New England Patriots Tight End Martellus Bennett and The Players’ Tribune visit FableVision Studios

Paul Reynolds, Marty Bennett, and Peter H. Reynolds

Martellus Bennett is larger than life in every sense. Creative, generous, funny, artistic, curious – everything about him is big. A new arrival to New England and the Boston area, Marty wanted to swing by FableVision with the folks from The Players’ Tribune to introduce himself to a media studio in his new neighborhood – and we were beyond thrilled to host.

When he’s not tossing a football around for the New England Patriots, Marty’s pursuing his creative passions as an artist, writer, and producer. Marty is opening up his own studio called The Imagination Agency to create apps, children’s books, and animated films. Zoovie: A Warm and Fuzzy Tale is his studio’s first animated short released in August 2015. In addition to illustration, Marty wrote and illustrated Hey A.J. a story featuring his daughter, Jett. The app version of Hey A.J. was just released in time for Father’s Day.

Minutes after his arrival at FableVision, Marty was asking questions, offering tips, and poking his head into all the nooks and crannies of our workspace. Marty and FableVision founder Peter H. Reynolds instantly connected and talked enthusiastically about their love of producing art that inspires kids and adults to dream big.

Marty’s contagious enthusiasm left a lasting mark on the studio. Keep an eye out for all the great things ahead coming from him, The Imagination Agency, and The Players’ Tribune! Thanks for visiting! 

The Logical Journey of The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis: Part Three – Chicken Scratch Pie

A note from the FableVision editor: This blog series over the next few weeks is written by FableVision’s Tone Thyne, Vice President of Creative. This series will give you a front-row seat to what it’s like to create a show, an over-the-shoulder look at the creative work that Tone and Gary Goldberger, FableVision President and Co-Founder do here at the Studio. Curious about how we got here? Read more about Tone here, Zoombinis here, and download the game to play!

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Okay...here’s the fun part.

This is the part of the show-making process where I start to consider all the millions of different directions the show can take. At this stage, I intentionally don’t think about important details like, How would we pull this off from a production standpoint? How much money would this idea cost to make? Will this be a CG show, traditional drawn animation? Puppets? or How many spots do Spotted Flying Salamanders have and what region of the world do they actually hail from?

All those questions can be answered later. For now, this stage is all just pie in the sky.

The first and most important question I ask myself is, “What show would I (grown- up me) like to watch?” I know we’re ultimately making a show to appeal to a younger audience, but trust me – no kid is ever going to love a show that the show’s creator doesn’t love first.

With that directive, I grab a window seat on the MBTA, a blank sheet of paper, and a medium-fine-point Sharpie. While gazing at the world speeding by, I’m lulled into a trance. I make sure the conductor has my ticket first before any of this trance business happens. In this semi-conscious state, I’m able to transform the train window into a virtual television screen where I can watch the phantom show I’m dreaming up in real time. And as an added bonus – no commercials! As I visualize, I scribble what I see.

Don’t strain yourself. Let me help.

1. Narrator and his backstory
Throughout the entire Zoombinis game, there is an omnipotent Narrator who speaks to the player. This Narrator relays the backstory of our little blue friends and is present at every turn in the game – to set up a challenge and to remind the player when they’ve gotten something wrong. The Narrator takes a very objective stance – narrating what’s happening at each turn, but not really revealing too much.   

But who is this guy? And why does he know so much about the Zoombinis? Is he the puppet-master? Does he have anything to do with the Zoombinis’ plight? Perhaps the series centers on him and his story – inside and outside the game – and how the Zoombinis fit in to HIS world. Maybe he’s sort of like a major grown up Dungeons and Dragons geek...er, enthusiast who plays Zoombinis in the fantasy world in his mind?

2. Characters getting ready for Zoombinis to enter
As the player navigate the Zoombinis through the game, they encounter several interesting characters. Some examples are:

• The Stone Guards – Four stone characters who regulate the passing of the Zoombinis through the Stone Cold Caves.
• Arno – A grumpy Pizza Troll designed to look like a tree stump.
• Captain Cajun – The humanoid owner of the ferryboat in Who’s Bayou.
• The Fleens – Small and easily aggravated green creatures who harbor a significant distaste for the Zoombinis. The list goes on and on.

What if our series revolved around these and the other characters in the game? We could follow their day-to-day activities and like them, await the Zoombinis’ arrival in each episode. In this incarnation, the Zoombinis themselves are minor characters to the others.

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3. Actors playing Zoombinis
Here’s a weird one. What if the series was extremely self-referential? The whole series could be the “backstage” goings-on of the game. There could be a set of actors who play the characters in the game – including the Zoombinis themselves. Our show would be what happens when the “cameras aren’t rolling” during the “filming of the game.” Sort of like a Real Hollywood Story of Zoombinis.

