:: Dano's Production Journal ::

:: 3/26/2008 ::

Breaking Flatland: The Movie News from New Jersey!

"Tom Banchoff gave a talk at the Princeton Public Library last night and
we had a standing room only crowd of adults and children of all ages.
The kids asked amazing questions. We ran out of DVDs and had only 3
books left. Labyrinth book stores did the sale and underordered. We gave
out cards, however, so folks can still get the DVD. It was a great event
and everyone loved the movie. We squeezed 140 into the room. This is a
great number for a Tuesday night."

Get 'em while they're hot, people!
:: Dano 12:59 PM [+] ::
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Meet the Insur-Animals!!!


Dear friend of Collection Agency Films:

Please check out our newest cartoon: The Insur-Animals, Episode 1!

Imagine a freak accident in which health insurance industry lobbyists and rare circus animals melded together to create human-animal chimera that shill for the health insurance industry! Now imagine that they had a 1980's Saturday morning cartoon show! And at the end of that show there was a helpful and educational PSA! That's what we made!

Watch it here!

Find out more about the Insur-Animals, Deductibear, Co-Pay Cobra, Denial Crocodile, and Premiums Porcupine Read their hilarious bios (more coming soon when they get MySpace and Facebook profiles up).

Anyways, I'm really happy with this 'toon and if lots of people hit the link and comment I'm sure we can get episode 2 underway!

Because there aren't credits on the cartoon, I wanted to shout-out to the hard-workers who made this spot happen (we made it in less than 2 weeks)!

The Insur-Animals!
Made by Collection Agency Films for North Woods Advertising
Produced by Troy Campbell
Concept/Script – Don Swaynos & Dano Johnson
Artwork – Cameron Petri
Animation – Don Smith & David Young
Voices – Shannon McCormick, Lynn Mikeska, Curtis Luciani
Music & Sound FX – Eric Friend

CAF has another cartoon coming out in another week... assuming I get right back to work...

- Dano

PS - I actually got a letter today raising my insurance premiums.
:: Dano 11:36 PM [+] ::
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Check out this article from the Dallas Observer on the upcoming evolution battles at the State Board of Education.
:: Dano 6:32 PM [+] ::
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Storytime with Kevin!


:: Dano 6:27 PM [+] ::
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Famed accordionist and singer Jason Webley came to Austin and played a raucous show at the Church of the Friendly Ghost's "Monsters of Accordion" showcase. Afterwards, he invited hangers-on to join in his new tradition: after every show he writes a totally new song and then records it for the internet in creative ways. Puppet Show alum Tate English and I knew this meant one thing: get out the puppets!


:: Dano 9:50 AM [+] ::
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Nicole Atkins and the Sea - the only reason I would attempt to go downtown and deal with SXSW Music...






:: Dano 9:35 PM [+] ::
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Flatland: The Movie is playing the Atlanta Film Festival Saturday, April 12th with the animated feature "Komaneko: The Curious Cat." Looks pretty cute!


:: Dano 1:11 PM [+] ::
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Kevin chimes in on time travel movies: ones to see and ones to skip!


:: Dano 1:57 PM [+] ::
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Kevin discusses "Knockbusters".


:: Dano 12:59 PM [+] ::
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Check out my guest blog at Mucho Politico. Tom's hilarious recollection is up too!



:: Dano 1:50 AM [+] ::
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Look out, Hillary. Dano's a Precinct Delegate for Obama...


:: Dano 11:41 PM [+] ::
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Update:

The Flatland crew met hundreds of teachers at the T3 conference in Dallas this weekend, sharing our DVDs and the new book! More than a few teachers who already use Flatland: The Movie in their classrooms stopped by to tell us about how much they and their students enjoy it!

The Los Angeles Times published a review of our book this weekend. The author may have watched the movie, but I doubt it. I think the lesson is "Don't have a book reviewer review a movie adaptation of their favorite novel."

I got an email from Dr. Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education. She's a big fan of "Dance Like a Monkey!"

Don Swaynos, frequent collaborator of Collection Agency and Jollyville Pictures, is working on a documentary for the American Widow Project". The website and footage from the documentary were featured on ABC News.
:: Dano 8:58 PM [+] ::
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