Glitch Productions

'''Glitch Productions Pty. Ltd. (also known as Glitch, and formerly Glitchy Boy or Glitchy Boy Productions''') is an Australian animation studio based in Sydney, New South Wales. The studio was founded in 2017 by producer Kevin Lerdwichagul and animator Luke Lerdwichagul, who is known for being the creator of the machinima sketch comedy web series SMG4.

Glitch is known for independently producing and funding animated web series such as Meta Runner, Murder Drones, and The Amazing Digital Circus. The company was featured in Forbes's 30 Under 30 list for Media, Marketing, and Advertising in 2023.

Background
Co-founder Luke Lerdwichagul started making videos in 2009. On 7 May 2011, at the age of 11, Luke created his first web series; a Super Mario 64-based machinima later to be known as SMG4 (an acronym of his YouTube channel name, "SuperMarioGlitchy4"). Produced using footage from an emulated version of Super Mario 64, the series originally focused Mario and other characters from the greater Mario franchise going on adventures that often involve parodies of internet memes and pop culture. Overtime, the series would begin using Garry's Mod as a base, and featured a more prominent cast of original characters.

Around 2016, Luke's older brother, Kevin Lerdwichagul, had observed the channel and its wide audience. He saw the potential to form a business around the channel, later joining SMG4 as a full-time writer and producer. Luke took on a directing role, as well as voicing his titular author surrogate character. In interviews, the brothers have acknowledged their use of copyrighted characters from Nintendo and other third-parties in their videos. However, they were always careful to never place such characters in hateful or defamatory context.

Formation


On 24 May 2017, Luke uploaded a fan mail video to the SMG4 channel, where he briefly mentioned that he founded a company, dubbed Glitchy Boy, to represent the SMG4, Hobo Bros., and "TheAwesomeMario" YouTube channels. On 5 September 2018, a more formal announcement video was uploaded called "SMG4 Direct (HUGE CHANNEL UPDATE)", where Luke and Kevin fully explained the concept of their company, now rebranded as Glitch Productions. During the video, they also unveiled Hitbox, a live-action series starring Kevin and Luke acting as various Nintendo characters.

On 5 December 2018, following multiple teasers on the SMG4 channel, Glitch released the trailer for Meta Runner on 25 July 2019. The series was funded by Screen Australia, and became the top-performing online investment from the company, racking up 10 million+ viewers across its first season. The first season was also financed with support from Crunchyroll and AMD, and financed in association with Epic Games. On 20 April 2020, Screen Australia announced that they would be funding a second season of Meta Runner.

GLITCH Channel
On 27 August 2020, Glitch officially separated the SMG4 channel from Glitch, and created the GLITCH channel to focus on its Non-SMG4 projects. Its first videos released that day would be an announcement video and the first season of Meta Runner remade in Movie format. They would soon after release the pilot to Ultra Jump Mania (a spin-off of Meta Runner that would later be cancelled) and season 2 of Meta Runner. On 12 March 2021, Glitch unveiled an SMG4 spin-off centered on Meggy Spletzer called Sunset Paradise. The pilot would be released on 26 March 2021. On 12 May 2021, Sunset Paradise received online production funding from Screen Australia. On 9 October 2021, it was announced that Glitch would be releasing a pilot titled Murder Drones on 29 October, created, written, and directed by Liam Vickers. Earlier Glitch projects essentially were created on a monetary loss, but Murder Drones greatly outperformed expectations and received millions of views per episode.

Glitch Productions released the pilot for The Amazing Digital Circus, a series created in collaboration with Gooseworx, on 13 October 2023. The series became the most popular indie pilot in history garnering 100 million views in its first month. Due to this, Glitch would become well known across the internet, as well as receiving in upcoming months 10 million subscribers and 1 billion total views. On 1 September 2023, Glitch announced that they would be hosting Glitch X, an indie animation expo on 9 November 2023 where they would announce their upcoming show The Gaslight District in collaboration with animator Nick Szopko. The company would also release a subscription service called Glitch Inn on 7 June 2024 to help fund their programming.

In 5 July 2024, Glitch launched FinalFinal_Project, a merchandise company that helps funding with other shows, with Iron Circus Animation being their first partners.

Controversy and criticism
In March 2024, Glitch was accused of firing the voice actress for Tari in Meta Runner and SMG4, Celeste Notley-Smith, in a callous manner after she was recast with Lottie Bourne, which led to allegations against the studio and confusion among fans. Notley-Smith wrote on Twitter that she was not notified of her role being recast. Several days later, she released a statement in which she explained that after discovering she had been recast, she reached out to Luke and Kevin, asking why she was removed from her role without contact from the team.

The studio was additionally alleged of longer work hours, blacklisting of ex-employees, and harassment, largely from Kevin Lerdwichagul; however, these have since been labelled as dubious. On 4 March 2024, Kevin released a statement via Glitch's social media outlets addressing the controversies, doubling as an apology to workers who had negative experience with the company. Kevin additionally claimed the studio had faced prior issues due to being short-staffed, but had largely resolved worker conditions by 2023. The response was accepted by the majority of Glitch's employees and fans, though some were still concerned that Notley-Smith's firing was never addressed.