Metal Family at UnityCon '19
If you wish to watch the original recording, you can do it here [in russian].
Some questions were impossible to make out, so the context can only be taken from the answers themselves. Sorry for the inconvenience — rat.
[After episode 9’s teaser reveal]
Alina: Well, wasn’t that depressing? We did everything to make it intriguing, honestly. The episode will be freaking 17 minutes long. Yeah, we’re really dying here. So please understand.
Like that one dude with a monkey avatar in our group, who once told us we’re making trash. Just… please understand. We know you complain about it taking too long, but it really does take long, guys. We get tired for real.
There was a small note in there [the teaser] saying it’s coming out this autumn… and it will come out this autumn…? Just so you understand. THIS autumn, not next year. A lot sooner than you think. To be clear, we’ll really try to finish it by October.
The episode is coming out nicely, we really like it. Dunno about you guys though. It’s a fairly serious one as you could tell from the teaser, like the atmosphere changes a little. Actually, the whole idea of MF was to start the series with “UHUHUH funny show about metalheads” and by the end make you freaking bawl your eyes out. But it’s okay.
Dima: That's not exactly it.
Alina: Yeah, that’s only gonna happen by the end of the series, don’t worry.
Dima: Hey, hey, hey!
Alina: [to Dima] You better stop me next time.
Dima: I was too late! Let’s answer some questions instead. Though, the way you might answer them…
Alina: Again, advice for any show creators: usually when you ask people what they wanna make their series about, they say “I wanna make a highly intelligent movie with complicated psychological human relationships”. Awesome, it’s a great topic, really. Good job. But a common problem is that they start off these complicated psychological human relationships by… showing complicated psychological human relationships.
Let’s not forget that the best way to understand even the most complicated things is to use jokes or other light moments. You can start off your show as a sitcom and end it in drama and it will be beneficial to you. It’s honestly really great. Because if you start off with some heavy topics… It’s YouTube, you won’t be able to hold an audience. No one will watch your boring show, sorry. But really, if you’re targeting serious topics… Why do people go on YouTube? To have fun. Start with something fun and then eventually, little by little, end with something truly serious that you want to discuss with the viewer.
That’s MF in a nutshell. But don’t worry, we won’t be going into overly heavy topics. It will still be at an understandable level. But still.
Let’s start with the questions and we’ll try to answer them. Come on, raise your hands, don’t be shy.
Q: Victoria’s favorite food?
Alina: Interesting question. MEAT.
Dima: A bloody (rare) steak.
Q: [Something about a fanfiction website, too unintelligible]
Alina: … Maybe we do. What site is that? Shush, quiet [shushing the crowd]. Fanfiction?
Someone, jokingly: WHY DID YOU LET THEM IN?!
Dima: I’ve read fanfics. Two of them.
Alina: You’ve really read them? What kind?
Dima: They were basically recaps of episodes.
Alina: Oh, he has read the very first ones. [pause] … I’ve read ALL of them. And I even liked some of them. I found myself pondering while I’ve read them, like “maaan, it’s a little out of character here”, but then I was like “shit, I’m the author, I shouldn’t leave comments like that”.
Q: Which fanfics have you read?
Alina: I said all of them. Guys, I monitor this topic. If you’re talking about “Redhair Toy” (nsfw fanfic) then I’ve read that one too, to be honest. So…
Q: [Something about yaoi]
Alina: Did everyone hear that question? I can repeat it. I’ll repeat it louder. “What’s your opinion on the yaoi genre being used with your series?”. So… [to Dima] you okay?
Dima: Yeah, I’m just mind blown. I’m not here.
Alina: Okay. Anyway, speaking of fanfics — first of all I’m really happy they even exist, no matter the genre. If people write fanfics, that means they were touched by it [the show], even if they write yaoi, which… to be honest I’m a bit, let’s say, innocent about it… was. But then I read Redhair Toy and now it’s fine.
To be honest I thought that, if there would be rule 34… it’s 34, right? I honestly naively thought it’d be about Glam and Victoria… God. I was so wrong. Who the hell cares. Who cares about heterosexual relationships, am I right? Silly me. I honestly didn’t expect the main topic to be... same sex, incestious, homosexual… [to Dima] You ok?
Dima: … I haven’t read those.
