Rob and I started working on the Animation Show about five years ago. In fact January 2003 was the official start of the show. So to celebrate that we’ve lasted this long, we are going to write a little bit more about the process of the show and what we do.
Submissions
Rob and I watch every submitted film on vhs, dvd or online that is sent to us. I kind of regret that we didn’t keep a running total of all the films we’ve screened over the years. If I had to guess, I would think we’ve watched close to 15,000 films in 5 years.
In the beginning (2003) our system for keeping track of the films was pretty basic. We had two bookcases - one was for films we liked and one was for films we didn’t like. In hindsight, this wasn’t a very good system. We also made the mistake of having our first intern alphabetize the tapes, realizing afterward that he barely spoke English. At the time, Rob and I were focused on the theatrical tour and putting all of our energy into getting the first show out to theaters. If someone had then told us that in five years we would be planning a fourth tour we would have laughed hysterically and thought they were crazy. Then we would have asked, "why only 3 tours in 5 years?" We were so naïve.
When the first submissions came in, we noticed a lot of them were coming to us on PAL. We had some of the PAL tapes transferred to NTSC, but the cost of doing so was ridiculous, so I did some research and found this very fancy PAL/NTSC VHS player for $550. It was one of our very first purchases, along with this incredibly useful map that we use almost every day (I believe Don mocked us for buying the map). 
The PAL/NTSC player was such an exciting purchase that it caused a little bit of drama. We had to have a big discussion about the need for a second PAL/NTSC machine in our Santa Barbara office. (Don and Tim our old merchandise guru worked out of SB.) At the time, we just didn’t see how it made sense to have TWO(!) PAL/NTSC players. We were on such a tight budget that a second player seemed like a luxury item. If only we had continued to be so budget conscious... Ironically, we used the PAL player so much it ended up breaking, and we had to buy a second player anyway. Here is the original player, broken and lonely. 
Obviously, we’ve seen less and less VHS submissions, and more and more DVDs. Therefore, we had to go out and buy a PAL/NTSC DVD player. Unfortunately, the DVD player had some issues as well. At one point a disc was stuck in the player and, to get it out, we had to do what the back of the player says not to do; We had to unscrew the top of the machine.
We recovered the disc and avoided electrocution all at the same time. The player continues to work this day. (Yaay!) Rob and I felt like we really accomplished something.
Thanks to our legion of interns, we now have a much-improved system to keep track of the submissions. We even have a fancy database that is growing by thousands every year.
So continue to send in those submissions. We are always excited to watch another film. In fact, every time we put in a new dvd, I say, “I think this one is going to save the show!” I’m not really sure what we need saving from, but it’s fun to say.
We’ll try to come up with more stories and interesting information about the show for you that we haven’t shared in the past.
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