Pairing Up

May 24, 2010 World Screen

This article originally appeared in the MIPTV 2010 issue of TV Kids.

One of the effects of the recent global downturn has been a surge in interest in international co-productions. In times when broadcasters have been busily reducing the license fees they are willing to pay, and financing has been harder to find, more producers have been forced to look at co-production partnerships to get their projects off the drawing board.

Nowhere is this more evident than in children’s programming, where there has been a surge in international co-productions in recent years. Ira Levy, a partner and executive producer at Breakthrough Films & Television, estimates that a third of the company’s output is co-produced. “It’s always been a crucial part of our strategy in animation and live-action kids’ programming. But now more than ever a lot of projects just wouldn’t get off the ground unless we did them as co-pros,” he says. Breakthrough’s currently slated projects include My Big Big Friend, a 52×11-minute co-pro with 2D Lab in Brazil.
 
MarVista Entertainment also has a good track record in co-producing. “One of the highlights of the early stages of MarVista was our co-development arrangement with Brookwell McNamara Entertainment, which led to the co-production between us and MTV Networks on the series Beyond the Break,” says CEO Fernando Szew. The series aired on The N (now known as TeenNick) in the U.S. and sold to major broadcasters around the world. “That was a successful creative and business deal for us as well as for all the partners,” continues Szew. “Each one of us needed the other parties to make it happen. From our perspective, I would venture to say that, as an incipient independent, we were able to make the series happen by aligning ourselves with strong partners.”
 
Now MarVista has teamed up with Disney Channel to co-produce 16 Wishes, starring Debby Ryan, who was in the series The Suite Life on Deck, and Jean-Luc Bilodeau of Kyle XY fame. The TV movie will premiere in the U.S. this summer and later on Disney channels around the world.
 
It would be naïve to suggest that the interest in international co-production wasn’t largely about money. If producers can leverage 20 percent to 50 percent of the cost of a pro­ject through co-production partnerships, then it’s little wonder that they are an increasingly critical part of children’s TVproduction.
 
“Co-productions bring different creative forces together that collaborate to produce better content,” says MarVista’s Szew. “That’s the benefit on the creative side, but they often also help on the business side by mitigating risk and sharing on the potential upside, which is inherently necessary in today’s increasingly globalized market, where most content is aimed at foreign exploitation as well as domestic consumption.”
 
As any experienced co-producer will tell you, successful co-production partnerships are about more than money. “It’s just as important to look at the organic unions that are going to contribute to the creative side of the project and raise everyone’s game,” says Joan Lambur, Breakthrough’s executive producer of animation, live action, family and children.
 
Some co-productions lend themselves to particular territories, adds Lambur. “So if it’s about girls and horses, it makes sense to reach out to Australia or the U.K. for partners. Sympathetic cultural approaches are what make [co-productions] work.”
 
Kevin Gillis, the CEO and executive producer at the Skywriter Media & Entertainment Group, adds, “You might find a better director in France or Brazil. The beauty of co-pro is you can sit down with your partners and look at who can bring the most creative talent to the project.” Gillis is currently reaching out for co-production partners for his new live-action series Live from Earth, among other projects.
Another big advantage is that co-producing can make the final product more commercially viable, adds Gillis. “These days TV shows have to work culturally in many different territories, and that takes co-production. It’s all about being able to tap into the best in each territory, allowing you to expand the show’s cultural reach.”
 
It’s a point backed up by Arne Lohmann, the director of co-productions and development for children and youth at Germany’s ZDF Enterprises, who currently has 15 co-productions on his slate, including Dance Academy, a 52-part teen drama co-produced with ABC in Australia and Screen Australia. “We have partners we have worked together with for years—in Australia, Canada and Europe. We benefit from their editorial input and get a show which has an international appeal.”
 
Doug Schwalbe, the executive VP of production and program sales at Classic Media, is adding to his current MIPTV property list Casper’s Scare School, a three-way co-production with producers Moonscoop in France and DQ Entertainmentin India. “The advantage is you get a preapproved creative concept—I know I like it, I know the French like it and the Indians too, which probably means it’s saleable in the U.S., France, and throughout Asia.We know it’ll have a global appeal, which projects that aren’t co-produced don’t necessarily have.”
 
THE ART OF CO-PRODUCTION
If there is an art of successful co-production, it’s—not surprisingly—all about picking the right partners, deciding who can offer different editorial perspectives as well as different strengths and assets that they can bring to the table.
 
The right partner will vary depending on the type of co-production relationship. Often, partners can bring structural funds or tax breaks, other times they might have a relationship with a broadcaster or access to retail outlets.
 
4Kids Entertainment’s executive VP of international, Brian Lacey, admits, “If somebody brings us a project that we like and they have a big broadcast partner on board, that raises our interest substantially. It helps us appreciate the likelihood that there will be wider exposure, which will contribute to other revenue streams. That’s important with production costs around $250,000 to $300,000 per half hour or maybe more.”
 
The most successful co-productions are the ones where all partners share complementary skills and a common goal. Not all, however, work. “The pitfalls are similar to those in any collaboration or any relationship,” says MarVista’s Szew. “There is the possibility for conflict and divergent views and interests, which can lead to projects that do not fulfill their vision.”
 
That’s an area that John Vandervelde, the senior VP of business development and international co-production at Canada’s Cookie Jar Entertainment, knows all about. “I have been doing co-pros for 20 years, and more than ever it’s about picking the right partner,” Vandervelde stresses. “It’s not about price but finding somebody that you trust and want to be in business with long-term. Getting them up to speed is a lot of work and you don’t want one-off relationships.”
 
