Author, cartoonist and story artist on productions including ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘Woody Woodpecker’ shares dozens of lessons learned from a 30-year career filled with both successes and failures.
Mark Simon, producer, director, story artist and writer, has released his latest book, “Start at the Top – Stories to Help You Succeed” a collection of dozens of inspirational stories and lessons he’s learned over a career of more than 30 years in the entertainment business.
“Start at the Top” is a book of success stories on how Simon quickly rose to the top of each career he chose, from skateboards to construction, from training, advertising, and writing to the entertainment industry. Stories include landing Disney as his first animation client, along with the lessons he learned from projects spanning his entire career.
But, the book also includes stories on how some of his attempts to jump forward crashed and burned, like when he blew a chance to work with the writer of the SpongeBob SquarePants movie. “The original inspiration for this book was to inspire my twin boys, who are now in college and starting on their own careers,” says Simon.
Simon has produced animation for feature films, TV pilots, commercials and shorts, winning more than 200 international awards. As the co-founder of Sell Your TV Concept Now, Mark has taught thousands of people how to develop, package and pitch their TV properties. Clients include industry first-timers as well as the 2-time Emmy-winning producer of Discovery’s Deadliest Catch, Doug Stanley.
In 2012, Mark won a Prime Time Engineering Emmy for the Storyboard Pro software program as part of the Toon Boom software team.
He is also the author of 10 popular entertainment industry texts, including “Producing Independent 2D Character Animation” and “Storyboards: Motion In Art,” has written for industry magazines such as Cinefex, Film Maker Magazine, Movie Maker Magazine and Animation Today (India), and wrote a regular video blog for Animation World Network, “The Making of a Dream,” which chronicles the making of the animated show, Dream Factory, from concept through production. Click here to check out the 24-episode series.
You can find out more about Simon and get a copy of “Start at the Top” by visiting his website.
Source: Mark Simon
