We would like to acknowledge the following people for their help, support and contributions to the book:
Family:
Larry and Mack Sullivan; Milton and Helen Alexander; Dallas Mintz, Ron and Ricky Mintz; Stephen Barr, Tamar Lipsey and the rest of my family
Editors:
David Bevans, Taylor & Francis
Editorial Assistant:
Lauren Mattos, Taylor & Francis
Proposal Reviewers:
Mark T. Byrne, Craig Caldwell, David Maas, Joseph Guilland, Alan Choi
Technical Reviewers:
Larry Sullivan, Ron Mintz, Christianne Greiert, Craig Caldwell, Sharon Cavanaugh, Sharon Katz
Colleagues:
Jim McCampbell, Computer Animation Faculty and students at Ringling College of Art and Design; Richard Hopkins and Florida Studio Theatre; Steve Woloshen and the other, always helpful, members of the non-narrative animation community
Contributing Students:
Casey Robin from Studio Arts Center, International; Kristin Lepore from Maryland Institute College of Art; Robert Showalter, Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis; Meghan Stockham, Chelsea Bartlett, Meng Vue, Eric Drobile, Gwynne Olson-Wheeler, Nick Pitera, Chris Nabholtz, Thelvin Cabezas, Fernanda Santiago, Kevin Andrus and Maria Clapis; Kevin Passmore, Nicole Gutzman and Alex Bernard; Yahira Milagros Hernandez Vazquez and Javier Aparicio Lorente from Ringling College of Art and Design; Parrish Ley from Sheridan College; Mark Shirra and Alejandra Perez from Vancouver Film School; Chris Perry from University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Sven Martin, Moritz Mayerhofer, Jan Locher, Hannes Appell, Holger Wenzl, and Jan Thuring from Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany; Alex Cannon from Brigham Young University
Contributing Studios and Independent Professional Producers:
Bill Kroyer, head of the Digital Arts Department at the Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University; Jeff Fowler, Sean McNally and Chuck Wojtkiewicz, Blur Studios; Sande Scoredos, Sony Pictures Imageworks; Sylvain Chomet, Django Films; Countin’ on Sheep crew: Director/Producer Aubry Mintz, Co-producer/Key Clean-up Dori Littell-Herrick, Art Director Doug Post, Artists Lennie Graves, George Fleming, Kristen Houser, Jarvis Taylor, Frank Lima, Ryan Richards, Dallas Worthy, Jennie Cotterill, Cuyler Smith, Melissa Devine, Robin Richesson, Erik Caines, Kevin White, Alina Chau, Mona Kozlowski, Cindy Cheng, David Coyne, Lynn Barzola, Jesse McClurg, Jennifer But, Jamie Ludovise, Music Charley Sandage and Harmony Mary and Robert Gillihan and Dave Smith; Contributors to A Good Deed, Indeed: Original Story Gary Schumer, Script Karen Sullivan, Storyboards and Animatics Nilah Magruder, Steve Hickner, Visual Development Gary Schumer, Jon DeVenti, Special Thanks to Ed Gavin, Michael Gabe Marynell, Julia Bacak, Keith Osborn, Billy Merritt, Heather Thomson, Chris Torres, Sandor Felipe
Foreword:
John Tarnoff, former Head of Show Development, DreamWorks Animation
Interviews:
Brandon Oldenburg and Adam Volker, Moonbot Studios; Bill and Sue Kroyer, Kroyer Films; Ginny Kopf, voice coach; Perry La Marca, Assistant Professor CSULB; Steve Hickner, DreamWorks Animation; Bert Poole, DreamWorks Feature Animation; Mike Cachuela, Laika Studios; Jeff Fowler, Blur Studios; Andrew Jimenez, Pixar Animation Studios; Kendal Cronkhite, DreamWorks Feature Animation; Kathy Altieri, DreamWorks Feature Animation; Tom Bancroft, Funnypages Productions, LLC; Chris Renaud, Blue Sky Studios; Mike Thurmeier, Blue Sky Studios; Sande Scoredos, Sony Pictures Imageworks; Nathan Greno, Walt Disney Feature Animation; Barry Cook, Story Artist and Director; Steve Gordon, Professional Story Artist; Jim Story, Instructor of Story at University of Central Florida; Paul Briggs, Walt Disney Feature Animation; Frank Gladstone, Independent Animation Consultant; Casey Robin, Kristin Lepore, Meghan Stockham, Chelsea Bartlett, Robert Showalter, Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis; Jack Canfora, playwright; Jason O’Connell, actor and Billy Merritt, animator and instructor at Ringling College of Art and Design; Deanna Morse, Grand Valley State University
Video Taping:
Andrew Burhoe, Brad Battersby, Sena Kwasi Amenor
Video Editing:
Andrew Burhoe
Scriptwriters:
Nick Pierce and Christianne Greiert, Karen Sullivan
Stories:
Jamie DeRuyter
Actors:
Katherine Michelle Tanner, Adam Ratner, Christianne Greiert, Brooke Wagstaff, Porter Anderson, Christine Alexander
Illustrators and Photographers:
Mike Peters, Adam D. Martens, Gary Schumer, Jon DeVenti, Karen Sullivan
Special thanks to Gary Schumer for allowing us to continue to publish his wonderful chapters in this edition of the book!
