Emmy Nom!

Holy Crap! Today we found out that our little show about a talking male cow with udders got nominated for not one but TWO daytime EMMY Awards! First, the entire show got nominated for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program. That seems like a long term for Best Animated Show to me :) It was the only Nickelodeon show to get a nomination.

The second and a little closer to home for me was for Outstanding Directing for an Animated Program. Yipes! That's me! Like I said earlier, Holy Crap! It's extra special to me because not only am I the Supervising Director but my show - Cowman and Ratboy, was the show that got nominated. To say I'm excited is a little bit of an understatment...

Anyway - fun news! Hope to see ya on the TV near the end of June! Maybe the little statue is heading our way!!

We've moved!!!

We finally took the last step in becoming a full-fledged San Diegan and bought a home in Carlsbad! We had been renting a house for the past year and a half and we're ready to do our own lawn work :) We were looking for about 2 months online and another almost 2 months by going through a ton of houses. Housing market problem my butt!! Well, at least not in Carlsbad. We had looked at other towns close by but nothing was better than our little beach city.

We put a couple of offers on homes to no avail. The first was upside down - no not like the attic down, basement up (wait, there's no basements in california) but the owners owed more on the house than it was worth. This made it a short sale. It didn't mean that they had to sell it shortly but that they were going to lose money on it or selling it short of what it was worth.

ANYWAY - So California has this weird thing where the house are not listed at one price but at a range of prices. The house isn't 800k, it's between 775k and 825k. Well, of course I'm going to offer the low end! Well, the thing about short sales is that the bank is "kind of" in charge. They own the mortgage and almost the home - it hasn't gone into foreclosure yet. The owner can still say which bid it would like. So we basically offered the low end of the range. There was another offer on the table and the other agent said, we were the best offer.

We thought we had it in the bag, right? Well, for some reason, the owner picked the lower offer! My agent thought that either the other couple put more money down or the seller's agent was the same as the buyer...

So, one down...So after a few more houses, Heather walks through one and calls me right away. You're going to love this one, she says. I go and see it the next day and can't really control myself. It's stunning. Not a thing to do to it. Totally upgraded. Big back yard. No back neighbors, great views, did I say totally loaded?

So we put a low offer on it and get into negotiations. It was rough because the owner wasn't budging too much. Finally, we thought we were over our limit. I did some magic numbering with our financing and found we could actually do the number the owner wanted so we waited for our agent to get back from vacation and agreed to the number. Problem was, that exact same DAY, someone else came in with a relocation company and bid the EXACT SAME number we did. The owner did what I think anyone would have done and said, who wants it more? Of course we were already at our limit so we couldn't dance anymore.

I was devastated. I really dug the place and wanted to close the deal. Now it was out of our reach. We looked at a few more places but nothing could take the place of the dream house. We put another offer and was quickly rejected. I kept thinking...what housing problem??

Then a miracle happened. Our agent called us late on a sunday telling us we weren't going to believe what just happened. The agent of our dream house called our agent asking if we still wanted the house. The relocation company didn't want the house and made it fall out of escrow. It was available if we wanted it. I got greedy for a quick second and thought I should lowball them for 20grand less. Then I thought better of it and wanted the place too bad. Instantly, they accepted!!

We couldn't believe it. The place was to be ours. After some intense weeks of dealing with lenders - we had perfect credit, great incomes but not too terribly much in the form of downpayment so we had a VERY rough time getting the loan - we moved into the house!

House warming party in about a month when we should have half of our stuff moved in. Want to come???

Kids' Choice Awards part dos

So the day finally came and after scoring 4 tix - me, Summer and the O'briens (Hannah and Sean) made the trek up to LA for the day. The trip wasn't too bad; a little traffic but about normal for LA. Sean got to experience the infamous gasman patience. Wears very thin when dealing with slow drivers.

We got to UCLA relatively early and decided to walk around a bit. See, a few years back, we went to the KCAs (Kids' Choice Awards - at least that's what the hip 9 year olds call it) a little early. Make that a LOT early. Like when the doors opened. We waited nearly 2 hours before the show started and the girls were spent. They couldn't really enjoy the show because they were already anxious to leave. I wasn't about to make that mistake again this year.

So we walked around Westwood for a bit and after realizing how excited Sum and Hannah were, Sean and I decided to take the edge off and head to a pizza joint for a beer. After nearly having a beer spilled ON me, we headed off to the show.

