Of course, if one had the ideal academic credentials (even though an MFA in Animation Production does not yet exist), the most important qualification for both large and small studios is experience. Another facet to the conundrum of becoming an animation producer is the adage associated with getting experience: No matter for what job you are searching, you cannot get a job without experience and you cannot get experience without getting a job. Again, it is the chicken and the egg problem. (I still question why Chuck Jones never made a Looney Tunes short on that subject.) Nevertheless, when you set off in search of experience, namely your first job or internship at an animation studio, there are three abstracts that will help distinguish you from the herd of other applicants: an organized and diligent work ethic, connections and luck.

Ashley Postlewaite of Renegade warns newcomers to brace themselves for a bumpy ride. Photo courtesy of Renegade Animation.

Timing Is Everything
The easiest of the three to explain is luck. The animation industry is a business based on the economic consumerism of supply and demand. So for small studios in particular, the amount of animation jobs is dependent on the studio's workload. At any given time, a small studio could go from a maximum capacity of work to near stagnation. According to Mark Medernach, executive producer at Duck Soup: "There is not as much work out there as there was three years ago, but that does not mean there are not jobs out there. Hard work and persistence is going to get you the work. The economy is weaker right now, so people are less inclined to spend money on animation."

Consequently, depending on the national economic scene when you submit your résumé or make an inquiry at a studio could determine whether you get a job. Ashley Postlewaite, executive producer at Renegade, concurs saying: "Everything is cyclical. The whole economy is nuts right now. It only makes sense that the animation industry is part of that. It always goes up and down, so you have to be prepared to weather the downtime."

A scene from Naptime, a series in development at Wild Brain. Image courtesy of Wild Brain, Inc.	Mark Medernach of Duck Soup suggests that job hunters polish their people skills. Photo courtesy of Duck Soup Studios.

Jeff Fino advocates similar ideas for starting at the bottom and working your way up: "Do not expect to start at a level that is too high. Animation more than many businesses requires you to do a bit of an apprenticeship to learn the process. It does not matter if you are an artist or a producer. You have to prove yourself. If you are an artist, show that you have the talent. If you are a producer, show you have the wherewithal to make a highly collaborative process work. You in essence become one link in that chain, and you have to prove that you are strong with the other links. The good side to that is that your talents are recognized quickly and your value is judged pretty fast. Good people can rise up through the ranks in relatively short order."