Kris Maric of Fika Entertainment explains how the virtual production services company helps to produce animated and VFX content much faster and more cheaply than usual while creating a 360-degree brand experience.
Kris Maric
Australia-based Fika Entertainment is a virtual production services company that aims to enable accessible, fast and cost-effective production of animation and VFX content, as well as spin-off projects like live events, mobile apps, games, e-books, shortform content and immersive media.
Describing itself as “the go-to partner for YouTube and digital-first content,” Fika’s credits so far include Coolabi and CBBC’s stop-motion comedy-horror series Scream Street, ABC in Australia’s animated series Minibeast Heroes and ABC and Northern Pictures’ miniseries Tiny Oz.
“There is a shift among creators and IP owners from being less project-focused and more 360-degree IP/content-focused, where there will be a flagship content piece, such as an animation series, off the back of a central IP, but they will look to leverage virtual production capability and projects assets to drive the rapid creation and monetisation of other digital content experiences like shortform content, augmented and virtual reality, games and apps,” says founding CEO and exec producer Kris Maric.
“This is because audiences are now becoming more globally accessible and are demanding more quick and fresh content experiences from IP/brands and content creators. They want the whole 360 experience and a lot of it, especially if they are waiting on the next longform series rollout.
“There is now a demand for this content to be more centrally created, global reaching and easier to monetise and monitor, so you are able to see what works and what doesn’t with the audience, helping inform the next key IP or content investment that a company or creator may wish to make.”
CBBC stop-motion comedy-horror show Scream Street
According to Fika, its Alchemy Pipeline software enables content to be produced in less than half the time and cost of traditional methods, with a set-up for quickly expanding IP to become a 360-degree content brand.
“Our process de-risks projects and provides more upfront creativity and control to deliver premium-quality products that are story-centric, time-effective and cost-efficient,” Maric says.
“We take various elements that are traditionally completed in post-production and bring them into pre-production. This enables animation and VFX to be automated through the shooting process, thus facilitating up to 50% cost and time saving across a project than using traditional methods.”
Fika is currently in production on four animated series with partners in the US, Canada and the UK, and has two in-house original IPs on its slate.
The first of the original IPs, Adventures with Auntie Ada (26×11’), is an action-adventure motion capture animation series for children aged 6-10 that stimulates their interest in STEM subjects and the world around them. The show celebrates strong, smart role models from diverse cultural backgrounds with a particular focus on intergenerational relationships and the importance of working together.
Fika’s in-house original Adventures with Auntie Ada
The second original IP includes a mixed-media, preschool series and brand products based on Australian classic Humphrey B Bear. Fika will produce a range of content including longform live-action series and shorter ancillary content based on the bear, who first hit screens in Australia in 1965.
One of Fika’s missions is to support and produce authentic content for underserved and unrepresented markets, including gaming for women, the LGBTQI community and special- or diverse-needs audiences.
“Almost 50% of gamers are women, yet the games selection for women is a bit limited. We realise the reason why this may occur is because games for women are not being developed enough by women,” Maric says.
“As a company with strong female leadership, an ethical fund behind us and some fabulous, experienced game producing collaborators around the globe, we are keen to help enable new authentic content opportunities for gaming. Plus we also highly value creating a safe and creative collaborative workspace for these communities where they can feel supported to produce content.
“The rise of indie games has addressed the needs of underrepresented and underserved audiences to a degree, but there is still a huge opportunity to support these creators and audiences with games that are representative of the values, themes, accessibility needs and experiences that are meaningful and important to them.”
Fika claims its Alchemy Pipeline software speeds up production
Fika is headquartered in Queensland and has facilities on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne, but Maric says the company is scoping opportunities to expand its physical footprint into other locations in North America, Europe and Asia, and with various partners in those regions.
The company is also looking at ways to evolve its offering, including through virtual production hardware.
“While we love series animation, audiences are becoming more demanding and savvy and we are endlessly working to meet that content demand as well as creating innovative and also immersive solutions,” Maric says.
“We are committed to continual product development with our Alchemy Pipeline solutions, which to date has been focused on software solutions that would be eventually rolled out to the market. But we are also starting to explore the exciting world of virtual production hardware as well that includes doables, wearables and makeables.”
