Back in 2017, I was a director on Amazon Prime’s “Pete The Cat” at Surfer Jack Studios. The studio was founded by the co-creator of “Phineas and Ferb,” Swampy Marsh and located in Venice, California. The perfect spot for a surf loving cat!. For this show, we had the privilege of partnering up with the five-time Academy Award nominated studio in Kilkenny, Ireland: Cartoon Saloon! As partners, we did the writing, recording, music, storyboarding, and directing here in the United States, while they did the majority of the design work and physical animation. To keep things fun, we started creating goofy little videos for each other which culminated in an all-out exchange of virtual studio tours. The video below was our fun way of sharing what it’s like working in California. It was created towards the end of season one as we waited for Amazon to order a pickup for another season. This film is the closest thing to an unofficial tour of Surfer Jack Studios featuring the city and the people who made the place so special…
Season ONE Gallery of Studio antics
I started work at Surfer jack Studios on December 12, 2016 which was a converted duplex which they gutted to create one giant complex with the rooms converted into office space. The first staff meeting consisted of Swamp Marsh (founder), Lance LeCompte (everything business and scheduling wise founder), Bernie Petterson (supervising director), Christy Heyob (production manager), Craig Carlisle (head writer), Josh Saltzman (writer), Joe Chang (storyboard artist), Jeanette Moreno King (storyboard artist), and Stephen Endleman (composer). Olivia Day was the first storyboard artist on staff but she was absent that day. She was the one that set the visual storytelling tone for the whole show. From there, the studio flourished and we added Dota Sata (storyboard artist), Megan Ruiz (storyboard artist), Andy Tauke (editor), Lauren Crist (editor), Lexie Kahanovitz (writer)., and Wendi McNeese (Post Production Supervisor). We were a small studio but we were efficient and communicated really well since we were in really tight quarters. We had monthly parties every last Friday of the month where we invited guests to share something non-animation related such as welding or taxidermy. And to top it all off, we were partners with Cartoon Saloon! Hello, street cred! The place turned into a second home.
OUR POLAROID WALL OF VOICE ACTORS
We had a gallery wall in the hallway of Surfer Jack Studios where we showcased all the voice actors that worked on the show. These were all the fun folk we had the pleasure of working with…
SEASON ONE GALLERY OF VOICEOVER SESSIONS