But there’s no avoiding the fact that while co-pros are increasingly popular, they can be a headache. “In the last year we have had two co-pros fall apart and we had to scramble to fix them because our co-production partners ran out of money,” says Vandervelde.
The current financial climate can cause problems, and only serves to underline the fact that with co-productions you are reliant on somebody else. “We have got some on-going issues trying to get co-pro partners to file their paperwork,” Vandervelde continues. “If they fail to file, we lose two ways; first, we don’t get the government funding, plus it doesn’t count as Canadian content to our broadcaster—which won’t amuse them. Try selling another show to those guys!”
 
When it comes to co-productions treaties, which always involve plenty of paperwork, making sure your co-producer has good administrative backup is key, advises Skywriter’s Gillis. “Sometimes territories don’t quite understand the importance of co-production treaty administration. Getting documents signed, certifying them as co-pros, is vital because the Canadian producer needs that to release Canadian funds.”
 
Get it right and co-production treaties can be a very effective way of leveraging finance. Canada, for example, is well known for building up a major international co-production business based around a combination of soft funding, tax breaks and broadcaster license fees, which the funding body Telefilm Canada reported added up to 77 international pro­jects in 2008 worth a total of C$387 billion ($379.7 billion).
 
TOO MANY COOKS?
A typical co-production will involve two or three companies, with most producers working on the basis of the fewer the better. One way to minimize the potential for things going wrong is to reduce the number of partners to two or a maximum of three, says Vandervelde, who currently has a number of three-way co-pros going on, including Doodlebops Rockin’ Road Show with Argentina’s Illusion Studios and Germany’s Optix Entertainment, and the boys’ comedy-action series Kung Fu Dino Posse with Sunwoo Entertainment in Korea.
 
“Where we work with an Asian animator I try to throw in a European post-production partner so the project gets European content status. Three is the max, though. You hear about those feature films with five, six or seven co-producers and nothing good ever comes of that!”
Lohmann of ZDF Enterprises insists that the best structure is often fewer partners investing more. “That can make things run more smoothly,” he says.
 
Skywriter’s Gillis adds, “It’s true that with too many cooks you’ll end up with a burnt pie. I try to keep the numbers to a minimum, as it’s difficult enough to get two people in bed. With a ménage-à-trois somebody’s going to feel left out!”
 
Of course, the more partners you have on board the more potential there is for creative disagreements—the single biggest problem with co-productions. “We try to ensure that at the outset we share the same vision,” insists Lohmann. “You have to discuss things such as production design and characters, otherwise it will be really horrible.”
 
Breakthrough’s Levy agrees. “Making sure all partners buy into the creative concept at the outset is key. You need like minds with the same sensibility—it’s like a marriage.”
 
Although co-productions are business agreements, it’s very important to like your co-pro partners, says Stephanie Betts, the director of development and licensing at Breakthough. “You’ll be together for four years and you’ll have to agree [on] everything together. When designs come in you have to agree [on] them. We set up approval marks every step of the way, with color, rough cut, voices and music. At every stage we go back and forth between co-production partners.”
 
BUILDING TRUST
Face-to-face meetings are the best way forward, although when partnering with producers on other continents, this isn’t always possible, increasing the potential for miscommunication and misunderstanding. “Everybody has to be on the same page, so Skype gets used a lot,” says Betts.
 
Skywriter’s Gillis recommends actively seeking out partners who demonstrate flexibility and an ability to collaborate. “Your partner needs to be collaborative or it will be a nightmare from the start,” he declares.
 
“What I do is to send over some basic creative overview notes to see how they respond,” reveals Gillis. “If they are too defensive or say, ‘No, we can’t change that because we have our own deal with the writer,’ then you begin to think: Hang on, this is going to be a struggle.”
But in any co-production—as in any kind of TV production—you should anticipate creative conflicts, warns Classic Media’s Schwalbe: “I really think that people who complain about having to make creative compromises with co-productions just aren’t working with the right partners.”
 
Sometimes it can get more complicated, says Gillis. “At the end of the day, the broadcasters call the shots, and if we agree on something with our broadcaster that their broadcaster doesn’t like, the only way out is to compromise.”
 
Typical areas of contention are the script, music and casting. “But as time goes on, the clock is ticking, the animators have to work and the shows have to get delivered,” adds Gillis. “We find that these pressures push the parties towards a meeting of the minds.”
One way of managing conflict is to give all partners joint approval, no matter what the split in terms of financial contribution, which is what Gillis recommends. “Our philosophy has always been no matter if it’s fifty-fifty or twenty-eighty, there has to be joint approval, because if one party has got more say it tends to create resentment.”
 
4Kids’ Lacey has another tip for successful co-pros: avoid beginners. “If you are working with people for the first time it can be a huge, huge challenge—in some cases a nightmare. Especially if people don’t understand the marketplace in terms of broadcast license fees and different media platforms.”
 
He adds, “My experience has been if the people who are sitting across the table from you haven’t done this before, the likelihood is that you’ll want to walk away from the table because the kinds of things that emerge when you get going can just get worse and worse.”
Perhaps the best rule of thumb for finding the best partner is to go with your gut instinct. Skywriter’s VP of distribution and acquisitions, Paula McLaren, recommends paying a lot of attention to red flags when you see them. “The instinct to know when not to work with someone—even though you love the project—comes with experience, and it’s an instinct that’s really important to listen to.”