Other Great People Who Helped Us Connect with Other People:
Patricia Galvis-Assmus, University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Brent Adams, Brigham Young University; Larry Bafia, Vancouver Film School; Thomas Haegele and Tina Ohnmacht, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany; Marilyn Friedman, Olivier Mouroux, Fumi Kitahara, DreamWorks Feature Animation; Steven Argula, Pixar Animation Studios; Christina Witoshkin, Blue Sky Studios; Samantha Brown, Sony Pictures Imageworks; Mark Shapiro, Laika Studios; Margaret Adamic and Dawn Rivera-Ernster at Disney; Billy Merritt, Ringling College of Art and Design; Jamie DeRuyter, Ringling College of Art and Design; and all of our friends who were of constant encouragement.
Demetri Martin
Maureen
I was in the park, having a picnic with some friends. All of a sudden, a bee started to circle around my head. Then the bee attacked me. I calmly attempted to shoo it away, but it would not leave me alone. Then it became even more aggressive. I then tried to move away, but the agitated bee followed me. Hoping to stop its assault, I attempted to gently swat it away with a magazine. I missed, and, sure enough, the bee stung me. I’d never been stung by a bee before. It hurt, but I did my best to grin and bear it. I put some ointment on the bee sting, and after that I felt fine.
Brenda (Maureen’s Friend)
I was on the phone when Maureen got stung by the bee. I felt bad for her. But I think she overreacted a little bit if you ask me, especially when she started to scream and wildly swing her arms around. It was really pretty embarrassing.
Bee
I was in the middle of another busy workday, flying my usual route. I was on my way back to the hive, minding my own business, when an enormous, fleshy monster began to scream, and then it spastically lunged at me. At first I thought I might have flown into the middle of a medical emergency or some sort of tribal dance that the monster was performing. But then it quickly became clear that the monster was trying to kill me. I turned around and started to fly away. But the monster became even more enraged and began to chase me. I could not escape it. I flew faster, but the wailing beast pursued me and kept swinging its rolled-up paper weapon at me. As much as I didn’t want to, I had no choice but to sting the monster. It was the only thing I could do to stop it from following me home and threatening the wellbeing of the hive or worse, the safety of my family. I hoped that if I stung the monster I could thwart its assault enough to save my kids. I knew that I would die soon after administering the sting, but I really had no other option. What a tragedy it is to be forced by a senseless, hysterical beast to take one’s own life.
Magazine
I’m not sure what happened. I was being held and slowly read by some woman when all of a sudden she rolled me up and started to choke me and violently whip me around. After having my face smashed into the arm of a lawn chair a couple times and then into the surface of a picnic table, I was tossed to the ground. It was a terrible and demeaning experience that I’ll never forget.
Lawn Chair
I don’t know what his problem was, but the magazine I was hanging out with abruptly got up and smacked me twice for no reason.
Brenda’s Phone
Brenda was talking into me when the incident happened. I didn’t get to see or hear anything because Brenda is such a loud and obnoxious phone talker. Whenever she uses me it’s like I’m cut off from the world. If I had enough power in my lithium battery to electrocute her face, I would. Seriously, I would do it. She is that annoying.
Lithium Battery
I second that.
I am effective at temporarily relieving pain and itching associated with insect bites, minor burns, sunburn, minor skin irritations, scrapes, and rashes due to poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac.
Squirrel in Nearby Tree
I am still too upset to talk about what happened. I was good friends with Chris. I can’t believe what that woman did to him. He was a hardworking, God-fearing bee, who had a family and a good job. What that woman had against him, I’ll never know. To tell you the truth I don’t even think she knew him. What a bitch. I’m going to find out where she lives, go to her yard, and act crazy on her fence.
Tree
No comment.
God
Forcing a bee to commit suicide is one of my biggest pet peeves. This is not good for this Maureen person.
From This is a Book by Demetri Martin. Copyright 2011 by Demetri Martin. By permission of Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.
Why Do We Tell Stories?
The purpose of Demetri Martin’s Bee Sting is to entertain. It takes the simple act of swatting a bee away and escalates that action into a situation where nothing less than life, death and eternal salvation are at stake.
In this story Maureen relates what would be the ordinary situation for most of us. But then the other characters are allowed to share their experiences. We get to see the situation through their eyes. We learn that Maureen’s friend Brenda is not really such a good friend. And because of this we create sympathy for Maureen. The bee’s experience explains to us that a bee only stings as a last resort—to save his family—to preserve his species. It tells us things we didn’t know. The ointment delivers facts. The squirrel expresses the loss of the bee and helps us to process the problem. And God’s perspective helps us to understand the consequences of Maureen’s actions. The next time we are tempted to swat a bee, we might pause and not even do it. If this happens then we have learned something about the act of killing bees. And if enough people read this story and learn the same thing we could create a tradition of celebrating the bee. Stories become a map for living.
There are many reasons to tell stories, but all of them have one purpose: to show us something about ourselves. Stories are about people.