Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538315
D E PA R T M E N T 18 KEYFRAME A R T I S T S P O T L I G H T BENJY BROOKE Supervising Director Common Side Effects "Cliff's Edge" Adult Swim WHAT LED YOU TO WORK ON THIS SHOW? Back in 2022, [creators] Joe Bennett and Steve Hely showed me their short proof-of-concept for Common Side Effects, and I was immediately hooked. I was struck by the unique tone—this sophisticated blend of comedy and drama, full of endearing and complex characters. At the time, I was Supervising Director for Scavengers Reign, and we got to dive right into Common Side Effects when Scavengers wrapped. The timing was serendipitous because it gave us the chance to continue working with a lot of the same incredible crew and build off everything we learned on Scavengers. DID THIS EPISODE PRESENT ANY CREATIVE CHALLENGES? The montage near the end of the episode is a great example. That was unscripted and came in pretty late in the storyboarding process. As we were building the animatic, we realized we were missing a beat to touch base with all of our major characters before diving into the explosive finale. Joe provided Sebastian's "Better Now," which became the backbone of a montage boarded by Neïl Dieu. Each character moment in that montage is brief, but each holds a lot of emotional and thematic weight. And that song provides a really unexpected WITH TAG SHOWS ONCE AGAIN REPRESENTING THE MAJORITY OF NOMINEES FOR THIS YEAR'S PRIMETIME EMMY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ANIMATED PROGRAM, TWO MEMBERS SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS ON NOMINATED EPISODES FROM NEWCOMER COMMON SIDE EFFECTS AND TWO-TIME WINNER BOB'S BURGERS. PRIME OF LIFE this page and opposite page (lef t): Common Side Effects' Emmy- nominated episode "Cliff's Edge" comes near the end of the first season, deepening story lines that will determine the fate of a healing mushroom and the characters attempting to use it for both noble and questionable purposes.