4. Scot as a kid
As mentioned before, Scot and the team at TERC brought Zoombinis to the world in the early nineties, but who knows how long they had been mulling and creeping and crawling around in Scot’s brain before that? What if the series took a young boy (named Scot perhaps) and showcased him playing with imaginary characters he’s made up? Maybe he calls them “Zoombinis” and he acts out adventures in every episode? Maybe we watch him creating the elements that will eventually become parts of the game. Like watching Jim Henson sewing the Kermit puppet out of his Mom’s green coat.

Hey, I didn’t say any of these ideas were good yet.

I simply can’t get the image of that scrumptious looking pumpkin pie I used as an illustration way back in paragraph one so I’ll naturally close with a possibly over-reaching pie analogy. Gary and I are headed over to see Scot Osterweil in a couple days and we’ll take this list with us as a starting point. These four ideas are going to form the foundation for the discussion between Gary, Scot, and me. A veritable crust of sorts. Our goal is to walk out of our meeting with all the good stuff that makes up the delicious filling of the pie. Once that’s done, we can put the icing on top and share with the world. That’s gonna need to be one giant pie.

Off to MIT.
See you next time. 

June FableFriday: Andrea Calvin, Vice President of FableVision Learning

FableVision Learning, FableVision Studios’ sister company, is an educational publishing company with a BIG mission. “To put it simply, we’re a K-12 educational media publisher providing creative learning tools, resources, and support for the classroom,” explains Andrea Calvin, Vice President of FableVision Learning.

Looking bigger, FableVision Learning is a mighty team of creativity champions, educational professionals, software designers, and strategists who truly understand the challenging needs of the 21st century classroom. They have a relationship with over 42,000 classroom teachers and school administrators across the U.S. and around the world. This network includes many of the most innovative educators around who are early-adopters of new products and technologies.

“Our team works every day to ensure all learners reach their full potential,” says Andrea. “We also have a lot of fun along the way.”

From technical support and project management to marketing and sales, Andrea wears many hats at FableVision Learning. We sat down with her this month to chat about innovative programs in the classroom she’s working on – and some exciting new ventures coming up this year.

Before venturing over to FableVision, you were pretty involved in Boston's journalism world. How did you transition from working in the newsroom to FableVision?
After graduate school, I landed a job at the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham (at that point the paper was owned by Community Newspaper Company). For a few months I worked the night desk as a copy editor and inside page designer. Eventually I became a night news editor and front page designer for the Daily News Tribune.

The big turning point of my journalism career was when the company decided to launch the Dedham Transcript, a weekly community paper and daily news site covering the Massachusetts town of Dedham. It was an amazing ride. During those years, I met Dedham residents Paul and Peter H. Reynolds and heard all about FableVision. When I made the decision to leave the newspaper world, FableVision was there – ready to become the next phase of my journey. It has been quite an adventure.  

FableVision Learning's Patrick Condon, Andrea Calvin, and Bill Norris, wearing carnival-themed animal masks made in Fab@School Maker Studio.

Are there any skills that transferred from your journalism job to your job at FableVision Learning?
Journalism is communication and deadlines, two skills that are critical for any job. But any good reporter has the ability to learn new skills fast, weed out the facts, and roll with the punches. There were days in the newsroom that would start with covering a Girl Scout ceremony and end with chasing a massive brush fire. I have to be ready for anything. I’ve also learned to rely on my team. I work with fantastic people, Bill Norris, The Dot Connector, and Patrick Condon, Digital Media Engineer, the newest member of the FableVision Learning team.

You work closely with FableVision co-founders Paul and Peter H. Reynolds. How do you take their creative spirit and channel it into FableVision Learning?
Many would argue that that’s the secret to a long and creatively fruitful life. I find ways to listen to the big ideas and chunk them out into digestible nuggets for others to become inspired by. It is the spaghetti trick. I toss a lot of things out there and I see what sticks.

So—what’s coming up in June? We hear there’s a trip to Denver booked?
Yes, in June I will be traveling to Denver to finally meet the amazing Denine Jimmerson – our creative captain of Professional Development at FableVision Learning. Wait, you mean ISTE? Oh, yes, that’s happening too!

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On June 27-29, FableVision will have a hands-on booth that will be set up like a Maker Space and will feature our Creative Maker Suite of products – Animation-Ish and  Fab@School Maker Studio. Our friends at Steelcase have donated an amazing line of classroom furniture. Technology will be provided by Dell, Silhouette, and Canon printers. Each day, there will be focused sessions on using the software tools in the classroom and time for folks to really get to understand how the programs work. In addition to all of this, we’re going to have meet-up times for FableVision Ambassadors and the Early Childhood Fab Lab partners. It should be a blast. I highly recommend folks visit Booth #3704 while at ISTE. 

