Jennifer Shiman has already parodied Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ and now ‘Resevoir Dogs’ has been filled with foul-mouthed bunnies. There’s an uncut version (nsfw) of the 30-second short, and a bleeped one. Notice that Michael Madsen’s line “Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie? Or are you gonna bite?” has been slightly altered.

Jennifer will be speaking at the 2006 FITC Design & Technology Festival in Toronto on April 22nd. Her presentation is titled ‘Stalking the Elusive Viral Content (with Bunnies).’

Last week, Evan Spiridellis and I spoke at the 2006 Flashforward Conference, an event produced by Lynda.com. The title of our session was JibJab’s Animation Process and How a Small Studio Can Reach a Big Audience, and we spoke for just over an hour. Evan walked the audience through the JibJab animation process - from animatic to animation to finished product. I presented several animators and small teams that are reaching big audiences, first which was JibJab, who had over 80 million people watch ‘This Land‘ and ‘Good to be in DC!‘ during the 2004 election. Here’s the slides from my presentation detailing JibJab’s recent successes.

Back then, it was really 2 guys doing it all, and this is the story I repeated many times over during the night.

Next I spoke about Jennifer Shiman and her ‘30 Second Bunnies Theatre,’ the Flash-animated series currently airing on Starz! on Demand. As many of you know from reading the CHF interview with Jennifer, she pretty much a one-woman band, writing, animating, and directing alone, and she gets over 1.8 million unique views a month at her angryalien.com site.

Amanita Design was the next studio featured. This 2-man shop out of Brno, Czech Republic is creating viral click-along games like Samorost 2 and linear music videos with a very small team. Jakub Dvorsky, the founder, gets over 500,000 unique views a month at his site.

Weebls-stuff.com is the playground for Weebl, the British animator. He and a small cadre of animators create ‘Weebl & Bob’ and other funny series like ‘Magical Trevor.’ They get a staggering number of cartoon views every month - over 5 million!

Bernard Derriman animated the music video for TISM’s ‘Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me,’ which went on to become a hugely viral video. He animates alone, and he gets over 50,000 unique visitors to his site, arjandpoopy.com, every month. I completely missed posting about Bernard’s holiday ‘Arj and Poopy’ episode, but you can still see it here.

Adam Phillips, who happens to be an old working buddy of Bernard’s, won his 3rd Flashforward festival trophy for his Flash-animated short ‘littleFoot.’ He too is a one-man Flash army, writing, directing and barely sleeping while crafting his Brackenwood series. In a good month, he gets over 300,000 unique visitors to his site.

James Farr, the creator of ‘Xombie,’ is currently in production on a direct-to-DVD feature version of his Flash-animated series. All by his lonesome, deep in the heart of Tulsa, Oklahoma, James has written, animated and produced 7 online ‘Xombie’ shorts, and now he’s teamed up with Wetsand animation to create the long-form version. He has over 1 million subscribers to his ‘Xombie’ mailing list.

Laith Bahrani’s ‘Low Morale’ series brought down the house during our presentation. We screened episode 9, and the crowd went nuts. Very funny stuff. Laith is the sole animator on his shorts, and he’s welcomed over 800,000 visitors to his site since 2004.

And last, but not least, we talked about ‘Queer Duck: The Movie’ which is due to wrap production sometime soon. It’s a Flash-animated feature project penned by Mike Reiss, a Simpsons writer, and Xeth Feinberg is heading up the animation effort. He’s working with a team that’s usually smaller than 10, and he’s been in production since last summer.

While it’s not always about the size of the audience, it’s still impressive to see so few reaching so many. Thanks to everyone for contributing to our presentation, and to Lynda Weinman (of Lynda.com) for hosting us up in Seattle.

Just in time for this weekends’ Oscar ceremony, Jennifer Shiman has released the 30 Second Bunnies Theatre version of ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ As usual, this short is also available at Starz! on Demand on your cable network. Next up, the Bunnies are taking on the boxing classic, ‘Rocky.’

First, ‘Captain Flamingo’ premiered on January 10th on Canada’s YTV. It’s a Flash animated series “created by Heroic Film Company and developed with YTV, Breakthrough Animation and Atomic Cartoons, this 26-episode series, commissioned by YTV, is a co-production of Breakthrough Animation (Atomic Betty), Heroic Film Company (Our Hero), Atomic Cartoons (Atomic Betty) and PASI Animation (Bob and Margaret),” according to the press release. Haven’t found any ‘Captain Flamingo’ clips on the web, but when I do….

