Godzilla: the Series

The 98' season: my second season as a director. yet another crazy year (i think there's a patern here) but a good break through year for me. i really started to understand what i was doing and felt good about the episodes i was putting out. how i ended up directing one-fifth of the episodes this season, i will never understand........ well okay, maybe i do.

I want to thank my group of super talented board artists. it was an absolute pleasure to work with each one of them. thanks for making my job easy guys! it was especially good to be able to work with my long time friend Chap Yaep again; i still remember the days when he use to let me stay at his house for cheap when i was a stuggling artist. *sniff* thanks Chap!

Godzilla: The Series is a 40 episoder on saturday mornings at 8:00 am on Fox Kids, channel 11
(well in L.A. at least).

• Executive Producers: Richard Raynis and Jeff Kline
• Producer: Audu Paden
• Associate Producer: Kim Smith
• Background Supervisor: Vince Toyama
• Prop Supervisor: Gene Mattos
• Storyboard Artists: Tim Divar, Chap Yaep, Sam Montes, and Sean Song.

show 05: WINTER OF DISCONTENT: the first appearance of Cameron Winter (the reocurring nemesis of Nick). Winter, the well funded, hightech, techno guru, tries to mind control Godzilla and use him for his own meglomaniacal means! monster: cyberflies.

Fellow director Chris Berkeley was good enough to help me board the first act. thanks Chris! could have been a really cool show but it ended up way too long and unfortunately had to be edited down. Godzilla gets shot down way too quick and there just wasn't enough time to play out all the drama. action gets cut before dialog here at Sony :( ten minutes worth of cool Godzilla action that Tim Divar did, got cut down to five. but still a nice show all in all.

show 09: HIVE: a resort island which use to be a nuclear test site becomes overrun by giant plants and bees!

I always seem to get the shows with the mutant plants! what a disaster. half the show was freelanced out and man did i pay for it. act three had to be totally re-thought and turned out great. the monster fight at the end between Godzilla and the queen bee was coutesy of Tim. exceptional job in saving this act!

show 12: DEADLOCH: trouble in loch ness. crazed doctor Trevor (voice of the late Roddy McDowell) has captured a baby loch ness monster and Nessy's out for revenge!

This show was done after show #116. all around great job by Sean Song, Tim Divar, and Sam Montes but somehow it turned out to be pretty mediocre when the animation came back. Korea had a hell of a time with the water fx.

show 16: MONSTER WARS part 2: aliens mind control all the monsters of previous episodes and try to take over the world!

Part 2 of the 3 parter. Sean and Sam Montes first joined my team on this episode. Sean is a monster! his drawings and shots are amazing, he did the crazy underwater monster fight sequences( you'd drool if you saw the storyboards)! Tim Divar did the cool unveiling of the cyber-Godzilla and the all out fight that ensued! another potentially awesome show that was cut down a little too close to the bone for my taste.

show 18: EARLY FROST: Cameron Winter returns with his own genetically engineered "Godzilla" called the Chameleon. Winter tries to frame Godzilla for the rampages he causes. the french government sends Phillipe to destroy the out of control "Godzilla"!

Personally, my favorite episode from me so far. an archetypical Godzilla story. Godzilla in New York, Cameron Winter, the U.S. military, and Phillipe and Monique get into a fist fight in act 3.

show 26: THE BALLAD OF GENS DU MARAIS: New Orleans. Dimanche, a rich cajun tycoon over fishes the swamp and leave the "gens du marais" hungry. the people of the swamp send georges and a giant swamp/frog monster to deal with Dimanche and his excessive lifestyle!

This show was done after #129. Sean got promoted to a director and Tim was returned back to my team. congrats Sean! also, i was assigned another show (#133) 2 weeks into the start of this production, to be done all freelance! CHRIST ALMIGHTY! potentially a really cool show but animationwise, hands down my worst show this season. i was pissed. a week later after editing and lots of digital fog fx, this show is actually bearable.....some what. it's amazing what some editing and some eye candy can do. you're a god Audu!

show 29: VISION: giant invisible hummingbirds (i know) attack san francisco!

Chap Yaep's first show with me coming from MGM. Tim was traded to another team for one show. when we finished the show i felt pretty optimistic about the show considering the subject matter, but ......... it's about INVISIBLE HUMMINGBIRDS! and Godzilla's chasing them around the city with a pair of U.V. GOGGLES!

show 33: UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT: ummm...a...giant brain/fungi with tentacles attacks Michigan while Nick is on trial in Florida!....I DON'T WRITE 'EM! (see, another mutant plant show for Sam)

This show was done in tandem with show #129 with an all freelance crew. needless to say it was a nightmare managing two shows at the same time and i had to reboard 90% of this show again myself. Kyle Menke did a good job for me in most of his sections. this show actually turned out to be one of my favorites . animationwise, nice and though originally we thought of it as sort of a throw away script, i think we were able to make it cool. much thanks to Brandon Kruse and Anthony Chun for all the help, they practically cleaned up the whole show between the two of them! Chap Yaep and i re-did the last act and it actually turned out pretty cool. Sam did some nice reboarding on the last half of act 2. thanks guys!

Godzilla was doing amazingly well during the season when it first came out. from what sources were telling us, it was the top show in it's age group consistantly for months! and each show, the ratings were getting higher and higher. i don't know how it's doing nowadays but i guess it really a moot point since Pokemon is just killed everyone ;)

Check out Sony's Godzilla: The Series site for more news and info on the rest of the shows in the series.