- Title: SWEDEN: ANIMATORS GATHER FOR EUROPEAN CARTOON FORUM.
- Date: 16th October 2000
- Summary: VISBY, GOTLAND (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) VARIOUS OF BALTIC SEA FROM SHORES OF GOTLAND, SWEDEN (UNDERLAYED WITH MUSIC BY VISBY ALLMANNA SANGEN "LOMMEN" VISBY HARBOUR VARIOUS COBBLED STREETS OF VISBY FOUNTAIN PEOPLE DRINKING OUTSIDE CAFE TRACTOR MOVING IN FIELD/UNION JACK FLYING WIDE OF CARTOON FORUM SIGN OUTSIDE VENUE - AN OLD FARM OUTSIDE VISBY - SUDERBYS HERR
- Embargoed: 31st October 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VISBY, GOTLAND, SWEDEN
- Country: Sweden
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA2VF1T51W1YNATG1ZM3VY4WS9A
- Story Text: The runaway success of Nick Park's animation feature films, "Wallace and Gromit" and "Chicken Run" has once again demonstrated just how wide an appeal cartoons have on audiences. Although the large U.S. studios continue to dominate markets in America and Europe alike, thanks to funding from the European Commission, first-time animators and producers in Europe are being encouraged to develop original cartoon concepts for one-off television slots or series.
At the recent annual European cartoon forum in Gotland, Sweden, Reuters caught up with "Squint" - a team of aspiring young animators who'd flown to Scandinavia to pitch "Rockit Huntington", their latest idea to buyers from across Europe.
Less than one month ago, the most influential men and women in the European animation industry, gathered in Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland, to discuss the latest technological changes the industry has had to embrace, and more importantly to pitch the best cartoon ideas to animation buyers, in the hope of winning a commission.
One such company in town with a new concept was "Squint" - three twentysomethings from Britain with their latest creation, "Rockit Huntington". Ed Talfan (animator/producer), Olly Smith (writer) and Jim Le Fevre (animator) have been friends since their schooldays and decided to join forces after they'd gained work experience independent of one another. Having earned certain success with smaller projects like advertising campaigns and commercials, the trio put their heads together to come up with Rockit Huntington and Carmen Wednesday - the sole defenders of an imaginary universe the Free Republic.
Their idea for a cartoon series is based upon the capital city called 'Gratis'. A certain villain - Mr Smith - who is the exiled son a a former ruler of Gratis wants his birthright back as he believes that it's his destiny to rule the city. A thousand or so cheery but very stupid clones and seven fat Councillors depend on Huntington and his sidekick Wednesday to take on the evil Smith and thwart his devious schemes to take over the city and restore justice to the galaxy.
This year was the first time the producers from Squint had attended the Cartoon Forum and before they pitched their project to potentially interested parties, Reuters asked them how much they valued the opportunity: "It is important to pitch the idea to a wide audience obviously to try to secure distribution and financing. It's also good to come out and meet other production companies - just to get ourselves known because we're obviously new i the animation field as professionals, so yeh this is our maiden voyage", said producer Talfan.
But were there any nerves ahead of the pitch? Not according to animator Jim Le Fevre: "We're all quite relaxed, we've been to most of the other pitches to see how they all go and they're all very different but they do follow a certain formula in some ways which gets varied depending on the project, but I think what we've got to do is kind of control our enthusiasm in some way.". Considered too enthusiastic, Le Fevre was told by his teammates that under no circumstances was he to speak during the presentation.
Following the pitch, buyers were asked to share their initial thoughts of the cartoon idea with the rest of the audience and lucky for the boys, the reception was very warm.
One Finnish buyer suggested it was good enough to compete with "South Park" or even "Star Trek.
Presentation over, Talfan, Le Fevre and Smith retired to the forum bar with their partner producer Nigel Pay from Tandem films to dissect their performance and anticipate their success.
First question - did the audience get it? Pay believed they did.
"I showed this project to someone about four months ago when it was in a much earlier stage actually and they were struggling a bit and he was one of the people who spoke today and he got it and that was a bit of a relief", Pay said.
Did the group believe they might have make a few changes before selling "Rockit Huntington" to the networks for millions? Le Fevre spoke for the team: "The amount of time that we've spent developing this, sort of seems to suggest that oh we think we've got it right - fantastic, but actually, each stage of the production everything, technique - originally the idea two and a half years ago was a model animation but the transition was purely for the fact that we all sat down, we just bounced it off so many different people, so many walls - things change and it's got bigger and bigger and I think it's probably going to get stronger and more secure, leaner", he said.
The team's celebrations were a family affair with Le Fevre's father on hand to bring on the beers. But it was difficult to predict whether or not "Rockit Huntington" would succeed or fail but as far as Squint is concerned, they've given it their best shot and the rest...is out of their creative hands. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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