Next, Jennifer Shiman’s The 30-Second Bunnies Theatre shorts are being used by Volkswagen to promote their Fox car. The ads are only airing in Germany, and you can watch them over at ad-rag.com if you give them a couple bucks. ****UPDATE*** - in the comments below, Jennifer just tipped us off that you can view the German-dubbed commercials FOR FREE at shortbutfun.com

According to Brandweek magazine, the ‘Happy Tree Friends’ parent company, Mondo Media, signed a deal with the Walt Disney Internet Group. According to the article, the plan is to offer “wallpaper, ringtones, episode downloads and games beginning in the second quarter of 2006.” Also mentioned was G4’s plans to begin airing a ‘Happy Tree Friends’ series in the Fall. Currently, G4 is airing shorts, but I’m guessing longer format episodes are underway. In similar news, AWN reports that the ‘Happy Tree Friends’ podcast hit number one on the download list over the holiday.

Just in time for the holidays, Jennifer Shiman brings us ‘Christmas Story in 30 Seconds (and re-enacted by bunnies).’ It’s the holiday classic that introduced the world to Peter Billingsley, who plays Ralphie. Here’s a did-you-know for ya - Peter was recently in ‘Elf,’ Will Ferrell’s very own holiday classic. Peter played an elf, and if you watch close enough, you’ll spot him in the opening minutes. Watch for more of Jennifer’s ‘30-Second Bunnies Theatre’ on Starz on Demand, at Starz.com or at angryalien.com. And for more information on Jennifer’s amazing one-woman TV show, read her 2-part Cold, Hard Flash interview from this past August.

Welcome back to the Cold, Hard Flash interview with Jennifer Shiman, the creator of ‘30-Second Bunnies Theatre.’ In this second half we learn about Jennifer’s interest in actionscripting, her upcoming travel schedule and her love of ‘Homestar Runner.’

AARON SIMPSON: Were you using any animation software before you picked up Flash?
JENNIFER SHIMAN: In 1998, I made my first animated short film using US Animation ToonBoom software on an SGI workstation at a studio I worked for at the time. Using Flash has cut my production time drastically for a number of reasons. It took me about 3 years to finish that first six-minute short, whereas it takes me 3-4 weeks to make a 30 second ‘bunnies’ re-enactment. Of course the first short was also 24 frames per second of all hand-drawn animation.

AARON: What was your first Flash project?
JENNIFER: I used Flash to create three webisodes featuring longtime characters which had also starred in my first short film.

AARON: What aspect of your animation skillset has most improved since then?
JENNIFER: I actually just revisited those first files to optimize them for broadcast use, and man. I saw that I’ve improved in my line quality and use of color, as well as file organization and production effects.

AARON: Where do you turn to if you’re aiming to learn a new Flash trick?
JENNIFER: I belong to the Los Angeles Flash User Group (laflash.org), and they have a very helpful forum. Flashkit.com offers helpful tutorials, and Moock.org has lots of neat stuff.

AARON: I’ve heard a rumor you’re teaching yourself actionscripting. What spurred this interest?
JENNIFER: I’ve been interested in actionscripting all along. I’ve wanted to create more interactive little worlds and toys using Flash. I think of neat content uses and then try teach myself the actionscript to implement them.

AARON: Have you found any time between ‘Bunnies’ shorts to dream up new project ideas?
JENNIFER: I haven’t had time to deal with the ideas that crop up here and there, so I’ve been netting them and saving them in a notebook for later reference.

AARON: What’s the most gratifying aspect of the ‘Bunnies’ experience?
JENNIFER: The most gratifying thing is people viewing my work and emailing me to say how it made them laugh. I feel incredibly grateful that Starz has given me the opportunity to pay my bills while working on what I love, and likewise that I got recognized at Ottawa, one of the finest animation festivals around. It is all kinds of good.

AARON: Do you plan on traveling out to the Port City Animation Festival, where one of your shorts is appearing this Fall?
JENNIFER: I won’t be there, due to schedule conflicts. But I will be on the east coast in late August giving a talk at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY.

AARON: I’ve read that you’re a big ‘Homestar Runner’ fan. Who’s your favorite character?
JENNIFER: The world of ‘Homestar Runner’ is one of the best things I’ve ever seen. My favorite characters are StrongSad and Bubs.

AARON: Over the past few years, what animated features have you enjoyed most?
JENNIFER: ‘The Incredibles,’ ‘The Iron Giant,’
‘The Triplets of Belleville,’ and Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Howl’s Moving Castle.’ Miyazaki’s ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ and ‘Spirited Away’
and Richard Linklater’s ‘Waking Life’
are some of my favorite movies of all time.

AARON: Thanks, Jennifer. Best of luck at the festivals!

Most animated programs on TV are produced by relatively large teams. It’s not unusual for a program to have upwards of 75 people working in some capacity on a project. A cursory Google search turned up these facts: ‘Sitting Ducks,’ the 3D-animated show hosted 64 employees, while ‘Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi’ is created with a 40-person production crew.

Now imagine a crew of one.

