From Kidscreen:

CBC funds 20 kids projectsThe relief fund handed out more than US$1.6 million for 118 projects overall.
By Elizabeth Foster

June 19, 2020More than 100 original Canadian projects will receive US$1.6 million (CAD$2.2 million) through the CBC Creative Relief Fund. Development funding will be provided to 99 projects, while production funding will be provided to 20 projects. The selected projects include 20 projects targeting kids and tweens as well as 19 projects aimed at youth and young adult audiences.

The Fund launched in April in response to COVID-19 in an effort to support the recovery of Canada’s artistic communities affected by lockdowns. Almost half of the projects to receive funding (43%) come from self-identified Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) creators.
Nearly 9,000 projects were submitted, and the funding will be provided across three programming streams: the innovation stream, the CBC short docs stream and the playwright pilot stream. The innovation stream includes 82 projects selected for development funding and five projects selected for production funding.

Tween-focused projects include Bad Influence, from Jeff Sager and Joel Buxton, which follows 14-year-old Tina Leon as she starts a YouTube channel during quarantine; a dystopian series from Balloon House Productions called Bunker Buds; animated series Canada For Real, created by Abdul Malik and produced by Fae Pictures, which recreates overlooked parts of Canada’s history; and Hello, You, a show from Jennifer Beasley that follows a 30-something communicating digitally with her 13-year-old self.

Other tween offerings include History Bits, from Canada’s History Society, which sees true-life characters from Canada’s past change the world; Eric Janvier’s show Indian, Summer, which follows a shy Indigenous girl and her cousins as they track down ancient spirits and monsters; Purple City, from Mike Maryniuk, Matthew Rankin and Lar Simms; Six Eleven Media’s mystery series Slick River; Jeremy Torrie’s Super Freaky, a show exploring urban myths; Vanessa Magic’s STEM-focused comedy This is Earth; and Window Sonata, a series of live-action shorts from Amy Brown.

Some of the preschool projects include Obediya Jones-Darrell’s Br’er Rabbit & Friends, based on African, Caribbean and North American folktales told in an African-Nova Scotian community; the sing-along series The George Canyon Show--Kids Edition; Mike Geiger’s series Hartford about a five-year-old living with anxiety; Nitanis & Skylar, a show from Loretta Todd that sees the titular characters find lost people, places and things in their neighborhood; and Power Lines, Gazelle Automation’s series about playful subway trains.

Additional preschool projects include Purple, the Dragon from Broken Pencil Studios; Imagine Create Media’s Ride Along, which puts preschoolers in the front seat of their favorite vehicles; and Soulpepper Kids from Soulpepper Theatre, which brings together original music, poetry and performance.

The youth and young adult selections, meanwhile, include Dan Gaud’s collection of sci-fi short stories Automatic; Oya Media Group’s Black Community Mixtapes, which follows two young Black filmmakers; IGP Productions’ modern suburban legend Concord Floral; Country Hoops, from Bradley Vermunt, which revolves around a group of friends on and off the basketball court; Eunice Hau’s coming-of-age story Ginger Beef; Jeff Detsky’s relationship-focused project Go Get Her; and The Hoof Lady (Teiakotsinarén:Tonte’), from Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs and D.W. Waterson, features the spirit of a slain Indigenous woman as she works to uncover the truth about her death.
Additional youth and young-adult focused projects include Vessel, the sci-fi comedy from Ethan Godel, Filip Lee and Ryan Bobkin; Julianna and Lydia Notten’s Well That’s Just Super, which follows a group of queer teens with superpowers; Who Do You Think I Am? (WDYTIA), from Jonathan Torrens, Sylvia Beirnes and Jeni Besworth, which follows Madison Tevlin as she finds connection with misinterpreted and misperceived people; and Matthew Sadowski’s new-age love story Wild Geese.
The youth and young adult-focused selections are rounded out by Corey Liu’s Horny Lover Boys, about a teenager trying to free his best friend from a sinister presence by joining his school’s Gay Straight Alliance; Obediya Jones-Darrell’s mystical action-adventure series Metanoia; the animated comedy series Plantemic from Bettie Xie; the coming-of-age story Roomies from YAP (Young Actors Project); The Tutors, from Jude Klassen and Roslyn Muir, which follows a brilliant teen trying to rescue her mom from financial ruin; Rebeka Herron’s Untitled Ringette Project about a team’s effort to get to nationals; and the musical project Update Your Browser from Anika Johnson, Britta Johnson, Peter Woods and Vandal Media.

