On Tuesday June 20th at 7:00pm I streamed “The Last Lap” An Animation and Film Showcase comprising of the works of several of my friends and collogues in the creative field.
The Last Lap Lineup:
– Myself @lennyandfriends
– @teaminsomniacfilms
– @jessesmall_animation
– @dillon.okeefe
–@westtexasbusinessrobot
– @the_reel_idiots
– @bigbosstoon
With Music By:
What Inspired The Last Lap
Having always been a fan of Adult Swim, It was a dream of mine to see a Cartoon I made on that program. I even got the opportunity to Pitch Adult Swim for their show Development Meeting Back in 2020.
Earlier in 2023 I helped a friend move to Atlanta, I will never forget that trip except for one moment when my friend and myself went to visit the William St building (Home of Adult Swim) what we saw was the building virtually abandoned (potentially due to remote work thanks to covid).
We also asked to check out some murals next to the building but we were informed by security that the murals had been knocked down since 2020.
We thought “no worries, lets check out the CNN building” which was also disappointing since only the first floor of the building was open while every other floor was closed even the Cartoon Network Office looked relatively abandoned. I didn’t realize it at the time but something felt fundamentally wrong about what’s going on with Adult Swim and their parent networks as a whole.
When I finally came home to South FLA I participated in an art show were I played a series of Animations I made as well as doing research on the viewership of Adult Swim. I had my friend Chris from Team Insomniac Films edit all my animations together. Loving the way they were edited together I reached out to my friend Chris with an Idea for a block of Animations and Film (the initial idea for the last lap) Chris agreed, and work on the series began.
When I look at their Youtube Channel as well as other major Networks Youtube channels they have strong sub counts however they appear to be struggling to get views on their videos compared to their more strictly based online competitors that started out with far less capital. The Industry is rapidly decentralizing, but the way its decentralizing is disconcerting because rather then original characters they are parodying major IP’s not due to lack of originality but because established IP’s have a larger digital footprint which means more views to be had for those videos.
The Promotion of The Last Lap
The promotion of the event lasted about a month, consisting mainly of video and animated Gifs promoted exclusively on Instagram and Facebook without the assistance of paid ads. Each week every 3 days A story would be posted with the following design below:
Over time The Design Started to Evolve
Then came a trailer I made that I mostly relied upon for promotions via my story and reels.
The trailer really made the difference, especially after showing many of my friends in person. It seriously hyped people up and I felt so proud.
I then further refined the trailer to include a clip from my interview with miami community radio ahead of the 786 film festival.
As the event drew closer I decided to up the anti and make one final push to promote the even by making specific trailers for each presenter then sending to them asking them to promote the event on their respective IG accounts.
Promotion for West Teas Business Robot
The Main Event and Conclusion
Long story short the event was a success garnering over 200+ viewers, one of the things I was most proud of was the activity on the chat as well as people making clips from the event. Hopefully there will be another event like the last lap in the future that means I have alot of work ahead of me for the next 1-2years, I better get started Animating.