Key Jangling, television series pitch

Janglers Animation & Filmmaking in Windsor, Ontario.
View the "Promo 2024" demo reel video on YouTube or PeerTube.
Jason Carswell worked on all included shots, alone or with a small team in an animation studio.

Self-portrait of Jason Carswell after at least a decade finally with a new haircut at the house he'd been helping renovate, February 13, 2024.

Windsor Media Centre animation classes 2D Animation Crash Course 2023 flyer.

Windsor Media Centre 2D Animation Summer Class 2024 flyer.

Media Arts - Community Centre & Museum logo.

Monday Networking Meeting + Pitch Night with Bell Media's Fibe TV1, 2024-07-15.

A logline (aka elevator pitch) is a one or two line plot summary:

Key Jangling (working title) is a reality-television documentary series that follows the workshop development and production of an original short animated video by autistic adult student Jarrod Osborne (and maybe other videos by more Essex County students) under the developmental supervision and tutelage of professional animator Jason Carswell, glimpsing some pros and cons to filmmaking in Windsor, Ontario, with community support.

First pitch

In the face-to-face with John Buffone, he seemed eager to see outlines for two of my many ideas - thus, here it begins.

We didn't discuss it much , but it seems like it might be practical and possible to produce the Key Jangling, while continuing to develop the much more ambitious The Rendezvous project in the background. Experience may be learned and earned, and hopefully we can prove that a Windsor production team is capable of a larger production.

Pitched

2023-03-?? Pitched in person to John Buffone of TV1, at the Windsor Media Centre.
2023-0?-?? Online form submitted.
2023-05-08 Via email invited John Buffone of TV1 to visit the Television series pitches wiki page.
2024-07-15 Pitched 4 concepts in person to John Buffone of TV1, at the Windsor Media Centre. He liked Key Jangling and The Rendezvous.
2024-07-21 Online form submitted at https://tv1.bell.ca/fibetv1/become-a-creator.

Title

The name "Key Jangling" holds several layers of meaning. This name may change as this reality-television project takes shape.

Keys or key-frames are a fundamental part of animation production.
Showrunner and featured animation teacher, Jason Carswell, is starting up a Windsor-based animation company, Janglers Animation.
Janglers Animation & Filmmaking, Windsor, Ontario
http://Janglers.ca

Jason Carswell

Jason@Projex.Wiki

519.903.0560
" A key jangler or key jangling refers to anything that attempts to entertain the audience with the same (for example) jokes, one-liners, pranks, skits, (etc.) or anything similar which expects the audience to burst into laughter. Key jangling goes back to how a parent would jangle their keys in front of their baby to make them laugh or to distract them, which often works however, eventually becomes stale and unfunny over time as the baby would simply get tired and annoyed of the same material. " ~ Urban Dictionary
Among over 27 definitions on Wiktionary, here are a few:
- An object designed to open and close a lock.
- An object designed to fit between two other objects in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.
- A crucial step or requirement.
- A guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test.
- (computing) One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.
- (music) A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition.
- (figurative) The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
- (advertising) A modification of an advertisement so as to target a particular group or demographic.
- (cryptography) A piece of information (e.g., a password or passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages.
- (Internet) A password restricting access to an IRC channel.
- (print and film) The black ink layer, especially in relation to the three color layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMYK).
- (computer graphics, television) A color to be masked or made transparent.

Episode rundown

Here is a loose proposed episode rundown and format that, not necessarily in this order, among other things, may include:

opening hook, dramatic clip or outstanding concept from within
short animated credits (by animator Jason Carswell)
quick summary (or episode 1 introductions and brief background stories)
episodic themes may focus on filmmaking or animation fundamental principles that may include:
1. pre-production - conceptualization
  - seed ideas, goals, outline, script, staging, storyboards, composition & cinematography
  - short animated video options: fictional movie trailer, music video, short skit/story in a genre (action, comedy, drama, sci-fi, etc.)
2. pre-production - production design
  - character design, layout, limitations & stylizations
3. animation technique - basics & planning
  - thumbnails & breakdowns, physics & timing, squash & stretch, arcs & easing
4. animation technique - keys
  - clarity, silhouettes, acting & pantomime, reference material
5. animation technique - dynamic flow
  - thumbnails (again), primary & secondary action, successive breaking joints
6. animation technique - contrast
  - squash & stretch (again), lines of action & reversals, opposing action, counter pose
7. animation technique - dynamic flow contrast
  - anticipation + overshoot + settle, overlap & follow through
8. animation technique - acting contrast
  - anticipation + overshoot + settle (again), accents, exaggeration
9. production - technology usage (paper, tablet, applications, etc.)
10. post-production - capturing & compositing
11. post-production - editing & post production & rendering
12. production - promotion & income
13. exhibition - final results
challenges and issues faced in each episode
explanatory mini-documentaries for context (maybe use clips, interviews, etc., perhaps with permission)
solutions and trade-offs for each episode
"what we learned" for each episode
motivational conclusion (ie. heartwarming scene, quote, rant, etc.)
closing animated credits
sponsors, if applicable
Easter egg ending

Series production

Budget

Evolving.

