Brown Johnson, president of Animation for Nickeoodeon, MTVN Kids and Family Group, will deliver the opening keynote address at the fifth annual Television Animation Conference (TAC) taking place Sept. 17-18 in conjunction with the Ottawa Int’l Animation Festival. Held at Ottawa’s historic Chateau Laurier Hotel, the event will also will feature insightful words from Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich, as well as the return of the popular Pitch THIS! contest. Canada’s only animation-specific industry forum, TAC brings together professionals in animation creation, production, distribution and marketing for panels and networking.
‘Johnson, Green and Senreich are leaders in the industry,’ says TAC director Azarin Sohrabkhani, ‘We are excited and honoured to have them offering the keynote speeches this year, which will set the tone of the conference, giving insight and inspiration on how to create a quality product and achieve great commercial success.’
Johnson spearheads development and production for all animated programming across Nickelodeon’s networks. She is responsible for supervising the creative direction of contemporary classics such as SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly OddParents, as well as new series including Back At The Barnyard, The Mighty B! and The Penguins of Madagascar. She supervises creative executive teams on both the East and West Coasts, managing the creative direction and coordination efforts between series production, on-air promotions, marketing and consumer products. During her 20-year tenure at Nickelodeon, Johnson has overseen and nurtured numerous groundbreaking properties, including the preschool hits Blue’s Clues, Dora the Explorer, The Backyardigans, Go, Diego, Go!, Yo Gabba Gabba! and Ni Hao, Kai-lan.
Green and Senreich will kick off the second day of the conference. In addition to providing the voice of Chris Griffin on FOX’s Family Guy, Green has appeared in the Austin Powers movies and other live-action films including movies Without A Paddle, Party Monster, Can’t Hardly Wait and The Italian Job. Senreich comes from a comics industry background, having worked at Marvel Comics and Wizard and ToyFare magazines. He most recently served as editorial director of Wizard Ent. Together, they are co-executive producers, writers and directors of Robot Chicken, an Emmy-winning late-night series that airs on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. They are also currently producing a stop-motion animated holiday family feature titled Naughty or Nice.
Animation producers are once again to participate in Pitch THIS!, an annual contest that offers an opportunity to get pitches for new show ideas in front of top television animation execs. One of the most popular and most attended events at the conference, the event will see two intrepid producers step up to the plate on Wednesday, Sept. 17 to pitch their projects for 10 minutes to a panel of leading animation broadcasters, as well as the entire conference audience of more than 300 buyers, financiers, partners and industry gurus. Following the pitches, representatives from various networks will respond with detailed insights, assessing each project’s creative and financial elements and analyzing its marketability and appeal to each broadcaster.
For Pitch THIS! consideration, producers should submit their proposals for an original adult or children’s animation series and must include a project bible, sample episode synopsis, concept art and biographies of the key creative team. Submissions may be sent to tac@animationfestival.ca, or by regular mail to the attention of TAC Pitch THIS! at 2 Daly Avenue, Suite 120, Ottawa, ON K1N 6E2. No more than two submissions per production company will be accepted. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2008. For more information on the contest and the Ottawa Int’l Animation Festival, go to www.animationfestival.ca.
