I started with their overall look. All new costumes, wigs, sideburns and make-up treatments were built to more accurately reflect the animated version of their characters. Brighter, richer colors and textures in fabric and hair were used to better match the color palette of the show and provide for seamless compositing with the animated backgrounds.

The new look for Sharky and Bones, combined with creative visual concepts and tight editing, brought season two to a whole new level.  And I had a blast! Success!

On set, I had a movement coach (choreographer) work with the guys to establish unique moves for each song and create specific dances for Gold Doubloons, Walkin’ the Plank, and Rattle Yer Bones.

Before shooting began, I gathered dozens of background plates from the show and separated the foreground, mid-ground and background elements. Then while cutting the roughs, I combined the live-action green screen footage with those elements.

The initial purpose was to avoid having to look at wall-to-wall green screen shots when reviewing the roughcuts. It ended up making the rough cuts look nearly finished, and gave the compositors a detailed guide for each shot’s final composition.

To help the two characters become more endearing, I defined their relationship—landing on Gilligan and Skipper meets Laurel and Hardy—with Bones emerging as the goof ball. To help sell his new character, we built prosthetic ear pieces that made his ears stick out but remained invisible to camera.

My assignment was to take these videos up a notch from season one, with three specific tasks: help Sharky and Bones become more endearing, increase the overall production value, and make the end-result more colorful.

CREDITS: Producer, Director, Visual FX Director, Senior Editor

For the second season of the animated show Jake and the Neverland Pirates, I was asked to direct 14 music videos to be used for the show’s end credits. These live-action songs were performed by two pirate characters—Sharky and Bones. Read about the process below.