Nuno Beato, producer and CEO at Sardinha em Lata, on market segmentation and the struggle to bring adult audiences to animation.
Nuno Beato
What is the biggest issue facing the animation industry right now? I believe that the growth of YouTube and the resulting financial cutbacks by major investors have had a very strong economic impact on the industry. Market segmentation and the way children view animation today is different. It is much more difficult to achieve large-scale projects that create strong and stable brands, and investors prefer to bet on already known IP that can guarantee economic returns. Without taking risks, it will be difficult for new projects to conquer the global market and become major productions, because budgets for new projects are increasingly limited. I have only referred to the children’s market because, unfortunately, this is still the only market with the capacity for return in animated cinema. Bringing adult audiences to animation is still a constant struggle.
What is your company doing in response to this?
Sardinha em Lata has been trying to diversify the type of products it produces. Given the current changing market, we have to be prepared for possible structural changes in the way animated films are consumed, so the ideal thing for now is to achieve variety in our production, both in terms of target audience and format, graphic style, and genre.
Studios that were dedicated to a particular genre and style of animation ended up having to reduce their teams considerably because of the current crisis. By having several projects in progress, we can be flexible when choosing the first one to be produced, thus enabling us to adapt more quickly to possible market changes in a short space of time. The way we organise teams has also been adapted after Covid-19. We have a mixed team, with part of the team based at our studio in Lisbon, and we have created flexibility in the external team, made up of different freelancers that we hire depending on the number and size of the projects in production.
Undo tackles the thorny subject of mental health
Do you let your children or young family members watch YouTube Kids?
My son is already an adult, but in any case, I am not the one who will be able to stop consumer trends, or at least not in this way; another approach will have to be taken.
Do iconic children’s networks like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have any relevancy to young audiences in your market?
I think the way we consume audiovisual content is undoubtedly changing. I wish I had a magic formula to know where we are headed, but one thing is certain: the current television model no longer works and is losing more and more viewers.
Tell us about the project you are pitching at Cartoon Forum.
Undo (10×22′) is a series project for adults that meets the diversity that Sardinha em Lata seeks to have in its portfolio of projects. A sarcastic comedy that addresses a topic that is so widely talked about and discussed today: mental health. Taking a dog to a psychologist with her problems, which often seem ridiculous but are so close to our own, is a way of bringing the audience closer to the normality of psychological counselling that we all need at certain times in our lives. We could say that Undo is playing with serious issues.