Tons of kids from all ages, really. Lots of under 10s and then surprisingly a bunch of tweeners all decked out. Was a bit odd for me to see and then also a bit depressing to know that Sum and Ree aren't too far from that stage. Can't they stay young forever??

Inside we saw tons of celebs. A lot that I knew and a lot more that I didn't. Needless to say though, we had choice (get it - choice) seats. They were pretty close to the stage and right by where all the stars were sitting. A preggo Jessica Alba was next to Jennifer Love Hewitt who was ahead of Hayden Panitierre from Heroes. That was the corner to be in.

The biggest question from me was, who the hell are the Jonas Brothers and why was everyone and I mean everyone (including Sean) screaming like 8 year old girls? Oh wait, maybe it's because they are the hottest group FOR 8 year old girls. You would think the Beatles were walking around Pauley Pavilion or something. Everytime they would move, a shriek was heard throughout the building.

Oh and one other thing I found interesting. I just happened to look at tix prices for the soldout show and saw that a pair in the nosebleeds were going for about $600 each - holy cow! I couldn't believe it until I realized - Oooooh. Miley Cyrus was going to be there.

I know very little about Miley and her alter ego Hannah Montana but the midgets do. I couldn't believe the hype surrounding this singer so I was definitely interested in seeing what's doing. Sure enough, she can perform. The crowd was going crazy and she lived up to the hype. Now, I'm not going to pull a Matthew and buy all of her CD's or anything (I'll just borrow them from Reece) -(I KID I KID!!) but it was entertaining.

Overall, it was a pretty good show. Jack Black was great, as usual. Harrison Ford was there getting slimed,Janet Jackson looked pretty fine and Cameron Diaz has a set of legs that wouldn't stop.


It was also fun to see my buddy Jeff Garcia who plays Pip on Back at the Barnyard and Sheen on Jimmy Neutron and soon another show that I can't say anything about but it rhymes with Blanet Treen...

Hopefully more on that VERY SOON!!!

Kids' Choice Awards part 1

So we got lucky enough to score 4 tickets to the KCA this past saturday night. How did I get the precious tix that were going for about $600 per? Well, duh, I am directing on one of the most popular shows on Nick...well, maybe that had something to do with it. I also directed a live action spot for the KCA's themselves. Now THAT was pretty cool.

I thought I was just going to go to the shoot to help with the lighting and camera composition for when we added the 3d elements. I was a bit nervous at first - this being only my second live action shoot that I was actually a part of. I did a best buy spot about 10 years ago that really wasn't anything. The talent was someone pushing in a vcr tape in a vcr - anyone remember vcrs?

Anyway, this shoot was a little different. First off, it had two of Nick's big stars. If you're above the age of 16 you may have never heard of them. One was Lil JJ, the star of Just Jordan (on Nick) and the other was Miranda Cosgrove of ICarly (also on Nick). You may remember Miranda as the bitchy manager type on the movie School of Rock. So it comes down that we (at Omation) are doing this spot for the KCAs. I was asked to direct it so after the voices were recorded, we storyboarded the spot and married the audio to picture. I tried to think of the cameras that I would use in the live shoot to make things easier. None of my favorite traveling camera shots were allowed:(

So we get to the shoot and like I said, I thought I was just there to make sure they did what I had done in the boards. Well, right after the first take, everyone started looking to me for the overall direction as well. Now I've directed a lot of voice over talent but never action in front of the camera - even if it was two 15 year olds. After the initial nerves were gone, I was rolling. Really getting into it. Telling the Camera dude (the DP) what to do, the AD (assistant director) what to do - even the talent themselves. I was feeling all powerfull! Nah didn't like that - DO IT AGAIN! Now with more feeling!!!

Well, not exactly BUT it was unbelievably cool. I was on such a rush even for this tiny little 1 minute spot. I started to get in my groove and really let it fly. I kept thinking - I could get used to this. See the thing is in 3d animation, you tell someone what to do (like animation) and it takes days to get it back exactly the way you want it. Here, since there are REAL humans, its instantaneous. Man, I know that sounds very odd - like, no crap, Mike - but I loved it. Let's try this...now let's try this. I was definitely bitten by the bug of directing live action.

Oh and how did the actual awards go? I'll let ya know in a second...