Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyle Arneson.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kyle. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I probably couldn’t have articulated it very well back then but I knew, at least conceptually what I wanted to do when I grew up. It was one of those nebulous things that doesn’t have an official name or job title and definitely doesn’t have a clear path to getting there but I could picture it in my mind. Of course this was after wanting to be King Kong and a full-time Jedi because I was told those were not options. Needless to say I was an impressionable kid with a big imagination and just about anything fantastical or otherworldly was incredibly interesting to me. I loved to draw and make things with my hands and pursuing ideas from conception to reality was always exciting and gratifying in the way that only creation can bring about. This kept me preoccupied and in my own little world most of the time but exploring and developing those worlds was enjoyably transcendent and eventually the line between hobby and goals became indiscernible.
For whatever reason, it seemed like inspiration was everywhere in the 1980’s, especially when it came to monsters and creatures and big imagination. I was particularly drawn to animation, puppetry and just about anything that utilized practical effects; whatever could make a particular vision or fantasy seem real. I wanted to invent immersive experiences and I greatly admired people who did that well. In 1985 I wrote to my hero, Jim Henson, and to this day still can’t believe that he took the time to write back. That gesture confirmed to me that one could pursue creative passions and build something as large and as beautiful as Henson had, while still being an earnest, genuine individual. I was and remain to this day truly inspired by his inventiveness, decency and humility and took that as my North Star moving forward. I think the thing I was picturing in my mind all along was that I wanted to be Jim Henson.
Of course as I grew up that made less and less sense, at least when trying to define what that meant to reason-based people. I soon realized that I probably should have stuck with the whole Jedi thing after all. Nevertheless, grade school and junior high were mainly spent riding bicycles to the costume shop, reading comic books, making stop motion films at home and generally just looking forward to Halloween. High school brought about experimentations with music and discovering the importance of sound, song composition and storytelling. Soon it was time for college but, despite the obvious choice, I wasn’t certain about art school. Something in my mind had begun to change and I suddenly became interested in science and medicine. For whatever reason, I felt compelled to consider the idea of becoming a doctor, much to the dismay of my parents. As such, I detoured in junior college and became an EMT to test the waters. There was, and still is, something about medicine that strikes me as creatively unique and, of course, deeply meaningful. At the time, though, I needed to see how it might fit in with the whole Henson thing.
While contemplating this oddly shaped puzzle piece I found myself taking a number of philosophy courses, which I really enjoyed. Eventually my professor, probably out of exasperation, marched me down to the transfer office and sat with me while I applied to UCLA. Looking back at this surreal moment, I’m genuinely grateful to her for forcibly opening this door and pushing me into another relevant detour. Philosophy, she had argued, is the bridge and binder between the arts and sciences and what I was really looking for was understanding the why so I could make sense of the how. Or something like that. And, because she was much older and smarter than me, I nodded and went off to study more philosophy at UCLA.
Around this time, I also began working at Warner Brothers Studios as a production assistant. Film and television had always seemed like an obvious outlet for my creative intuitions and, as a big fan of the comedian Norm MacDonald, I landed a job on the first season of his sitcom, the Norm Show. This was an exciting introduction to the process of episodic storytelling from writing to shooting and I met a number of wonderful and encouraging people during that time. Being able to work with Norm while learning the mechanism of live action shooting was very insightful but, because the grass is decidedly always greener, I eventually began to miss the practice of building things by hand.
I began to re-explore my stop motion roots and soon found myself working on a new animated show called Robot Chicken at the production company ShadowMachine. It was there that I met Seamus Walsh, Mark Caballero, and Chris Finnegan, the guys that makeup Screen Novelties, one of the world’s greatest stop motion outfits. Between these two studios I was steadily busy making practical animation projects for many years. I also spent a large amount of time working at New Deal Studios, a high-end miniature effects model shop for live action films and, as such, was exposed to just about every aspect of tactile world building. Thanks in particular to New Deal, I also participated in world destruction because just about everything we made would inevitably get blown up or set on fire.
But, once again, the grass began to display its alluring greeness and I started to miss philosophy; which I realize is a sentence that probably no one has ever said, but it there you have it. I returned to academia, this time for grad school, which I attended in the evenings after long days of making animated content. The thought, I’m sure, was that by engaging my hands and my mind, I’d finally strike the balance that I seemed to be missing. That proved to be somewhat true, but after a few years I was offered the opportunity to become a production designer for a stop motion television show and things finally came into focus.
