#I'm working on getting the zoom call on youtube but it's taking forever

[woulddieforperrytheplatypus]

Dan Povenmire, co-creator of Phineas and Ferb and the voice of Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, just did a zoom call for fans, and this is a link to it on Google Drive and a link to it on YouTube.

Here’s a brief overlay brought to you by my incessant live blogging, and because I was speed typing on my phone, I can guarantee not everything made the cut. If you’re interested in hearing Dan talk about growing up an artist and becoming an animator and trying to pitch Phineas and Ferb and working on the show and movies, I would definitely suggest checking out the full 75 minute video. The highlights from the call are below the cut.

They added Doof and Perry because they liked chase scenes. They realized fairly quickly that more than not, the pair led to good comedy, and found it much more interesting to see how their relationship developed. He also says that they are "the most important person to each other” and “they’re really good friends.”

They wrote the Perry theme song in an hour between meetings with Disney

They decided during the pilot that they weren't going to try to get comedy from the characters saying mean things to each other. Even Doofenshmirtz wasn't motivated by evil, he just wanted to get the attention he didn't get at home.

Doof’s backstories were not Dan and Swampy's idea. They were from Jon Barry and Chris Hendrick, who [itched the lawn gnome backstory. It was long and compliated and Dan and Swampy couldn’t stop laughing. They also provided the "it all started on the day of my birth” one the next day.

making the 2D movie while making the movie was the busiest Dan says he has ever been, and that's not even counting the PnF Take Two and Doof's web show and all the interviews. Basically, 2010ish was a very busy time in the Dwampyverse.

They decided to give each pair of writers their own section of an outline to work on, and each pair got to make up the dialogue and jokes based on it. it works well for the show, but writers kept going on their own tangents and the movie ended up like 6 hours long. Dan and Kyle Menke had to redraw 80% of the show because they had to cut gags out and rewrite it so it was still funny. Note: in the new movie, they did the opposite — they wrote a script and told the board artists that they could put brief gags in but nothing too long

He thinks the show became one of the most beloved shows bc it was innocent and the adult humor wasn't dirty so the whole family could watch it together. He also said the songs at the closest thing you get to immortality in a show. Those combined made the show as big of a hit as it was, and hopefully those things will get older people to watch the movie.

His advice if you want to follow in his footsteps are to draw (and suggest you check out Cartoon Animation by Preston Blaire and How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by Stan Lee) and to know that these jobs are out there

One of his favorite gags in PnF are the silent moments where something big happens and no one reacts (like something big fell in an early episode and crashed next to Phineas and co and at first they were all shocked but Dan changed it to them just kinda looking at it for a moment with no emotion)

Q: Did you ever want to quit what you were going?

A: "I don't really... do... anything else..."

He finished his new pilot today (July 2nd, 2020) and the movie is due tomorrow.

He would love to do more PnF and there's been talks of another PnF movie

He would love to do more Milo Murphy's Law, but it never got huge ratings and Disney's not too big on it but if people start watching it on Disney+ they might get to keep doing it. They did that with Family Guy, and it could happen to MML too.

The movie feels like old Phineas and Ferb and there are a lot of great songs! 

And now, the Q&A (in which he draws random characters are he talks)

How was the process of kicking the voices?

It was sometime easy but sometimes very difficult. For Phineas, they listened to maybe a thousand people. they actually recorded someone but they put it to animation and it didn't really work. He knew as soon as he heard Vincent that he loved him. They literally recasted the lead (Vincent) the day before they had to deliver the pilot.

He knew immediately that he liked Alison Stoner. She was the second Isabella he heard, and he listened to maybe 50 others afterwards, but he knew he wanted Alison Stoner

They decided on a different Candace and they sent it to the head of the channel and the guy asked if he heard Ashley Tisdale. He told Dan to have her come in and give her direction and Dan was hesitant bc he had one that he liked but he was lowkey forced to bring her in. It was his only audition that day, and after his big block of text Dan gave her like 20 notes and she wrote the notes on the big block of text and she did it again and it was perfect and obviously Candace (but he feels bad for the actress that was almost Candace bc she'll never know how close she was)

What was the most impactful episode you worked on?

Either the last (hard to watch w/o crying) or three moments that made himcey while doing them: the end of Summer Belongs To You when Phineas gives up trying to get off the island and decides to watch the sunset with Isabella which was what she always wanted and she exploded and talked him back up onto being the person he is even tho it's a sacrifice on her behalf. He later says he started crying while pitching to his wife the AYA scene of Phinabella getting together.

Do you regret any episodes?

There are some he likes more and some he likes less but he doesn't regret any of them. He was a little disappointed in an early episode without a sing but he watched it alter and decided it was actually pretty decent. None of them make him cringe or wonder why they did that.

How has social media impacted PnF?

He recently got on TikTok and found out that's where all the PnF fans are. He was thrilled to see the response everything was getting and it made him feel good about everything he accomplished. The fact that this generation knows what an aglet is is his biggest accomplishment in pop culture.

Favorite part of working on the show/movie

He likes editing, but writing the songs is the most fun bc it feels the least like work

Who is Ferb's mom?

