I definitely watched a lot of “Full House” and TGIF growing up, and I’m sure you can see the influence on “Horsin’ Around” but BoJack himself is not based on any actual celebrity. The idea for BoJack came from two places for me:
1) I’ve been friends with Lisa for a long time and I wanted to work on a project with her. She’d been posting these animal people drawings on Tumblr, so I started brainstorming ideas for shows about animal people. I just looked up the old email thread where I first started talking to Lisa about the idea. Here is another animal people show I came up with, when Lisa told me she was concerned my depressed talking horse show idea was “too sad”:
Spruce Moose in the Juice Caboose
Spruce Moose is a dapper fellow with his finger on the pulse (and he’s also a moose). He works as a bartender in the bar car of a swingin’ locomotive (The Juice Caboose) where he meets all sorts of people and solves their problems. Dig that crazy rhythm, baby, juice, baby, POW.
It’s Cheers! On a train! With a moose!
I feel like that idea mostly came from “What rhymes with moose?” but still I think there’s something there. I remember the idea was that the train was the Slumberland Express where kids go when they’re half asleep but not quite at Dreamville. It’s a calm place with milk and cookies and things, but then in the back there’s this raucous Juice Caboose with this Willy-Wonka-Beetlejuice type Spruce Moose always trying to get kids in trouble. Lisa had the idea that he would have these two sidekick cocktail waitresses called the Spicy Mice. Again, most of this idea was built around rhyming. Anyway, if anyone ever asks me to write a kid’s movie, that’s the first thing I’m pitching.
2) Anyway, the second thing is that I moved out to LA from New York, and I was staying with a friend of a friend of a friend in this tiny closet of a room in this gigantic fancy house in the Hollywood Hills. The people in the house claimed that A) it was the second-highest elevated house in all of Los Angeles, and B) Johnny Depp had once lived there, but I can’t back either of those claims up. (Johnny Depp would be a great Spruce Moose by the way. Could we get him?) I had very few friends at that time and I didn’t really know what I was supposed to be doing, and I started thinking about how living in this beautiful house, basically on top of the world, I had never felt more lonely and isolated. I wanted to write a show about a character that has gotten everything he’s wanted and still can’t find a way to be happy.
Anonymous: Hey Raphael! Big fan of the show here. I was curious about your writing process for an episode of BoJack. From inception -- to the production script. Do you find inspiration anywhere, or from anything? I know you work with a team of staff writers-- how is your dynamic with them when writing? Thanks! Keep up the good work. :)
Okay, hello, here we go, how does an episode of BoJack Horseman get written. I’m going to try to be thorough (read: LONG. VERY LONG.) with this answer, because I think some people are going to be interested in the whole process, so sorry if it gets a little boring to people who are not that interested in the whole process. I guess you can always just stop reading at any time. As if you needed my permission.
ANYWAY, let’s take episode 9 from the first season, because I feel like that’s a pretty typical episode in some ways, but also kind of interesting and specific in other ways. By this point in the season we had kind of figured out a process for how an episode gets written. This process was not a given— every show kind of does things their own way, and it took a little trial and error to figure out the correct order of things on BoJack Horseman.
So, backtracking a little: When I pitched the show to Netflix, I pitched the whole season, one through twelve, one episode at a time, and we had that document in the writer’s room, so every episode had a place to start from. Some of those episodes are very close to the original pitch (103 and 105 for example), while some are entirely different (106 was pretty much entirely put together in the room with nothing from the original pitch in the final episode).
For 109, all I had was the Princess Carolyn story. I knew Princess Carolyn, fed up with being at BoJack’s beck and call all the time was going to start dating this guy that was very obviously (to BoJack and nobody else) three kids stacked on top of each other under a trench coat. Everyone would accuse BoJack of being jealous and we’d kind of play with that idea that when your ex starts dating someone new, you don’t get to point out his flaws even if they’re really obvious, because everyone else will assume you’re just still hung up on your ex. The episode would end with BoJack and Vincent finally having a conversation and BoJack would spill his guts to him. That was all we had at the start.
