Being Ian

TV Kids Weekly, January
23, 2007

NAME: Being Ian

ORIGIN: The show comes from an original idea
loosely based on the creator’s life when he was growing up.

CREATOR: Ian James Corlett

TV SHOW: Being Ian is starting its fourth season. The
series consists of 62 22-minutes episodes and is designed by the acclaimed
independent filmmaker Marv Newland (Bambi Meets Godzilla), with story editor work from Vito
Viscomi (The Howard Stern Show, Yakkity Yak). The show’s look is unique, blending
Flash scenes that look like old style “rubber hose” animation with 3D MAYA
animation during Ian’s fantasy sequences. The visual style is a mix of Flash,
3-D, stop motion and live action.

Being Ian is aimed at 9- to 12-year-olds and
follows the escapades of Ian Kelley—his incredible imagination,
fascination for films, quirky family and epic adventures. Being Ian mixes slapstick silliness with the wry
humor of everyday life and Ian’s far-out, off-the-wall fantasies that regularly
turn a typical day at the beach into Castaway and an ordinary camping trip into the Blair
Witch Project.

EXECUTIVE
PRODUCER: Blair
Peters, a partner and executive producer at Studio B Productions

COMMISSIONING
BROADCASTER: YTV in
Canada

TV SALES: Being Ian has been sold to YTV and VRAK in
Canada, ABC Australia, AVRO in the Netherlands, MBC in the Middle East, LUK in
Spain, KiKa in Germany, Cartoon Network Latin America, Zig Zag in Poland,
France 3 and TPS in France, Tabtoo in Belgium, EBS in South Korea and Lativi in
Indonesia.

STRATEGY
FOR ROLLOUT: The
quirky and fun adventures of Ian lend the show to several extensions beyond the
TV screen. “What makes this property unique and particularly compelling in an
interactive world is that [the interactivity] is very organic to the content—of
who Ian is and of how he experiences the world and the adventures that he goes
on,” says Catherine Warren, the president of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies
and the digital entertainment consultant for Studio B. “My opinion is that for
some content, multiplatform [extensions are a] bit of a forced fit, in terms of
allowing kids to enter the world [of the show and the characters]. For Being
Ian it is just utterly
seamless, utterly transparent, it makes sense.”

Studio B has
done a multiplatform deal with its broadcast partner YTV. “Through that
business relationship, YTV is identifying some very particular things that it
would like to do, including integrating the beingian.com website into its
portal,” continues Warren. “The portal itself reaches one million kids every
month. It’s a very high trafficked entertainment destination. In addition, they
[plan on] building some web-based games around our characters, which we will do
with them so [the property] stays on brand. YTV intends to stream clips and
episodes and gradually move into mobile.”

Being Ian can also lend itself to traditional
games and toys, including all kinds of electronic devices, such as digital
cameras.