about amazing works of art and classic novels that were rejected time and time again only to have the tenacity and persistence of the artist or writer help push that flower through the soil so that it sees some sun, I realize I have nothing to complain about.

Nature does it all the time. It doesn’t complain that it has to start all over again every spring and make some more of those damn flowers because those last ones got old and fell off.

I think artists can return the favor.

The Suffolk Journal’s April Fools issue includes an article about Ralph Bighead teaching at the school. Excerpt:

Suffolk University’s department of communication announced last Thursday that it will start to offer classes for the Fall ‘09 semester that will teach students about the art of film animation, ranging to Disney classics such as “Alice in Wonderland” to the computer animated films of today like “Shrek” or “Toy Story.” Now, the Suffolk Journal brings you the exclusive news that famed “Wacky Delly” creator Ralph Bighead will be teaching the class “CJN 289 – Animation in Film – Merry Melodies to the Digital Age” in its inaugural year.

I don’t want anyone to feel that if they are not in an artistic job, they are not contributing. That’s not what I’m saying. Nor do I want anyone to not enjoy what’s happening now while thinking about the day when they can make a living off of their art.

We all have jobs that may not be exactly what we think is our true calling. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy them, and strive to do the best we can at them. We all need to eat, and pay the rent. Having gratitude that we have a job is real important, and doing things simply and doing them well.

What I like to strive for is a balance of time for art, expression, time with the people you care about, time in nature. And not to give up those things in exchange for excessive unnecessary spending. And everyone’s life is different. Only you know what the unnecessary spending is in your life.

What I ask others to think about is, what brand enhancing, ego boosting experiences are you willing to give up to make your dream come true?

That’s enough soap boxing out of me. No more for awhile.