What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is David Wachtenheim, and I am an animator/director/producer at W/M Animation which I own with my partner Robert Marianetti.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Crazy? I don’t know about crazy. I worked as a P.A. on some furniture commercials which was mainly like working for a moving company. I also worked as a P.A for matte painters Bob Scifo and Ken Allen at the now defunct Dream Quest Images. The craziest thing there was working with James Cameron on some preliminary work for The Abyss and watching so many people fawn all over him and tripping over themselves to do his bidding. I got fed up when I was told to hold the slate for the shots and getting yelled at for not getting the slate out fast enough. I also worked in a pharmacy for a Summer for my brother which was a little insane. He can be pretty intense. You should never work for your brother. Actually, I can’t say that, I don’t know your brother. What I meant was, you should never work for MY brother.
I’m glad you asked what am I ashamed to have worked on. Most of the stuff we have done at our studio has been adult oriented for Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central and Adult Swim and I am pretty ashamed of all of it. Well, not so much ashamed but I can’t show my kids much of it. The stuff we have done for Sesame Street and Cartoon Network I am pretty proud of. To be honest,