John Rice

CEO & co-founder
Jam Media
Ireland

Pitching: Hanna & Nana
 
What is the biggest issue facing the animation industry?
There’s the obvious Covid-19 issue, but I think we’ve proven we can be very resilient. Unlike our live-action contemporaries, we are a sector that can operate while observing social distancing. The challenge is what does the new studio set-up and pipeline look like going into the future and how does this affect creativity, collaboration and people’s wellbeing.

What is your company doing in response to this?
It’s been a great and very productive and inspiring time for us in terms of development. We do a 9am Zoom call with everybody every morning. We didn’t do that in the real world, but we do it now and it’s something that will continue in future. It’s a great idea, even if it’s just for 15 minutes to find out what everybody’s doing and, more importantly, how everybody is doing. It’s really important that we, as managers, keep that connection with people.

What impact could the Covid-19 pandemic have on the animation industry long-term?
I’m an optimist by nature. I would look at the virus being gone in the not too distant future, within the next twelve months or so. Within that period, the viewing habits that we’ve seen under lockdown will probably remain. As we come out of this, the world’s appetite for content will have increased, and animation producers are in a tremendous position to be able to capitalise on that.

How are subscription video-on-demand services changing the animation industry?
Streaming has turned the business around. Competition in any area is a great thing. The streamers are more open than some of the more traditional outlets in the US to working with international players and producers with local voices. There’s a real acceptance of players from other countries and that’s a great thing.

Tell us about the project you are pitching at Cartoon Forum.
Hanna & Nana (39×7′) is about an energetic, young, outgoing, brilliant little girl with an incredible love for animals, and her Nana, who is a scientist and an inventor. Nana has vowed to spend as much time as she possibly can with Hannah for the rest of her life, so they take a rigged up Volkswagen Beetle and go around the world and save endangered animals. It’s a show about conservation, which is something that is on the minds of young people.