How Pony is Formed: Production and Business Thread

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Re: How Pony is Formed: Production and Business Thread

Postby Helix (?) » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:03 pm

Wylie wrote:One of the things on my bucket list for Pony is to get a piece of art from the show that I can frame on my wall. If they're making cels, then by Celestia I will have one.


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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:09 pm

No, not a whole bunch of months! Be positive David! :fluttersmith:
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Postby Mordja (?) » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:20 pm

Sorry if this has been answered already, but has McCarthy or someone said whether they wrote the season 3 finale under the belief that it could have been the last episode of the show?
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Postby Nissl (?) » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:29 pm

Updated the OP with the Polsky info, glad to see he's back! I guess the major only staff member remaining whose status is uncertain is Williams.

Is it valuable to people for me to maintain links to all of the individual staff confirmation tweets in the OP? It makes my post an incredible mess to read and edit.
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Postby Pocket (?) » Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:27 am

Mr. Big wrote:It'd be great if Hasbro did increase the show's budget to change to traditional animation. You can do alot more if you're drawing key frame rather than manipulating digital puppets.

They've done a decent amount of frame-by-frame stuff on the show already. If they want to be able to do more of that, they could probably benefit a lot from upgrading to a more modern, studio-oriented CAPS program like Harmony or Toon Boom Studio. Something that's still based on lots of layers and resuable objects but also offers better drawing tools.

One thing I would like to see would be upgrading all of the backgrounds to stuff like this. It just blows my mind that you can do stuff like that in vector graphics, and I was excited when I first saw that in "Family Appreciation Day", hoping the show would be heading towards doing all of its backgrounds like that. That, obviously, did not happen.
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Sat Mar 09, 2013 12:54 am

Speaking of Natasha Levinger...when I went to Nickelodeon to pitch a cartoon for them, I signed a guest book and saw that Natasha visited the studio just a day before I was there.

So he's going around cartoon studios, not just Pony.
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Postby Bumble-B (?) » Sat Mar 16, 2013 12:25 am

Probably nothing major and not affect FiM (at least in the short run) but just something interesting i stumbled upon.

Animation Magazine wrote: [Nicki Reed] will oversee the planning, directing and execution of the programming strategy for the network, a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Hasbro..


http://www.animationmagazine.net/people/the-hub-taps-reed-as-new-senior-vp-of-programming/
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 1:47 am

With the news S4 is going to take until winter, now I have to say for sure that they sat on their hands for quite awhile while waiting to continue the show, and we're really going to feel the cost of that in the coming months (and/or they figured comics would make up for it).
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Postby EquestriaGuy (?) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:37 am

This is going to be an unbearably long hiatus. The traffic on the fan sites is going to grind to an absolute halt, and we'll probably outright lose some of those who weren't happy with Twilycorn, or EqG. Winter, by definition, doesn't start until December 21st, so if the article was being literal then we might be looking at a very late Dec, or early Jan 2014 launch. Unfortunately this is completely in line with the precedent so far of episodes airing a full year after voice recording, which itself didn't start until mid Jan.
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Postby Bumble-B (?) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:37 pm

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Interesting. They're hiring but who knows, it might not be for ponies :v:
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Postby EquestriaGuy (?) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:51 pm

that's way too late for ponies. No clue what it might be.

edit: I spoke with a guy at DHX, and he says the company is getting really freaking big. They're picking up new projects left and right.
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Postby Nissl (?) » Thu Mar 21, 2013 12:02 am

EquestriaGuy wrote:I spoke with a guy at DHX, and he says the company is getting really freaking big. They're picking up new projects left and right.


Seems like the explosion all came out of their success with FiM, no? As far as I know they were doing Martha Speaks and a few smaller series, and then in the last couple of years they blew up to 3 Hub series and an upcoming Disney series plus whatever this new thing is. (Equestria Girls? Wander Over Yonder?)

Good for them; they're definitely the best at inexpensive Flash at the moment and they deserve it. I just hope this doesn't change the company atmosphere too much. It's yet another reason artistic success can be hard to maintain over time. Hopefully most of the pony creative core stays intact from season to season, although we've already seen one of the episode directors promoted off to head director on another show.
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Postby Robotzor (?) » Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:09 am

Nissl wrote:
Seems like the explosion all came out of their success with FiM, no? As far as I know they were doing Martha Speaks and a few smaller series, and then in the last couple of years they blew up to 3 Hub series and an upcoming Disney series plus whatever this new thing is. (Equestria Girls? Wander Over Yonder?)

