The recipients of this year\u2019s World Screen Kids Trendsetter Awards, Rainbow\u2019s Iginio Straffi, Xilam\u2019s Marc du Pontavice, Brown Bag Films\u2019 Bronagh O’Hanlon and Green Gold Animation\u2019s Rajiv Chilaka, weighed in on the creative process at the Creators Superpanel at MIPJunior this morning in a conversation moderated by Anna Carugati.<\/p>\n
The panelists are each being honored for their contributions to the children\u2019s content industry by World Screen in association with Reed MIDEM. \u201cAll of them are responsible for some major international hit shows,\u201d Lucy Smith, deputy director for the television division at Reed MIDEM, said in introducing this morning\u2019s Creators Superpanel. The World Screen Kids Trendsetter Awards have been produced with Reed MIDEM for the last five years.<\/p>\n
Carugati, group editorial director at World Screen<\/em>, opening the session, noted, \u201cOne of the reasons you are being honored today is that the work you do is helping to shape the next generation, which is exceedingly important in today\u2019s world.\u201d<\/p>\n Straffi, founder and CEO of Rainbow, started his journey into the kids\u2019 business at a young age, drawing comics and creating characters as a child. \u201cAfter high school, I went with this box full of stories and drawings to find some publishers and I started to publish my comics during university.\u201d Sergio Bonelli Editore, a leading comic book publisher in Italy, spotted Straffi\u2019s talent, hiring him as a lead creative artist. He soon began working on TV series and movies and decided to set up his own venture in 1995. \u201cKnocking on door after door, I managed to convince someone to buy my cartoons.\u201d At Rainbow, Straffi went on to create such megahits as Winx Club<\/em> and the more recent 44 Cats<\/em>.<\/p>\n O’Hanlon, series director and creator at 9 Story Media Group-owned Brown Bag Films, also discovered her passion for animation at a young age. She joined Ireland\u2019s Brown Bag early in its history, developing her skills as the company grew. She worked on Doc McStuffins<\/em> and went on to create Sadie Sparks<\/em>.<\/p>\n Du Pontavice, CEO of Xilam, was working at Gaumont when he discovered his passion for animation. He founded the French studio\u2019s Gaumont Multim\u00e9dia division, subsequently buying it to form the basis of Xilam Animation. \u201cI found myself fulfilled by animation,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you do a good story it can travel all over the world. And it gives you enormous control of the end product. The process of doing animation gives you incredible input in every step.\u201d Among Xilam\u2019s biggest hits is Oggy and the Cockroaches<\/em>.<\/p>\n Chilaka, founder and CEO of Green Gold Animation, also came to the kids\u2019 sector later in life. While getting his master’s degree in computer science in the U.S., Chilaka became enamored by Walt Disney. \u201cThat he could achieve that much at a time when there was no technology or access to finance\u2014if I could achieve 10 percent of what he did, I would have done some wonderful things. That started a journey for me towards animation.\u201d A key turning point, he said, was seeing The Lion King<\/em>. \u201cI thought, one day I want to make a movie like The Lion King<\/em>, that was the goal I set for myself.\u201d He went on to go to art school and then returned to India to found his own animation production company, which created the megahit Chhota Bheem<\/em> franchise.<\/p>\n Carugati then asked the panelists about creative inspiration. Rainbow\u2019s Straffi talked about finding the idea for the company\u2019s hit 44 Cats<\/em> in popular Italian children\u2019s songs. \u201cI have a young daughter and was watching a lot of animated songs on YouTube. In Italy, we have a series of very famous songs from one of the oldest TV festivals, Zecchino d’Oro [on Rai 1]. We were watching the songs and I found that there were stories in them.\u201d Among those songs was Quarantaquattro gatti<\/em>, which provided the seed of the idea for 44 Cats<\/em>.<\/p>\n O\u2019Hanlon talked about the creation of Sadie Sparks<\/em>, which is being rolled out worldwide by Cyber Group Studios. \u201cI had found out that top hats don\u2019t actually pop out! It\u2019s only magicians [that have those]. And they always have a rabbit. Wouldn\u2019t it be funny to have a rabbit who was grumpy and jaded, had worked with all the best wizards and didn\u2019t get the credit? He\u2019s retired and brought back to train a female wizard. He\u2019s never worked with a girl before. What would be the best contrasting character I could have with him? Also, I\u2019m such an animation nerd. It\u2019s always bothered me that there weren\u2019t female characters on TV who were heroes. They were always the ones who needed saving or were bookish. I wanted to be the one doing the saving! Every time I create a show it comes back to something I would identify with.