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Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Our Happy Child Productions produces high quality, entertaining family-friendly programming for children ages 1-5 years. It develops and commercializes characters and content for TV, DVDs, CDs and licensing. Our Happy Child Productions is the creator of The Wheels on the Bus series: a collection of multi award-winning educational videos that teach early socialization skills such as sharing, helping, cooperation and good nutrition to young children.Find the Fun Productions. At Find the Fun Productions and American History for Kids they want kids to get it.Therefore, they teach kids about the 13 Colonies, the American Revolution, the U.S. Constitution, the Magna Carta, slavery, the Civil War and President Lincoln using a unique theatrical and emotional context that employs a wide range of creative teaching modalities such as music, puppetry, humor, and relating history to kids’ everyday lives. They use these techniques because they know that getting students to relate to the distant events of the past is often difficult. And educational research shows that emotional involvement is an integral aspect of learning and that creativity is an essential tool for powerful learning retention.Marshall Publishing and Promotions, Inc. is a multi-faceted media publishing organization. Their goal is to provide lots and lots of media fun for everyone through award-winning DVDs, books, CDs, CD-roms, and broadcast and internet programming that will amaze, amuse, entertain, and educate.Their award-winning AS SEEN ON TV products like LOTS & LOTS of TRAINS and LOTS & LOTS of FIRE TRUCKS provide family fun for ages 3 to 93 and are not readily available in stores! Their goal is to produce quality programs to watch today and remember for a lifetime. Be sure to collect the entire series of Lots and Lots of DVDs, CDs, and Books!Storytellin’ Time is dedicated to providing quality, educational,fun recordings for children and their families. Storytelling is presented to students and at teacher workshops acrossthe United States
Jennifer Sherman has supervised as well as animated on productions such as “Jacob Two Two,” “Max and Ruby,” “Yummi-Land,” “Futz” and “Peep and the Big Wide World” for 9 Story Entertainment since March 2003.Since graduating from Sheridan College in 1988, she has been involved in the animation industry in Toronto on many levels. Jennifer has animated on a number of television commercials, televisions series, and also worked on a feature film for companies such as Lightbox Studios, The Animation House, Calibre and Nelvana. The transition from classical animation to digital computer animation was a natural progression for Jennifer in 2002.CP: Looking at your background, it seems that you have covered a multitude of styles in animation. What do you feel is your strongest area and what do you enjoy doing the most?JS: What I feel is my strongest area is character driven scenes. I love it when a character makes you feel the way they feel and have you believe in them. There’s something powerful in a subtle head turn or gesture that makes you forget it’s not real. When I watch really well done animation, I love to get lost in the character and the story.CP: What brought you to 9 Story Entertainment?JS: A colleague of mine recommended I apply for a position as an animator. At the time I had no idea how Flash animation was done but he said, “Animation is animation no matter what the format is, it’s simply a different tool.” True enough.CP: Jacob Two Two is very different from Peep and the Big Wide World, which you also worked on. What steps do you take to capture the magic of Jacob?JS: Jacob is geared to a bit older audience than Peep so this allows us to explore a broader range of issues that older kids deal with. There are so many different personalities in the show that each character brings a familiarity with it. Growing up even today, I’m sure lots of kids have to deal with a group of bullies, an annoying older sibling, geeky friends or a science teacher that’s just plain weird. It’s a show that is rewarding to be able to really act out all these different characters. The voice actors really help drive the characters in this show. As an animator you are given the sound track and a roughly timed storyboard to work with. When the sound track is inspiring the animators, imagination can take over and this can really add to the scene.CP: Please give me an interesting anecdote of something behind the scenes in the Jacob Two Two production.
JS: There were times when I was attempting to explain how a scene should play out and I would find myself acting out the line for the animator to “get” what I was meaning. It’s pretty goofy to see a grown woman acting out something Greedy Guts would say and do like sobbing at the thought of having his doughnuts taken away.Jacob’s character is a really nice reminder that it’s okay to mess up and not always be perfect at everything you do. The important thing is that he’s always willing to try. That’s something I believe we can all relate to.CP: In your opinion, how has Jacob Two Two benefited from its affiliation with qubo?JS: It’s great that qubo has been able to take a quality show like Jacob Two Two and bring it to a new and larger audience to experience and enjoy.CP: Is there anything you would like to add?JS: I believe all animators are actors inside with the ability to be anyone or anything they create. The only limitation in animation is your imagination, so stretch those imagination muscles kids and dream big!
