28 March 2024 The Irish Film & Television Network
     

Irish Film and Television Network

 »

News

 »

Animation News



“Delivering your show is only half the journey”- Gerard O’Rourke talks Animation with IFTN
13 Dec 2016 : Laura Brennan
A full day seminar held by Creative Europe Desk & Screen Training Ireland aimed at animation producers who wanted to learn more about what it takes to turn their projects into household names was recently held in The Morrison Hotel, Dublin.

IFTN spoke with Gerard O’Rourke of Geronimo Productions (formerly Monster Entertainment), one of the chairs and speakers at the event. He spoke about the strong landscape for Irish made animations in the industry and the relationships to be made to help get over the challenges you can expect over the lifetime of your show.

IFTN: What do you think are the important notes to take away from the talk you were chairing on ‘Building & Engaging Your Audience for Animation’?

“I think there was a message that being a creator, a producer and a production company and delivering your show is only half the journey.  Because when you get there, as Pierre Sissmann from Cyber Group said, you have to have relationships with the buyers, the acquisitions commissioning executives, but you also have to have the same relationship but separately with the scheduling teams.

“You need to influence these people, so your show (which you’ve maybe spent 4 years developing and making) when it has been acquired is now going to be programmed at the right time and in the right place to achieve its goals and be maximised.

“So we turn from creative producer financier, to business to business relationship marketing people, and I think it’s the role of the company owners or producers to encapsulate and take all that on board to build and make sure they have those relationships. Otherwise your show may not get the right spot, it may got lost in the schedule. There’s a lot of money and time that’s been invested and there’s a lot of expectation.

“Another important note is, don’t expect that something is going to happen in 12 - 18 months, it is potentially a 10 - 15 year build for your animation.

“It may not suit everybody’s timeframe, but I think it will also help you over a disappointment if years 0-3 are not massively successful. As long as you are building the right blocks and your partnering with the right people, then over time by year 5 - 7 you should start to see that you are starting to go somewhere and then maybe you might hit the top of the curve by year 10 – 12.”

IFTN: Being aware of the life time of your animation also involves having to try and predict the future demand of what format you should be converting your animation into from SD to HD to 4K and 8K. Can this always be a tough decision to make?  

“Well, I’m not the technical guy but I do remember going from SD to HD when we were doing a show in SD. We asked our distributors should we make it in HD and they said, no it will never catch on, there’s no need and now it’s very difficult to sell that show in an SD format and buyers only want HD.

“So I think if you can do it, then you kind of have to. Especially if your show is going to be around for 15 years. You are either going to have to make the conversion or as some places don’t accept when you go from HD to 4K, they may want you to have an original 4K show that might be a requirement. So you’ve just got to stay with the technology.

Gerard O'Rourkes is creator and series producer of 'Nelly & Nora'

IFTN: How has the role of a producer changed?

“It’s a tough role nowadays a full producer has to be in a lot of spaces, at all the markets, at all the events, picking up all the new things and building those relationships.

“It’s not just learning how to put a team together and create a schedule, get the finance, and deal with the broadcasters.  You’ve got to be technically up to date and have that ability to be forward thinking of who you should be creating relations with.

“You’d have to build into your budget from the beginning your investment in technology for the animation. There’s always the opportunity that over a 15 year cycle, you might get 1 if not 2 renewals. So there will be money that comes down the road, but that depends where you sit in the recoupment corridor and whether your actually going to see that money. A lot of the money that’s made initially from a show goes back to pay your financial partners. So you are behind your show, putting all this time and effort and expense in and you may not actually be seeing any cash from it, until you get to that later stage.”

IFTN: One of the speakers Pierre Sissmann talked about registering your show and putting it forward for as many festivals, awards and competitions as possible to get its name out there in the market, would you agree?

“Yes I think if you’re Oscar nominated people will remember you. If you win an award, we tend to love winners. If somebody wins a gold tournament or something we tend to gush about them, but you could make a great TV show but if it never wins an award nobody will hear about it.

“Even nominations are good at getting the name out there, even your mum, granny and everyone will hear that you’ve been nominated and that’s all they’ll want to know and if you win it’s even extra.

“I think it is important to get as many awards along the way and you can tell your partners and the broadcasters in different countries that you’ve won awards, because as somebody mentioned in one of the first sessions at the event this morning. The person who bought IBM never got sacked. So if a person buys an award winning show, they can at least stand over it and say, well I bought an award winning show. It’s all marketing.

“People may hear about a show through an article, about its award win or nomination and then go to watch it on Netflix or whatever and then they like it on Facebook and the audience builds. Sometimes you just need that little extra nudge that’s going to make you stick out and be recognised.”

IFTN: How do you think event was received?

“I think it's good yeah, it’s making people aware of the potential that is there and not to be fooled in to thinking that just because you make a show it will all happen, you have to realise that you are only on the first run of the ladder.

“The fact that you can now partner with somebody from Youtube as a partner who will look after your Youtube content. Then somebody who will look after your electronic sales, your google account and then you can also have a traditional distributor, you can pick many many partners and I think that’s the way to do it. The ability to find good partners, know how to carve it up and know how to deal with them and keep your show in as many areas as possible.”

IFTN: How would you describe the current animation industry in Ireland?

“We’ve definitely punched above our weight, we’re very good at creating shows we are great storytellers. We’ve been very good at producing and financing shows, and I think now we’ve moved to that space in which we need to go into world domination.  We need to take the next phase and improve the marketing of our shows and ensure that our shows last those 10 – 15 years, and that we know how to be there in that space.”

IFTN: And what is going to help to do that?

“Conferences like this today are a great help.  I’d also like to see other partners like the Irish Film Board and Screen Training Ireland looking at this. They have been very good up until now and over the years, getting us to market, finding partners and co-production partners and they’ve done a brilliant job as we are now so good at it, we just need some more help in the next phase.”

‘Building Your Brand A Full Day Seminar for Animation Producers' was an event organised by Creative Europe Desk Ireland MEDIA and Screen Training Ireland and is supported by the Sectoral Development Fund of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) and the Bord Scannain na hÉireann/ Irish Film Board.

Speakers included: 

Nelly Voukakai, MoMedia

Jennifer Ansley, 9 Story Media Group

Mike Bell, Simon’s Cat

Pierre Sissmann, Cyber Group Studios

Rebecca Frankel, Little Dot Studios

Jeff Norton, Awesome Media & Entertainment

Jennie Stacey, Brown Bag Films

Andrew Fitzpatrick, Monster Entertainment

Ronan McCabe, Producer

Gerry Shirren, Cartoon Saloon

Moe Honan, Moetion Films

Gerard O’Rourke, Geronimo Productions





FEATURES & INTERVIEWS
Sharon Horgan, Róisín Gallagher, and Éanna Hardwicke among BAFTA TV Award nominees
IFTA Awards 2024: IFTA nominations announced
Free Industry Newsletter
Subscribe to IFTN's industry newsletter - it's free and e-mailed directly to your inbox every week.
Click here to sign up.






 
 the Website  Directory List  Festivals  Who's Who  Locations  Filmography  News  Crew  Actors
 

Contact Us | Advertise | Copyright | Terms & Conditions | Security & Privacy | RSS Feed | Twitter

 

 

 
canli bahis siteleri rulet siteleri deneme bonusu veren siteler bahis siteleri free spin veren siteler deneme bonusu veren yeni siteler yeni casino siteleri yeni bahis siteleri betwoon grandpashabet