With many animation studios’ pipelines still able to keep the work flowing despite the pandemic, how could demand for animation surge in the near future? Nico Franks and Karolina Kaminska report.
TeamTO animators are working on shows like Presto! School of Magic from home
No one knows how long the current freeze on high-end live-action production around the world is going to last. But other areas of TV are finding a way to keep the show on the road.
Unscripted and documentary producers are increasingly asking their talent and contributors to self-shoot, with production meetings held over Google Hangouts and programming making its way to the screen quicker than ever.
One key area of children’s TV that, with a few tweaks, has been able to keep things running as normal during the crisis is animation.
And there are many in the industry who believe animation producers are in a better position than many others in the industry to cope with the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on business.
Alix Wiseman
Alix Wiseman, 9 Story Media Group’s senior VP of distribution and acquisitions, says the company has seen no impact on its current productions.
With studios in Toronto, Dublin, Manchester, New York and Bali, 9 Story produces and distributes a mix of live-action and animated content. Brands in its 4,500-hour portfolio include Clifford the Big Red Dog and the Anne of Green Gables live-action movie collection.
Wiseman says the prodco didn’t have any live-action projects in production at the time of the coronavirus outbreak, meaning it hasn’t had to put any forthcoming shows on hold. In addition, 9 Story had already begun to move its workforce to work from home about a year before the crisis hit, so its animators are well equipped to continue producing animated projects at home.
“To be honest, for us right now, it’s business as usual,” Wiseman says. “We feel pretty fortunate because we had already started a project a year ago to see how we could have some of our crew working from home. We have lots and lots of shows in production right now and have managed to move all our studios to work from home.
“In terms of our production pipeline, we’re working to the same schedules we were working to before. We don’t have any live action in production at the moment; everything is animation. At this point in time, not a single one of our productions has been impacted. So it’s a very healthy state for us to be in right now. Who knows if things might change, but at this point in time everything is looking very good.”
Guillaume Hellouin
Wiseman adds that 9 Story is actually seeing extra demand as schools close and broadcasters look to fill gaps in their schedules created by cancelled productions.
“We have a lot of content to offer and we’re finding that a lot of platforms and channels are needing more content because the kids are at home a lot more right now. So we are actually very, very busy in that regard,” the exec notes.
In Europe, animation production companies such as TeamTO have also been able to keep production running after quickly enabling their staff to animate from home.
The French CGI specialist is currently producing projects such as Presto! School of Magic (52×11′) for M6 and Canal+, as well as providing service work on hit show PJ Masks for Entertainment One.
Guillaume Hellouin, co-founder and president of TeamTO, says: “We were ready. It took 48 hours to have 100% of our almost 300-person team working from home.
“Demand is very high for animation but there aren’t that many studios out there that are able to delivery content at the right level of quality, on the right schedule and budget, so it’s a very good opportunity for studios with track records. We expect to have a very busy 2020, 2021 and 2022, for sure.”
Meanwhile, Neil Hatton, CEO of UK Screen Alliance, the trade body for animation and VFX, has encouraged producers and commissioners to keep work flowing as companies innovate to remain safely operational during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mama K’s Team 4 is being made by Cake and Triggerfish for Netflix
Hatton said last week that while filming had virtually ground to a halt as a result of the crisis, most post-production, VFX and CG animation businesses in the UK have rapidly deployed technology solutions to allow them to continue working.
Ed Galton, chief commercial officer and MD at UK-based producer and distributor Cake, has also observed an uptick in demand for finished children’s programming.
“There have been instances where people have reached out to us because they know we have a library of content they can tap into to fill some of the needs they might have as a result of the shortcomings caused by Covid-19,” Galton says.
Ed Galton
Specialising in animation could prove to be a major strength for companies such as Cake, which has similarly been able to rapidly shift to remote working to keep its productions on track.
“We’re very lucky, as an industry and as a business, to be able to continue to trade. We are operating remotely and everyone is set up at home,” says Galton. As a result, the productions on which it is currently working for Netflix – Angry Birds: Summer Madness (40×11′) and Mama K’s Team 4 (26×22′), with Rovio and Triggerfish respectively – remain on course.
Galton predicts that one consequence of the coronavirus pandemic will be greater demand for new content.
“People, and kids specifically, are consuming content at a ferocious rate, which means we’re going to have to deliver more. And if we’re locked in for longer, the need for new content will obviously increase rapidly,” he says.
“We’re certainly developing more and pitching ideas to these platforms to get them to come on board. We will tool up and produce, but differently from how we’ve done it in the past. The front end of production is not so labour-intensive as when you’re animating, so a lot of the work can be done remotely without much of a hitch.”
However, demand for content is only significant for producers if broadcasters and platforms have enough money to pay for it. Galton says he does expect buyers’ budgets to be challenged in future, “but for the time being, it’s business as usual.”