Good for them; they're definitely the best at inexpensive Flash at the moment and they deserve it. I just hope this doesn't change the company atmosphere too much. It's yet another reason artistic success can be hard to maintain over time. Hopefully most of the pony creative core stays intact from season to season, although we've already seen one of the episode directors promoted off to head director on another show.


Something I learned in the corporate setting is that after an acquisition/massive budget increase, the little company can expand like mad. Pay new people, get more/better equipment, all that. Ponies has been good to them.
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:44 am

And they get to whitewash their history, too!

Y'know, hiring all these revisionists.

...I'll shut up now.
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Postby SlateSlabrock (?) » Thu Mar 21, 2013 3:16 am

EquestriaGuy wrote:that's way too late for ponies. No clue what it might be.

edit: I spoke with a guy at DHX, and he says the company is getting really freaking big. They're picking up new projects left and right.

This would also be too soon for those dates, but I noticed from the Disney upfronts:
“Sheriff Callie’s Wild West” — this animated series, debuting in September 2013 on the 24-hour Disney Junior channel and programming block, is the first western for preschoolers, with Mandy Moore (Disney’s “Tangled”) as the voice of a kitty cat sheriff whose job is to ensure that the town of Nice and Friendly Corners remains the friendliest town in the West. The series was created by Denis Morella and George Evelyn and developed for television by Holly Huckins. Morella, Evelyn and Huckins serve as executive producers. It is a production of DHX Media in association with Disney Junior.
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Postby Jyu (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:18 am

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It looks like Jim Miller has been promoted from storyboard supervisor to co-director for the fourth season of MLP. And it looks like he was also the storyboard supervisor for the Equestria Girls DVD.

Also, James Wootton's Linkedin page shows that he is directing a new show by DHX called "Package from Planet X". His Linkedin page still says that he's currently working on MLP so I'm guessing Miller was promoted to co-director to help lighted the load so Wootton would be able to direct on both shows.
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:21 am

DVD :twonk:
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Postby EquestriaGuy (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:23 am

Looks like this cat is finally out of the bag. Great catch!

Wootie is not on S4 of ponies. I had no idea that it was Jim Miller that took his place, so that's a pleasant surprise.
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:35 am

Congrats to "Big" Jim Miller for his promotion! I'm guessing Thiessen is still on the show?

Best of luck to Wootie for his new endeavor.
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:43 am

Does anyone know what Wootie is doing now?
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:44 am

Wayoshi wrote:Does anyone know what Wootie is doing now?

Ummm, from that post above:

Jyu wrote:James Wootton's Linkedin page shows that he is directing a new show by DHX called "Package from Planet X".
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:10 am

Durp... :bluh:

Well, he's still at DHX so I'm sure he's just across the hall or something like that. :allears:
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:18 am

You can see a trailer for Packages from Planet X on DHX's website.
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Postby drunkill (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:19 am

Also this, guess shes starting to write another episode, second half of the season presumably.

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Postby SoundMonkey44 (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:21 am

drunkill wrote:Also this, guess shes starting to write another episode, second half of the season presumably.

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So Cindy is writing for either part 2 of season 4 or season 5, nice.
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Postby Stuff (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:28 am

Okay, so it's a DVD, huh? Who's going to purchase it for the eventual ponyday stream? :allears: I think it should be Grue. He does seem like he's the biggest fan of the movie. :iamapony:
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Postby EquestriaGuy (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:30 am

If they're boarding 15 already then they're well past still writing on the second half of S4. It was around this time last year we found out Levinger was hired. I'd say this means she's signed on for S5.
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:34 am

Assuming that season 5 has 26 episodes, that would bring the total number of episodes to 117. Not bad.

If they keep this up, maybe we can get 200 episodes :allears:

Or they can be like a certain anime and keep the show going for 40 years. We should get 2,000 or so episodes that way. :v:
Last edited by Mr. Big on Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Thy Great Swagged Brony (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:40 am

EquestriaGuy wrote:If they're boarding 15 already then they're well past still writing on the second half of S4. It was around this time last year we found out Levinger was hired. I'd say this means she's signed on for S5.


Seriously though...why do we have to wait until winter?! I can't see how this is in any way beneficial to the brand to draw this out
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Postby Snow Drift (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:43 am

Mr. Big wrote:Assuming that season 5 has 26 episodes, that would bring the total number of episodes to 117. Not bad.

