here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\nCommenting on the history and legacy of British animation, Dexter, CEO of Serious Kids and Eye Present, noted that in the early days, everything was funded by the BBC. \u201cUntil we got the tax credit recently, there wasn\u2019t an animation industry in the U.K. per se. We were known for writing and preproduction and preschool predominantly, with older animation being the preserve of the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams, founder and creative director of Sixteen South, noted, \u201cThe Irish are known for their storytelling; that\u2019s the one thing that we keep coming back to in terms of what we can do well. We don\u2019t even realize we do it so well. Storytelling is part of our culture; it\u2019s in our blood. It\u2019s always a case of knowing your strengths and playing to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a great history in children\u2019s literature,\u201d added Gardiner, the CEO of Jetpack Distribution, of the U.K. market, alongside \u201ca well-developed television industry. And then you have a translation from comedy to animation. That has brought us closer to the U.S. model.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas, international distribution director at Magic Light, noted that British and Irish animation \u201care well known internationally for their originality, the quality; it translates extremely well around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIrish and U.K. writers and writing are still so sought after,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt\u2019s a particular way of storytelling which doesn\u2019t exist in other English-speaking countries like the States.\u201d<\/p>\n
The panelists all agreed that financing is the biggest challenge they are facing today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the biggest challenge, but also what makes us more creative in how we approach productions,\u201d Gardiner said. \u201cHow we collaborate and partner and have all these inventive government-sponsored schemes that enable series to be made. What doesn’t destroy us\u2014our lack of financing\u2014in a way, makes us resilient and robust. That\u2019s why the industry is growing, even though we\u2019re always struggling to find money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dexter added, \u201cWe seem to have to try harder and harder at the moment. Canada used to be a big source of co-production, and now it\u2019s not so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have our self-inflicted pain of Brexit that we have to deal with as well,\u201d Gardiner noted.<\/p>\n
In comparison, \u201cWe have European funding, and quite a number of Irish-based funding initiatives,\u201d noted Fitzpatrick, chairman and founder of Monster Entertainment. \u201cIt\u2019s always a challenge accessing funding because as the industry has continued to expand and production has continued to increase, more and more studios are looking to the same pool of funding. But thankfully, the funding pool has also expanded somewhat. Finance is still a challenge, but probably less than it is in the U.K.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Williams, Brexit was \u201con the road to killing U.K. animation,\u201d and the savior was Covid-19. \u201cBecause the whole world was working remotely, it became OK to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cWe used to have the luxury of making all of the shows in-house, from the first word on the page, right to the end delivery; I think those days are gone. Unless you have an SVOD who will write you a big check, and you might be scared to take it because they might cancel the show before you even get to deliver it. But that\u2019s the only way that that luxury scenario is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas referenced the impact of losing access to Creative Europe funding post-Brexit. \u201cIt was always the last bit of money that made things easier in terms of production; the cushion towards the end of the production that was helping. Losing that, as Dom said, we need to think creatively and find other ways to cover that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gardiner shifted the conversation back to the strengths of the U.K. market, which include having a \u201cstrong broadcaster market. One might argue that maybe some of them should be doing more. But at the end of the day, we will have BBC, ITV, Channel 5 and a little bit from Channel 4. Additionally, we benefit from being the central office for Disney and Netflix in Europe. That gives us access to potential broadcast partners\/commissioners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dexter then mentioned the launch of the U.K. Global Screen Fund for co-productions, intended to help fill the gap for producers since they lost access to Creative Europe funding. \u201cIf you did a 52×11, you\u2019d get a maximum of 12.5 percent of your budget or \u20ac500,000, whichever is greater. Now, with Global Screen Fund, you can get \u00a3300,000. You just need to have two broadcasters and don\u2019t have to do much more than 10 percent in the U.K., as long as you tick all the boxes. What we don\u2019t have is the development funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
In terms of technological developments, Williams highlighted Unreal Engine. \u201cIt\u2019s very impressive, but I think it\u2019s going to make everything look and feel even more similar than what we have now. There\u2019s much stuff that all looks the same. This is only going to add to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dexter added: \u201cRoblox, Minecraft, all those things [allow] people to generate ideas and content at low cost. People who don\u2019t have access to broadcasters can create their own content. But animation has always had this difficulty because it takes so long to get to the screen\u2014let\u2019s say from the point you pitch at Cartoon Forum to screen, if you\u2019re doing well, it will be five years. If it does well, and someone says, I\u2019d like a second season, at best, it\u2019s 12 to 18 months, to get some of those episodes rolling out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gardiner noted: \u201cA lot of the examples we\u2019ve seen that have utilized some of the available technology to do things faster and cheaper have resulted in content that perhaps five years ago we would have been very critical of. But that show reached an enormous audience across the whole world, using technology and things that weren\u2019t available to us, like algorithms. We\u2019re in this world where we can use technology just to make things cheaper and not necessarily improve them, like AI scripts. You\u2019ve got to maintain quality so that when we look back on it in 20 years, it was quality made with great love and care. These technologies are there, and maybe we can use them better. Maybe Unreal will produce shows in the future that we can all ooh and ah about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKids are much more demanding in the quality of the stuff they want to see,\u201d added Dexter. \u201cIt comes down to us as producers to find the best software to put together with different plug-ins to make it look a little bit different and then to maximize all of those co-production fundings and soft monies and everything to make the whole thing affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monster\u2019s Fitzpatrick offered up an anecdote from his experience with Unreal Engine. \u201cAn awful lot of this is about the design rather than the animation. If you have designs that stand up and are special, then it\u2019s going to [stand out], and it\u2019s selling well for us, which is the acid test.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the outlook ahead, the panelists are optimistic about the sector, but concerns remain. \u201cWe are going to need a bit more support,\u201d said Gardiner on the funding situation. \u201cSpeaking from the U.K. point of view, we need to be more competitive with our tax credits. We need to increase that so we can at least match the French or the Irish. The external economic headwinds are not great, but we know the audience is there; we know we\u2019ve got the talent to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond a tax credit, Gardiner also referenced the crucial need for development funding and initiatives such as the Young Audiences Content Fund.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jetpack Distribution\u2019s Dominic Gardiner, Serious Kids\u2019 Genevieve Dexter, Monster Entertainment\u2019s Andrew Fitzpatrick, Sixteen South\u2019s Colin Williams and Magic Light Pictures\u2019 Muriel Thomas took part in an engaging conversation about British and Irish animation as day two of the TV Kids Festival kicked off today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":24614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[6531,5938,3386,1581,7150,7247],"class_list":["post-24613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-andrew-fitzpatrick","tag-colin-williams","tag-dominic-gardiner","tag-genevieve-dexter","tag-muriel-thomas","tag-tv-kids-festival-2023","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n
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