{"id":14519,"date":"2018-06-15T09:30:09","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T13:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2018-06-18T10:40:02","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T14:40:02","slug":"superprods-clement-calvet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/superprods-clement-calvet\/","title":{"rendered":"Superprod\u2019s Cl\u00e9ment Calvet"},"content":{"rendered":"

In France\u2019s thriving and competitive animation sector, Superprod has rapidly carved out a name for itself with hits like Helen\u2019s Little School<\/em> and Pat the Dog<\/em>, which are represented by its distribution company, Superights. Founded by Alphanim alums Cl\u00e9ment Calvet and J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Fajner, Superprod is active in both animated series and feature films, while also building a live-action scripted business.\u00a0Calvet tells TV Kids\u00a0<\/em>about Superprod\u2019s positioning, its approach to storytelling and production innovation and its ambitions for the future.<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"TV KIDS:<\/strong> Take us back to the beginning of Superprod. What was your motivation for setting up your own company, and what gaps did you want to fill in the marketplace?
\nCALVET:<\/strong> I created the company with my associate J\u00e9r\u00e9mie [Fajner, managing director] in October 2010. I had worked for almost 15 years in animation at various companies. I thought it was time for me to start [my own] adventure. That\u2019s the reason we did it. I also wanted to be able to tell stories, of course in animation but also in live action. We\u2019ve been doing several things, including live action and stage plays. It was a way for me to diversify. We also decided to produce everything from France. Our model before was only to develop and sell our products, and we would sub-contract the production. It\u2019s been three years now since we have created our own studio, and we produce 100 percent in-house. That\u2019s made a difference.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> There are lots of production companies in France, many of which use external distributors. Why was it essential for you to establish Superights as a venture that would sell your own products as well as third-party series?
\nCALVET:<\/strong> I\u2019ve always been active in distribution. There was a distribution branch in the companies that I worked for in the past. One of my first jobs in the industry was as a lawyer in charge of all the contracts for international sales, at France Animation a long time ago. Having your own distribution company gives you the ability to have a clear vision of the market in general. We often get our inspiration from the sales team, who relay back to us the needs of the buyers, market after market. When we go and create our own shows, we often rely on that analysis.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> How do you approach crafting your development and production slates? Is there an ideal size for you?
\nCALVET:<\/strong> Development is the key area of the business. Even if the show is not produced, it\u2019s always a tremendous plus to evolve and be able to make better shows. So we never limit ourselves in terms of development. Each time we feel we have a good idea or we think there\u2019s a fantastic book on the market, we tend to start developing it. We have a lot going on all the time. And the market is constantly changing. It\u2019s also the best way for us to always be ready to present a project that people need. We think there\u2019s an infinite possibility of great projects. We\u2019re very concentrated on the artistry and the high quality we can provide on every show we develop; we really feel that there\u2019s an appetite [for that] from the market as well. At any one time, we might have six to ten projects in development. Regarding production, it\u2019s a different story. As I mentioned, we now produce everything in-house, and we try not to go beyond [a staff of] 200 people in our studios between Paris and Angoul\u00eame. We have a constant flow\u2014some are doing pre-production, others are doing post-production. And we\u2019re also very active on the theatrical side.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> I know the animated film business model is very different from television. How are you managing that side of the business in terms of financing and production timelines?
