Keika Lee First-time Filmmaker Unveils Animated Short film Odd Dog

Odd Dog is an animated, family-comedy film by first-time filmmaker Keika Lee who also wrote, directed and produced it. Odd Dog is a short film with a runtime of 5 minutes completed on a budget of $20,000 by filmmakers at Greyscale Animation. Keika Lee talks to us about her work on this production. Hello Keika. Whats up?

indieativity (IA) : Can you give your personal experience with the story, writing and production.
Keika Lee (KL) : The story is based on my son and our cat. Ever since my son was born, he and our cat have been inseparable. After I had left my last job, I had started sketching cartoons of my son and our cat. Then it evolved into me writing a short story about them, then a script. All of a sudden I was contacting my friends for help on making a short animated film about an Odd Dog. I knew I needed a story artist and character designer so I was able to recruit Steph Dere who is a wonderfully talented story artist who’s worked at Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. She took my script and storyboarded the entire 10-minute short all the while I hired a couple of character designers, Miles Dulay and Genevieve Tsai to design the Cat and Boy. Things just kept rolling from there.

I didn’t have much background in writing as I was self taught so I had to Google how to write a script. Haha. It was foreign to me at the time but I did it!

When it came to production, I knew what I was getting into. I had 15 years of production experience already from film and games at Electronic Arts, DreamWorks Animation and Zynga to name a few. Pulling from the best practices of those production years, I was able to create networks and production schedules and campaigns to get the film going and eventually to the finish line. I have never been so proud!

---

indieactivity : Why was it important for you to share your story: Odd Dog?
Keika Lee : I’ve always had a fascination with simple films that could send a strong message. I wanted to create something like that with “Odd Dog”. I wanted to create a simple story and characters that people could relate to and have fun with.

Growing up I was always an “odd ball” in school. I was a loner for most of elementary school and I was starting to think something was wrong with me until I met my first best friend in 4th grade who was just as “odd” as me. Though it’s a subtle message, I wanted to write about how no matter how “odd” you may be, there is someone who you fit with or somewhere you fit in.

indieactivity: What was your first project?
Keika Lee: My first animated short was back in college when I did an internship at Kyoto Animation in Kyoto, Japan. It was called “SARU” and I did everything from producing to storyboarding to animating to editing in two and a half months. It was a 5-minute short in Japanese anime style animated to my favorite GLAY song at the time. Haha! It wasn’t very good but I had a lot of fun making it and was able to get feedback and mentorship from the talented directors and animation leads of Kyoto Animation studio. It was a dream come true!

indieativity : Is there anything about the independent filmmaking business that you struggle with?
Keika Lee: Raising funds to make films is a struggle but it’s totally worth it to me. It’s definitely a labor of love! I’m doing it because I love filmmaking so much and it makes me happier than any job has ever made me. I come from a career where I was making a decent salary and I left it to work twice as hard and not make much but…I am happy. The struggle is real but being happy and feeling fulfilled with my life is priceless.

---

indieactivity: Where do you think your strengths lie as a filmmaker?
Keika Lee: Team building. I love finding talented, passionate artists who want to work on my project and do their best. I feel pretty lucky that I have worked with some amazingly skillful and kind artists but I also know I choose who I work with carefully. Your project is your baby and you want to make sure you are selective on who works with you. Never settle.

indieactivity : How was the film financed?
Keika Lee : Most of the film was financed through Kickstarter and IndieGogo, (Thank you, backers!), and the rest was personally funded by myself.

indieactivity : What do you hope audiences get from your film?
Keika Lee : I just want people to enjoy it especially during this difficult time. I want people to laugh and smile. I also want people to see that no matter how “odd” they feel, there is someone who accepts them for who they are. They are not alone.

indieactivity : What else have you got in the works?
Keika Lee : Hopefully “Odd Dog” gets some interest in becoming a series for a network (crossing fingers!). And currently I am working on an exciting new short animated film called “Oren’s Way” about a princess who tries to save her kingdom from eternal sadness when she finds the true meaning of happiness. I can’t wait to share it with the world!

---

Tell us what you think of the new trailer for “film title” What do yo think of it? Genre? More genre? Lets have your comments below and/or on Facebook or Instagram! Or join me on Twitter @oladapobamidele

Follow Keika Lee on Social Media
Website
LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
Vimeo