Bloke of the Apocalypse: Charlie Faulks Q&A

Bloke Of The Apocalypse is an animated web series from 21-year-old Charlie Faulks from Gisborne. In the rural back blocks of New Zealand, a father and son battle a zombie apocalypse and some annoying neighbours, all while taking care of their pet lamb, Lambie.

Charlie took some time to talk his animation inspirations, the joys of making Bloke and the moments he's proudest of.

If you want to watch the whole series on YouTube for free, head to Charlie's YouTube channel and subscribe now - Charlie Faulks - YouTube

Hello Charlie, how are you?

Hi Darren, I’m great thanks!

Let's start with the obvious question, where did Bloke of the Apocalypse come from? And tell me how you got into animation?

I’ve always been a huge nerd for all things animation. I started drawing even before preschool and then when I got to preschool that’s all I wanted to do. Eventually, I got to a point where I wanted to tell stories with my characters. Thankfully, animation fulfilled that need - it clicked immediately and felt like the natural evolution of my drawing skills. I could finally merge my passion for drawing, writing and animation into a single project… which became Bloke Of The Apocalypse (BOTA). An animated series based on my upbringing in Gisborne that follows a father and son combatting a zombie apocalypse.

What are your horror and animation inspirations? Are there defining cartoons from your "younger" days that you can recall and what indelible memories do they throw up?

So, so many inspirations. One cartoon from my childhood in particular that really left an imprint on me is The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack. It’s a wonderfully weird show set in a town on a dock in the middle of the ocean. It’s insanely strange and shares a lot of DNA with BOTA including the close ups, the somewhat unappealing character designs and fast-paced humour. 

What are your New Zealand inspirations?

Flight Of The Conchords is a huge one. It’s completely unmatched in terms of its comedy and just feels so timeless. There’s a flair to that show that is just so much fun. 

In terms of animation: Footrot Flats. I was a compulsive collector of the comic strips and eventually brought them from home in order to decorate the BOTA office in Wellington. I read the book his son Mason Ball wrote (Murray Ball: A Cartoonist’s Life), and it felt full circle reading about this accomplished artist from Gisborne. Footrot Flats is a very meaningful thing to me and the fundamentals of Bloke Of The Apocalypse. 

What were the practicalities of making this series - I understand you did it mostly from a student flat, was it hard to be that disciplined with roomies?

Initially, I made three episodes solo. That was done in my university hall flat alongside two of my mates. They weren't voice actors (at all) but I wrangled them to do some stupid voices for those original episodes. Looking back, it was a wonderful time and I miss it. Hanging out with mates on a relaxed university schedule without a worry in the world. I worked on the show in my spare time throughout my second year of studies at Massey.

It was all shits and giggles until it started to snowball and then became my full time job - what an amazing thing to happen!

What are the animated inspirations - I see elements of Rick and Morty, Adventure Time and Ren & Stimpy too - what was your guiding star for animation with this?

Yep, all of those and so much more! My main inspirations were a lot of what was on Adult Swim - the best place to find some really interesting esoteric stuff. I typically like to be a chameleon in terms of style. It’s a lot of fun to pivot and weave between something more graphic, hard angled and then swapping to a very bubbly, geometric style for example. The visual style for BOTA has an air of adult animation to it. At closer inspection, the characters look a little gross - pimples, moles and deep eye bags. It’s certainly not clean and some of that came from the subject matter. The farm isn’t necessarily a ‘clean’ place - it’s a little rough around the edges and I’m proud the ‘cinematography’ of the series leaned into that.

What were the hardest moments, the ones that made you think you'd taken on more than you can chew and how did you overcome them?

That final episode. It went through a lot, the poor bugger. The idea for the finale came very early on. I wanted it to be a sharp left turn away from the rest of the show. I wanted to set the audience back on their heels, to surprise them. There’s a simple, standard BOTA finale that is cookie cutter that would’ve been easy to make. I wanted to avoid that. Thus, we introduce three new teenage characters and have it suddenly become a Love Island-type thing. In the script, there was even a narrator involved. The episode went through a whole bunch of discussions and edits and cuts and changes. I was very worried about how it would play with the final episode of the season only featuring the two main characters for a fraction of it. It was a genuine stress for me (and potentially the rest of the crew) and a big gamble. Even at the final colour stage we were making changes to the lines and characters.

