Animation Magazine

Author: Robby London

  • The Padded Cel

    Exploring the All-Important ‘Schmooze Factor’ at MIPTV!

    It’s that special time of year when blossoms return to the branches, swallows return to Capistrano and steroids return to the dugout. It can mean only one thing. It’s time for animation execs to return to Cannes’all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed’for the second-quarter TV market known as MIPTV (where their eyes will soon be bloodshot and their tails subjected to unspeakable horrors).

    Although it’s called a ‘market,’ MIP doesn’t fit the fundamental definition. It is not a place for determining the price at which buyers’ demand intersects sellers’ supply. Rather, at MIP, both supply and demand are determined solely by the buyer. The ‘market’ simply reconciles how much in meals, entertainment, swag, sycophancy and kickbacks the buyer will demand with how much abuse, humiliation and flagellation this same buyer will supply. While some might simply call this a ‘buyer’s market,’ it is more instructive to think of MIP as a dungeon followed by rich sauces.

    In fact, the two most common phrases you’ll hear in Cannes are ‘Down on your knees, seller!’ and ‘What do you mean you don’t have ketchup?’

    The one-sided power dynamic notwithstanding, sellers must persevere and endure, if animators back home are going to have anything to produce. And while the marathon days of scheduled meetings in the Palais constitute the baguette-and-butter of MIP, many times it’s the unplanned after-hours encounters that give the meal that certain’ je ne sais quois. And by ‘je ne sais quois,’ I mean the filthy lucre which is the raison d”tre of MIP in the first place! (And by ‘raison d”tre’ I mean ‘wow, look at all the high school French I can cram into one column.’)

    In years of attending MIP, the single biggest revelation has been the ‘schmooze factor’ and its role in the ultimate consummation of deals. The opportunities to mingle with buyers outside of the pressure-cooker of the Palais, to have some fun in an exotic locale and get to know each other as people’and not just meal-tickets’often eventually results in business (not to mention monkey business). Underneath the executioners’ hoods, most buyers are terrifically interesting, attractive and impressive people. When you think about it, being a TV buyer/programmer is such a great job that it typically self-selects the cr’me de la cr’me from each territory around the world. Social Darwinism on display at the Grand Bar!

    There are two different strategies for taking advantage of the ‘schmoozapalooza’ in Cannes. Strategy #1 is to attend as many parties/events as possible, cruise the bars and troll the Croissette’hoping that, magically, you’ll encounter and interact with people who are, specifically, buyers of animation. This strategy is called ‘lotto.’ Strategy #2 is the more proactive plan of predetermining who your buyers are and targeting the events, places, hotels, closets and restroom stalls to which you’ve followed them. This strategy is called ‘stalking.’ Which of these strategies is right for you depends on your personality, ability to feign surprise and current parole status.

    When it comes to time to schmooze, tact, subtlety and sensitivity are everything. Especially because they will stand out in Cannes! Sometimes when a buyer is punch drunk from a lonnnng day of being pitched and pitched again, yet another person seeking to sell them a show is about as welcome as a Toyota in the rearview mirror. Remember, it’s not always about selling the project, it’s about selling yourself as a person (assuming you qualify). Especially when it comes to pre-buys or co-productions, programmers are banking on a vision and a promise which are difficult to evaluate solely in a vacuum of pitch materials and content. (Take it from me, there’s a lot of vacuum out there.)

    Never underestimate the value of personal connection. This is why, even in the digital age and even though it’s so costly and so exhausting, MIP is still relevant. Have you ever tried stalking someone on Skype? Plus, as a bonus, there is the cheap thrill of a full-body pat down on the return flight. As you wait your turn, consider how much you’d normally pay for this service!

    Robby London is an animation industry veteran who seems to know a little too much about the daily schedule and nationwide appearances of Jersey Shore‘s Snooki.

  • The Padded Cel How to Pitch Like a Pro, Really!

    A great animated series or movie always starts with an inspired creative vision, but for most of us that is not enough to get it produced. Typically an idea will go nowhere without an irresistible verbal ‘pitch’ to get it financed. Pitching: One could argue that this mysterious process is at the heart of our industry! ‘What heart?’ you ask. Hmmm. Good point. No wonder pitching is so elusive!

    The pitching process reminds me of broccoli. People either love it or hate it. And people who pitch are often green’either green with inexperience, green with envy, green with riches or green with nausea. The goal is a ‘green light.’ And, like broccoli, when a pitch goes bad, OMG can it stink up a room!

