PUNY

We like comedy, we like podcasts, and we like good people. So when our friend Dustin Martian offered to give us a tour of Earwolf Studios, we were more than stoked. Dustin is the audio engineer genius and producer behind all this funny stuff…and we love working with his carefully crafted sounds between our ears.

The recording studio is truly a historical landmark in the making. Blood, sweat and tears have been shed here, evidenced by the wood table covered by all our heros with sharpie and… human blood. And the highlight of our trip? An intense physical brawl between Jason Mantzoukas and Seth Morris… absolutely gut-wrenching.

If you’re not a fan already, be sure to check out Earwolf’s podcasts, including Howard Kremer ‘s Who Charted?, How Did This Get Made? with Paul Scheer, Scott Aukerman’s Comedy Bang Bang, and many others.

Thanks for the tour, Dustin!

– Dave

Design Director Dave Hagen started with PUNY today four years ago when we were one and didn’t know what we were doing. He co-founded the LA office and is responsible for most of the good stuff. Happy punyversary Dave, everyone hearts you. 

Follow Dave on Twitter @davehagen
Tumblr  http://davehagen.tumblr.com/

tamitakezawa:

For now, I’ll be posting bits and pieces from my senior thesis film that I’m working on this semester. Here’s an unused design.

Tami Takezawa did an internship with us last year and is back at MCAD working on her Senior Film. It’s fun to watch progress, it’ll be magical. 

PUNY IS FIVE YEARS OLD!  

Zander and Kevin brought over a bunch of old production art from the BTA space the other day and the original drawings of a PUNY “logo.” (we dont’ think we have or have ever had one.)

FIVE years.

Other numbers!: We’ve done SIXTY THREE episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba!, FIVE TV pilots, FIVE game show developments, optioned THREE other shows, worked on FOUR feature films (TWO will be released this year), THIRTY+ games, SIX mobile apps, THREE concert visuals, FOUR restaurant identities, and bits on HUNDREDS of websites and digital media, including an enterprise level metrics system. DOZENS of proposals and proof of concepts. Sent EIGHT HUNDRED TWENTY FOUR invoices. Gone through THREE THOUSAND checks. Opened ONE office in Hollywood, moved the Minneapolis office THREE times. 

We opened with SEVEN people in 2007. In 2008 we grew to TWENTY TWO and have TWENTY today, our sweet spot. ONE global financial collapse. TWENTY gallery shows. FOUR baby showers. THREE weddings. SIX single employees became THREE sets of roommates. one divorce. 

Thanks for following us! 

Last week I made the move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to work at the PUNY LA office. This is the first time I’ve lived outside of Minnesota, so I figured a train ride would be a nice epic way to see the distance and have plenty of time to draw.

The trip took a total of 72 hours cutting across the country to Portland and then down the coast to Los Angeles. Way more exhausting then I thought it would be, but the views and people made up for it. I met all kinds of amazing people: loggers, jewelry makers, former hobos, and a retired acting rep who described L.A people as, “Like the produce in Los Angeles, shiny and glossy on the outside, but completely devoid of taste.” Haters gonna hate. 

-Jeremy 

I directed my first video (comedy short for Pepsi) this week and had a freaky good time.  While I’ve been around video production plenty on the executive producing, asset for interactive, or post production side…directing live action is incredibly outside of my comfort zone.  I had it easy as Kristoffer Knutson put his old Fallon producer hat on which made for a well-oiled machine, and the cast and crew were all seasoned and really talented. It became clear that most of the time like I was doing the least amount of work on set. I started loving it though and got into a groove by day 2 where I started SEEING what was going on rather than just trying not to mess up.  Warning, I’m probably going to try this again.  - Shad

We had the pleasure of creating a new logo for the enormously talented photographer, Robyn Von Swank. She holds a place near and dear to the heart of PUNY, having photographed the likes of Ben Stiller, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, and “Weird Al” Yankovic, among countless other. She even found time in her busy schedule to photograph PUNY LA in May of last year. One of those dream clients for sure!

–Dave

Our partners FRWD invited the gang for their holiday party in our new space.  Good food, drink, and a heartwarming tradition where everyone stands to give a toast through dinner. It was nice to see the PUNY and FRWD groups together socially. We finished off the night at Jetset for some dancing…but still have to determine…who has a better dance crew? 

We continued our BTA tradition with our 5th Christmas Crawfish Pot!  Everyone goes to Shad’s house where his wife cooks up a Cajun pot of various crabs and craw-daddies, with corn, andouille sausage, and baby potatoes.  Then we do our homemade-handmade secret Santa gift exchange before the real Super Santa - The Greatest of All Santa’s shows up with his garbage bag of gifts. Fun! 

Happy Holidays!