We are SERIES LOCKED! So what next?
Word has come in from the production team overnight:
SOUND FOR 106 IS DONE which means production is complete and we are SERIES LOCKED!
We’re now just awaiting final confirmation on the release date and we’ll soon be able to binge watch all 6 episodes of Stanley and Byron’s adventures in their new equine paradise!
Q&A with Jon Barinholtz, The Glue Factory showrunner
Recently we held a Q&A in our Discord with our showrunner Jon Barinholtz, that gave a whole lot of great insights into the production, characters and how pilots are typically worked in Hollywood plus the next steps in the process of promoting and selling an animated show. We’ve got some highlights from that Q&A here with the rest available in our Discord.
Q: The character development of Stanley & Byron is really special, how would you describe it?
Jon: My Wife, who has seen Stanley & Byron come to life from the beginning puts it into words really well. She says Stanley and Byron represent the totality of us as people. They’re the best of us and the worst of us, like, our laziest sides and our most active sides and the sides that want to help on one side but also on the other they just want to ignore everything. I’m excited to take the show out and have people see [them] and identify with them.
Q:The story arc and future potential
Jon: I love what we’ve created. It is fun, but it’s also interesting. And when I say fun, I mean, funny. We went a little level deeper here and connected it and put an arc in there. It’s easier to make one-off episodes. It’s harder to build a through line and keep that engagement. We’ve hopefully threaded that needle in a way where it gives us a leg up going to [pitch] and makes it really exciting for these buyers.
Q: In the upcoming episodes, are there more female characters that play more key roles?
Jon: Absolutely. Katie Rich is one of our main writers but also voices a strong character. She’s teased in the second episode, but then she has a major plotline later on. Nicole Sullivan plays a really funny TV character and then they have a big encounter later. Her character is really awesome. Naomi Ekperigin, who was just on David Letterman’s new show, has a TV segment kind of like Bob Ross. That scene really makes me laugh every single time. Franchesca Ramsey, hits it out of the park as a Doctor and of course Tara Strong as Edwina who we’ve all met in the first Episode. Her character is very important in the series. If (when) we get picked up and go to series there are big opportunities to develop these characters and more.
Q. What makes Glue Factory different from other shows you’ve worked on?
Jon: Everything about this project is totally different. But that is what makes it fun. We have a core team of 5 people (excluding art and animation) which is small even for an indie project. Everyone is very capable and has different skill sets but in a studio production there would be more definition between the departments. Here everyone really was across many aspects of the project. The end result has more of everyone’s DNA on it which has led to a really great product.
Q: Were there limitations by making this series animated?
Jon: Going animated over live action for The Glue Factory was a no brainer. We can do so much more in animation of course but also this show is a commentary on the pitfalls of modern life. Consumerism, the good and the bad of TV and celebrity culture. When you’re making a comedy like this, animation allows you to hit both levels. Visual comedy and deeper levels. Trying to do this in live action may not have landed the jokes the same way and may have felt like it was too serious. We could be really on the nose at times and it still works as animation. In terms of the limitations of horses, we had those conversations up front like how do our horses move? And are they able to, like stand on their hind legs? Are they anthropomorphic? We just made the call, no, these are horses, they move (mostly) like horses.
Q: What are the promotion and PR plans for the Glue Factory
Jon: We have a fun little rollout video and an announcement that we’re going to ask [the cast] to share on social media. That said, we’re not really pursuing a huge press push [right now]. We’re pursuing some things, but the story and the headline here is going to be if and when we sell this thing, which is the ultimate goal. Yes, we are going to have the cast get behind this, but the bigger cast push you’re going to see is when we sell [the show].
Q: If a platform or network does by the show, how long would it typically be before a new season is produced?
Jon: It can happen so many ways. There’s a chance that streamer may want these pilot episodes to make up Season One and then they will see where we can go with season two. Another route is a platform being like, here’s your proof of concept -great. Now, take the six episodes that you made, and extend that into a first season of like, 20 episodes, and then your second season will be another 20 episodes. In that scenario, what we made is a true proof of concept. We showed a little bit of what this can be and now they want the same story arc, but just with more episodes and character development. For context, my last show I sold in February 2019, we didn’t start the writing room until end of November of 2019. And it came out September 2021. So that’s, that’s a long end of the process. Glue Factory is a more low-fi animation style which makes production a bit faster. If we’re lucky enough to get a sale, we could maybe start a writing room in the fall or winter at the latest. I think with a full production team, a series could come together six months after a room. I’m constantly knocking on wood as I’m saying all this of course. Subsequent seasons could be so much faster once you have the production machine going. This is the type of show that we could pop out three seasons back to back to back [on a production front]. Release all depends on a buyer’s timeline though of course.
Q: Are there plans to do more with behind the scenes content if we get a sale?
Jon: Yeah, absolutely. That is a thing that we want to prioritise. It’s tougher to do it right. We showed snippets of the writers room, and have some booth content and photos of our production meetings and I can come in here and give insights. But in terms of showing stage by stage, time lapse videos of backgrounds and animation, that’s all stuff I would love to do. The nature of this production, we were working with people all over the world on the animation and illustration side, and we were moving so fast. Plus, it’s strictly like a contractual deal. To say to those people; Hey, can you record and create content while you’re animating this? It is hard with the time crunch and the budgets. It’d be amazing to get a full budget and include all that fun behind the scenes stuff in the future.
