The idea for The Ballad of Poisonberry Pete developed from a partially realized side project that we made with our good friend Josh Garlick. We had seen a lot of 24 hour films online from students at other schools and wanted to make one too, so when we had a day off from school due to a holiday we jumped at the opportunity. After the animation labs closed at midnight we went home to brainstorm and plan out the day ahead. Adam was a resident advisor and one of his residents had given him a pie, which he brought with him. Somehow that pie got us to the Cowboy Pie that became known as Poisonberry Pete. We then stayed up making pie puns and silly drawings until 3am. The next day we set to work. By the end of the day we only had half an animatic, but it was half of an animatic that we loved. At Ringling we pitch several ideas for our thesis shorts and fully pre-produce two of those ideas in the second half of our junior year. We completed the work for and passed one idea for our first pitch. When we had to start pitching ideas for the second film we tossed in the pie western idea. Our class liked it and we liked it, so we went with it. A lot of the jokes and characters from the first version are still in the final, but the story, quality of the characters, and everything else got a huge overhaul in the weeks that followed.