qubo®, the TV and online entertainment service for children, announced that it has created nutritional guidelines that will dictate advertising decisions on the qubo Channel, as well as on the qubo broadcast programming blocks that air on NBC, ION Television and Telemundo. The effort highlights qubo’s mission of promoting pro-social values including literacy and healthy living. The announcement was made by Kerry Hughes, senior vice president, advertising sales and partnerships for qubo.qubo’s effort marks the latest step in ION Media Networks’ innovative advertising and media initiative to combat childhood obesity announced last summer. Both qubo and ION Life networks are undertaking a series of programs aimed at improving children’s health and reducing the rates of childhood obesity in the U.S. qubo is a member of the Ad Council’s Coalition on Healthy Children while Brandon Burgess, Chairman and CEO of ION Media Networks, which is qubo’s majority shareholder, is actively involved in the FCC’s Task Force on Media & Childhood Obesity.To create these nutritional guidelines, qubo enlisted the help of nationally renowned author and expert on childhood obesity, Goutham Rao, MD, clinical director of the Weight Management and Wellness Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC ( see bio on Dr. Rao below). The guidelines list acceptable nutritional intake limits for meals and snacks broken down by calories, grams of fat, as well as saturated and trans fat, sugar, protein, fiber and sodium.Concerned with the growing trend towards childhood obesity, qubo called for these guidelines to guide on-air and online advertising decisions and to ensure parents that qubo provides a safe environment for children with positive messages about healthy living.“By only accepting advertising from companies that meet this nutritional criteria, we believe that we have set the gold standard for the kids entertainment industry and are helping kids make healthy decisions about what they eat,” said Hughes.”We are committed to combating childhood obesity through all of our networks-analog, digital, on-line and soon, mobile,” said John Lawson, ION Media Networks executive vice president for policy and strategic initiatives. “We hope that qubo’s nutritional guidelines send a strong message to parents, policymakers and our business partners about our dedication to the wellness of America’s kids.”“Reversing the epidemic of childhood obesity will require a major, long-term commitment by parents, teachers, physicians and other health care professionals, political leaders and public policy experts,” said Dr. Rao. “qubo’s guidelines are a great first step in the right direction. Children are bombarded with ads for unhealthy foods. One of the easiest ways to reach the largest number of children and families is to make sure the foods and beverages advertised to children meet basic requirements for good nutrition. It was a privilege to work with qubo in creating these guidelines.”In addition to announcing its new nutritional guidelines, qubo also unveiled this month a series of Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) created in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the Ad Council and the U.S. Olympic Committee designed to promote exercise and healthy eating to children. Featuring several U.S. Olympic hopefuls, as well as qubo’s popular animated characters from VeggieTales, Jane and the Dragon and 3-2-1 Penguins!, the TV spots began airing this month through donated time on the qubo Channel, ION Television and NBC and will be distributed to television stations nationwide by the Ad Council.About qubo:qubo® is a bilingual, multi-platform entertainment destination for children that focuses on literacy, values and healthy lifestyles while celebrating the unlimited possibilities of a child’s imagination. Formed in 2006 by an unprecedented alliance of leading distribution partners and content players in children’s television, including Scholastic, ION Media Networks, NBC Universal, Corus Entertainment and Classic Media, qubo offers dynamic content in multiple environments. Currently broadcast on NBC Saturday mornings, ION TV network Fridays afternoons and Telemundo weekend mornings (check local listings) qubo also includes a 24/7 qubo Channel and website, 
Learn how to turn any backyard into a wildlife haven when “The Best of Backyard Habitat: Volume 1” flocks to DVD on Earth Day, April 22 from Genius Products and Animal Planet. Arriving for the first time on DVD, the collection highlights episodes of the do-it-yourself backyard makeover series covering techniques on attracting a variety of wildlife including birds, butterflies and other delightful creatures. The one-of-a-kind show features invaluable information regarding food and water sources, places to raise young and sustainable gardening tips to create a healthy and eco-friendly habitat for wildlife. Upon completing the step-by-step how-to build projects to entice creatures to their outdoor space, each home is officially recognized as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat™ by the National Wildlife FederationDavid Mizejewski, co-host of this amazing series and self-proclaimed Nature geek from birth, loves the concept of this show since it restores wildlife to neighborhoods. “We as gardeners have a huge power to environmental good.” Never intending to become an author, Mizejewski surprised himself by writing a book entitled 
A big challenge for the crew was time. It’s difficult to develop an inspirational setting when one is filming, and animals don’t have time to discover the new environments. Often producers resort to using stock photos and suggestions of what will happen, however, sometimes the results are nearly immediate. While filming “Chickadees and Toads” in Knoxville, Tenesee, for this series, the family cut tree in yard prior to the television crew’s arrival. The team members drilled a hole in the log similar to what a chickadee would look for in a home and buried log in ground. As they finished filming the episode, a chickadee flew in and checked out hole looking for a place to nest. Just as in “The Field of Dreams,” the Natural Wildlife Federation believes “If you build it, they will come.”Mizejewski finds that the nature projects give people an additional bonus. In this society of instant gratification, it brings people back to calmness. He firmly believes that patience – moving at the pace of nature – will be rewarded. He also finds that nature projects are great for kids. Recent research shows that children spend almost 6 hrs a day inside, in front of screens. One of the reasons for this is that parents afraid to let kids out unsupervised. When you create a backyard habitat, it not only provides a place for animals, but kids have a haven in their own backyard where they can enjoy unstructured play and experience nature. The best part is that you don’t even have to live in the country to enjoy this. One can create an inviting environment on a high-rise balcony with a container garden.In his experience Mizejewski finds that millions of Americans are interested in gardening activities, but many are intimidated and don’t know where to begin. His suggestion is to start small. Stop mowing a part of the lawn in the back that can’t be seen from the road so animals can move back in, or plant a few shrubs to flowers with nectar to draw birds. According to Mizejewski, there can be massive change in our eco system if everyone did a little bit to help.For more information on starting your own natural habitat, to learn more about the National Wildlife Foundation, or to learn more about Animal Planet’s “The Backyard Habitat,” go to check out the series 
PBS KIDS is celebrating the Earth with “PBS KIDS Share the Earth Day,” a special programming and online event on Tuesday, April 22 (check local listings). Curious George, Clifford, Arthur and other favorite PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! characters will explore fun and engaging ways to keep the planet beautiful. 