You’re part of a small, nimble team doing big things. How do you keep track of it all?
Post-it notes. I have walls of Post-it notes.

FableVision Learning celebrated the release of Fab@School Maker Studio this year! How are you seeing it have an impact in classrooms?
The Maker Studio project has been one wild rollercoaster. After six years of research and development through The Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning, and Creativity, Fab@School Maker Studio hit the online store in January. The early adopters were quick to get the program into their classrooms and the response has been stupendous. There is one school that is using Maker Studio as part of their colonial America curriculum. Fifth graders are assigned a colony to research, and then in Maker Studio they’re creating an object or a house or a plant unique to that specific location. Another afterschool program is creating projects in Maker Studio to sell in the school store as a fundraiser. And yet another teacher is using Maker Studio and digital fabrication to teach volume and shape. It is exciting to hear the reports from sites across the country on how the program is being used. 

What’s coming up at FableVision Learning that you’re excited about?
It is going to be a busy summer and fall for the FableVision Learning team. On June 15, we were invited to participate at the Abbot School’s Publishing Day Extravaganza. It’s a day to celebrate the work our 392 third, fourth and fifth graders have done in writing and illustrating a children’s picture book about Boston Marathon Race Director, Dave McGillivray. Paul Reynolds will open the day’s event and then there are the mini-marathon stations. Then there’s ISTE at the end of June. And then, on July 23, the team will be demonstrating Maker Studio at the Boston Mini-Maker Faire. I know there are more things happening, but that is what the next few months look like!

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Terry and Ellen Shay with Peter H. Reynolds

What’s a FableVision Ambassador?
If you think of FableVision Learning as a tree, FableVision Ambassadors are the branches. There are roughly 200 ambassadors across the country and they help us maintain a direct link to the classroom as we continue on the core mission to help all learners discover their true potential. Terry Shay is our Lead Ambassador and he works to nurture the program and the teachers. Fun fact, he is also my long-lost brother but I only discovered this last year at ISTE. I am joking, but in all seriousness, he is an amazing educator, creativity champion, and friend.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on from start to finish?
That is a fun one. When I worked at FableVision Studios, I had the opportunity to help on a branding project for National Braille Press called Great Expectations. It was a program designed to teach parents and caregivers of blind children how to read picture books. My role was small, creating a postcard to explain Great Expectations, but I simply love the whole mission. It was an honor to work on that project.

Not client related, I had a ton of fun creating the marketing videos for Zoombinis, launching the redesign of the Studio website, and bringing the entire Fab@School Maker Studio product to market. I try to find the fun in all I do; if I can’t there is always a 3:30 p.m. dance party.

How are you making your mark on Dot Day in 2016?
That is the big question! More to come in July, I promise. ;-)

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You're a big camper. Do you have any especially adventurous camping stories?
The story my mom likes to share is… when I was 2 ½ I went camping for the first time with my grandparents. I loved it and have gone every summer since. A few years back, my husband Mike and I started hammock camping because it’s easier on a motorcycle. Basically, during the summer we pack up the bike with all the gear and head to the Berkshires. Our go-to places are along Route 2 or in North Adams. It isn’t horribly adventurous, but a few years back we were caught in a flash flood and only had our hammocks for protection and we couldn’t run for cover in a car, because we only had a bike. Luckily the hammocks come with a sturdy rainfly and we kept pretty much dry. Then there was a time we went “stealth camping” on logging trails in Maine and I think a deer or a bear or some wild animal was near the hammock. That wasn’t a fun night. But we went out for pancakes in the morning, so it was all good.

You’ve also got a pretty good green thumb. What’s growing in your garden this summer?
That is the big question. Last year it was all cucumbers all the time. The funny thing is, I didn’t even buy the plants, my mother-in-law did! I did make some sweet refrigerator pickles, you can check out the recipe here. This year, I am going in a different direction. I’ve planted red cabbage, arugula, beans, and lettuce so far. I hope to also grow broccoli, tomatoes, and peppers. I have a pretty big network of gardener-friends so we try to each grow a different vegetable to share.       

What is quilling?
The easiest way to describe quilling is the art of rolling paper and bending it into a shape to create a larger image. You can create really beautiful designs like flowers, birds, and animals. I find the whole process very relaxing.

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More about Andrea!

