Hello! Before you all dismiss me as another guy who wants to start a studio without a clue hear me out!
Im currently a freshman in college majoring in Animation with a minor in buisness managment.
My dream has been to start my own Animation studio, make my own films. Here is my general plan so far:
-Finsh my undergrad
-Find an internship and then job in the animation field geting experince/contacts
-Start my studio
But the question remains, how fill I get funding for the films I want to make? I know many people say start with shorts, but how will that help me raise funds. If I am correct, making a good 3D animated film will cost above a million dollars. I highly doubt a bank loan will give me millions of dollars that I need to make a film or get it into theaters, and shorts dont exactly pack theaters. SO my question is, how do you do it? How did Pixar and dreamworks get the investment needed to make these films as newcomers? How do shorts factor into this?
If your school has a financial department, you should go there. Getting some class time under the belt will be a big help. At mimium you should has a few questions.
I went to the finacial department today, but sadly my school isnt known to be "buisness savy". They basicly told me that with good credit I should get a decent bank loan, but even then I left with the same amount of questions I came in with. I HIGHLY doubt that a bank will give me above a couple million dollars (if even a million). I understand that to make a good 3D animation full length film I would need AT THE VERY LEAST 50 people to be working their fingers to the bone. Averege salary to get good animators would be 50k each, and that would make a yearly cost of 2,500,000 just for my employees. Add in studio rent fees, equipment, software, and the likes of that and thats proably another 2-4 million dollers right there (correct me if im wrong). Distributors proably have there own fee as well. So once again, how do start ups get money for the studios? How do they find investors and what purpose do short films serve?
The "problem" with your general plan is that the second and third goals can have a huge amount of time between them--as much as a decade or more.
I was 10 yrs into the animation biz myself before I cofounded a studio, and I was barely ready for that.
I left the venture after a couple of years to pursue work I was interested in, as opposed to what the studio thought profitable.
I cannot stress enough about gaining hands-on experience in as many aspects of the production process as possible, because that is where you'll be able to gauge whether you'll make it or break it.
How to gain work for a studio?
First, become really good at what you do.......being animation, design, or storyboarding. Storyboarding is typically a service that helps segue into studio building, followed closely by actual animation services themselves. You do service work......that is overflow jobs from other studios, to the point where you cannot do all the work yourself, and have to hire on other bodies to complete the jobs.
If......IF you do good enough work the reputation can be parlayed into getting the storyboarding ( or animation ) contract itself from the source client. At that point, the studio is launched, albeit on a small scale. You then have to work it so that your "other capabilities" become known..........which is when you create reels of your animation and get them out to clients.
Everything hinges on how you deliver at this point, and how you are able to expand as opportunities present. The studio might be a small operation for several years before you are even able to reach such a milestone. Maintain a level of high quality, and inevitably, someone will come along and invest.
If you want to do a feature, you could wait 25 years after the day you open your doors before you are ready.
But let me tell you this much: the stress will be unbelievable.
Anything can sink you, and anything will. You'll get zero loyalty from your staff, even if you pay them well--but you HAVE TO BE loyal to them. The ledger book will determine "how loyal" you can be to anyone. Talent will drive you insane.
Expect little pay for yourself for years--there can be enough to live on for yourself, but don't expect to become a big-shot right out of the gate.
Most studios fail because the studio owner/operators pay themselves too much, too soon.
Equipment is going to be expensive, but you have to gauge when to buy new equipment and real estate as you need it.......and JUST as you need it.
You have to quickly learn what your strengths are, and capitalize on them--and by that I mean the kinds of art and shows you are best suited to produce.
One shitty job can kill all your efforts, and you can waste years of rep-building on one bad contracted show. You have to learn when to risk saying "no".
Also understand that clients can be worse than talents.
If you low-ball to get a gig into the shop, you can expect as much grief as if you won the high-bid.
NOBODY goes from opening their door to producing a feature right from the start, even if they are very good. Investment is centred solely on confidence, and confidence comes from trust and consistent proven capability. You have to demonstrate that you can churn out very good material over and over and over again, without fail.
Most studios fail--usually within about 5 years. Expect to go from a facility of, say.........20 staff, scaled -down back to just a couple of people and yourself doing the work, at least a couple of times. That is why your ability to create the work itself is so absolutely fundamental and critical.
If you cannot do that, don't even try opening a studio.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Thank you, this was exactly what I needed to see!