We Interviewed the Creator of Please Stay Tuned!

We had the pleasure of chatting with the creator of Please Stay Tuned! Check it out if you are interested in learning more about running an indie project, animation, and the goals for the project! Support them HERE!

What initially inspired you to become a creator, and how has that inspiration evolved throughout your creative journey?

When I was a small child, I watched a movie called Dumbo and fell in love with a particular scene, The Pink Elephant Sequence. For some children, this caused them nightmares, but for me, I felt inspired “how did they do that?!”

When I was about 12 years old, I met someone at a ski resort who owned a DSI who showed me the Flipnote Studio application. They let me borrow it for a little bit and in that short time I was enamored and wanted a DSI for myself to play with the app on. For my 13th birthday, it was given to me as a Birthday Gift and since that very day I have been creating cartoons. I was inspired initially by the Kirby series (which explains my love of combining cute characters with horrifying situations.) I also found inspiration in strange shows that often thrived on surreal situations and humor shows such as Courage the Cowardly Dog, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, Spongebob, and Crashbox. Eddsworld was the cartoon I watched as a child that made me want to post my work online. I developed more and more of a love of horror and “dang, I can make some really terrible things happen to people in these animations.” It was Madoka Magica and Bojack Horseman that truly unlocked my brain into what the medium was capable of and what inspired me to create a show like Please Stay Tuned.

Please Stay Tuned has been in development hell for about 8 years, if i can ask myself why I haven’t given up, it’s because of the few small people who have latched onto the project already. There has been adorable fanart, and love for the series expressed in comments. Weirdly enough when I post a project (Such as pretty kitty) and someone in the comment section asks “Where’s Please Stay Tuned?” It makes me a little giddy that this project hasn;t been forgotten!

I think the support was the strongest during our indiegogo campaign. I saved like…all the fanart from the event. I’m glad people have stuck with us for so long! Some have even stuck since I announced the project way back in 2017.

3.What challenges have you encountered as an indie creator, and how have they shaped your approach to your work?

Finances and All the stuff you need to do to get it done…Making a cartoon is a big endeavor and you need to donate a lot of your own money, time and effort to make it happen. I’ve had to go ahead and do a lot of the work on Please Stay Tuned animation wise myself, as well as be the project’s spokesperson, manager, and director…It’s a lot! Managing a team on top of a very small budget is tricky! Usually, bigger projects can afford a team to manage other aspects, but since we have a small budget, I gotta do it all myself!

I haven’t taken a break in years!

4.Are there any particular creators who have significantly influenced your style or approach? How do you incorporate those influences into your own unique voice?

Felix Colgrave, David Firth, Cyriak,…the holy trinity of ogs that gave me a bunch of evil ideas to make weird stuff. I also really love the work of Gekidan Inu Curry (they did the Madoka Magica mixed media scenes) It was watching those scenes that made me go “oh what if we made Please Stay Tuned a mixed media nightmare yeah?

I think it’s creators who just do stuff no one else is doing that makes me happy..weird stuff usually. I used to purposely go to the “weird part of youtube” as a child just to see what treasures I could find.

5. How do you navigate the balance between staying true to your artistic vision and adapting to feedback from your audience or collaborators?

Please Stay Tuned is very feedback oriented and I like giving my team a say in things…especially when they’re things I don’t know how to do super well (My writing team understands this, we have a trigger warning for Corey Dialogue because Corey Dialogue is…usually not great)

There are occasional Corey Overrides where I do stick true to my vision, but those are rare and only if it’s something I fully want and trust in (i refer to them as wolf scenes, no one messes with my wolf scenes…unless there’s a Very Big Problem)

We don’t really have a big fanbase, but what we do have likes CRT for some reason, so that usually Quells the Hoarde.

6.Can you recall a memorable success story or milestone in your indie creator journey that stands out as a turning point for you?

I once again mention the Indiegogo thing, as well as Indie Pitch Night. It was those moments that made me think “Wow! People actually wanna watch this? That’s weird.”

7.What role do setbacks or failures play in your creative process, and how do you overcome them to keep moving forward?

OH GOD DONT GET ME STARTED.

I SPENT 3 YEARS ANIMATING THE ORIGINAL CUT OF PLEASE STAY TUNED AND I SHOWED IT TO A FRIEND AND THEY HATED IT!

IT WAS REALLY BAD. WE DON’T TALK ABOUT IT.

But it’s what we learn from, Please Stay Tuned has had a lot of “throw this out and start over” moments, but often these changes are made for the better…Our show is infinitely better now then when it started. I like when my team comes up with cooler, better ideas than me.

8. How do you manage your time and energy to sustain a consistent creative output while juggling other aspects of life?

I’m a masochist.

9.Have you found any unexpected joys or rewards in the indie creator community, and how has it contributed to your overall experience?

I LOVE THE INDIE CREATOR COMMUNITY!!! THEY’RE SUPER NICE AND SUPPORTIVE AND IT FEELS LIKE EVERYONE IS LOOKING OUT FOR EVERYONE! Recently I got to attend momocon and go to a big indie creator meetup! It was awesome! I LOVE MY INDIE FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!

It’s what makes me keep going knowing everyone has everyone’s back

10.If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring creators, what would it be based on your own lessons learned?

DON’T GO IN ALONE. HAVE SOMEONE WHO ISN’T YOU PROOFREAD YOUR WORK!!! DON’T DO WHAT I DID AND MAKE A THING IN A HOLE AND THEN SHOW IT!!! ALWAYS GET PEOPLE’S FEEDBACK
I also suggest not getting feedback from friends or people who will support you…if you can do a blind viewing of your animatic from people who have never watched the show, do it. Ask for feedback, it will help you!

11. What are your thoughts on All Ages of Geek? What are some things we should change/do? What are something you enjoy about our website?

I actually didn’t know it existed until this dm. I love what you do and I love how you’re using your reach to support other indie creators and letting them get word out there.

The hardest part of indie imo is reach and I’m glad you’re helping to quell the problem.

I like how your website is…navigable, ive seen alot of websites in my time where I feel like I need a manual to navigate it lol.

12. Goals for 2024?

We’ve been in pre-production hell for 8 years and for a while being in school prevented me from getting my hands dirty with Please Stay Tuned. Now that I’ve graduated, I have the time to dedicate to this project.

We’ve had the backgrounds and animatic done for a while and currently we’re just tightening a few screws before we dive headfirst into production.

So my goal for 2024 is to finally hit the ground running and animating this cool show!

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All Ages of Geek

When articles are tagged under All Ages of Geek, it usually means the Stec sisters are behind the writing. Known for their comedic and fun style, they bring a touch of humor to their work. While they often conduct interviews and write various articles, they’ve recently started reviewing Hallmark movies and niche content. Support us: https://linktr.ee/allagesofgeek