The first part of writing a script is the BRAINSTORMING phase, where we all just kind of spitball and talk about whatever and try to figure out what everybody’s doing in this episode. These conversations are usually pretty free-flowing. We sometimes think about where the characters have been and where they need to go. LIKE, FOR EXAMPLE:
so i’ve been thinking about this for a few days, and i wanted to make a list of some things that i wish people had told me when i was a freshman in college
don’t skip class.
really, don’t skip unless it’s absolutely necessary. i had a professor who didn’t tell us when the tests were going to be until the class before. go to class.
if you get lost, look around for an office and ask where to go - especially during the first few weeks, everyone is happy to help you figure things out.
buy a planner. keep it in your backpack 24/7. keep it out in class. professors change due dates and assignments constantly and you don’t want to forget things - two missed assignments can become four and suddenly you’re making a C in a class you need a 3.0 for.
join organizations!!! join clubs or something that will keep your societal needs fulfilled and also look good on a resume. volunteer work too, work at events, and get friends to join you. it’s more fun than you might think.
also always have a binder with blank paper in it. always.
keep your phone and computer chargers with you all the time because you will need them and you will use them.
no one will look at you funny for eating food in class (just don’t eat anything crunchy for the love of god)
don’t go out for food constantly - this is the fastest way you will spend money, and before you know it you’ve spent $400 on food in a month which is like. ridiculous.
keep to the right of the sidewalk, and don’t bunch up with your friends. you’ll understand in a semester or two.
get your college email sent to ALL your devices. don’t know how? contact your school’s IT department.
that paper that’s due in a month? make an outline and collect resources now. it takes ten minutes and you will be super glad two days before it’s due when you haven’t started it yet.
take time to go outside. take walks. eat a salad.
go to bed before midnight. i promise, you won’t do it at first but you’ll thank me later.
sometimes a good night’s sleep is better than an A on an assignment. get it presentable, sleep, and do better next time.
you can do this. it’s new and kinda scary and big, but you can do it, and you’ll be telling people what i’ve told you by this time next year.
and don’t take low grades as a joke. that GPA is not easy to bring up
I never went to bed before midnight and I never chose a good night’s sleep over an A. I can’t say I regretted it but I wouldn’t exactly recommend it. Sometimes it was necessary for me just to get by in a class. Sometimes I skipped class to catch up on sleep and didn’t miss anything. This is a good list but the truth is that you can’t do all of the things on it all of the time. You’ll have to make some choices.
You’ve talked about this relationship in romantic terms. Bedelia makes that even more explicit in some of her conversations with both men this season. Was there any thought given to having them do more than embrace at the end, or would that in some way be diminishing the very unique and strange nature of their relationship?
Bryan Fuller: Mads and Hugh, there were a lot of takes where they got very intimate, and lips were hovering over lips. I definitely had the footage to go there, because Mads and Hugh were so game. They called me and warned me: “We really went for it!” And then I saw the dailies, I thought there was a fine line from that #Hannigraham fan fiction motive to give the hardcore audience exactly what they want in terms of this actually being a homosexual relationship between these two men, and what is authentic for the characters in that final moment. I mean, it’s not “Brokeback Mountain.” Mads isn’t gonna be spitting on his hand and getting to work.(laughs) We felt we had to keep it genuine to the tone of the relationship as we’ve been telling it in the series, and even in that moment when Will asks if Hannibal is in love with him, and Bedelia says, “Of course he is, ya big queen!” Even in that moment, it’s not quite dipping into the physical passions that would be the case if they were both homosexual. But I feel one is ominisexual and one is heterosexual and there’s a lot of influence going back and forth, who knows with a six pack of beer what would happen.
VULTURE: It’s interesting because he’s not just seen, he’s held by Hannibal. And I think that holding is in some way mutual. FULLER: Absolutely. Will puts his head on Hannibal’s chest, and Hannibal puts his chin on top of Will’s head.
VULTURE: Like a puppy! FULLER: They nuzzle! And actually they went much further than that. There were lips hovering above lips and they were like, “We wrote that part, we hope you like it!”
VULTURE: You mean when it was shot originally? FULLER: Yeah, but it felt like it became something else in that moment and sort of verged on fan service that felt inauthentic to me for this adaptation. So, I rode that line very closely, but I had the footage to go much, much further in terms of, Oh yeah, they want to mack.
VULTURE: I totally want to see that. FULLER: Maybe we’ll put it on the blu-ray, who knows?
Hannibal doodles I did last night because life is dumb and the show is gone now and I don’t know how my heart will go on. How will we ever know if they find Jack’s neck? *weeps softly*
time-space-sound: Hello, I'm currently a college student and I was wondering if you had any advice for getting into the animation industry or tips for things I should be doing now to get my foot in the door. How was your journey to becoming a professional storyboard artist?