If they keep this up, maybe we can get 200 episodes :allears:

Or they can be like a certain anime and keep the show going for 40 years. We should get 2,000 or so episodes that way. :v:


If pony turns into the american Sanae-san (I hope I'm remembering this right) I will be amazed. And entirely too enthused.
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Postby SoundMonkey44 (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:44 am

Glad Equestria girls will most likely just be a DVD.

Also, Rob's new project sounds interesting


EDIT: @Snow: I was thinking the exact same thing today, no literally earlier I was like "Wouldn't it be nice if MLP became the U.S. version of Sase-san!?*
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Postby EquestriaGuy (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:45 am

We'll look like fools when we find out she only meant she was doing an interview. :-P

Thy Great Swagged Brony wrote:
EquestriaGuy wrote:If they're boarding 15 already then they're well past still writing on the second half of S4. It was around this time last year we found out Levinger was hired. I'd say this means she's signed on for S5.


Seriously though...why do we have to wait until winter?! I can't see how this is in any way beneficial to the brand to draw this out


I'd guess they had to draw up contracts and all that before they could start S4.
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:50 am

Snow Drift wrote:If pony turns into the american Sanae-san (I hope I'm remembering this right) I will be amazed. And entirely too enthused.

Sazae-San, but yeah, it'd be nice. (Problem with Sazae is that it has a "no home release" clause)

That said, the American equivalent of Sazae is The Simpsons, which began in 1989 (Sazae started in 1969, 20 years before that).
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Postby Perpetual Lurker (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:52 am

Thy Great Swagged Brony wrote:
EquestriaGuy wrote:If they're boarding 15 already then they're well past still writing on the second half of S4. It was around this time last year we found out Levinger was hired. I'd say this means she's signed on for S5.


Seriously though...why do we have to wait until winter?! I can't see how this is in any way beneficial to the brand to draw this out


Simple. They didn't even know that there would be a Season 4 back when Season 3 was in production. Thus, production of this season started unusually late. They're not delaying it on purpose. That's just how long it'll take to make with things starting late.
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Postby GC13 (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:55 am

Mordja wrote:Sorry if this has been answered already, but has McCarthy or someone said whether they wrote the season 3 finale under the belief that it could have been the last episode of the show?

To the contrary, all I've heard is that they view it as the first episode in a three-parter.
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Postby Thy Great Swagged Brony (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:26 am

Perpetual Lurker wrote:
Thy Great Swagged Brony wrote:
Seriously though...why do we have to wait until winter?! I can't see how this is in any way beneficial to the brand to draw this out


Simple. They didn't even know that there would be a Season 4 back when Season 3 was in production. Thus, production of this season started unusually late. They're not delaying it on purpose. That's just how long it'll take to make with things starting late.


That couldn't be it, they are in the middle of storyboards...it couldn't take that long at this point. Plus, in s1 and s2, later episodes were still being animated when early episodes were coming out. They could do that if they wanted to again as well
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Postby NostalgiaSchmaltz (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:34 am

GC13 wrote:To the contrary, all I've heard is that they view it as the first episode in a three-parter.


Yes, and McCarthy said that just before S3 finale aired...not just before S3 production began.
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Postby EquestriaGuy (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:13 am

She probably meant it in the sense of a mini arc about Twilight's transition to princess.
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Postby Nissl (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:25 am

More success-driven staff moves. Glad to hear about the promotions, obviously, although this is starting to look like a significant shakeup on the DHX side of things. Does anyone know who might be taking over for Big Jim as storyboard supervisor?

As for the timing question, there's really no reason I can think of that they couldn't release in September. They're even with or ahead of where they were in S2, as far as I know. I have to think it comes down to scheduling concerns with the other shows or toylines they want to support. The extra long hiatus can't be good for fan intensity, although I noticed they've been leaving S3 Youtube videos untouched and they're doing a huge amount of traffic (50-100k/day on MMC, compared to 20-25k for the main episode 1 video at peak in summer 2011).

Also, if Morrow is coming back for a late season 4 episode, that's 15 months working on a single season, which is kind of ridiculous if Equestria Girls is just going to be a DVD and didn't take them half of last year to write. I really have to suspect they're staffing up for S5 at this point (if not already writing it).
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Postby GC13 (?) » Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:43 am

NostalgiaSchmaltz wrote:Yes, and McCarthy said that just before S3 finale aired...not just before S3 production began.

I'd like to think that by the time they were deciding to structure the episode in such a way that they didn't regard it as complete without two more episodes, that they knew they were going to have room for those two more episodes.

Of course, there are shows that have ended on cliffhangers even though they didn't expect to get renewed for another season, so there's that possibility. :-/
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