Mad Lab Productions- Review of 2012

2012 was our first year, and much like bull riding, it was exciting and exhausting.

Unlike bull riding, no bulls were involved.

 As a small animation production company, we don't have a heap of admin or infrastructure, and that gives us the advantage of being pretty nimble and able to respond and react quickly to feedback, and to what we learn as we put stuff out. We can make essential decisions quickly, and that keeps things FUN, and exciting.

The flip side of that is, well- we don't have a heap of admin or infrastructure! That means all the heavy lifting, creatively and admin-wise, is done by the two idiots (wait, wrong word- geniuses) who head the company up, Geri and Chris. Thank goodness both guys possess incredible amounts of energy, passion, talent, and most importantly- good looks.

 We spent the year pursuing TWO things: service work for clients, and development of our own animated content, made entirely from within our company. This is a pretty classic pair of objectives for media production companies, so why should Mad Lab reinvent the wheel?

 In the realm of providing animation services, we found ourselves working with a fantastic client in Inhabit Media. This company has offices in Toronto and Iqaluit (which is in Nunavut, which is in Canada's far, FAR north). Inhabit Media focuses on telling stories of the north, with a focus on Inuit legends, myths, and tales. And so Inhabit and Mad Lab are working together to create a stop motion tale of childhood friendship, bravery, and child-eating ogres.

The use of stop motion, with its tactile, physical quality, works wonderfully as a way to tell these tales that are honest, primal, and very, very magical.

The project is ongoing, with Mad Lab overseeing storyboards, puppet fabrication, sets, and animation, under the direction of Neil Christopher of Inhabit Media. We'll post more information about the project over time...  but it's looking wonderful so far, and is truly exciting and inspiring to work on.

Another client we worked with was the Burlington Animation Festival. We created their signal film that was shown around online and at the event itself. Here it is.

This little project was a great chance to do some NON- stop motion work, since the animation is drawn.  It went over with a big bang (pun certainly intended).

 As for our second objective, making our own content- we spent the year making MORE zombie shorts, which played in festivals like TAAFI (Toronto Animation Arts Festival International), we created  a mini-series using drawn animation called Vampire Instructionals, and we created a couple of  "secret projects"- these are short animated pieces that we're very proud of. We're planning to reveal these pieces over the course of 2013. Based on audience responses, these could be the projects we continue to pursue over time.


We'd like to thank a bunch of folks for their efforts in 2012, namely Noam Sussman, Peter Grecco, Phillip Stamp, Rich Duhaney, Pete Emslie, Ben McEvoy, Alex Gorelick, Nora Keely, Daniel Baker, Carla Veldman, Max Racz, Larry MacDougall, Patrick Sweeney and Amy Pagnotta from SPACE.  All these folks have websites/blogs, so look 'em up!

Thanks also to SPACE, Rue Morgue, Fangoria, Daily Dead, and Strange Kids Club, for the great coverage of our new business and our various projects.

 Extra special thanks to Jason "Thumbs" Burch for his work as our intern. He created fabulous stuff you'll see in 2013... and to Phil Postma for his continued (and amazing) Mad Lab-inspired artwork that can be seen via our Facebook page, and our Twitter feed.


Best and last thanks goes to our families. Without their support and love we'd still be lying on a couch just watching cartoons, instead of out in the world, MAKING 'em.

What does 2013 hold? Invasion by alien overlords? The rise of a bizarre superbug that will crush the human race beneath its feet? Perhaps a new album from Justin Bieber? We really can't say.. but regardless of how crazy the new year gets, we'll just keep making with the Mad Lab goodness...

Fan Expo Canada Is Coming!

It's that time of year again! Fan Expo Canada is coming, next week, August 23-26. We aren't even going to bother embedding the link to Fan Expo here because, well- you'll find it.

If you are a fan of "Comics, Sci-Fi, Horror, Anime, and Gaming" (the categories their site pushes), you'll get your fix at this event. Are you going?

Mad Lab Productions will be there, on the Thursday.

We don't have a table- we're going as FANS. But look for Chris, wearing his custom-made Mad Lab Productions t-shirt. He'll be the nerdy white guy with glasses. That narrows it down, doesn't it?

Hope to see you there!

Oh, and- watch out for real monsters. We understand they sometimes attend this kind of event, so they can move undetected through the human crowds. Perhaps it gives them some twisted monster rush?

If you are not sure if someone is a monster or just a human in monster costume, we recommend trying to pull the monster's face off.

This will clear things up for you, quickly.

Mad Lab on Electric Playground!

A few weeks ago Chris of Mad Lab found himself being interviewed about Springtime Zombie by the awesome folks at Electric Playground. We shot at the historic Silver Snail on Queen Street, in Toronto. The piece was within a feature piece on TAAFI (Toronto Animation Arts Festival International), that hits next week. Springtime Zombie is playing as part of that fest, so check it out.

If you don't know, Electric Playground is a highly respected (and fan-favoured) destination for video game, movie, and general pop culture news updates, interviews, and reviews.  So Mad Lab was very excited about it all.

Be sure to check out the bitchin' Mad Lab T-shirt Chris is sporting! Would you buy one? Let us know!

Thanks again to Shaun and Darcy- true fans of all the things that Mad Lab holds dear.

You can see the clip here (TAAFI and Mad Lab's segment starts around the 12 min mark)...

SPACE CHANNEL Visits Mad Lab Productions

SPACE Channel is Canada's national sci-fi TV channel, and last week they came out to visit with us, and record a segment for their daily news show, INNERSpace. We were extremely excited, to say the least.

They first did a series of questions with Chris on camera, then a sequence with Geri AND Chris on camera, and finally a piece with Geri on his own. Then they mixed it all around through the magical process known as "editing," and BEHOLD. You can watch the segment here.

In the sequence, they also used footage that we provided them with,  known as "B roll" (since it's not main or "A" material, but is required nonetheless when it comes to editing, in order to beef up a sequence). This was footage of Geri and Chris working at storyboards, and of us on-set working with the sets and puppets.

We also provided them with an original piece we're calling "Zombie Pile Up," and a cool time-lapse making of. We'll be posting all this to our YouTube Channel in the coming days...

To give credit where credit is due, Zombie Pile Up was animated by Chris and the wickedly talented Mad Lab intern, Jason Francis Burch. We'll post about the awesome skilz of Mr Burch in coming blog posts...

They also incorporated segments from our zombie shorts, so it was exciting to see our own work re-edited and re-packaged to make a segment. We think SPACE did a great job in all ways. It's a fantastic piece that shows what we do and who we are...  what more could we ask for?

Well, maybe a magical robot goose that shoots golden eggs out of its bottom, but those still haven't been invented. YET.

Thanks especially to Andy Feige (Senior Camera for SPACE), and  Amy Pagnotta, who pulled the whole thing together, and who conducted the actual interview. They put us at ease with their polished professionalism.

SPACE Channel is welcomed in the Mad Lab, anytime!