Alina: Dima is very protective of his psyche. I’ve read them just to be… enlightened, to understand it, and yeah, it’s kinda strange. It’s a bit out of character, but I guess that doesn’t really apply to the yaoi genre. Yeah, I’ve read these things. It’s cool. It’s fine. I understand, let it be. It’s a success, as they say. If there’s incest — there’s success.
Actually there was this one fanfic that I really liked. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was about Ches having a daughter, which is a cool topic. It was relatively in character and truly interesting. It’s great when people focus not just on sexual relationships of the characters, but also try to look at their development. That was a really interesting one. That’s it.
Q: In the 7th episode they show Dee’s computer which had several websites open, and one of them shows a site called “Zi” (???). [unintelligible]
Dima: I think that was just someone’s hand slipping. [pause with laughter]
Alina: I’m trying to remember. Actually all those sites had some hidden meaning. But maybe I really wrote “Zik” wrong so that’s why it was read that way. I know for a fact there was a “Contra-Stas” website… and then I don’t remember, sorry.
Q: Do you ever run into difficulties during the scriptwriting process?
Dima: For the most part no. If we have some problem with the script we usually solve it in one evening. For example, we could clarify some stuff like “what’s the best way for them to act, what exactly are they going to say”.
Alina: It’s the details.
Dima: In the evening after dinner we would hang out and go “weh, I don’t like it”. Then we change it and go “what about now, better?”, “yep”.
Alina: These small inconveniences happen. For example we were drawing the Valentine’s Day art where Glam is hugging Vicky. I finished it and asked “Well, should we upload it?”, and Dima says “Hold on”. We added this blue glow on Glam’s hair… Oh, how many hours have we spent on it. We drew that glow for 2 hours. Well, it happens.
The main plot is there, but some details, like what the character would say: “go f yourself” or “go to hell” or “go wherever” — these could take 2 hours. It’s the small things.
Dima: All of the questions are in the details, not the main concept of the script. The script itself doesn’t give us problems. Just the details.
Q: Did Kudryash (Curlton) pass his exam?
Alina: Yeah, that's an important question. I think with a B-?
Dima: I think so too.
Alina: Dee was punched in the face of course, but he’s a responsible dude, so he most likely finished the job. So yeah, he passed with a B-, don’t worry.
Q: How would Victoria react to her kids getting beat up in episode 2?
Alina: Whatever. She’d say “finally, you look like real men”. She’d either make fun of them or not care at all.
Dima: Nah, there’s 1 more possible reaction. “GAAAAASP. Who beat you? Him???”
Alina: No, no, no, that’s only if she’s really drunk. Basically, she wouldn’t hash things out with a kid. C’mon, Dima.
Though wait, you know what? She might be like: “GAAAASP, WHO DID THIS? LETS GO, LETS GO!” and grab Heavy, then drive to that dude on her motorcycle and ask “Did you beat him up???”, “Yeah”, “Heavy, beat his ass” and then would just leave.
Dima: “Get your revenge”.
Alina: Vicky’s not gonna be… I mean, he’s a boy, a future man, so why would she do that for him?
Q: Do you plan to hire a team or are you gonna stay like you are now, with 2 people?
Alina: This is gonna be a long topic.
Dima: We actually planned it from the start.
Alina: Yeah. There’s millions of cons and… a few pros. Of course ideally we’d prefer to work with a team. All normal people work with a team: one dude is good at drawing so he does backgrounds, another is good at animating so he animates, the other is good at writing, so he writes the script… But it turned out to be just the two of us.
We have some very talented friends who... don’t really care about our project. They’re very supportive, but the more talented the person is, the more likely they are to have their own projects, and so they wouldn’t be interested in anything else.
But let’s say a person only helps you because of your idea and makes a few episodes for you. Eventually it’d be too rude not to pay them, otherwise they’d just leave. This is something that’s kind of dangerous. You’d have to have a team of EXTREME enthusiasts who are also professionals - because actually, a lot of people text us: “GUYS I’LL ANIMATE FOR YOU FOR FREE!”... Dude.
The problem is that… I mean, we’re happy when people wanna help. It’s really awesome! But you need to understand that if a dude is bad at animating, a beginner, he’ll most likely just slow down the process.