Excited that Cuddle Sticks 2 has been chosen for a few more fun film festivals this season. 

Hey look at that, new artwork! If you are a "grammer", would love to have you follow my new "art only" account at:
https://www.instagram.com/mike.geiger.animation/?hl=en
​Thanks!!!

Happy to announce Cuddle Sticks 2 will be making it's European debut at Klik Animation Festival in Amsterdam. For more information on the screening, please feel free to visit the link here:
​KLIK AMSTERDAM

Cuddle Sticks 2 made it's first festival screening this week at the Lost Episode Fest in Toronto. Thanks again to the festival for their support. Hopefully more to come!

And it's out! Excited to introduce the latest series I was fortunate enough to Direct called "The 3 Amigonauts". Hope you enjoy it. 

Just got word that The 3 Amigonauts will be premiering August 5th at 8 AM on YTV.
​
The show was created by Kyle Marshall (Loud House, Atomic Puppet) and produced at 9Story Media Group.
I was fortunate enough to direct the series and a proud of what our hard working crew was able to accomplish. Hope you all have a chance to tune in and check out the fun!

For more on the series, please visit the Tumblr site here:
https://3amigonauts.tumblr.com/

The follow up to my film Cuddle Sticks will be premiering at Comic Con 2017 this weekend with the Spike and Mike Sick and Twisted screening. Please pop by if you around the convention center or if you are unable to attend (like myself), feel free to check it out below!

*Please note the video includes adult content. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. 

I recently spent some time at my mother's house and came across a VHS recording of the first animation I ever did. Circa nineteen-ninety-something?

For any budding creators interested in pitching in kids TV, Ill be part of a panel at the TIFF Industry conference April 20th titled "How to prepare and sell your show bible" along with many other very talented individuals in hopes of giving the audience some tips and samples of our process.
More information available at the link below:
http://www.tiff.net/events/how-to-prepare-and-sell-your-show-bible/

From AWN :
eOne Announces Broadcast Sales for ‘Winston Steinburger’ in France and BelgiumEntertainment One inks deal with Cartoon Network in France and OUFtivi in Belgium for its new animated comedy series ‘Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong’ developed in collaboration with animation studio Sticky Pictures.

Happy to announce that Winston will make it's Canadian debut January 2nd at 7:30 on Teletoon. Hope y'all can tune in. 

I was recently part of an 80s X Animation art show in Ottawa called RADICAL! put on by the ever talented Tomi P and Joel MacKenzie.
Thanks again to these two folks. A great time was had by all.

From Kidscreen:

Toronto, Canada’s Entertainment One (eOne) is taking its animated comedy series Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong overseas to air in the UK, Poland, the Middle East and North Africa.

Targeting kids six to 12, the 2D animated show will debut on POP in the UK this month, on Poland’s Teletoon in December, and on MBC Group in the Middle East and North Africa beginning in September 2017. The new broadcast partners join a number of channels already airing Winston Steinburger, including ABC3 Australia, Teletoon in Canada, Clan TVE in Spain and BIGGS in Portugal.
eOne is also in discussions to expand the show’s broadcast footprint with additional territories, including France.
​
Winston Steinburger was developed by eOne in collaboration with broadcasters Teletoon Canada and ABC3 Australia.

Today marks the last day of OIAF 2016. It's always so great to see old friends, make new ones, and experience the camaraderie among fellow industry folk. This year I was a part of a development panel called "Forks in the Road" about the specific path our productions took to eventually end up on TV. (Image below borrowed from Startoon)

I'm not the most seasoned public speaker, so unsure of just how much constructive information was actually conveyed, but appreciated the opportunity to be a part of the panel none the less. Thank you Michelle and Brandon (and Jamie and Miles) for the experience.

