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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.04 - JULY 2000
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Hollywood's World Animation Celebration
The real meat-and-bones of the week, nonetheless, were the panel discussions, all of which, wittingly or not, came back to the one great mystery of what to make of the emerging, converging medium of the Internet. Two days were devoted to the International Business Conference for Television Animation; one day was given to the World Summit for Animated Feature Films. And while two years ago the Internet was only afforded a half-day seminar, this time around (apart from being the thematic undertone of every conversation) it was the specific focus of a three-day Big Animation Internet Pow-Wow. The Big Topic The audience was hungry for DETAILS and NUMBERS. How much are deals going for? What does profit participation look like? The Internet, everyone admits, is still looking for that nexus of technologists, capitalists and artists to hit the sweet spot of creating emotionally compelling content. But still, everyone also admits, part of the beauty and charm of the Web is the creative freedom it allows. "A camel is a horse created by committee," is the common lament and worry. But in distributing and exhibiting on the Internet, one does not have to answer the competing, sometimes inscrutable, notes of a roomful of network and marketing executives. One only has to satisfy their own whims, and the interests of their audience.
There is a difference, of course, in simply creating something for the Internet, and in having that something generate revenue. In one sense, the sobering news of the panelists is that, 'You have to first lose a boatload of money to be successful.' But then in the next breath, the advice comes: 'Don't listen to us. Ignore us. Just do great work. This is the moment in time when it can be seen and exposed.' No one can honestly anticipate the trajectory of the Internet, or where exactly it is evolving. New platforms for animated content -- portable palm devices, kiosks, Web-TV, e.g. -- are slowly working their way into the marketplace. For future audiences, the convergence of all these technologies and media will be commonplace and second nature. Our children will understand intuitively what we're now just trying to get our arms around. John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and Stimpy, and now, on-line, The Goddam George Liquor Program, is trying to encourage the unique freedom of the Internet back toward the visual strength of early animated shorts, as were pioneered on television in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. With characteristically irreverent and cantankerous humor, John K. assures us that we can look forward to such shows as Weekend Pussy Hunt (presumably on Icebox.com), and he suggests, "The role of the artist is to completely break down our American moral system."
Other Themes Miami-based Locomotion, a cable channel serving South America, Portugal and Spain, considers itself a 24-hour primetime animation destination, with a purported core audience of 18-to-35-year-olds. The channel expressly and exclusively caters to an older viewership, but this level of intelligent, mature animation, at least in the United States, is something sorely lacking and eagerly awaited. In the festival's film competition, seeing such works as When The Day Breaks (by Canadian directors Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, produced by the National Film Board of Canada) and Flying Nansen (by Russian director Igor Kovalyov, produced by Klasky-Csupo) was a real treat. One had the jaw-dropping realization of what animation could become, if more people would take the financial and creative risk to create it.
One of the seminars of the week specifically addressed this possibility -- of producing animated features in the budgetary range of US$3-10 million. With the somewhat inevitable and necessary costs of promoting and advertising a film, this investment quickly and minimally inflates to a more realistic price-tag of $10-15 million, but still the idea and intent is there. Business-as-usual in making animated movies does not have to be business as usual. For example, Klasky-Csupo is currently in production on an R-rated feature-length adaptation of Charles Bukowski's work, with a target budget of $3-5 million. The festival's many events and discussions all boiled down to one point however. Catherine Winder, of Twentieth Century Fox Animation, put it most succinctly: "You have to have someone who's open to guerilla filmmaking." Whether it is the Internet, producing the next smash on television or a feature -- the time is now for a few risk takers to hit it big. Gregory Singer is an independent producer living in Orange, California. He is also the assistant editor of the Animation Journal. |
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