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Alexander Guy is the Fantasy and Sci-fi pen name of Chris Neuhahn, 5-time Emmy winning producer, director and writer. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Hello, everybody.
I have been in animation for more than 20 years. In that time, I have worked on a handful of video games, and numerous TV shows. I went from animator to animation supervisor, then I rose to being supervising while working on Penguins of Madagascar for Nickelodeon. After nickelodeon, I moved to help build DreamWorks Animation Television in 2013. I have had a hand in seeing around 1000 episodes of TV go from script, premise, to script, and then onto animation and final picture.
In addition to all that work, I produced many short films as solo projects. The first short film I completed that I was truly proud of was called a Curious Bit of Scrap. I also made a series of short films called Factions. Like their factions was option to be a TV show. When the option lapsed I made an entirely new version.
So much of the animation industry for creatives is about wanting to get your own show made. Even if, like me, you love the work you do. The bigger dream is always lurking there, but the rise of “existing IP” focused development has made the dream elusive.
In my estimation, Substack and on-demand Self Publishing of books or comic books have become the most direct ways of reaching an audience. Maybe people buy your book, maybe not, but a least it’s out there to be bought instead of being killed because the VP of current series changed, or because an assistant didn’t think it needed to be passed on to the VP in the first place. A book can be left on Amazon print on demand, and if you put out a later book that gets traction then the old one may start getting traction too. YouTube has that too but the reward is less tangible, and the will of the algorithm has dominion over the traction.
Self publishing is another vast sea of content. I have no illusions about that. But instead of a dozen gatekeepers with veto power, you have millions. The algorithms for shopping sites have a very different goal from social media sites.
So, fuck it. Let’s take a chance.
- Chris Neuhahn July 3, 2024
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