As part of the panel, I put together a few images on the various stages of Winston design throughout development and thought it might be something worth sharing here as well. 

Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong originated in 2009 as a short film idea. Although it did get finished, and there were parts that I felt came out pretty funny, I was never happy enough with the final product to release it to the public.

The next stage of development came when I entered the "pitch this" contest at the Ottawa Animation Festival in 2010. I ended up entering the Winston idea and formatting quite a bit of what I did for the original short film into a pitch for the series. It was at this stage that the characters started to become a bit more refined, with the addition of Hampton the Hamster who started out as one mean dude in a flying hamster ball. 

The follow stage of development came after the show was picked up for development by Teletoon (and it's distributor E-One Family). We were commissioned to make a short demo for the series and below are the updated designs we used. *Note - Pam (the girl in the top left corner) and Hampton (the hamster) were designed by Mr. Steve Lambe while in production with Mercury Filmworks. 

After that, the designs moved on to the next phase of development which was putting together the series bible, as well as marketing and promotional documents. Winston and Dudley ended up staying the same, while Hampton (the former hamster) again got an update into more of an alien creature. A few more characters were also added at this point including Sgt. Sasha Spritz (Winston's hero), and Cutty (Winston's guardian and owner of the restaurant where Winston and Dudley work).

The next round of redesign came after the show was officially green-lit for production. There was a request to age Winston up, so the following exploration was based off of that request. 

And here are the final designs for the series (went with #2 from the above choices and then refined his structure a bit to feel a little more lose). You can ignore the "older version" warning on Hampton as this was based off of a few things inside his build. 

Looks like Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong will be airing in Australia on ABC ME Sept 19. Big congrats to the team.

I did some early development work on this series a few years back, and excited to see it coming to TV. Congrats to everyone at Industrial Bros. 

Premiering September 6th at 8 a.m. ​on CBC.

I'm happy to release a little mobile game that I've been poking at on the side called Roll the Six. More info below:

ROLL THE SIX
Toronto’s own urban cycling game for mobile devices.

You’ve scored tickets to tonight’s game. Your goal is to bike from Parkdale to the Downtown core before tipoff. Cruise down Queen while avoiding the trash on garbage day. Dodge the local wildlife as you detour through Trinity Bellwoods Park. Use the tourists to your advantage on Bremner Blvd, where you make your final run to the stadium before the start of the game.
Roll the Six allows Torontonians to bike the city like a local, without ever learning to ride a fixed gear.

iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/roll-the-six/id1137417644?mt=8

Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mikegeiger.rollthesix

Did this up as a house warming gift for a some pals who bought their first new home. 

A few years back, I created a little animated pitch for some Pre-School interstitials called Bare Bear. The idea came out after working with the character from the"On the Subway" short, and thought he'd transition well into something for a younger audience. Obviously since then, Cartoon Network produced something with a similar name, and this project never ended up gaining any traction, but thought it worth sharing here none the less. Hope you enjoy it.
​

Exciting news for Winston:
​LONDON: Entertainment One (eOne) has secured broadcast deals in Spain and Portugal for its animated comedy series Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong.

In Spain, free-to-air broadcaster Clan TVE acquired the first season of Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong. In Portugal, pay-TV network BIGGS also picked up season one of the 2D-animated show. Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong will begin airing in Portugal this fall.

The 52×11-minute series follows the adventures of a thrill-seeking space kid named Winston Steinburger, his feline best friend, Sir Dudley, and Hampton, an uptight alien. The trio explores the galaxy together in a homemade space cruiser. The show was developed in collaboration with Sticky Pictures and co-produced with broadcasters TELETOON Canada and ABC3 Australia.

Monica Candiani, the head of international sales at eOne Family, said, “The deals with TVE and BIGGS demonstrate that the fast, funny humor of Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong translates to audiences around the world. We’re delighted that the show has found a home on these channels so that kids in Spain and Portugal can join Winston on his madcap adventures through space.”

Full article below:
Worldscreen - Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong.

The Super Duper Super Hero will be making a stop at the San Antonio Film Festival this July as part of the TIFF Kids "Loot Bag Jr." touring program. What an awesome poster.