    Speaking as someone who has regaled, failed and been derailed’and soared, bored and whore’d from both sides of the pitching desk (that is to say, above and underneath)’I thought this month it might be useful to share some time-tested ‘dos and don’ts’ for effective pitching. Anything to avoid the smell of bad broccoli!

    DO thoroughly research and understand the needs, tastes and psyche of the development or acquisitions exec who is about to reject you. This includes being familiar with shows which currently appear on their channel, Googling trade press interviews and asking your peers who aren’t too selfish to share their experiences and ‘intelligence.’ (Hint: you can find many such peers in the unemployment line.)

    DON’T violate the restraining order that was placed on you when you thoroughly researched your last pitch by breaking into the exec’s home and rummaging through the underwear drawer.

    DO try to be relaxed, charming and fun. Be prepared to schmooze just a little bit before launching into the pitch. Try to put everyone at ease and demonstrate how effortlessly ‘cool’ you are. DON’T forget to stop at home and change out of the Klingon costume you wore to the early morning sneak preview of Star Trek.

    DO show all assistants, gatekeepers and junior execs the same courtesy, respect and charm which you intend to show their boss.

    DON’T overlook the parking attendant’whom you will be required to pitch first’before finally being granted that coveted, privileged audience with the all-powerful individual who will determine your fate: the boss’s teenage son on work-release from rehab.

    DO distill the essence of what makes your idea unique, appealing and commercial’and open your pitch with that irresistible ‘hook’ which will hold them rapt with attention! DON’T wake them up when you are finished. Simply put a dollar bill under their pillow and take the tooth.

    DO use artwork and/or video to support your pitch. And you will stand out from the crowd if you have something more than just simple sketches of the characters’and can find clever ways integrate the art with your oral presentation.

    DON’T try to incorporate your tattoos.

    If you are pitching to be the production entity, DO be very clear and forthcoming about the soundness of your finances, the size of the kickback you are offering and the special offshore account you have already set up in the exec’s name. DON’T whine for a parking validation more than three times. (After all, maybe your new best pal, the parking attendant, will take care of you.)

    DO seek imaginative ways to make your pitch interactive by involving the person to whom you’re pitching. DON’T offer backrubs’ unless you’re damn sure you’re hot. And positive you are the gender of preference. (And remember, children’s program execs always expect happy endings. No, I meant in the story! Shame on you!)

    Finally, when they pass, DO take it graciously and professionally. Your goal is to leave the door open for future rejection and humiliation. DON’T pout, throw a tantrum or take out your frustration on the executive’by lashing out or being abusive. That’s what your spouse, kids and new rescue puppy are for.

    Robby London is an animation industry veteran who is currently pitching an amazing children’s show inspired by The Slanket, Suzanne Somer’s Torso Trak and Richard Simmon’s Sweatin’ to the Oldies.

  • The Padded Cel: Down and Out at MIPTV/On the Riviera

    Necessity is the mother of invention, and nowhere is this more evident than in the world of showbiz trendsetting. The economic meltdown has pushed Hollywood ‘haute couture’ over a cliff’where it is falling so fast it just passed the Dow. Frugality is becoming ‘in.’ Coupons are the new Kruggerands, Costco the new Neiman Marcus and Tiffany now specializes in house-arrest ankle bracelets. CEO now stands for Crooked Entitled Oblivious. Richie Rich proudly drives a beat-up Kia bearing the vanity plate ‘RICHIE2RAGS.’ The new ethos is … if you don’t have it, flaunt it!

    Look for a major battle front in the Frugality Revolution on the streets of Cannes this month. That’s where TV buyers, sellers, producers’plus wannabes, wouldabeens and should-never-have-trieds ‘gather for the mother of all reality shows: The program market known as MIPTV. MIP has always epitomized glamorous excess in our business. Although recent years have seen a steady decline in the scope of the parties, the value of the swag and the size of the kickback offers, we suspect that the vibe at this MIP will truly constitute a sea change. The New Frugality flies in the face of everything that MIP once represented. Nowhere is there more pressure to appear flush with cash’and in no year has more cash already been flushed.

    Your first indication that things have changed will be when you take that jetlagged first-evening stroll down the Croissette’and the local beggars give spare change to you. And why do some of them look so familiar? Wasn’t that the guy from Nickelodeon you pitched at MIPCOM? Here are a few other changes we’d expect to see:

    Lodgings: While there will be an equivalent number of attendees rolling their luggage through the front door of the exorbitant status-symbol Majestic Hotel’most of them will sneak through the lobby, skulk out the back door and into the one-star Hotel Darfur’where they are sharing a room with eight colleagues using innovative sleeping configurations perfected in the Mumbai slums. Here’s a hot tip: Savvy sellers should finagle a way to share lodging with buyers’in the Tent City being set up on the Croissette.

