Moonbot partners with TCM for summer film series

It started with a tweet.

The Moonbot Studios team had always taken inspiration from Turner Classic Movies, a channel that perpetually plays within the office lobby. TCM admired Moonbot’s Oscar-winning animated short film “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.”

A series of tweets – each mirroring a shared admiration – between TCM producer David Byrne and Moonbot’s Brandon Oldenburg manifested into “TCM Movie Camp,” a 13-episode summer series that premiered June 7. The series is a collaborative effort between TCM and Moonbot and features William Joyce and Oldenburg as hosts, where the duo offers their insights into the filmmaking process.

After the tweet exchange, members of the TCM team traveled to Shreveport from Atlanta to discuss partnership possibilities.

“They saw our youthful team of artists and animators and knew the world needed to see this next generation of filmmakers digging into classic cinema for inspiration and guidance,” Oldenburg said. “We strive everyday to brush against the comet trails of past films. If just a little bit of that magic dust can find its way into our creative productions, we are all better for it.”

The selection process for the films featured within the series wasn’t easy.

With full access to TCM’s movie vault, Oldenburg and Joyce made an effort to cover several of the genre bases as well as “oddball shorts [that] so often get overlooked.”

“Trying to pick just 13 out of the 30,000- plus selection was a Sophie’s choice,” Oldenburg said.

But, ultimately, each of the films selected holds a specific importance for Joyce and Oldenburg.

“We’re filmmakers,” Joyce said in the opening sequence. “We love films. We love talking about films. We love studying films. So, this summer, we’re going to talk to you about the films we think matter.”

Leading off the series was Steven Spielberg’s 1977 “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” a film that has stayed with and inspired both Joyce and Oldenburg throughout their careers.

“For me, this film was very influential,” Oldenburg said. “I saw it at a very young age. This is where it all began for me, as a filmmaker.”

The selected films range in age and genre, allowing for a comprehensive glimpse of classic films such as: 1941’s “Mr. Bug Goes to Town,” 1928’s “Steamboat Bill Jr.,” as well as TCM premieres of Moonbot animated shorts “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” and “The Numberlys.”

In addition to hosting the series, the Moonbot team also created the opening sequence that will be played throughout the summer. The nearly 25-second sequence, which features miniatures and 3D prints, was taken from concept to completion in two months. “Like many of our productions at Moonbot, we go from a drawing on a napkin to physical model building,” Oldenburg said. “We wanted to create a drive-in-esque cinematic moment that evoked a nostalgia for summer-time movie watching under the stars.”

But the team didn’t stop there. Through a series of online videos and infographics, viewers have the opportunity to see what aspect of each film inspires Moonbot’s animators.

From renewed joy to existential spurts of inspiration, Oldenburg hopes the series will offer a new prospective on classic films to a widened, and willing, audience.

“Appreciation is one thing,” he said.

“We want people to weep with joy when they see these films with fresh eyes. We hope younger viewers are as wide-eyed as we were when we saw these films for the first time. We want to inspire budding filmmakers, and wake them up to the possibilities.”

For a full series schedule, go to tcm.com/moviecamp.

–Staci Parks