\nCALVET:<\/strong> We created the company because we had an appetite to tell stories. Even if you develop great TV projects, there\u2019s a limit to what you can do. Cinema is a different market\u2014different buyers, a different way to produce, a different approach, different marketing strategies and so on. For us, it was a way to expand and express ourselves differently. At Alphanim we did three. At Superprod we\u2019ve done four. We have others going on. It\u2019s been very important for us. It is a longer process. You don\u2019t have the same volume; you don\u2019t develop as much, you don\u2019t produce as much. But you always have at least one in production, and somehow feature-film production is [to animation what] Formula One is to cars. We have great technology to produce our shows with because we have been able to test it on a bigger scale on the cinema side. The financing is much more difficult. In France, even though we have a great system of incentives, it\u2019s very difficult to compete against live-action feature films, which get most of the interest and the money from the market. But still, we are a strong country of great animators, so we try to develop things that will appeal to the market. The most recent one, which will be released in France in March, is an adaptation of White Fang<\/em> by Jack London. That\u2019s a book we loved to read when we were kids. It\u2019s in the public domain. It\u2019s a story that people know well. Even without a big budget\u2014it\u2019s still a lot of money\u2014we thought we could achieve something that would please the audience, aside from the fantastic titles from Pixar and Disney. The next one we\u2019re doing is an adaptation of Charlie Chaplin\u2019s The Kid<\/em>.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What are some of your new projects on the TV side?
\nCALVET:<\/strong> We\u2019ve delivered Helen\u2019s Little School<\/em> and Pat the Dog<\/em>. We are going to launch production of the second season of Pat the Dog<\/em>. All the TV series we\u2019re developing are CGI, by the way; that\u2019s another important move we made recently. We\u2019re going to launch a series called Joker Joe<\/em>, which we developed with M6 in France. And then we have another show in development with France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions called Osmond<\/em>. And the new thing is that we are doing some service work for major studios.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What are some of the biggest challenges for you as a French producer and distributor, and where do you see the greatest opportunities for growth?
\nCALVET:<\/strong> These are not the worst days. We\u2019ve been experimenting with all the opportunities with the new platforms\u2014Netflix, Amazon, etc. There\u2019s good competition in the market. Everybody wants to get the best projects, and we have decided to position ourselves at the high-quality end of the market. Of course for a French producer, everything starts with a sale to a French network. The first element of our business is to get the projects commissioned. Then it\u2019s to make sure we can deliver the best quality, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re doing everything in-house, ensuring we have better control over what we do. On the theatrical side, it\u2019s getting exciting. We\u2019ve been producing some small-budget films, mainly in 2D hand-drawn animation, for years. French producers are now able to produce more ambitious movies with bigger budgets. I think the next era of French animated cinema will see some ambitious CGI-animated movies with bigger budgets produced in France, with increased support from the CNC\u2014specifically dedicated to animation\u2014and the government.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> Have your storytelling techniques evolved as animation technology has changed?
\nCALVET:<\/strong> We have never adjusted the stories to technique\u2014it\u2019s the opposite. At Superprod we don\u2019t have a dedicated pipe into which everything should fit. We focus on the story\u00adtelling and the concept we develop and then, when we know what we want to do and what we want to achieve, we start thinking about the pipe and the workflow. There are so many great tools that you can pick from today and make the show you want to make, according to the story you want to tell. Maybe at the early stage of CGI, you had to limit yourself or adjust your storytelling. These days, all the tools that are on the market provide so much freedom. It\u2019s really a question of artistic vision. If you have the vision, you can master the tools to deliver the result you want. That\u2019s why we have a lot of developers in-house who are always testing new tools and technologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The co-founder talks about the company\u2019s positioning, its approach to storytelling and production innovation, and its ambitions for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":14520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[3764,880],"class_list":["post-14519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-clement-calvet","tag-superprod","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nSuperprod\u2019s Cl\u00e9ment Calvet - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/superprods-clement-calvet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Superprod\u2019s Cl\u00e9ment Calvet - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The co-founder talks about the company\u2019s positioning, its approach to storytelling and production innovation, and its ambitions for the future.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/superprods-clement-calvet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-15T13:30:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-06-18T14:40:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2017\/07\/2018-06-14-ClementCalvet.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"322\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/superprods-clement-calvet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/superprods-clement-calvet\/\",\"name\":\"Superprod\u2019s Cl\u00e9ment Calvet - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-15T13:30:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-18T14:40:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/superprods-clement-calvet\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/superprods-clement-calvet\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/superprods-clement-calvet\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Superprod\u2019s Cl\u00e9ment Calvet\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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