Women in Animation Summer News Update #1

Well, just because I've been on a break over the Summer festival season doesn't mean that the industry has slowed down any. So, here's a couple news updates over the past couple months that you might have missed.

1. Medusa to be directed by Lauren Faust
Back in June, Sony pictures announced that they will be producing an animated film based on the Greek mythological character "Medusa" and directed by Lauren Faust, the woman who masterminded the relaunch of Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise. More info can be found at the following Animation Magazine article: "SPA Buys ‘Medusa’; Lauren Faust to Direct".

2. Dawn Brown and crew hard at work on House of Monsters: the stop-motion web series
As per the two latest updates from Dawn Brown, they've finished the lab set and are hard at work on the village set. Best of all, they just received a new 3d printer for creating puppets. If you'd like to follow their progress, be sure to like their Facebook page for more updates.

Christina Miller

3. Christina Miller new President and General Manager at Turner Broadcasting
Back on July 16th, Animation Magazine reported that the former SVP for Cartoon Network Enterprises and former SVP of brand licensing for HIT Entertainment is now in charge of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and Boomerang. You can read the entire article here.

4. Women In Animation launches mentoring pilot program
This summer, the international organization "Women In Animation" launched a program in the Greater Los Angeles area designed to educate and support women animators in their careers. While the deadline for applicants has passed as of last Friday, if the pilot program is successful, plans are in the works to extend this program in other WIA chapters. More on the program can be read in the following Animation Magazine article: WIA Launches Mentoring Pilot Program.

Kickstarter Project: "House of Monsters" update #2

With five hours to spare, Dawn Brown has made her Kickstarter goal!! House of Monsters will receive the $20,000 that it needs to produce their stop-motion web series!!

Thank you to everyone out there who took the time (and money) to support this animation project.

Kickstarter Project: "House of Monsters" update

It's the last day of Dawn Brown's "House of Monsters" web series Kickstarter campaign and she's only $1916 away from meeting her $20,000 goal to bring this series to life! I've upped my pledge amount to the $25 level in order to help Dawn meet her goal. If you're as interested as I am in helping women animators tell their stories, please consider making a pledge if you haven't already or upping your pledge if you can. Every little bit helps, even $1. If we all work together, we can help bring original content produced by women animators to the screen.

Kickstarter Project: "House of Monsters"

Here's another chance to support a woman filmmaker who's bringing a personal project to life outside of the studio system. Back in 2012, Dawn Brown created a stop-motion film in the spirit of Rankin/Bass called "House of Monsters" which proved itself as a real crowd pleaser in the festival circuit. Well, now she's back with plans for a whole webseries and you can help bring this project to life.


If you've read any of my posts and interviews over the years, you know how exciting it is to see another woman animator take the bull by the horns by starting her own production company, then forging ahead on her own projects--bringing her own unique voice and vision to the screen!

A concept artist for such projects as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Avatar the Last Airbender" with a career spanning twenty years, Dawn founded 'the Monster Shop' to create her original short and has now set up a Kickstarter page to promote her web series. As of this post, she's half-way to her goal of $20,000 with has 21 days left to go.

One of the cool things that Dawn has set up in her rewards is posting production updates. So, for a minimum donation of $1, you can get a sneak peek into her production process as she creates her web series. Already on the Kickstarter page is a video showing how she creates a head for one of her stop-motion puppets. While not a production class in and of itself (nor is it meant to be), there's always something to be learned by observing how other filmmakers plan and produce their films.

For a modest $10 pledge, you can get a (physical) skeleton key along with a code for the first episode's digital download--including all the production updates. However, there are currently 16 levels of pledge support left that provide more rewards for those who would like to contribute to this project. Among them are t-shirts, art prints, and a faux bronze maquette, all the way to your very own stop-motion puppet made in your likeness (if you so choose).

I encourage everyone to view the video above to see the details about Dawn's project, if you haven't already, and then visit her Kickstarter campaign page for samples of her artwork.

If it strikes a chord with you, please consider making a pledge and support this talented woman in animation.


And if you need a little help deciding at what level you'd like to support this project, check out her original House of Monsters short below.


* All Images and videos used in this post are copyright Dawn Brown and used with permission.