Production design for film and television, particularly for stop motion, is a unique and bizarre endeavor. Because stop motion animation inherently relies on all the different artistic mediums and production design requires creative ideation, rendering and ongoing attention to every aspect of a project, I was suddenly engaged on all levels. It was equal parts design, world-building, story and action visualization, rule making and problem-solving all at once. The sciences became applicable and relevant, such as the physics of movement and performance, the chemistry of fabrication and the architecture of structure design and construction. Somehow, even the application of philosophy became useful, including critical thinking, ethics, ontology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and countless other subcategories when developing a rule-based microcosm. I was finally able to invest my hands and my mind into projects in equal capacity and enjoyed doing this for a long time. I particularly liked forming teams of people and working to create projects and environments that artists would enjoy participating in, even when they were difficult to execute. Over the years, I was fortunate to work with some truly inspiring talent as well as some incredibly amazing directors and will forever hold dear the moments when people I had long admired actually appreciated my work. From Frank Oz and David Lynch to George Lucas and Guillermo del Toro, few things have been as surreal or validating as that.
It eventually became time to set out on my own. Running my own studio had always been a dream but I never really thought through how to go about it. Fortunately, I married an incredible person and at her insistence we decided to give it a shot. She found a great location and together my wife, Tommi, and I created the Ancient Order of the Wooden Skull; a high-imagination, creative storytelling production company that specializes in stop motion animation and puppetry. We build worlds and create experiences that I think the younger version of me would be happy to experience. We’ve been incredibly fortunate to draw in some of the most talented people in the business and are honored to have assembled a truly remarkable team. We’re very excited about the future but strive to appreciate all the moments along the way. It might not have turned out exactly how I pictured in my mind, but I think its pretty close. And I think Jim Henson would like what we do. We work hard to retain the spirit of what initially inspired us and try to share that with the people we bring in, just like he did.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road is rarely smooth in this line of work but such is the nature of this kind of road. So many businesses fail, largely for reasons well beyond the control of the business owner that many days carry a tenuous undercurrent of uncertainty. This is probably normal for all proprietors but the entertainment industry in particular is an erratic animal and rarely operates predictably. Things can change quickly and decisions always have a ripple effect. But, as in most high-risk endeavors, the thrill of pursuit tends to motivate forward momentum. For us, we just frame the day to day as the reward rather than focus on any distant shining light. We are pursuing our passion and surrounded by inspiring people and we know that this is a rarity. While we have certainly had sure things disappear, finances go haywire, projects take left turns and even had moments where it feels like we’re standing on the edge of the precipice, we always know the next day might bring something to balance everything out. We remind each other that these are the good old days, after all.
Ancient Order of the Wooden Skull – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Ancient Order of the Wooden Skull is a production company and animation studio that specializes in stop motion, puppetry and visual effects. We pursue big ideas and love to tell richly imaginative stories. We operate at the intersection of Ray Harryhausen and John Carpenter and thrive where Jim Henson meets David Cronenberg. The Ancient Order has two divisions, one which functions as a service-based studio, creating television shows, commercials and content for clients and another which develops our own IP internally. We are proud producing partners for The Tiny Chef Show, a stop motion episodic cooking program for Instagram created by our good friend, Rachel Larsen. We have created work for Mattel, Warner Animation Group, Universal, Samsung, Lyft and many more. We work a lot with the amazing director, PES, who makes inspiring stop motion pieces and we are also currently developing a magazine and an animated show for Cartoon Network. We have done design and fabrication work for numerous companies and have even helped develop experiences and content for the Magic Castle. The Ancient Order has a mission statement to honor the art and the artist alike and we are very proud to have a reputation as a place that treats people well and is an inspiring place to be a part of.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is an amorphous thing that usually changes shape whenever you begin to handle it. Finances, fame, notoriety and things like that often fall into this category so we rarely think in those terms. We define success by our reputation. Having participated in countless different projects at numerous studios we know the importance of appreciating the now and the who. Being able to work in collaboration with so many amazing people on inspiring stories and objects is a delight and a rarity so we celebrate the opportunity and the participants. The magical result of this is that it brings out the best in people and creates an atmosphere of encouragement and positivity which propels the cycle. We are happiest when we hear positive feedback and work hard to uphold our integrity.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1513 Gardena Ave
Glendale, CA 91204 - Phone: (818) 484-5755
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @ancientorderofthewoodenskull
- Other: www.ancientorder.com
Image Credit:
Tommi Cahill Arneson
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