An accurate, reasonable budget and schedule will require consulting with experienced professionals.

First timer

These initial concepts will be revised and evolve. Despite the lack of series production experience, with robust professional experience in animation, live-action art direction, and event production, a first effort presented here begins the organizing, development, and production process.

Format

This reality-television documentary series should focus on the development, production, and relationships captured in limited specific scenarios, mostly in teaching and studio-like situations, recorded with stationary and hand-held cameras.

Locations

It would be nice to be hosted at and collaborate with and promote local Windsor institutions such as the Windsor Media Centre, The Optimists' Club of South Windsor (see also: Optimists' Photography Workshop 2024), etc.

Final location(s) will be found and settled on during pre-production.

Resources

Jason Carswell can confidently wear many hats (producer, creative director, screenwriter, production manager, storyboarder, editor, animation director, animation supervisor, animator, graphic designer, art director, etc.), alone, but would prefer to lead a small tight capable team, recognizing his limitations and inexperience as live-action director, camera operator, sound recorder, sound engineer, interviewer, performer, music composer, with vanities (hair, makeup, wardrobe), etc.

Resources to verify:

~~☐ TV1 budget covers art department expenses (costuming, props, sets, etc.)~~ - inapplicable to this pitch

☐ TV1 lends all camera, lighting, audio gear, and backup media

~~☐ TV1 budget covers cast (actors)~~ - inapplicable to this pitch

☐ TV1 budget covers crew (camera men, sound, vanities, etc)

☐ TV1 budget covers post-production workstations (editing, animation, backup media, etc)

☐ TV1 budget covers editors, music, sound engineering, post-production

☐ TV1 budget covers promotional website?, design?, social media?

Resources to request:

☐ compensation sufficient for professional filmmaker and showrunner Jason Carswell

☐ for development and pre-production (treatments, screenwriting, curriculum, production management, producing, etc.)

☐ for production, producing, and creative direction

☐ for post-production (editing, animation, promotion, social media, etc.)

☐ compensation for lunch and/or craft service for each day of shooting

The only critically urgent demands are for immediate production expenses, a pittance to live on, and transportation - however we must also prepare for a few wild cards that may come up.

Schedule

Evolving.

An accurate, reasonable budget and schedule will require consulting with experienced professionals. Nonetheless, this is just a foundational catalyst for discussion and development. These initial guesstimates may be general averages, understanding learning curve and startup pace should improve, and some episodes may be easier than others - unless ambitions and complexities grow with experience. Naturally, as in animation studios that produce television commercials, one project is starting, another is underway, and one is wrapping up - so I'd expect episode overlapping. Especially if some stories and circumstances develop across months.

Some episodes may take much longer than a week and some much less, but this is a start to work from.

5x pre-production
10x shooting (5 cameramen, once a week, to record a day-long session)
10x rough edit
10x tweaked edit
10x post-production
5x finalizing

= 50 "weeks"

plus : animated intro, branding, and graphic design

10 episodes x 10-20 minutes + 1 year seems plausible to result in 100 to 200 minutes of documentary reality-television, with an abundance of potential for more seasons or spinoffs.

Transparency

Showrunner, Jason Carswell, is an intensely passionate advocate for FOEPATCHISM inclusive ethical social and project management. (Fair, Open, Ethical, Peaceful, Accountable, Transparent, Consistent, Honest, Inclusive, Social, Management) This includes actively promoting the open-source movement, crowd-sourcing, decentralizing all things, copyleft activism, self-reliance, sustainability, agorism, voluntaryism, etc. Therefore, it would be hypocritical to not try to develop this series openly and inclusively*, on Projex.Wiki and/or via other communications. This would include budgets, planning, schedules, and of course the final product. Open book policy.

* Inclusively means anyone is not just passively allowed but encouraged to join and openly participate constructively (rather than the woke meaning of racist forced diversity). Aside from negative activity (which may require clear definitions) we won't discriminate for any reasons, though we may be forced to use closed/private communications.

Ideally, after the series has met its contractual obligations with TV1, the episodes, raw video utilized, and additional unused recordings might be shared copyright-free, made freely available for sharing, researching, archiving, and for anyone (ie. Windsor Media Center and Internet students) to edit with as they see fit. Hopefully folks might be inspired to create fan edits, documentaries, feature films, or crowd-source similar supplemental content from beyond Windsor and Essex County for broader contextual understanding of these critical issues.

Full disclosure

This page and these projects may seem overly obvious, self explanatory, excessively linked, etc. Not only are these pages for TV1 producers, but they're illustrative of projects that anyone may create on Projex.Wiki, and might develop into suitable teaching tools for the Windsor Media Center and beyond.