Hallo! Sorry it took me so long to reply. I started a draft and then realized it was too much for one post. Then work of course got in the way.
To be honest, my journey isn’t the best example for how to get into the industry. I was lucky enough to have just enough skill to show up on my college storyboard professor’s radar when he happened to need someone for a project. Everyone at LMU (Loyola Marymount) knew that he hired people from his class, I just didn’t expect to be hired while TAKING his class. He had me come in for a week of freelance on an episode of YJ, I didn’t completely suck, and he brought me in when he had a slot available on another project. To be honest, I don’t actually have a portfolio currently because I’ve just been rolled onto new projects at WB this entire time.
To avoid writing an entire course on how to get into the industry, I’ll try to simplify it to a couple things. Friends and colleagues please feel free to add onto this or correct me.
Have a portfolio(s) ready NOW
Don’t be like me. Start working on putting together samples of boards you feel best show your skills. I’m not sure what year you are currently, but you should have something you feel comfortable posting online/sending to studios by the end of this term. Once you get something together you can always update it with better samples as you complete them. Creating a portfolio website is the easiest way to get your work out there for people to see. I know whenever I recommend someone to a director for a position they like to get a link that they can look at instantly. I like to recommend e1n‘s portfolio site because it’s easy to view and looks snazzy.
For now you should try to include these for your portfolio:
Resume with current contact info
2-3 short stories or sequences (include an acting scene, gag scene, and/or action sequence)
Some figure drawing examples
When I say short sequences, I mean keep it to 1-2 minutes AT MOST. If you have an animatic (a quicktime) put together for any of them include them on the portfolio site. Or you can put up PDF/JPEG pages that someone can easily tab through. Some people do it 1 panel per image or 3 panels per page.
Also keep in mind that the portfolio should cater to the type of show you’re applying for. If you’re trying to get onto an action-adventure project, having an action sequence will help. If you’re applying for something like Looney Tunes, having a sequence that shows you know comedy and that you can act helps.
Network
The best way for people to hear about you is to get your name out there. A lot of people I know get into the industry because they know someone at a studio who can get directors/producers to view their portfolios. Posting your stuff online is one way to do this ( meowmixeightysix got hired through deviantART because someone with hiring power was following her) as well as going to networking events like CTN in Burbank, CA. The nice thing about CTN is that it’s less about catering to fans (like SDCC) and more about networking with professionals. They will have lectures on different topics, portfolio reviews, and more. Getting professionals to review your portfolio will really help you find areas to improve on.
You can also network by taking classes outside of your college. If you’re in the LA area, Concept Design Academy is worth looking into. A lot of currently-working professionals teach the classes that both amateurs and professionals take. It’s a great way to meet people who are already working and to learn from them. The guy who hired me used to teach there as well. They’re actually about to open their fall enrollment so if you’re able to, you should jump on it. They have weekend classes. You can also take classes at the Animation Guild.
As for how to get your portfolio to studios outside of your network, I’m actually the worst person to ask. Again, I was brought in without a portfolio because of my professor who became my director. I suggest maybe start by looking up studios near you and keeping an eye out for job openings. For someone new to the industry, you can apply to storyboard positions or storyboard revisionist/clean-up artist positions. When I was brought in, I started as a revisionist then was bumped up to boards when they thought I was ready. Starting out revising is a great way to learn different styles of story-telling and draftsmanship. You’ll pick up different tricks just by being exposed to different board artists’ work.
I hope this helps for now. Keep asking other professionals for tips! There’s not just ONE way to get into the industry.
Hi, I'm Tim Lai! I'm a cartoonist living in Ontario, Canada. I like drawing cute and colourful things. This blog is a hub where you can find all of my Tumblr, DeviantArt, Flickr, Blogspot, and other posts in one place.
About My Work
I write and draw Lemon Inc., a comic about a seven-year-old who wants to be a business tycoon when he grows up. Until then, he runs a lemonade stand. You can read it at www.lemon-inc.com.
I have done some professional web and graphic design work, including designing the website for the webcomic, Just Joel. I'm also a member of the webcomic collective, Ink Bomb Comics.
August 31, 2015 18:55
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Anonymous: Was BoJack inspired by Bob Saget?