It would look like this: “Hey dude, we have this simple scene”, which is something that me and Dima would do in 15 minutes. We give him the scene. He does it, but does it badly. We waste time giving him advice… you understand what I’m getting at?
To a large extent, this is a nice boost for the dude but a huge time waster for us, because even if he’d finish the scene, he’d do it worse than what we would've done in 15 minutes.
Again, nothing personal. I repeat: we’re really happy that people offer us help, but you need to understand how important of a process it is. It doesn’t work “just for fun”. We’d either have to work with professionals for money, and they usually ask for a lot, or… Or just stay how we are. You can guess which one we prefer.
So, sadly, that’s that. [to Dima] I, maybe, also wanna add a few words about Fedor Comix (russian animator and founder of the studio “Phoenix”). Can I?
Dima: Sure.
Alina: Say guys, out of curiosity, does anyone know Fedor Comix? How do you like his stuff?
Dima: I’ll say this: I don’t have anything against him. I think he’s a totally normal person in that sense.
Alina: We’re still talking about the whole ‘team’ thing. In that regard, I really respect Fedor Comix, because it takes a lot of talent to create a team and to know how to manage it. We’d honestly not feel confident enough to ask a really cool animator “Hey, let’s make Metal Family just for fun!”. Nah, we understand that it’s too costly for them.
If a person is able to be such a motivator for their team, so much that they’re fine with working on a low budget, or even for free, and still be into it — that’s amazing. But sadly we would feel too guilty about it. Not that we’re saying it’s wrong or shameless, no. You just need to have a certain type of personality. We sadly lack the skill for it, so we have to work alone.
We really hope that in the future we’ll have a team. At least 2 more people that would help us, so the episodes would come out quicker. But right now it’s how it is.
Dima: Well yeah, even if the team expands, it’s not gonna be all at once, like in soccer.
Alina: Yep, like: “You’re gonna be an artist, you’re a background artist, you’re an animator”....
Dima: No, it won’t work like that. We’d have to take qualified people one by one, so it’d be a slow process. So even if the episodes would come out quicker, they’d still need to pick up the pace first.
Q: Are you sure you’re gonna finish the series and not leave it without a logical conclusion?
Alina: No way! How can you say that! We live for the last episode. The last episode will be the most incredible, we promise. I mean, the last episode of the series, not season.
Dima: Though even the last episode of the season will be incredible.
Alina: Oh, c’mon, let’s not go there. Maybe they won’t like it.
Dima: Well, for me it will be.
Alina: Yeah. We both like it.
Q: How many episodes will each season have?
Alina: At least 11 in every season, but probably even more.
Dima: I’d say it’ll be a specific number of episodes, but we can’t say for sure right now. The first season will have 10, the others will have more.
Alina: [to Dima] I think it won’t be a spoiler if I said that the last two episodes will be…
Dima: [pretending] I don’t understand what you’re talking about.
Alina: [whispering loudly into Dima’s ear]
Dima: Shush. They can still hear you. Screw it, don’t say it.
Alina: I didn’t say anything. That’s it.
Someone: Write it on a note and pass it over, like in school!
Alina: Ok, no. C’mon, more questions.
Q: [Something about Vicky and Glam’s relationship and how they interact with each other]
Dima: We thoroughly planned everything: about Victoria, about Glam, how these people would… let’s say...
Someone: What about conception?
Dima: Well, no. Let’s not talk about conception. These characters are too dear to us to think such things...
Alina: Sorry guys. Someone will write a fanfiction about it, don’t worry.
Dima: I don’t doubt it, but I’m not gonna read it.
Alina: Well, on the other hand… Heterosexual relationships… they aren’t that interesting. So maybe no fanfics.
But yeah, all of those moments will be present. Well, maybe not ALL of them. In the second season we plan to focus more on Glam and Victoria’s relationship in their youth.
Q: Are you gonna make any rule 34 content?
Dima: [pause] … No.
Someone: LEGALIZE THE BROTHERS’ RELATIONSHIP!
Alina: I’m sorry guys, but they’re fine. I know you’ll be disappointed, but they’re normal kids. Sorry.
Dima: The cartoon may be 18+ but not to this extent.
Q: In the VK group there was an image of some long haired dude. Like, with this HUGE hair. Who is that dude?