I’m very happy with how it turned out. Taygen, Erin and Theo (the voice actors) were absolute stars. They made it all actually work. 

Conversely, what was the highlight?

It has to be our first table read. What a fun afternoon that was. It came after a couple of months of me writing the scripts in solitary and was the first time the team got a sense of the full story. That initial table read was a wonderful time in the production where we hadn’t started the stress of fulltime animating and everything was amorphous. The story of BOTA only existed on those pages and we weren't yet responsible about actually bringing it to life. 

The relationship between Bloke and Oliver seems initially inherently Kiwi, but also as it goes on, a very common father -son bond. (The father tearing up over death of a sheep hits anyone who has had pets and tries to protect them and people attached to them). Can you talk us through the inspirations for this, how it unfolded and how your own family feel about it?

I think the relationship in the series is lightly prodding at the strange relationship we as Kiwis have with masculinity - especially in rural areas. It’s interesting to me but I didn’t want that bogging down the series. The main tension (besides the zombies of course) between Bloke and Oliver comes purely from them being different people. Bloke likes the farm lifestyle, Oliver doesn’t. It’s that simple and was sparked by relationships in my own life. I am the first in the family to go into this sort of industry - a wildly different life compared to the people in my family who have worked on farms/rurally all of their lives. It was special for me to try and capture something so complicated. Something so real and personal to, not just me but my family as well.

My family enjoys the show - especially the hyper-specific details and easter eggs that no one else would pick up on. The details were curated to them specifically. It was incredibly special to watch and laugh alongside them at the Terror-Fi premiere.

Oliver and the Grogu of the series, Lambie.

You've designed for series all over the world, can you tell us a little about which series, what you worked on and what you learned?

I can’t say much really! All of those damn contracts. Everything is in development, canned and/or under NDA. I worked with the BBC on a project for example, tasked with designing the cast of characters for an undisclosed children's series. With a lot of jobs like that, I’m just a very small part. I’m there for a second, sketching and ideating and then it’s out of my hands and in development hell.

Is there anything you did with the show that you hadn't expected to and is there anything you wished you'd done?

I didn’t expect to keep Bloke and Oliver on the farm for the season. My impulse was to get them out of there and on the road to ‘safety’. But I’m so glad I made the decision for them to stay and to see the characters in their natural habitat and explore Bloke’s connection with his farm. The show would have been wildly different and far less focused if they took off in episode two.

Maybe I would’ve done more with Lambie? Audiences seem to absolutely love him - I should’ve guessed, he’s our version of Maggie Simpson or Grogu or something!

Will there be more Bloke? If so, who would you love to have in the cast and why?

I don’t know if it’s up to me. Of course, I’d love to carry on Bloke and Oliver’s story and I certainly have ideas but it’s not my decision. I guess that’s NZ On Air’s choice - the powers that be. It would be amazing to do another season. People seem to want it. Being able to build out the team, make a bigger, grander thing and work with the people I’ve gotten so close to throughout the production.

In terms of dream cast, I’d love to have Jemaine Clement and Bret Mckenzie in the Blokeverse - I’m just a big fan and I think they’d be great as a couple of Bloke’s mates. Jackie Van Beek and Kura Forrester would also be amazing. 

What's next for you - and what do you hope people will get from seeing your show?

I’m not quite sure yet what I’m doing next. Things are beginning to crystallise and after the success of Bloke, I signed with The Gotham Group, a Hollywood-based management company. Lately, I’ve been having a number of meetings with executive-type people in the U.S. so we’ll see if something will take shape from that.

Conversely, I’m continuously working on new, independent things. My mates and I shot a horror/comedy feature film a few weeks back and those sorts of projects will always be the most rewarding to work on.

With BOTA, I hope people connect in some way to the characters. It’s easy for me to do so because I created them and know them as real humans, but I hope there’s something to cling on to and get slightly emotionally invested. And of course I hope people laugh - that’s important too I guess.