That crew is Jennifer Shiman, and she is currently working with the cable network STARZ! to produce a series of 30-second spoofs of Hollywood movies, all reenacted by Flash-animated bunnies. ‘30-Second Bunnies Theatre’ was already an internet sensation, drawing over 25,000 viewers a day, and then the Starz Entertainment Group came hopping along. Now Jennifer has moved up to the big time, without adding a big time crew.

It’s a testament to Jennifer’s well-rounded skills - she writes, storyboards, voices and animates each short from her home studio. The animation medium has always been inviting to auteurs who want to do it all, but with Flash the possibilities are even greater. With Flash’s low barrier to entry (cost and ease-of-use) and it’s penchant for low-bandwidth delivery, animators can do quick work and then quickly get it in front of a huge audience.

And that’s what Jennifer did. In the halcyon days of the dotcom boom, she was steadily working in Hollywood as a multimedia designer and animator, occasionally pitching a project or two around town and updating her website. Three years later, she pieced together a 30-second reenactment of ‘The Exorcist,’ and in place of Linda Blair and Max von Sydow, Jennifer inserted animated bunnies. And just like that, Jennifer had ushered a hot new show concept into the digital world without scheduling a single pitch meeting.

Since then, she’s been invited to the 2004 Ottawa International Animation Festival, where her ‘The Shining’ short took first place in the ‘Internet Series’ category; she’s been interviewed by G4 TV; the writers of ‘X2: X-Men United,’ Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris, chipped in voices in one of her shorts; her ‘Titanic’ spoof was screened on ‘Good Morning America’ and this same short is reportedly going to be included on the upcoming ‘Titanic’ Special Edition DVD this October; and of course, Jennifer landed her STARZ! TV deal. Not bad for 30-seconds.

Cold, Hard Flash recently passed on a set of questions to Jennifer, which, ironically, she answered with the help of a 60 person crew.

AARON SIMPSON: So you’re really a crew of one?
JENNIFER SHIMAN: I do everything from concept development to implementation, except additional voices (friends and cohorts help me out) and post-production, such as laying off the Flash-exported file to tape or film.

AARON: I’d guess there’s not another TV series on the air with such a small production team. Do you ever see a need to expand?
JENNIFER: I’m asking myself that question now. In various capacities I am going to need help soon, and I’m ruminating on how to go about getting it (and, where extra help will be most helpful).

AARON: Do you create animatics before you begin animating your ‘Bunnies’ shorts?
JENNIFER: No I don’t. I do run through a bunch of versions of thumbnail storyboards though. And by “thumbnail storyboard” I mean an indecipherable scrawl of half-notes, lists and pictures in my notebook.

AARON: As you animate new episodes, do you find any opportunities to re-use assets from previously animated ‘Bunnies’ shorts?
JENNIFER: Absolutely, I try to re-use assets whenever it makes sense. For instance, I have a library of bunny mouths and certain background elements such as clouds, light fixtures, doorknobs. These assets still need adapting, depending on e.g. the line thickness of the scene in which I use them. But they do save time.

AARON: Describe how you got the bunnies from inside the Flash program out onto tape and ready for TV?
JENNIFER: On my end, I work within a reticle/action-safe template that I found on Flickerlab.com’s great tutorial on using Flash for output to broadcast. AndrewProkos.com had great tips too. Then I export the .FLA movie to a hi-res Quicktime Video, which is usually 700-900MB in size (I work on a Macintosh, by the way). I compress the exported QT video using DropStuff and upload it via FTP to a server where the Starz people can download it, unstuff it and plop it into e.g. Final Cut Pro (I work at 15 frames per second, and they covert the frame rate and lay it off to tape over there).

AARON: Did you have to re-build any of your Flash assets in order to make your short films TV-ready?
JENNIFER: I did need to make adjustments, for example, I created a few of my first re-enactments at the Flash default size, 550 x 400 pixels. When Starz licensed those particular ones, they needed them sized at 720 x 486 pixels for their broadcast purposes. So I needed to place the entire re-enactment within a movieclip and resize it accordingly on a 720 x 486 stage (and adjust any animation to fit within action-safe boundaries). Then I had to make sure all movieclip instances of animation had been changed to graphic instances, so they’d appear animated when I exported to Quicktime video. Additionally, I had to be careful of the color palette I use, to avoid having colors appear shockingly bright on TV.

AARON: How did you celebrate when your ‘Bunnies’ shorts first aired on STARZ!?
JENNIFER: I whooped with glee! Then I sat down at the desk and got back to work.

AARON: Any chance we’ll start seeing ‘Bunnies’ merchandise on the shelves?
JENNIFER: I already have bunnies and other angryalien merchandise available via my website Â? I use the proceeds to offset bandwidth costs. Eventually I’d like to expand the merchandise offerings though.

AARON: Is it safe to say you’ve learned the intricacies of parody and fair use legprecedentent?
Indeed!

That’s it for the first part of the Cold, Hard Flash interview with Jennifer Shiman, the creator of ‘30-Second Bunnies Theatre.’ Check back soon for part 2.