The Precinct Rocks

The Precinct: Cop action, highly animated.

ABOUT THE PRECINCT

THE PRECINCT is an animated series about a ludicrously explosive police precinct and the cylindrical characters who populate it.

The series presents a phalanx of cliched cops -- edgy loners, angry lieutenants, pretty boys. Over the course of the series, they become more than just funny cartoon characters, because THE PRECINCT is more than just an animated series.

With one eye on gritty urban drama (The Wire, The Shield), one eye on idiotic cop action (Tango & Cash, Lethal Weapon) and a mysteriously unexplained third eye on surreal comedy (Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Roger Ramjet), THE PRECINCT is hard-hitting, cliché-ridden and door-kickingly, suspect-chasingly, coffee-drinkingly funny. In a serious way.

Put simply, we are striving for an animated comedy series with the fun of a "South Park" and the depth and intrigue of a "Sopranos". A big ask? We don't think so.

Our format is 13 x 30 min episodes, simultaneously rolled out with an interstitial series introducing the characters and an innovative, evolving web-based interactive story allowing you to play your way through the series, changing outcomes and becoming the cop you always knew you could be...

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Since we went to MIPCOM 2008 with our lovely animated teaser pilot, we've made progress with all aspects of The Precinct's production.

Film Victoria has continued to support us by assisting us with our cross-platform strategy. This is resulting in some feverish brainstorming sessions which are yielding what we think are some pretty exciting ideas.

Aside from this, we're continuing to write episodes of the series itself. The longer the cauldron bubbles, the better it gets. I'm more excited about making this thing now than I was when I conceived it four years ago (or thereabouts).

We're grabbing at lots of new opportunities and waiting to hear what happens with them. I don't post about this stuff on the blog as much as I should...

ABOUT US

		Anthony Woodcock (Puffafish) is the producer of The Precinct. He has had a widely varied professional background including chemist, geneticist, zoologist, teacher, dancer, writer and cricketer. Four years ago he decided to actively pursue a career in producing (a logical progression from all of the other professions?), making his short film TEN FEET TALL which was the first short film nationally distributed by Sony Australasia as part of the Pete Murray DVD A YEAR IN THE SUN. The short film OUT OF ORDER has recently been finished and is in the process of being developed into a TV drama series. Anthony is working closely with Kate Whitbread (CATERPILLAR WISH - 2006 ) on a number of feature films including BURN, which will be shot in early 2009. Anthony has also written the features SUMERIAN SEALS and BIRD IN THE HAND which are both in the process of new drafts. Anthony’s long time goal is to create the animated feature BUTTERFLY BALL based on the 1973 concept album of the same name. Other animated productions he is working on are THE PRECINCT with Cop Action Video, as well as SPLATT!! of which he is the creator and co-writer.


		David Blumenstein (Cop Action Video) is the creator and co-writer of The Precinct. David has been animating with Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash since 1998. His series from that time, “Lo Budget Indie Partay”, was one of the early web animation serials, although he finds it highly embarrassing to look at now. Subsequent animated shorts he’s directed have included the internationally awarded “Herman, the Legal Labrador” in 2004, the internationally screened “Kickin’ It With Mr Flig” in 2005 and the locally topical “Shaft of Hope” in 2006. He has been self-publishing his comic book, Nakedfella Comics, since 2000 and is a reluctant organiser of many comics-related events around Australia, including the comics program of the National Young Writers Festival in 2004/2005, the comic art exhibitions “Big Comics Pages” and “Big And Good Comics Pages” at the Melbourne Emerging Writers Festival in 2006/2007 and the first series of independent comics events at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, “Comic Book Funny”, in 2008/2009. David works professionally as an animator and storyboard artist. His most viewed work is probably his animated opener for the 2003 season of Channel Ten’s The Panel, but he has worked on a variety of animated projects recently, including the Channel Nine TV series Dogstar, the music video The Happiest Boy for comedy/folk troubadour The Bedroom Philosopher, new media project Girl Mechanic TV, which participated in X\|Media\|Lab Melbourne “Digital Worlds: Social, Virtual, Mobile” in 2007 and a pretty sweet cartoon starring Ryan Shelton which was on the season finale of Rove last year.