Alina: [whispers to Dima]
Alina: What color is his hair?
Q: Something like beige? I don’t remember. But it’s, like, huge! Really huge! Kinda like me. [laughter]
Alina: Where does his hair point to, up or down? I mean, is it long or fluffy?
Q: Well… it wasn’t like this [crazy hand gestures].
Alina: What kind of outer clothing was he wearing?
Q: Well, it was… outer. [laughter] He was this tall dude with long hair.
Alina: Flowing in the wind? [genuinely confused]
Someone: Can I show a picture?
Alina: Yeah, sure. [looks at picture] ... He has a name, he’ll be a character, but probably in the second season. His name is Tears, like tears.
Q: HOLY SHIT! [laughter] If you tell more, would it be a spoiler?
Alina: Well, I dunno… But he’ll be cool.
Q: Do you plan to take any breaks?
Alina: Yeah, we do. Because we’re awfully tired, to be honest.
I’ll vent a little about life, but not too much, because it really is hard to simultaneously work at a job and make an animated series. So probably after the first season we’ll have to make a decision. Nothing that might interest anyone - just about if we should leave our jobs or not and work on the series full time.
Combining work with a hobby like this is very exhausting. We’ll probably take a break to sort out all of these things and then decide if we wanna fully commit to the series or continue at the same pace as now. Of course we’d prefer to commit ourselves to the series because it’s perhaps the only good thing we will ever make in our lives.
Dima: Yeah, probably. Alina already took a ‘break’ from her job to work on the series.
Alina: They curse me at my job because I take those ‘breaks’ often, thinking that I’m actually resting… Well, again, I don’t wanna complain, so I’ll just say this: in all honesty, this series is very very important to us, no matter what some angry people might say. Our main goal is to take it to the very end, so questions like “what if you get tired of it?”... Guys, we won’t get tired of it. As long as we still have our hands, legs and a fairly clear mind we will continue the series, no matter what.
Q: There’s a rumor that Dee’s name originates from Dee Snider. Is that true?
Alina: It’s hard to decide what’s a spoiler and what’s not… God, you guys are brutal.
Dima: I’d say it this way: it’d be pretty LOGICAL. A very LOGICAL assumption.
Alina: “Very logical” as Glam would say.
Q: Can I offer another very logical assumption? Dee’s full name could be Daniel, just like Dee Snider.
Dima: [laughs] That one might not be so logical.
Alina: [to Dima] These guys are way too clever, don’t you think so?
Dima: Yup, they are. They just come up with everything themselves.
Alina: We don’t know anything.
Dima: … Well no, of course we do, we just won’t tell. We even… Damn, I almost spoiled it…
Alina: It’s probably really interesting to ask us questions, huh? “Sorry, that’s a spoiler, we won’t tell”.
Q: You said you worked on the series on weekends and breaks?
Alina: Yup.
Q: Do you do it after work too? And if so, how much time do you spend on it?
Dima: Let’s say I come home from work. Alina is sitting at a desk, working. I ask her: “do you want stew?”, and she’s like “uhhhhh hhuuuuuuhhhh…”.
Alina: Brain turned off.
Dima: She’s all sitting there, drawing another scene from MF. I ask her something again, like “what if I do this and that?”, and she’s like “uh-huh”. So I sit down, work for a bit… Usually Alina works until around 3am. Then falls. And that’s how her work day ends.
Alina: Well yeah, we come home at around 11pm and animate until 3am, trying to do at least 1 scene in a day. So yeah, I guess around 3 hours.
Of course it’s also done with lowered productivity, where we draw a line and then spend 15 minutes on: “uhhh……… I guess…… Ctrl + Z?..........ohhhhh”, and then repeat. Well, you understand.
And, of course, all weekends we draw from morning till night. We try not to complain because it’s natural: if you decide to make a series, you don’t complain and just do it. This is also advice for everyone: “Oh man, I have to go to the store to buy some bread and stuff…” — no. Sit down and work.
Dima: “We haven’t been to a McDonalnds in 3 months, can we go? Please, I’m so hungry...”
Alina: Don’t say ‘McDonalds’, say ‘restaurant’. You make us look bad.
Anyway, all weekends and then 3 hours on work days.
