The animation industry, like much of the entertainment business, is hard to break into. Despite the various credentials one might have tagged across a résumé, there are few written qualifications that can easily land one a job in the animation industry, especially in production. The situation is even bleaker for younger individuals who do not have experience in the field. Even with an undergraduate degree, MBA or Animation MFA, there are no academic programs in the country that provide an education for would-be producers of animation. The closest academic options are undergraduate and graduate programs in animation; however, those are tailored mostly for artists. Some West coast universities offer graduate programs in producing, like the University of Southern California's Peter Stark Producing Program, but none are geared specifically toward animation. So alas, it is quite an academic conundrum to become an animation producer.

Jeff Fino of Wild Brain advises job seekers to start out at a small company in an entry position and then work through the ranks. Photo credit: Julia Tortolani, Wild Brain, Inc.

Start Small
In order to discern the best way to get a job producing animation, Animation World Magazine has interviewed the executives most responsible for hiring at several smaller animation studios, namely: Duck Soup Studios, Renegade Animation and Wild Brain. While many ambitious students may yearn to produce shorts and animated features at the likes of Disney, DreamWorks and Pixar, beginning one's producing career at a smaller studio is arguably better due to their faster production schedules of shorter projects like commercials. Jeff Fino, co-founder and executive producer of Wild Brain, advocates the advantages of smaller studios: "Producing commercials is much faster than producing cartoons or features. It is swift and it is crazy and it is rewarding, but it is eight to twelve weeks. The best sports analogy is the sprint versus the marathon. You have to be well conditioned to do both. Commercials are great because they teach you a variety of styles. On any given day, you could be doing radically different stuff... Not to mention that it is easier for the cream to rise to the top in a small studio than to go through all the levels in a large company."

A frame from a Rice Krispies spot entitled Billboard from Renegade Animation. © Kellog. Ad agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago, IL.	Duck Soup at work. Photo courtesy of Duck Soup Studios.