The Business of Animation

I was looking through some old emails, and I found this reply I made to someone asking business related questions. Since there are other folks who might benefit from this info, I’m posting it here.

How do you get a new animated series on the air these days?

As an animator with an independent animation company, I’ve given this question a lot of thought. Without actually being involved with a televised series, it’s hard to track down the info.

Producing Independent 2D Character Animation by Mark Simon is a book from Focal Press. It has informative interviews with producers from Cartoon Network on what they look for and the process of doing show pilots, etc.

Most websites about animation report the DVD news and series announcements of the day. Places like http://toonzone.net and the UK’s http://animationnews.net.

Others get into technique, interviewing animators and talking craft, like http://cgnetworks.com and http://animwatch.com.

Probably the best sites for news and commentary are the Animation World Network at http://awn.com and Jerry Beck’s http://cartoonresearch.com.

If you want to actually communicate with professional animators, check out the message boards at http://animationnation.com. There are plenty of folks there working for “the man” on various projects.

The biggest publication on the subject is Animation Magazine (at http://animationmagazine.net ) which I find very flawed. Articles tend to be fairly shallow, without getting too technical or too informative about business deals and ratings. They aspire to be the Variety of the animation business, but it seems to be written for a student audience.

Each year, the Animation Magazine has a pitch issue and event in L.A. Young naive creators from all over buy ad space for their series ideas and try to get producers to pay attention to them. I’m not sure how effective this is, but it seems like a shot in the dark. Like entering a screenplay competition or going to a similar screenplay pitch event.

I’ve been to the Ottawa Intenational Animation Festival three times now. It’s an enjoyable experience, but it’s not much of an industry event. It’s more geared towards Art with a capital “A” and connecting students with potential schools. I went there last fall hoping to connect with other independent animators, as we were looking for advice on marketing our DVD release “It Came From Animatus.” But we didn’t run into too many people doing what we’re doing.

Sure, we’d love it if a network wanted to pick up our Derf the Viking or Su & Mo characters for an extended series. But it’s not a realistic goal at this point. Right now we have deals going with several VOD companies to show our cartoons through cable, satellite, even cell phones! Who knows if this will result in money or better exposure, but it’s worth a try.