Q: I wanted to know about Glam’s relationship with his sons. Glam is introduced as a character with a small range of emotions. Does he truly love Dee and Heavy, or does he simply feel responsible for them as his “creations”?
Alina: I have a stupid question: did you write that question out? Because it’s possibly the most accurately stated question so far. Usually people are like “EH, UH, OH”.
Q: Yeah I wrote it for a month. [laughter]
Alina: So yeah, about Glam. Honestly, Glam is an amazing character, I really love him. Much like I do all the others, really.
About his relationships with the characters - you were very right to say that he has a very low range of emotions, which is why he is AMAZINGLY awesome to animate by the way. Because, for example, every time you draw Vicky, even though her expressiveness is cool, it’s always so exhausting. When you have to animate her you know that you won’t end the scene in 1 day, because you have to draw all those details, her hair… When you animate Glam you think: okay, lip sync… and then maybe he’ll blink. That’s it, it’s really cool.
Anyway, Glam is definitely not emotional, but… damn, guys, it’s so hard not to spoil, I’m very sorry. He seems kinda calm, but actually… well…
Dima: Glam is just controlling his emotions. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t have feelings.
Alina: Yeah, he just doesn’t show them, unlike normal people.
Dima: He’s just very good at hiding them.
Alina: Yeah, he’s a totally normal person in every other aspect, but he just wouldn’t say stuff like “awww, what a cute son I have”. He’d say “... Okay, Dee :)” and that’s it. That’s where his praise ends and you can die happy if he tells you that.
About Dee and Glam’s relationship. A lot of people after the 7th episode went: “Oh my God, Glam is so bad! He yelled at Dee!”. No, Glam loves Dee, it’s fine! He’s just… He’s weird. Really guys, have you not picked up that Glam is weird, seriously? He’s just, well…
I’ll be real with you. In that episode where he was rude to Dee... He didn’t even realize he hurt him, really. He had no clue. If you asked him: “Glam, why were you so serious, so unfair to Dee?”, he’d go like: “ … When? :)”. [laughter] “But I said sorry!”. Like, really, he’s just kind of… stupid in this way. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love his children. That’s it. How can you not love Dee? Dee’s a cutie.
Q: [same person] I forgot to say I have a lot of questions. [laughter] I have another question about love. Does Dee love his brother?
Alina: We don’t discuss rule 34. [laughter]
Dima: If it’s about how Dee treats his brother, then I’d say… He’s probably one of the only people that Dee cares about.
Alina: You could say he loves him.
Dima: Of course, as a brother he wouldn’t leave him in danger. He’d think he is a total dumbass and would yell at him: “you’re so freaking stupid, Heavy”, and just like he said in the second episode “and that idiot is my brother”. But he’d still treat him with a lot of responsibility and, you could even say, brotherly love… BROTHERLY! [laughter]
Q: Does Glam have a person he truly respects? Except Victoria.
[pause]
Dima: Ches. [laughter]
Alina: There’s 1 more person… [pause]
Someone: Please, don’t spoil.
Alina: Sure. But there is, there is.
Q: You once said that you gave every character some kind of flaw, but you never said what Dee’s flaw was.
Dima: We did, actually.
Alina: He’s an asshole. [laughter] What? That’s not a foul word…
Dima: It is!
Someone: It’s a fact.
Dima: Dee doesn’t have any morals towards humanity in general.
Alina: And you’re saying my word didn’t fit?
Dima: Yeah, he doesn’t give a shit-... excuse my choice of words... about any person. Okay, it wasn’t as bad as what Alina said.
Alina: Our series is 18+, so be ready for indecency. I voice her [Vicky] so it can’t not affect me.
Dima: Dee’s main flaw is in how he treats people. Because of that he’s not very… social.
Alina: Could I say something about fanfictions again? [laughter]
Yes, I read them. They’re neat, I like them! But everytime I read fics about Dee I go… [facepalm]. I hope no one here is an author of such fics? You won’t admit it anyway.
Basically, everytime I read fanfiction I’m like “c’mon guys…”, because really, let’s be honest. I get it — I’m not judging, it’s cool. But everytime I read fics about Dee it’s always — and let’s not lie to ourselves — with some self-insert character. And it’s always like: “Dee took her hands, looked her in the eyes and said he would never leave her...”. [to Dima] Is this okay, am I being too rude? I’m not being aggressive. I repeat: it’s cool. I love fanfiction, please write more.
