Thursday, November 22, 2012

Going out with a Song



Episode 52: Rock Music, last of the new episodes of Abney & Teal goes out today at 6pm. 
(Yesterday's extremely silly episode Spots is here on iPlayer as are about half of the new episodes if you're quick. I don't know exactly what CBeebies will do after that, but I'm sure they'll be round again soon. Have I already mentioned how proud I am of these new episodes?


Here's me playing, just about, Toby Dog's tune on Toby Dog's actual Squeezebox. 
I'm going to save you the horror of my bagpipe version (FOR NOW) and go out to an art gallery instead.

Some enlightening/disturbing stats that animators Jonathon Hearn and Nayden Nikolov saved from producer Chris Wood's wrap party speech:

On average 110 - 120 shots per episode
6000 composited shots
572 minutes (9.5 hours) of broadcasted content (4.8 feature films)
134 TB of data
2 Keyboards
5 Monitors
480 loaves of bread
36,000 tea bags
1,440 packets of biscuits
1,927 dishwasher cycles
36kg of instant coffee
480 pens & pencils

And that may be partly why I'm currently quite enjoying slip-sliding back to the reclusive life of a book illustrator.

People have been asking a lot about DVDs and I don't have a proper answer for them. I do remember there being a discussion about releasing some in spring of next year, but that is not definite, and I don't have much say. There are currently 10 episodes available on iTunes and I imagine more will follow. I think people still want physical DVDs more than downloads even if the market has shrunk in the last few years, so I am hopeful that it will happen at some point.

Meanwhile. Books!

2 comments:

Nelly said...

Every day I watch Abney & Teal with my son, we love it so much. He is nearly two and totally fascinated, he sings along and is full of laughter and joy each episode. It really takes me back to when I was little, watching shows such as Bagpuss and Pigeon Street..it holds the same magical feeling. I am so looking forward to the new episodes and hope there are many more. Also, how lovely to see you (all) playing Toby Dog's song as a group (reminded me of one winter in Edinburgh)..it's lovely :D

Joel Stewart said...

Thanks!
We're actually not that far from Edinburgh in that film.

There are unlikely to be more than the 52 we already made. Funding being the main reason. I actually thought 52 was impossible creatively, and turned out to be wrong - but only just. It's sobering to note that there were only 13 episodes of Pigeon street, and also only 13 of Bagpuss.

Still, 52 should do the rounds on CBeebies for a good while yet.