Favorite book: In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
Favorite movie: The Matrix
Best vacation spot: The deck of a cruise ship
Guilty pleasure TV show: I watch anything and everything, right now I’ve been rewatching Party of Five
Favorite kind of pickle: garlic dill
Best place to go hammock camping: Mohawk Trail State Forest  
Favorite podcast: Welcome to Night Vale and Totally Beverages and Sometimes Hot Sauce
Podcast you’re most likely to recommend: Gosh, if I want to sound smart, I say RadioLab. But, I simply love Totally Beverages and Sometimes Hot Sauce

The Logical Journey of The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis: Part Two — Rolling the Snowball

A note from the FableVision editor: This blog series over the next few weeks is written by FableVision’s Tone Thyne, Vice President of Creative. This series will give you a front-row seat to what it’s like to create a show, an over-the-shoulder look at the creative work that Tone and Gary Goldberger, FableVision President and Co-Founder do here at the Studio. Curious about how we got here? Catch up on Part One of the series here, and read more about Tone here, Zoombinis here, and download the game to play!

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 I may not be exaggerating when I say I’ve been playing Zoombinis during every waking moment over the past couple weeks and there’s a chance I’ve actually spent a few more hours in Zoombiniville than the Zoombinis themselves. And my 10 year-old son has officially decided he wants my job when he grows up.

As for Zoombinis, I finally get the hype. It’s an incredibly addicting romp for someone like me who thrives on puzzles, logic challenges, and perseverance. The game is “deliberately designed with no tutorial or instructions with the intent of teaching kids to explore, develop theories, and test their ideas” so I’ve had to figure it all out on my own. That’s some accomplishment.

Here’s what I learned, in no particular order:

• As a player, your goal is to navigate a group of little blue creatures called “Zoombinis” through different screens and ultimately on to their new home, Zoombiniville.
• Players use strategy and logic to solve the puzzles that allow the Zoombinis to move safely through different screens.
• The Zoombinis don’t have personalities or voices. They don’t even have arms. Although they are the main focus of the game, they pretty much go along for the players’ ride.

That’s the major CliffsNotes version. We’ll touch more on aspects of the game as we move through this journey of the Journey.

So – the big question –  how to turn this game into a show?

Let’s start with Laurie Brennan, David Libby, Glen Secor, Jodi Asbell-Clarke, and Teon Edwards to get a sense of what their hopes and dreams look like. Gary and I ventured to Cambridge to meet with the TERC team.

TERC, Gary and I discussed the massive fan base Zoombinis has amassed and how disappointed the devotees would be if the series were to veer too off-course from the beloved property. It’s far more common to create a digital game from a broadcast property than what we’re trying to pull off with Zoombinis. Game first – then series. Then again, there was this gem from 1982:

We want viewers to be able to toggle back and forth from watching the series to playing the game as a multi-platform experience, rather than different incarnations of the same property. So it’s really important to me that the Zoombinis characters in our series shouldn’t be cooler than the characters in the game. In other words, since the Zoombinis don’t talk or emote in the game, I think it would be strange for them to each have voices and personalities like The Smurfs. Although they can still be blue.

What that means is we need to create an engaging set of main characters that should connect with our young viewers – but do so without talking. It’s a bit like creating a theatrical production featuring a herd of mollusks. (Not the world’s worst idea.) 

So I proposed the Zoombinis series could perhaps take a page from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead or Wicked – exploring the story from a different perspective. Perhaps watching the Zoombinis along their journey from the view of ancillary characters in the game who interact with the little blues? It may be an interesting way to feature the Zoombinis – without expecting them to do any of the heavy lifting (after all, they don’t have any arms.) 

Scot Osterweil, at right, showing off Zoombinis to a fan.

TERC was intrigued, and so Gary and I immediately set a meeting with Scot Osterweil at MIT. Scot is the grandaddy of all Zoombinis. Actually, to be more specific, he’s their dad. The Zoombinis sprung from his imagination in the early nineties when he worked at TERC with Chris Hancock, together developing what would eventually become the beloved game. 

Scot, Gary and I are going to meet next week in Scot’s office to volley ideas around. I’ll come armed with some concepts I’ve been mulling since the meeting with TERC to avoid the dreaded: “What do you want to do?”  “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”  “I don’t know. What do you want to do?” 

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I love animation because by nature, it is a cumulative process.  Each important step along the production line allows the project to grow bigger and better.  Imagine a kid rolling a snowball through a field of snow.  As it gets bigger, another kid may need to help roll it.  The further the kids roll the snowball, the larger it becomes. Pretty soon, it’s so enormous and so magnificent that several kids need to help roll it.  Show creation is precisely that.