\u201d<\/p>\n Oggy and the Cockroaches <\/em>at Xilam emerged from du Pontavice\u2019s fondness for slapstick comedy chase cartoons. \u201cFor some reason, the U.S. stopped producing that kind of comedy. I felt there was something we could bring to children by doing this. These kinds of comedies are very demanding, especially when they are non-verbal. So after the success we had with Space Goofs<\/em> on Fox Kids in the U.S., they asked, What else do you have? Thinking about Tom & Jerry<\/em> and this antagonism-based slapstick comedy, we felt, let\u2019s keep the cats but instead of a mouse we\u2019ll go with three cockroaches.\u201d<\/p>\n Chilaka talked about creating Chhota Bheem<\/em> at a time when Indian animation studios were largely doing work for hire and not creating original IP. \u201cOne evening, I thought, what if we take a famous Indian character, Bheema, from the Mahabharata, and put his characteristics in a normal kid in rural India. He has this super strength. We started building a story around that. The challenge was how to sell the show when there were only one or two kids\u2019 channels in India back then. It took us five years to sell the show. It went on air in 2008, and that was a turning point for us. It\u2019s still doing very well.\u201d<\/p>\n Carugati asked the panelists about what characteristics they look for in concepts.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, the show needs to be unique,\u201d Chilaka said.<\/p>\n O\u2019Hanlon said that a brief needs to \u201cget you right away\u2014you know exactly what to do with it, and you can\u2019t believe it hasn\u2019t been done [before].\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn animation, it\u2019s all about the characters,\u201d du Pontavice added. \u201cCharacters have to be relatable, inspiring, they have to be designed in such a way that the hearts of the kids are with them and they can\u2019t find these same characters anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n On choosing techniques for storytelling\u20142D, 3D, live-action, etc.\u2014Straffi noted, \u201cIt\u2019s quite complicated. We try to find a graphic that is unique and original and appealing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we design a show at Xilam, we\u2019re not thinking, this is for TF1 or Netflix,\u201d du Pontavice said of the creative process at his animation studios. \u201cIt\u2019s not about designing the show for the right home. You have to find the partner that feels the same passion for the project.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown Bag\u2019s O\u2019Hanlon noted that the animation techniques used for a show should be informed by the story and the characters. \u201cOn Sadie<\/em> we had a mix of 2D and 3D. It started weirdly enough as a production constraint. We couldn\u2019t have that many sets in the show. I love it when something that\u2019s a negative becomes a plus. We started thinking creatively around technique. We thought, wouldn\u2019t it be cool if the human world was more tangible and real, in 3D, and when you go into the hat, [the magic world], it\u2019s like going into another dimension, in 2D. That was totally informed by the story, and it\u2019s a happy coincidence that we got pushed into that by production constraints.”<\/p>\n Green Gold makes Mighty Little Bheem<\/em>, a preschool show for Netflix, in 3D. \u201cInitially, we thought 2D, but Netflix said to try it 3D, and we did and it looked great.\u201d<\/p>\n The panelists then talked about their upcoming projects. Rainbow is working on a new Pinocchio<\/em>, among other projects, and further expanding its young adult live-action slate. O\u2019Hanlon has a new show in the works, Karma\u2019s World<\/em>, about a young rapper. Xilam is shopping new projects at MIPJunior, Moka’s Fabulous Adventures!<\/em> and Lupin\u2019s Tales<\/em>. Green Gold is also showcasing new projects at MIPJunior and continuing its work on Mighty Little Bheem<\/em>, with a new season and specials in the works and the company is building the brand out with L&M, games and more.<\/p>\n Carugati and Smith then presented the panelists with their World Screen Kids Trendsetter Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The recipients of this year\u2019s World Screen Kids Trendsetter Awards, Rainbow\u2019s Iginio Straffi, Xilam\u2019s Marc du Pontavice, Brown Bag Films\u2019 Bronagh O’Hanlon and Green Gold Animation\u2019s Rajiv Chilaka, weighed in on the creative process at the Creators Superpanel at MIPJunior this morning in a conversation moderated by Anna Carugati.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":17429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[4991,3110,1750,2937,3167],"class_list":["post-17428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-bronagh-ohanlon","tag-iginio-straffi","tag-marc-du-pontavice","tag-rajiv-chilaka","tag-world-screen-kids-trendsetter","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n