Profile: Fred Seibert
JF: Why didn’t you create your own production studio here?
FS: I don’t have the money to do that. As an independent producer, you’re always making tradeoffs, and you have to decide what’s worth investing in and what isn’t. I decided that the best way to deploy my capital was not to sink it into real estate and equipment. Nickelodeon already has 75,000 square feet of space allocated to animation. They made the investment, and I’d rather they’d front that expense than me.
Image courtesy of Frederator
JF: It sounds like you quite a head for business.
FS: It’s funny, to business people, I’m a total lunatic creative person, and to creative people, I’m a suit. The truth is I have a few skills in each. I’m not only involved in Frederator studios. I have a number of Internet businesses that I’m at various stages of developing. I also consult with the MTV networks, which includes Nickelodeon, on programming, branding and marketing issues. I’ve done that for nine years now.JF: What’s an average day like for you?
FS: If I’m in Los Angeles, I’m meeting with various productions I’m involved in, seeing what they’re up to, meeting with my development department and seeing what’s new on their plate and what we’re thinking about making, and who might want to buy it, or finance it, or draw I – all aspects of business and creative. I’m responsible for delivering a product and its results. And then I’ll take pitches from animators, and then meet with various business folk.If I’m in New York, it’s pretty much the same, except I’ll have meetings on the phone. I’ll also sit with our producers and programmers on Channel Frederator, our podcast, and Refrederator, our vintage cartoon podcast, and the Wubbcast, which is our preschool podcast.
JF: Where does a person learn how to become a producer?
FS: You stumble through life. There are people like Joel Silver who went to NYU to become a producer, but at school I studied chemistry and then history.JF: Why did you set up camp here in New York?
FS: I believe that if you’re going to be in commercial storytelling animation, you should be in LA. But once I had children, I wanted to raise them in New York. I don’t really want to go back. I think New York is a great place to work and there’s some amazing talent here. I would love to find a show to do here. I probably will. Out of the last 39 shorts we did for Nickelodeon, about 7 were New York-based people.Before I had kids, I worked pretty much from 8 until midnight, six nights a week. What else are you going to do? I only work in things that I love doing, and for me working and playing are not all that dissimilar. Once I had kids I started going home on time. And once my kids go to sleep ant 9 o’clock, my computer pops open and I work ‘til midnight.