But yeah, everytime people write about how Dee looked them in the eyes and said “I think you’re the most beautiful, blah blah blah”, well… Let’s be truthful here. The real Dee would NEVER say that, he wouldn’t even say that to a girl he actually likes. Dee is, sadly, very ‘low’ in that regard. Egotistical. Like…
Dima: He’s basically Sasuke. [everyone shocked]
Alina: Smarter though, smarter. Sasuke has some illogical moments. But let’s not discuss this.
For Dee, essentially, Heavy would always be number 1… Well, maybe also one more person… But Heavy is someone who Dee has deep feelings for — NORMAL feelings, not lewd. But even towards a girl he likes he wouldn’t be all cute and caring. He can play feelings but won’t actually feel them.
Q: [Something about Dee and NC-21 fanfics]
Dima: I didn’t do anything.
Alina: Wait, I’ll be a bit lame, sorry, but… what’s this “21” stuff? [laughter]
Dima: WHY are you asking that?
Alina: What, what? I don’t get it, what did I say?!
Well whatever, anything I say about Dee will still always spawn something. It’s fine.
Dima: Well, last question?
Q: [Something about voicing the series]
Alina: Oh yeah, about voices. We’d be REALLY happy if our characters were voiced by professional actors, and not us. But as we said before about teams, if we, for example, would hire a professional actor to voice Glam, we would not only need to pay him, but also nothing would assure us that he won’t just leave one day. And, for example, after the 5th episode the character would have a completely different voice. The public always reacts to something like that critically, which is understandable. So, again, our preference was to find an actor that we were SURE wouldn't leave us.
Someone: Who voiced Ches?
Dima: [in Ches’ voice] Meee.
Alina: In the end we have Blin who voices Dee and Glam, who is also the co-author of Batmetal. I think he PERFECTLY fits these roles, I can repeat it to him every day, but he gets all shy and goes “no way, I’m shi-”... uhhh. “I’m a terrible actor”.
Dima: He’s just a regular, shy person.
Alina: Basically we just got really lucky, because in the past we used to do some voice acting. Somehow, for our whole lives we’ve been doing voice acting, animating, drawing, scripting, storyboarding, so that’s why we can do all this stuff now.
But yeah, Dima is Heavy, Ches…
Dima: Heavy, Ches and that other guy… Bug.
Alina: … And some other randoes. I voice Vicky and that’s it.
Dima: For now.
Someone: What about Lydia?
Alina: She was voiced by the same person who voiced Glam and Dee. And he was always really good at it from the start, unlike with Glam, where he always tries to tune his voice just right. He did Lydia first try.
Dima: He just grimaces and goes: “I’m a bitch”. [laughter]
Alina: For the 9th episode though we invited Volkov — a professional voice actor, and it was freaking amazing! It was our first time working with a professional actor. I mean, when we do it, it always feels cheap.
Dima: And then this person comes and says: “Blah blah blah. Give me the text.”
Alina: “Do I add anything?’ he says, and we are like “No, no! It’s great!”. It’s really cool.
But yeah we mostly voice act on our own because we NEED these actors to stay.
Dima: Btw, Volkov’s voice was at the end of the teaser. The “Smith & Wesson” part.
Alina: Yeah, it was godly. Volkov is a god.
Dima: And his character is not the last he’s going to voice.
Alina: About Victoria, we actually struggled a lot with her voice, because at first I invited my friend to voice her, and she has a really cool voice that totally fits, but there was one big problem… She's polite. She doesn’t use foul language as a matter of principle. She’s a polite, normal person, that’s why, well…
Did everyone watch the 8th episode? Victoria HAD to curse in that one, there’s no way around it. So I had to be the one voicing her, even though I still think it’d be ideal to hire an actress for Victoria, because there’s still an obvious distortion in the voice. Kinda like with Heavy.
Ok sorry, we have to finish up here. One last question.
Q: You said that Dee has one more person he cares about. Is it that person who he tried to learn the guitar for?
[everyone cheers]
Dima: I won’t answer this question.
Alina: … Anyway, we’re done with the conference! Thank you all so much!
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