Episode 3 was released over a year ago and you might wonder, what the hell I’m doing all the time with zero output regarding episode 4 on Instagram, Facebook or this website. Yes, of course I am working on the next episode, the script is written, some artwork is done, but something with higher priority has popped up.

As you might have noticed I’ve started a crowd funding campaign on Trickfilm to get some funds for the production of Shadywoods.

Future Outlook

Now you might wonder: how far I have planned episodes for Phungus & Mowld? Do I have ideas beyond the individual episodes, maybe a larger story arc that builds up and spans the whole season, or going even beyond single seasons? My answer to this a decided: “Maybe!” I have written rough outlines for 10 episodes in season one, and three more for season two. Spanning all these episodes there are some stories and arcs that will resurface in several episodes. All I can tell is that one story arc for season 1 will be about Phungus’ background and also his species, while season 2 might put more focus on Mowld’s history and motivations.

The Grand Plan

I am aware that Phungus & Mowld (especially Phungus) has a good potential for merchandising (more than Shadywoods), I’ve actually been told to focus on this series because of this, instead of starting yet another. However, I already made so many attempts to sell it and failed, that I thought I might as well tackle another project I always wanted to realize, and take a break from the largely as of yet unsuccessful Phungus & Mowld. A change of scenery so to speak – I’m certainly not abandoning the series, I’m just taking a break and will come back to the series with a fresh and maybe slightly different approach to hopefully make it succeed in the end.

The Even Grander Plan

I keep my eyes open for opportunities to find distributors, sales agents, distribution platforms to hopefully create an income stream that would allow me to gather a team and produce the series in a normal time frame.

I’m also aware that this search process takes a lot of time, and I’m not getting any younger, so I try to keep churning out new episodes while looking for financiers, so I don’t lose too much time.

Speaking of time: timing itself is crucial, to be in the right place at the right moment. But when/if that happens having two potential series with accompanying pitch decks, artwork, fully animated pilots/proof-of-concept episodes will be great assets for selling that to potential investors/distributors.

My estimate is something like this could happen in the next 4–5 years (and I have been saying this for 3 years now, ha, ha).

The Granderest Plan

Well as I mentioned for now there’s the pilot/POC for Shadywoods, a fantasy sitcom which was a long time in the making with umpteen rewrites, first conceptualised as a feature fantasy comedy movie, then a series, then a serious feature animated movie again, then a sitcom series again… you get the drift. I truly think in its current form it is sitcom material and so I have decided that the script I have now (29 pages) is pretty decent, and all that’s left is maybe some tightening of the dialog and jokes, and then I can hit the recording studios to get the voice acting in the can. If you want to know more about Shadywoods, you should also check out my latest blog entry and the dedicated page on this site.