Gary and I are going to roll our snowball over to MIT to see how much bigger and better Scot can help us make it.  See you next time.

The Logical Journey of The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis: Part One — Where It All Begins

A note from the FableVision editor: This blog series over the next few weeks is written by FableVision’s Tone Thyne, Vice President of Creative. This series will give you a front-row seat to what it’s like to create a show, an over-the-shoulder look at the creative work that Tone and Gary Goldberger, FableVision President and Co-Founder do here at the Studio. Curious about how we got here? Read more about Tone here, Zoombinis here, and download the game to play!

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In 1981, I had my 12th birthday at the totally tubular arcade at our local mall called Aladdin’s Castle: “The Ultimate Party Place” as their tokens boasted. That year, I also got PITFALL and KABOOM for my Atari 2600. I had achieved 8-bit adolescent nirvana.

Soon after though, my attention turned toward animation, MTV, and Lizzie Rossman. Video games sort of drifted out of my orbit, to use a Space Invaders reference, and never really drifted back. Until last month, when The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis popped up deliberately onto my radar screen. Or more specifically, when Gary Goldberger, FableVision’s Co-Founder and President, put it there.

This is Gary. Get to know that face (and those thumbs) well because Gary is going to be a main character in this blog series. He’s a dear friend, a wonderful colleague, and knows more about digital media than anyone I know. He is to digital what I am to children’s programming and so we make for fantastic partners at FableVision. Gary has spent the last 20+ years establishing FableVision’s respectable presence in the world of digital media and has been pivotal in connecting the dots between FableVision and The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis.

Zoombinis (for short) was a 1996 CD-ROM equivalent of what we today would refer to as a viral sensation. If you were a kid or a parent of a kid in the mid-‘90s, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

When I arrived at FableVision a couple of years ago, Gary and the team at FableVision had been working closely with our good friends at TERC to resurrect the phenom for a whole new generation of super fans on modern mobile devices.

Together, TERC and FableVision caused a certain portion of the internet (the one populated by nostalgic 20-something Zoombinis enthusiasts who credit the game with their reason for living) to completely blow up when they released an updated version of Zoombinis.

I get out of my jammies and come to FableVision every morning to create innovative, charming children’s properties, and given the tremendous reception of the Zoombinis release, it seemed only natural for Gary to suggest that together we create an original television series based on the beloved game.

(NOTE: Given the tremendous amount of digital platforms offering original programming these days, the term television series is about to go the way of answering machines, payphones, and VCRs. Broadcast series is a far more relevant term.)

Now, before we start creating anything, I need you to meet someone. This is my dear friend, Kate. She’s the one on the left.

Kate is one of those friends we all need in our life. If I didn’t want to keep her all to myself, I’d introduce you so she could be your friend too. She’s the world’s greatest cheerleader and thinks everything I do is brilliant. See why I like Kate so much? Kate loves when I share my show ideas with her and she is unapologetically gobsmacked by the process. Kate is an accomplished novelist, yet awe-struck by the world of show creation. Here’s one of her classics: “I don’t even understand how someone’s brain even comes up with something like this!”

So for all the other Kate’s in the world that wonder how brains come up with shows, Gary and I decided it might be fun to take you along with us on our journey to develop Zoombinis into a broadcast property. Hence, this blog. 

Until I read about FableVision and TERC’s recent Zoombinis release, I had no idea what Zoombinis even was. You see, when 1996 rolled around, my joystick and AV cables were packed deeply in Styrofoam peanuts and I was busy picking out china patterns, reception venues, and cake toppers.  But there was enough excited buzz in the ether to become instantly intrigued.

As of today, Gary and I have no idea what in the world we’re going to dream up, but you’ll be by our side as the bulbs over our collective heads begins to illuminate.  

Before we embark on our logical journey, my first order of business, as I see it, is to download the app and get intimately familiar with the game and the world and the characters. I have to catch up to Gary and the Zoombinis’ giant network of fans!

I mean, seriously, what in the world is this game?? Is that a talking tree stump? Why do the little blue guys have no arms? Is that a pizza sitting on a rock? I’ve got my work cut out for me as I catch up.

If you’re not already there either, click here to download the game (scroll down for links to download Zoombinis on tablets, desktops, and Steam) to get Zoombinis on tablets, desktops, and Steam) and come along with me as I familiarize myself with the cult classic.

Early next week, Gary and I are meeting with both the team at TERC and Zoombinis creator Scot Osterweil to begin to volley ideas. I’ll be sure to document everything we discuss and  write all about it here. That will really put my friend Kate (and hopefully you) on the edge of your seats.

For now, I’ve got to go play Zoombinis. See you next time.