Hello from China….this time in Fuzhou.  This is quite a city and province.  It’s located on China’s Southeast coast and rests at a junction of the Yangzte River Delta and Pearl River Delta..both are dynamic economic circles.  Across the Taiwan Straits lies its closest neighbor, Taiwan and nearby neighbors include Hong Kong and Macao.  Temperatures are moderate and the infrastructure is excellent.  There’s building going on all over the city.

I’m here to attend the 8^th World Summit for Multi-media and Internet and the 1^st. China International Conference for Creative Economy Cooperation.  The program is being held over the course of four days.  There were a couple of dozen topics discussed including Global Digital Creative Industries with a focus on Brazil and India, Intellectual Property Protection,  and International Trends on Creative Industries.

 

The Jilin Animation Institute is an incredible undertaking. It’s now celebrating over ten years of operation.  The student base is over 10,500.  That’s NOT a typo.  10,500 students….the largest animation student enrollment in the world!  To support these students is a staff of 1,400 instructors, teachers, technicians and artists including a smattering of foreign nationals.  The institute is in the process of expanding its campus to accommodate up to 20,000 students within the next few years.

Surprise, surprise - I’m not at 30,000 ft. as I write this latest blog but on a high-speed train, traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg in Russia, as I make my journey back to the U.K. following a wonderful time attending the KROK International Animation Festival.  This unique festival, now in its nineteenth year, is held in alternate years between Ukraine and Russia and what makes it so unique is the location – it’s on a river cruise ship.  This year was the Moscow edition.  

When we left off last month, we were just getting ready to talk about where your revenues will come from.  If your project is a feature length film, your revenues will probably come from these sources in these amounts:

Cinema/Theatre	20% - 30%
Video Sales	35% - 45%
Television	23% - 30%
Ancillary	5%   - 10%

If your project is for television, the breakdown would look something like this:

In previous blogs, I’ve talked about the wisdom of producing animated films based on indigenous stories and how native tales, retold through the medium of animation, can be both profitable and personally rewarding.

The big remaining question is whether or not these kinds of films can be made for international audiences while maintaining profitability.  The answer is yes. In the formula below notice how many times I talk about ‘international team’, because that’s at the heart of a successful formula.

I’m in the UK having recently returned from attending the Cannes Film Festival, followed shortly thereafter by the Annecy International Animation Festival.  These two events, both in France, separated by just a few days, are the premiere festivals in the international calendar for live action and animation respectively. 

 

Now is the time for US animation entities to actively seek co-production opportunities with their counterparts in Asia.  The growth of the Trans-Pacific animation production pipeline has created business opportunities for animation communities both in Asia and abroad. 

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, I POSTED A BLOG ON PRODUCING FILMS BASED ON INDIGENOUS STORIES AND CHARACTERS.  I PROMISED TO FOLLOW IT UP, SO HERE IT IS:

You really need to pay attention because in the time it takes you to read a few hundred words, I’m going to tell you the future of producing animated films based on indigenous stories.  I’m going to give you the formula for success.

Last time I sat and shared my thoughts, I was enroute back from a delightful trip to India.  This journey is a rather shorter one (thankfully); I’m heading to London from Viborg in Denmark, via Holland.  I’m returning from two days spent teaching a program at The Animation Workshop on producing independent animated feature films and the particular challenges of doing so in Europe. 

 

The Animation Workshop is an animation school housed in former military barracks in Viborg, Denmark. It forms a part of VIA University College. Since the late 1980s, The Animation Workshop has educated and trained animators for the Danish, as well as the international animation, computer game and visual effects industry. Teachers, as well as students, come from both Denmark and the rest of the world - as a result, all classes are conducted in English. The Animation Workshop attracts teachers from all over the world, including professional animation artists from well-known studios such as Pixar and DreamWorks.

 

By Bill Dennis

I’ve always been a fan of stories that have their roots in the culture and history of a particular region.  Stories that tell of historical events and heroes.  Stories that are based on fables and folklore.  Almost always, these stories and characters are interesting, intriguing and unique.  Animation allows us to depict  these characters and tell these stories without any boundaries or restrictions.

We’re all looking for something that hasn’t been done before. So, why then aren’t more animation filmmakers producing films based on indigenous stories? I don’t think the answer has anything to do with creative issues.  There appears to be no end to the number of indigenous tales at our disposal. The answer is the misconception that these kinds of films cannot show profits.  Indeed, they can and do!