    Meals a la Cart!: Several large studios are reportedly seeking alternatives to their execs eating in outrageously expensive Cannes restaurants. One company is rumored to have negotiated a bulk purchase of surplus airline meals’which have been languishing in frozen storage since the airlines stopped serving them’and will set up a serving cart in a local park for its staff. Not to worry: the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were prepared long before the salmonella outbreak. If a seller experiences debilitating waves of nausea, it can be attributed solely to the prices they are getting for their shows.

    Promotion: Typically there are huge, glitzy billboards promoting various shows posted everywhere along the Croissette. This year, frugal sellers will be promoting their wares the old fashioned way’by hand’on the walls of bathroom stalls. (This is exciting news for many Animation Magazine readers: If this trend continues, it may become cost-effective to send artists to MIP!) Meanwhile, last year’s posters remain on the billboards’hyping ‘new hit’ shows which already flopped. Knight Rider anyone? And speaking of cars…

    Transporation: Many will be foregoing taxis in favor of a massive new fleet of dirt cheap, hand-pulled rickshaws’direct result of the French government’s own economic stimulus package. Hot tip: Our Padded Cel Rickshaw is one of the few with padded seats. But I don’t do hills.

    Media Coverage: Fewer publications can afford to send correspondents to Cannes. Look for an increase in ‘virtual coverage.’ Unethical journalists will stay home and rely upon a combination of Google Earth, CroissetteCam and tarot cards as their sources to imply they are right there on the spot covering the market! (Note: The Padded Cel condemns deceptive practices and non-disclosure regarding breaches of journalistic ethics and betrayals of public trust. (We stand proudly behind our unblemished record of fully-disclosed fraud, breach and betrayal.)

    Veteran TV exec Robby London will be sharing a room with Bernie Madoff at the Carlton Hotel’s newly renovated Cinar suite during the MIPTV market.

  • The CG Revolution on Display in Singapore

    The inaugural edition of SIGGRAPH Asia (Dec. 10-13) offers a mind-expanding showcase of the region’s talent as well as a colorful snapshot of future possibilities.

    If anyone needed yet another proof of the growing importance of Asian countries in the computer graphics and animation arena, they should simply glance at the impressive program lineup for the inaugural edition of SIGGRAPH Asia, which will held Dec. 10 thru 13 at the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Singapore.

    Following the tradition of SIGGRAPH in the U.S., the show will feature nine main programs’art gallery, computer animation festival, courses, educators’ program, emerging technologies, job fair, sketches and posters, technical papers and trade exhibition. According to organizers, half of the pieces displayed at the event’s art gallery were created in the region, and 30 percent of the materials accepted were from Asia. In addition, 14 Asian universities are represented in the sessions, chaired by the likes of Ken Anjyo of OLM Digital, Inc; Xin Tong of Microsoft Research China; and Hyeong-Seok Ko of Seoul National University.

    Certainly, there is no shortage of industry visionaries and high-profile CG stars booked for the event: Don Greenberg, director of Cornell University’s computer graphics program and Rob Cook, VP of advanced technology at Pixar are two of the confab’s featured speakers. Lee Stringer and Matt Aldrich of Lucasfilm Animation Singapore will discuss the creation and inspirations behind the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series and the game Star Wars: The Clone Wars’Jedi Alliance. Among the many panels and discussions planned for the event are discussions of how to set up an animation studio in Asia. Kevin Geiger, president and CEO of Animation Options and former Disney Animation Studio alum will offer a workshop on CG production principles and how to maintain an efficient pipeline and workflow.

    SIGGRAPH Asia attendees will also be able to take in two of the U.S. confab’s most popular features’the Electronic Theater and the Computer Animation Festival. ‘Attendees expect us to present the same quality of projects, especially at the Electronic Theater,’ says Jinny Choo, Computer Animation Festival chair. ‘We’ve also added an invited screenings program such as The Best of SIGGRAPH Award Winners.’

    Asia, particularly China, Japan and Korea, contributed close to half of the entries at the CAF this year. A total of 685 submissions from 44 countries were received. ‘More than 70 percent of the pieces presented in the Computer Animation Festival are being shown for the first time and they represent the work of both internationally renowned production houses as well as creative students who may be the industry stars of tomorrow,’ notes Choo.

