Kevin Fintland
Post-Supervisor at Bento Box Ent.
The Creators Society Careers Committee Chair
This week I sat down with Kevin Fintland, a longtime member of The Creators Society, to discuss his story of working in the animation industry. As anyone who knows him can attest, Kevin does not hold back on his stories, which detail a fascinating account of a California Native, who set off on a long and mainly-earnest journey to pursue his dream career.
Kevin is a model Californian, so much so that it’s staggering he never made a guest appearance in the namesake parody show on SNL. He was born in Monterey Park, raised in Pasadena, studied at Arcadia High School, AND enjoyed being a proud ‘Lancer’ at Pasadena City College. In his third year, Kevin took a semester abroad, venturing to the distant land of England to study at Oxford University. Still uncertain about what career he wanted, Kevin was nudged into Journalism by chance. While working in a pub (where he also lived above), he and other patrons were forced to evacuate when an IRA bomb threat came in. Spurred on by an interest in news, he applied and was accepted to USC’s School of Journalism.
While pursuing a Journalism degree, Kevin nabbed a job at NBC4 News in Burbank…and quickly realized how much he hated journalism. His investigative piece on Richard Reardon and his fishy stake in Canter’s Deli on Fairfax, right around the time of his Mayoral run, was tossed aside when Madonna had her first child. To quote Kevin, “it pissed me off.” After quitting, he found work as an assistant to a feature film director. Finding that his passions now lay with producing, he applied to the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC, only to be rejected. Undaunted, he spent the next year finessing his application and references, and succeeded in gaining entry the following year.
Graduating into the 2001 writer’s strike, Kevin found an industry bare of plentiful work (an environment all too familiar to this writer). Luckily, he landed a temp job in Fox’s DVD & Blu-Ray Mastering department, where over the course of 7 years, he became the associate director of International DVD & Blu-Ray Mastering. After getting passed over for a promotion, Kevin had an epiphany, realizing that this job was not his passion. He wanted to do what he fought so hard to get into grad school for… to become a creative producer.
Outside of work, he began spending time working on his own ideas, leading him to write a web-comic strip called Thirty-ish.com. After encouragement from a friend, he decided to adapt it into an animated TV show. And thus began Kevin’s third education, “The School of Google Search.” Researching all the ins and outs about creating, developing, and pitching his concept for his show, now named Work Sucks, he began networking and entering his “Pitch Bible” into several writing & development contests.
Images: “Work Sucks” ©Kevin Fintland
Realizing he needed to actually animate it (after an executive stated that he needed to ‘see it’) Kevin set about adapting his comic into an animated short, all while continuing to work at Fox. At this point, he was promoted to Executive Director of Enterprise Operations - Planning and Controls, a title so long and vague Kevin freely admits he’s not even sure what it really meant. Using his own resources, he hired a team to help make his dream a reality. Once finished, the short was submitted to the festival circuit, where it received great responses, and even a few accolades and placement. While his passion for producing animation was being fulfilled, sadly at this time, Disney’s acquisition of Fox was announced, and Kevin was laid off after 17 years. However, unlike back in 2001, Kevin now felt confident in his success with Work Sucks, and dove headfirst into animation.
Image: “Paradise PD” ©Netflix
Using his accomplished networking skills, Kevin reached out through cold emails via LinkedIn, set up coffee meetings and phone calls, and even reached out to friends, before finally a connection introduced him to the head of post-production at Bento Box in Los Angeles. Within three weeks of the meeting he was hired as a post-production coordinator for Alien NewsDesk. Since then, he’s worked as a post-production supervisor on Duncanville, Hoops, and Paradise PD S2 & S3. He currently works on the upcoming series, Farzar, while he continues to pursue his dream of becoming an animation producer. He is able to spend time shadowing the associate producer and production manager, while studying how the showrunners run their show.
Image: “Hoops” ©Netflix
As a post-production supervisor, he communicates with several departments, ranging from dialogue and sound editors, to the storyboard department. He also provides deliverables to sound, music, and overseas studios. Assisting in making sure everything is sent to the correct departments, Kevin checks that all notes are being addressed, and sorts out any last-minute ‘blips’ before the episode is made ready to air.
By rising through the ranks, and becoming the best producer he can be, Kevin is determined to one day produce Work Sucks and put it on the air. Or, if he dies before that happens, he joked that hopefully the project will be fulfilled by his now seven year old daughter. This passion, and his own remarkable journey through the industry, have inspired him to pass on advice assisting individuals wanting to break into animation. Being the son of an engineer and accountant, Kevin acknowledges that making cartoons for a living makes them (and like-minded individuals) cringe. “It was almost as if I had to give myself permission to work in the animation industry," he said. This is reflected in his advice to anyone trying to break into animation. His roadmap: “Step 1 - Get in! Half of your job is to do the daily job, and the other half is to learn what everybody else is doing. Step 2 - Work your way up to your dream position, and be the best at it that you can be.”
If not obvious, Kevin is a BIG proponent of Networking, and taking control of your career path. In his own words, he talks about his long journey to get to animation and the struggles he faced, "When I was at Fox I let my career steer me, instead of me steering it. I was very passive in my career for the first 17 years...I want to prevent people from making that massive mistake. And remember, if you want something bad enough, the only person who tells you ’no' is YOU."
When asked about his involvement with The Creators Society, Kevin said he met Eric Miller, president, shortly after it became a membership group. After sending him one of his famous “LinkedIn Cold Emails” (and after both vetted each other through a mutual friend who worked at Dreamworks), Kevin and Eric met for coffee and hit it off instantly. Wanting to contribute and to be a part of The Creators Society, Kevin was among the first class of elected leadership in January 2019. He doesn’t hold back on his love for this group, stating that, “It’s truly one of the most inclusive clubs I’ve encountered in the animation industry.” He wants to continue to mentor anyone who wants to break into the animation industry, and help prevent individuals from making the same mistakes he made in the first 17 years of his career. He also wants to provide them with the tools they need. His advice remains the same, "Be active in your career. It’s okay if your goals change, but get in and demonstrate your passion. People hire passion over talent and hard work. Passion is what will sell YOU in an interview.”
As this interview began to wind down, after almost 2 hours, Kevin shared his love for surfing (again, a model Californian) which he’s been doing since he was 8 years old, “Some people go to church on Sundays… I go to Malibu.” We also shared our love of cooking, cutting & pasting email responses (a skillset we both whole-heartedly endorse), anime, the making of movies like Caddyshack and MASH, and irreverent animated TV shows such as Final Space, Solar Opposites, Archer, South Park, Dan vs., and Venture Bros (Kevin used the words ‘sheer genius’ to describe those shows...words he does not use lightly). We only disagreed about baking, though I'll chalk that up as a Pacific vs. Midwestern way of living; using an oven during the dreaded cold of winters in Chicago where I am, can help warm up your apartment (and save money on your energy bill).
While he does love his job and various hobbies, Kevin couldn’t stress enough that his #1 job and priority, is being the best Dad possible to his seven year old daughter, “...raising a kid in COVID is tough, but it’s more important than anything else that I’ve mentioned before.”
Be sure to check out Kevin’s short, Work Sucks, on Youtube & Facebook. There is also an independent animated web series he’s producing, “It’s actively in production and I hope to launch it toward the end of this year.” Don’t forget to be on the lookout for Farzar S1, premiering sometime in early 2022 on Netflix.
