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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.02 - MAY 2000
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Cartoons On The Bay: On The Internet Front Launched less than a year ago, Shockwave, Macromedia’s spin-off entertainment destination, is a major player in Web animation. As a unique destination for animations, games and music, Shockwave represents a true convergence between different art forms -- cast to a wide audience. The idea of creating an entertainment site evolved gradually as Macromedia started seeing the incredible traffic associated with Shockwave and Flash. They tried putting clips like South Park onto the site and found there were tens of millions of people that came to view them. Shockwave has amassed a diverse compilation of cartoon classics and developed partnerships with media companies, entertainment leaders and interactive developers such as Comedy Central and Fox Interactive. Shockwave features existing animated properties, as well as original animated concepts to be created for and debuted exclusively on the Shockwave site. Last December, they signed Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, to develop a series of 39 animated shorts. Recent celebrity deals include renowned directors Tim Burton and David Lynch. Eric Oldrin, Shockwave's Senior Producer for Series & Show Content, said: "Shockwave.com provides talent, technology and distribution. The artists share in the success of our shows significantly more than traditional media, so if they create a hit, everyone wins." Joe Shields (Joe Cartoon) who, not too long ago, was designing T-shirts for a living, readily credits Macromedia technology for dramatically shifting his artistic direction and "making it possible to create characters that can come to life."
Interactivity was well demonstrated with Banja,an on-line game in which a pirate boat runs aground on a mysterious island. Banja offers customized development. For example, players can develop their own Banja world, knowledge of the island and behavior toward other characters in the game. The level of team work players get from each other directly influences their opportunities to gain access to new features. While playing, participants also have the opportunity to access chat rooms, write and send e-mail by giving the messages to the paperboy. One can also leave notes destined for friends, or help edit the island newspaper. Banja is available in French, English, German, Spanish and Italian. More versions are to come. Developed like a TV series, with a new episode each month, it is free for the Net surfer and licenses are being sold to on-line broadcasters (licenses are sold by language, not by territory). Version 2.0 will be released in June of this year. Young creator Sebastien Kochman is now the COO of a 24-employee company.
Bechamel.com is another example of interactivity. Prolific and irreverent, the site includes animated series, fiction stories, games, riddles, music (original scores) and more! Bechamel plays with words, images and sounds -- mix all of these ingredients and it gels perfectly. Bechamel.com was launched last November by French duo Guillaume Joire and Sophie Estival, together with four other artists, as a communication tool for a team of freelance artists. It received the Media Internet prize at Imagina 2000. As for their business model, the creators have no intention of becoming Webcasters. They might be developing content for on-line broadcasters, but Bechamel.com, their gem, will remain totally independent and non-commercial. The site is in French only, but some of its features are universal. Casse-Tête, a free adaptation of the Hangman game, is such an example.
We are certainly going to see a huge breakout of entertainment on the Internet in the near future. Competition for eyeballs will be fierce and not everybody will remain. Hopefully, original initiatives will survive in this brave new world, like a breath of fresh air. Annick Teninge is the General Manager of Animation World Network. A French native, Annick began her animation career as Assistant Director at the Annecy International Animation Festival, a post she held for six years. |
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.
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