Never established or really thought about Ferb's mom or Phineas's dad AND IT'S NOT DOOFENSHMIRTZ THEY MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THAT TO BE TRUE STOP ASKING and Phineas and Candace are full brother and sister. The bio parents aren't interesting to them bc the family already has a mom and dad and the other ones are just out of the picture and not important.

Will there be a new character in the movie?

Super Super Big Doctor (and Disney keeps telling him what he can and can't talk about)

Are there any secrets or theories that he can tell them?

The freaking creepy pasta about schitzophrenic Candace IS NOT TRUE Phineas and Ferb do exist and are alive. There's also a theory that Candace is not based on the diary of a teen girl in Russia who killed herself, and that's not true either. He genuinely thinks they are really freaking stupid theories and they make no sense at all.

Who is your favorite guest star?

Writing a song with Slash from Guns n Roses was really cool. He also liked working with Ben Stiller, Christian Slater the delivery guy (he called and said he'd do any part in MML so they wrote him a role), Jack McBrayer (Irving/Fix It Felix), Wayne Brady (co-wrote In The Empire)

What is the motivation of Candace to bust the boys?

He's not trying to hurt them. She doesn't dislike them. She gets irritated but she's really just looking for fairness. If she built a rollercoaster in the backyard, she'd get in trouble, so they should get in trouble, too.

How did you think about hot to end the show?

Disney was starting to cool off on PnF. The merch wave had plateaued. Dan and Swampy had the next two years in the show already made, but Disney wouldn't pick up another season until they finished airing that season. They'd have to restaff for a new season and they didn't like that idea, so they turned one of their hour long specials into the finale. He wanted to be able to say goodbye and thank the fans.

#phineas and ferb #dan povenmire #candance against the universe #catu #PnF #I'm working on getting the zoom call on youtube but it's taking forever

[buqalamun]

I tracked my language study for 30 days - here's what I learned about how I learn.

I set up a Google Form, linked to a spreadsheet, where I tracked every minute of my day that was related to languages. That means deliberate study, immersion time, Anki reviews, writing chat messages, Zoom calls...anything. If I was using a language (actively or passively), it went into the spreadsheet.

Before we begin, here's a quick rundown of my languages, from newest to oldest:

Italian (IT)

Mandarin Chinese (ZH)

Persian (FA)

Esperanto (EO)

Spanish (ES)

IT & ZH are the two languages I am most actively learning - I started taking Italian lessons just a few months ago (my only language right now with a formal course, rather than self-study), and I've been learning Chinese on my own for about 2 years. My three other languages are older, and get varying levels of use. Persian is a language I started learning many years ago, I have a decent level, and I'm always wanting to improve it but I don't focus on it much. My Spanish is even older and more rusty than my Persian, but I don't study to improve it. Esperanto is a language I no longer actively study, but I do use it to talk with friends on a regular basis.

1. Observation affects the results.

Much like quantum physics, measurement of my study time changed my study time. Once I was recording everything I did, I wanted those numbers to be as high as possible.

I got a burst of motivation for my less-studied languages. I wanted to even things out, and give those neglected langs some love. I saw what areas I was weak in, and I felt like I should make up for that.

2. Anki isn't really a timesink.

I consider myself a heavy-ish Anki user - I do at least 200 cards a day to clear out my daily reviews. Since I'm doing it consistently every day, I thought it would overwhelm my other study time. But in fact, Anki is only a small proportion of my studies - around 10% - and for the languages that I'm not actively learning, the Anki time is under 2 minutes a day.

Esperanto is the language where I have weekly Zoom calls. Persian is my most mature language, and I read books in it. Italian has weekly classes, so Instructional time is high. Different languages at different stages of learning have a different distribution of activities.

3. Your routines matter. Engaging materials matter.

You know how at the beginning of the post, I said I don't really study Spanish anymore? Well, I still ended up putting quite a few hours into Spanish during the month. That's because I happened to find several amazing Spanish-speaking Youtube channels, and started getting recommended all their most interesting videos.

For a larger language like Spanish, where there are lots of materials available, it's easier to find something that really sparks your interest. I ended up 'studying' without even trying.

With my smaller languages, I have to put in more effort to maintain a daily study habit. I have to seek out material that I like (rather than it coming to me via an algorithm). There are loads of videos and podcasts that will help me learn Italian or Chinese, but fewer for Persian or Esperanto - so if I want to keep a steady rate of progress, I just have to work a little harder and set up good routines.

Can you spot the day when I found 3 new Spanish Youtube channels and binged them all?

4. Build good habits, and make it easy for yourself.

The best advice I've gotten about forming habits and setting long-term goals is to set yourself up to succeed even on your worst day. Right now I'm in a high-energy and high-motivation phase, but I know my natural cycles in mood and health, and I won't be able to keep this pace up forever. So while I have the high energy, I'm making things easier for the future: finding the Youtube channels that are so fun to watch it doesn't feel like studying. Creating plenty of high-quality Anki cards now to study later. The most useful apps are on my homescreen, and my Kindle defaults to the (easy, fun) Persian book I'm reading.

And I'm going to keep on tracking my time, because it has been a surprisingly strong motivator for me! Language study can be intangible sometimes, especially as you get to higher intermediate levels and it's harder to notice your day-by-day progress. It's very satisfying to have proof of the time and effort I've been putting in.

#language learning #langblr #anki srs #polyglot #languages #op