David Raitt, the head of London-based indie studio Plastic Milk offers a few tips for keeping your business afloat in 2010!
It’s been a mixed year for the U.K. animation industry with Wallace & Gromit, a national treasure, celebrating its twentieth birthday, shortly followed by the sad demise of Triffic Films a leading British animation company with two decades of excellent, innovative work behind it. 2010 will bring both great opportunities and formidable challenges. Whilst the U.K. tax breaks debate rumbles on, the team at Plastic Milk shares a few tips for how to stay in the game and make the most of the year ahead.
The ground is shifting under our feet as TV and the web converge–this is just one of the many recent changes to hit the industry. HD bought TV closer to film, the success of micro budget filmmaking has bought some areas of film closer to TV and Stereoscopic 3D looks set to shake things up. Even the broadcasters don’t seem to know where all this is heading, but what seems certain is that where there is change, there is opportunity.
The key is to remain flexible. In recent years we have put a lot of effort into keeping on top of the technical developments of both TV and the web. We were concerned that we were spreading our skills too thinly, but now the two are converging we are well placed to capitalise. It’s important to understand what differentiates you from the competition. You need to play to your strengths, but also recognise where perceived weaknesses can be turned to your advantage. We used to worry about being too small, about being jack of all trades and master of none, but now we realize that is a great strength. Where budgets are tight, we can get the job done ourselves, and where there is better funding, we can bring together specialists to drive up the quality in the areas that will most benefit the project. Having few permanent staff means low overheads, which allows us to work on small jobs as well as big projects.
The proliferation of broadband is making it much easier to work with people all over the world. There is a very collaborative atmosphere about at the moment, which is great. It’s more about being part of a creative network of people than being an insular, self-sufficient company. On some projects we might be in the center of that network, bringing together specialists to build a team for a project. For Numberjacks we ran the whole animation side of the production, including design and development. But we also have our own specialism, using animation to communicate and educate, so at other times we’ll be near the edge of the network acting as someone else’s specialist.
It might not have the glamor of TV or Film but there’s also money to be made in internal communications, training videos and marketing for large organisations. We focus on medical and healthcare communications but all sorts of corporate media use animation these days.
We are strong believers in the Pixar philosophy that quality is the best business model. When you look at what’s doing well out there, it’s not the mediocre muck churned out by execs whose only goal is making money, it’s the risky, original material created by people who really believe in what they are doing. If you believe in what you are doing, other people will believe in you, and recommend you, and that’s the best marketing you can get.
Plastic Milk also produces stand-alone shorts such as festival favorite Ant & Len.
When you create great work there are many ways to get it out to the wider world, both online and in cinemas via the multitude of film festivals that now exist. You can get projects showcased on creative sites and in magazines for free, albeit with a bit of leg work. Our own short, Ant & Len, which was originally intended as a viral has been featured in several festivals and is now on a world tour with onedotzero.
Producing quality work is about bringing together the right talent and that’s something that a network of small companies and freelancers can do just as well as a big company. Despite all the changes, consumer demand for high quality content has never been higher. By continuing to strive for efficiency, flexibility and quality we move forwards into an uncertain but exciting future.
To learn more about David and his company, visit www.plasticmilk.co.uk
