Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Donnelly.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
As a kid, I went to all the most hippyish, alternative schools Santa Cruz, California had to offer (which is really saying something). One of these schools was a Montessori school where they gave us all the freedom to work on whatever we wanted every day. I remember being shocked that they considered drawing and typing to be worthy uses of our academic time. It wasn’t too long before I could type 100 words a minute and was drawing and making little interactive computer games all day long (hypercard stacks for all you retro nerds out there).
I continued drawing, animating and making short films all through high school and I realized I should probably keep the party going and go to film school. I went to NYU and made live action and animated films, and then graduated and entered the cold, mean streets of New York. I started an animation company with my film school friend Lydia, and we called it AWESOME + modest. Even though it was just us working out of our crappy New York apartments, we were able to make a nice website and create the illusion that we had a real company. I had a friend who worked for an investment company on Wall Street, and we took a bunch of photos there, pretending their big, sweet office was ours. We put those photos on the website and it actually worked and we started getting some jobs. We made a lot of music videos and then started doing all the animated segments for documentaries. I also made a feature-length documentary around this time called “I Think We’re Alone Now” that was about two obsessed fans of the 80’s pop star, Tiffany.
My friend Alessandro and I had an idea for an animated TV show called Basement Gary, so we wrote a short and made it in my basement apartment. It ended up winning the first prize in the Playboy animation contest and we got ten thousand of their last dollars before they filed for bankruptcy. We ended up developing that idea further with 20th Century Fox and made three more shorts with them before they passed on it. We decided to move out to Hollywood and try and make a show that didn’t get passed on. We made a pilot for Comedy Central for a show called The Amazing Danny but then they passed on it. We developed another show with Fox called Freshmen, and they ended up passing on that as well. But then we made a short called Jeff & Some Aliens for a Comedy Central animated variety show called Triptank, and that short made it out onto the airwaves. We made eight more Jeff & Some Aliens shorts for the show and then pitched it to them as a full stand alone show and they decided to let us do it. We moved up to Portland and made a 10 episode season of the show. The show aired and we were writing the second season when they ended up passing on it.
I continued doing jobs through my now more real animation company, while also writing my first animated feature film. When Covid struck and work temporarily dried up, I decided to make an animatic for the whole movie (recording myself as every character.) The film feels like the culmination of all the different kinds of things I’ve done and a handful of animators and I will hopefully finish it in the next year or two. If any patrons of the arts with some money to spare are reading this, feel free to reach out to me to help make these dreams come true. I’m also developing a new serialized animated dark comedy TV show. AWESOME + modest just finished all the animated segments for an upcoming high profile comic book documentary for Disney Plus and are working on some cool things now that I’m not allowed to talk about unfortunately. I feel like I probably could have done that in less words, but it’s almost midnight and I don’t have it in me to go over it all again. Thank you reader for staying with me during this journey of words.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think the smooth road is a fantasy. Maybe some people have found that dreamy road, but I can’t imagine any road stays smooth forever. And I’d think it’s preferable to hit all the bumps and potholes first, then hit the smooth section of road later in life. You don’t want to cruise down the smooth road too early and get too confident and start thinking it will last forever because then when you suddenly hit that bumpy road that fast you’ll fling yourself over the guard rails and into the sea.
So yes, I’ve had many bumps and struggles along the way. Often at the time, they feel like the worst thing in the world. Like “Oh no, they passed on our show we worked on for years! What jerks! And now it was all for nothing and a giant waste of time.” Or “Oh no, all that animation we worked on for six months, and now the director was fired and they’re going to scrap most of it.” But you never have all the context at the time, and sometimes it takes years to later realize how valuable that experience ended up being and what doors it opened and allowed you to do whatever you did next.
It feels like I might be speaking too broadly here and should probably use some more personal examples. But I think you get it.
AWESOME + modest – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
AWESOME + modest is an animation company that specializes in more raw, mixed media animation. We like creating custom animation styles for each project we do, often with a tactile, handmade feel.
I don’t think that I’m the best at any one thing in the world. Or even close. My strength is that I have a lot of different skills and experience that I bring to every project I work on. Like the fact that I’m a writer too, means I’m always thinking about how to tell the full story and not just focused on making slick visuals. I also shoot, edit, direct, storyboard, draw and know After Effects which gives me a lot of different ways to look at a project.
My favorite jobs that I’m most proud of are the ones where we get more involved and really create something original from the ground up. Like when Scion hired us to create a short film from scratch. Or when an upcoming HBO documentary had us storyboard and create all of their animated scenes. I’m also excited about the animated feature-length film that we are making on our own.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I think success is getting to do what I love. I would rather work on a really creatively cool project for very little or no money than a big corporate project with lots of money and no freedom.
Part of that is working on projects I believe in. Great films, and documentaries, and companies with a great product or organization with an important cause.
But I’ll do boring jobs for money as long as they don’t last that long.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.awesomeandmodest.com
- Email: support@awesomeandmodest.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/durtysean/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/durtysean
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