Writing



“Stakeout was difficult to write because it deals with all four main characters and, at this point in the writing, we were still trying to figure out who they all were. In fact, the part of Sprig had not been cast yet, so we didn’t know what he sounded like and, as a character, he still felt very generic. Through writing this episode, and exploring his obsession with forcing Anne and Hop Pop to get along – specifically, just how far he’s willing to go, simply to avoid the discomfort of a family squabble –we finally began to see some of Sprig’s quirks rise to the surface. For example: Sprig can go a little mad at times. This was further developed, later at board. At the pitch, seeing the moment when Sprig leaps out of his bedroom window, backwards, was a real, aha moment for me in terms of Sprig’s character. I remember thinking how cool it was that Sprig could move in that way, and also— oh yeah, he’s totally lost it.

In the writers room, everyone was excited about this episode because it goes to an insanely fun place, with teapots for heads and fighting off corn monsters with power ups. But what drew me to this story was seeing Anne and Hop Pop try to relate to one another for the first time. It was just as important to me, as it was for Sprig, that they eventually find some common ground and get along. For a long while, their story arc wasn’t working, but once I landed on the idea of them complaining in similar ways (Anne with: “where I’m from” and Hop Pop with: “back in my day”), both stuck living in the past, rather than focusing on what they have in the present, things finally clicked and fell in place.”



- Staff writer, Michele Cavin

Storyboards

Frog dang where do I even START with this episode’s boards. This is the first episode boarded by Jenn Strickland and Steve Wolfhard, two board artists who I deeply admire and geek-out over regularly. The only thing more impressive than their individual abilities is how well they compliment each other. Jenn has such a natural talent for coming up with hilarious expressions, amazing posing and dynamic staging while Steve is a master of charm, gentle comedy, and what I like to call “lumpy perfection.” We are so lucky to have had them on this episode - they brought out such wonderful things in the characters. Here’s the intro to the episode, boarded by Steve:

And here’s some exciting action by Jenn:

Character & Prop Design

This week’s show-stopper in terms of character design has to be the color styling of Anne’s “galaxy hair” by Daniaelle Simonson:

I got some questions after the episode aired as to whether or not her hair was created with CG - amazingly it is not. You’ll be shocked to learn that the looping texture in Anne’s hair was created completely with practical effects. Daniaelle had this amazing idea to film iridescent cellophane rotating on a turntable and run that footage through a kaleidoscope filter on her phone. She even built a rig at home so that she could easily film the material:

Afterwards, it was added to Anne’s hair via After Effects. I couldn’t believe it when I finally saw it!

The corn beast in this episode and “Tea-Pop” were both designed by the talented Brandon Wu. Props by Andy Gonsalves and color styling by Daniaelle Simonson, Ian Worrel, and Carol Wyatt:

Background Design

The big challenge for this episode was figuring out how the world would look like during Anne and Hop Pop’s “trip.” Elle Michalka, one of our painters, settled on something really nice: trippy but with a restrained palette. This made the cuts back and forth between the real world and the trip very easy to track. Bgs by Ian Worrel, Elle Michalka, Sun Jae Lee, Jules Itzkoff, Joey McCormick, Amanda Winterstein, Daniaelle Simonson, and Phillip Vose.

Fun fact: the garden wall from this episode is the same as the one featured in the ending credits.

That does it for “Stakeout,” see you next week!

- Matt Braly