Eléonore Sauzeau

Eléonore Sauzeau
Head of development
TNZPV Productions
France
Pitching: My Dog, God & the Pokethings

What is the biggest issue facing the animation industry?
It’s difficult to give a general answer to this because it depends on whether you are a small or large studio and on whether you work internationally. But at our studio, the biggest challenge is recruitment. This is because we need talent that has a very specific skill on a very specific software called Blender. Not many studios use Blender and therefore not many people are trained on it.

What is your company doing in response to this?
We curate our social media carefully so that it reflects who we are as an organisation in the hope of attracting top talent. We also spend a lot of time visiting schools and speaking to students in a bid to hire them early on. If we can’t find talent that is trained in Blender, we will hire someone and then teach them how to use the software.

Are physical animation studios essential or is working from home the future of the industry?
Working from home 100% of the time is not something that we believe is possible, mostly because of communication issues. In animation, you work as a team. It’s not an industry where you have individuals working on isolated projects, so it is important that team members can all bounce off one another in the same room.

My Dog, God & the Pokethings

How do you feel about Disney’s decision to close many of its TV channels around the world?
From Disney’s perspective, it is a good idea to close the channels because they can have one streamlined platform, giving viewers direct access to all of its content. More broadly, it’s difficult to give an answer because it is not yet clear whether the move will affect how much they invest and commission.

Tell us about the project you are pitching at Cartoon Forum.
My Dog, God & the Pokethings (pictured, 1×26′) is adapted from the book of the same name by Myren Duval. It is the story of eight-year-old Pauline, whose parents take in a family of refugees from Syria. Pauline has to share her room, her possessions and her dog with the two new children, and that bothers her. As a result, she starts making plans to stop the war in Syria so she can reclaim her peace and quiet. The idea behind the show, which is warm and funny, is to tackle real problems and questions through the eyes of an energetic little girl.