    Among the many projects that qualify as top-draw eye candy at the Animation Festival this year are sneak previews of the new Capcom game Street Fighter IV by Polygon Pictures Inc.; the alternate ending to I Am Legend; and Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Speed Racer: Car Flip. Also on the must-see list are the preliminary concepts behind Double Negative’s fire simulation and rendering for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and Lucasfilm’s sketches for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Iron Man and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

    Since SIGGRAPH isn’t only about the entertainment universe, attendees will be able to learn about some of the latest technological breakthroughs at the Emerging Technologies program of the confab. Keio University’s Flaneur Telescope is only one of these major technologies on display. This amazing digital telescope allows viewers a first-person viewpoint of buildings, shops and objects as they follow their path on a map.

    SIGGRAPH has always played an important role in bringing together job applicants with employers in the tech and vfx sector, and the Asian event is no exception. The job fair aspect of the event will be in full effect as companies such as Double Negative, Ubisoft, Lucasfilm Animation and Media Development Authority of Singpaore (MDA) will be on the lookout for new hires in the region.

    As Alyn Rockwood, SIGGRAPH Asia conference advisory group chair, points out, ‘With governments across Asia investing billions of dollars into the development of the local interactive and digital media sector, and production houses ultimately recognizing the vast talent pool that could be tapped in the region, SIGGRAPH Asia has an important and significant role to play. We are confident that the event will be a successful and rewarding experience for all participants.’

    For more info, please visit www.siggraph.org/asia2008.

  • The Padded Cel: Tooniversity and Beyond

    This month I have been asked to provide profound insight into a) picking an animation school and b) landing a job in animation. Rule #1 of Showbiz Success states ‘always offer more than what is requested.’ To demonstrate this concept, I will also address c) how to apply for a witness protection program after publicly impersonating someone with profound insight:

    Picking An Animation School. Based on hours of painstaking research on the website of the little-known Institute for Animation School Picking (www.hornycheerleaderz.com) I was amazed to learn of several highly scientific methods for selecting a school. However, if throwing the I Ching causes you to break windows, your local yellow pages does not list ‘Animation Aromatherapy Astrologists’ and your hands are too palsied from gripping the Playstation joystick to flip a coin, you might be forced to do some research’based on honest self-assessment. What is your specific area of talent/interest? Is it more design or more technical? Is it cel animation and traditional drawing or CGI? Pure special effects or storytelling and creating characters? Video games, television or movies? Do you want to be a writer/creator as well as an artist?

    Or, are you simply seeking an animation school with a kick-ass football team? I found 19 states in the U.S.which have one or more animation schools or programs. I’ll leave it to you to check out the football programs.

    There are smaller, lesser-known programs around the country, some of which specialize in interdisciplinary approaches to animation. (If you think ‘interdisciplinary’ means that you will be disciplined for putting drugs ‘inter’ your system, I’d recommend starting with two years at a local community college.) Or, for those who feel they have statements to make, there are traditional university film schools which support an animation specialty within a framework of a traditional filmmaking curriculum … in which aspiring filmmakers are taught to make pretentious, self-indulgent and incomprehensible student films.

    Now, if you are someone who has chosen animation as a platform to communicate your important ideals and personal values, here’s a valuable tip: get them completely out of your system at school before you begin!

    Looking For A Job In Animation. My advice here is unimaginative and clich’d (Please withhold comment regarding the rest of the column.) Get your foot in the door. Pursue any job at any company that produces animation, and do so with the same vigor, exuberance and humility that you would if seeking to direct the next Pixar feature. (What, you’re not humble?) While there may be exceptional cases of a remarkable talent going right from school into an influential creative position (I don’t know of any, personally.) There are also people who win the lotto. (Whom I clearly don’t know personally; otherwise I’d be spending my time toadying up to them for handouts rather than writing columns.)

    The other thing that seems difficult for industry newbies to grasp is how few individuals in all of the entertainment industry are actually allowed to assert their creative opinions and vision unchallenged. Certainly, 99.9% of us toil in ‘collaborative’ environments subject to a decision-making food chain in which, no matter who you are, there is always someone one rung higher who gets to reverse you’and seems to revel in doing so.

    Now, about that witness protection program advice I promised? I’m afraid we’re out of room for this month. Rule #2 of Showbiz Success: ‘Overpromise and underdeliver.’ n

    Robby London has worked in animation for more than 20 years as a writer, producer and executive. In other words, he definitely knows what he’s talking about, capice?

    Photo: Attentive students of animation learn at an early age that it pays to make a spectacle of themselves in front of the whole class.