Mar 15, 2018

Titmouse's annual "5 Second Animation Day" has developed into a unique studio tradition

More than a decade ago, Titmouse co-founder Shannon Prynoski came up with the idea of 5 Second Day, a kind of "paid vacation" for employees to take a break from working on personal animation projects.

Originally, 5 Second Day was just that: one day a year, the Titmouse office would be closed and artists would create a short film of at least five seconds to share with their colleagues. [Shannon's husband, Chris Prynoski, co-founder of Titmouse, who worked on series such as "Metallocarpus," "The Venture Brothers," and "Nico and the Sword of Light," as well as the feature film "Nerdland," says, "It was a great way to have fun." Ne: Just have fun and laugh at each other."

But since the event's inception in 2008, the tradition has evolved considerably. According to Prynoski, the number of works in the program has decreased in recent years, but the collaboration and the length and complexity of the works have increased.

"Artists want to stand out and there is a bit of healthy competition. They want to be seen as 'I have an ambitious idea that I can't do very well on my own.'"

"There are a lot of artists who want to be seen as 'the best of the best' and 'the best of the best.

Collaboration allows the filmmakers to play to their strengths. Of course, that means a lot more planning and work than many teams can accomplish in a single day. According to James Sugrue, an animator in the New York office, he began planning the short in late November and started animating in January.

So why are so many of the studio's artists willing to devote their free time to a project originally intended merely for fun -

"5 Second Day is actually my favorite thing at Titmouse," said also Sean Covanton, an animation director in New York, says.

In addition to fun and games, 5 Second Day also allows studios to see where they might be able to redirect talent more appropriately, Plinosky says. Sometimes, he explains, "it's an opportunity to showcase [someone's] skills that I didn't know about or that others in the studio didn't know about." In a way, it's helpful, "like having that person supervise something or do something out of the ordinary."

Anneli Strassler, now working as a color stylist in New York, began working as a cleanup artist at Titmouse. The first 5 Second Day was a chance for her to flex old muscles, she says. 'It was stressful because I barely knew what I was doing,' she says. I hadn't animated in years," she says. But I did some super rough animation and it turned out better than I thought it would. I was so happy to be able to show myself and everyone else, 'I can do this.'"

Since then, Strassler has worked in animation, color design, and props and effects design, but she doesn't plan to stay in the same department for long. 5 Second Day was not her only professional starting point. In other cases, ideas from these shorts have turned into full-fledged projects or opened doors to other opportunities. Mike Carlo, animation director at Titmouse, said that one of 5 Second Day's shorts led him to become the in-house director for Mattel's Hot Wheels.

"It was a turning point in my career. That project was something I had never led before, and it was a huge learning experience for me."

Most importantly, artists retain complete control over what they produce for 5 Second Day. Says Prynoski, "The artists retain their IP, so after 5 Second Day, they can go out and sell to whoever they want or do whatever they want."

Attendance at this annual event has grown significantly since its inception in 2008. Once a short film in the lobby of the Los Angeles office for Titmouse employees only, the event is now open to the public in each of its three hometown offices in Los Angeles, New York City, and Vancouver. Seating is reserved for employees, of course, but according to Prynoski, most of the screenings over the past few years have sold out with tickets sold to the public.

At a screening held two weeks ago at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood, the lineup of about 130 short films varied greatly in scope, scale, and theme, with very few of them more than five seconds in length. Despite the grandeur of the Egyptian Theater venue, the event seemed to retain, at least in part, the atmosphere of the first, more intimate "5 Second Day" screening. The theater was filled with animators laughing hysterically as their friends' names appeared on the screen and inside jokes flying over the heads of non-Titmouse audience members. (For example, the annual gag was to produce a short film with low production values and attribute it to studio animator Brian Pack.)

Prynoski says he has no plans for the future of 5 Second Day other than to continue." As long as it continues to be something people enjoy working on, we will continue it."

The Vancouver screening of 5 Second Day is tonight, Thursday the 15th, and the New York screening is tomorrow, Friday the 16th. Advance tickets for the Vancouver screening are sold out, but you can try tickets at the door.