Cake Original Series
What We Did
We made a show.
Animation. Live Action. Music. Comedy. Diverse Voices. Cake is where they all collide and explode into a 30-minute roller coaster viewing experience. A half-hour showcasing original and curated works from the best short-form storytellers around the world. FX asked us to crack the nut on how to bring all this premium ooey-gooey-goodness together . . . a never-before-seen recipe for how a show combining different voices and mediums could look, feel, and taste.
Ingredients
- 700 minutes of organic storytelling
- 175 shorts (136 original / 39 curated)
- 120 animated shorts
- 55 live action shorts
- 50 creators
- 28 emerging musical artists
- 28 independent animators
- 28 collaborations between said animators / musical artists
Process
- Step 1 Assemble a dream team of Creatives. Lock them in a room for 12 months.
- Step 2 Develop a framework that could make sense of our ingredient list.
- Step 3 Scrap that framework. Start over from scratch. Tell yourself you’re a good human being.
- Step 4 Listen to all of Bjork’s discography. Question your existence. Get back to work.
- Step 5 Lick that silky ganache.
How We Did It
We started with the belief that short-form and prestige could be synonymous. FX had collected a library of hundreds of shorts, and from those we curated the best of the best, plus added some of our own finds to the mix. We had the what. We just needed to figure out the how—how do all of these juxtapositions from piece to piece flow together? The possibilities for what this show could be were endless. It didn’t even have a title until a few months into production!
Blended, beaten, whipped, dipped . . . You name it, we tried it.
The initial ask was to come up with a cohesive framework that could showcase the best of short-form storytelling in animation and live action. We took a step back and saw this as an opportunity to cultivate a space for the intersection of other mediums as well. What better way to present these shorts than to add yet another layer of artistry to serve as the cohesive glue—which led us to MUSIC.
Music is an essential ingredient in everything we make at SLAQR, so curating emerging musicians and pairing them with independent animators felt as easy as making toast. Together, these pairings create what we call “interstitials”—music visualizers that thread together the pieces of one episode. These magical collaborations not only serve to tie an episode together thematically, but exist as independent meditative works that soothe the soul, adding a dimensionality to the show that would amplify the artistry across the board, and work towards championing emerging artists. Voilà! Our secret sauce.
Check out the CAKE playlist on Spotify.
Cake is a place to discover and be discovered.
There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing a fan of the show ask “Who was the artist that was featured in this episode?” or “Who wrote that end credits song?”
Since January of 2019, we’ve created 30 episodes of the series, and counting. We've curated, we've crafted, and we’ve developed original concepts for pieces within the show. Sample a taste. ;)
Serving Size
30-minute episodes on FXX and FX on HULU
Each singular piece for short-form viewing on HULU
Sheet Cakes, Pound Cakes, Special Presentations + more
