Paul Schleicher - Producer at Snafu Pictures
Snafu Pictures is an independent animation company for adults and children. Mainly works with unreal engine for world building and rendering, working on animated shorts and episodes for kids and adults, A short 'Beckoning' was focused on a more mature audience, made In unreal and motion capture.
"Bad Dinosaurs"- Started as a short animation for kids on Youtube and now Has it's own show on Netflix. After being made in 2014 and taken to film festivals.
The focus of this show which helped give it value, was Character designs and tone of humour. Silly Designs and silly story seemed to work well for the target audience.
"Building the Bible"- was the first steps of it development, everything to know about the rules, style, characters and the world the story is in.
Upgrading from Youtube to Netflix quality mostly consisted of elevating the audio. And keeping the original design shapes but improving the quality of textures and rendering. Focusing on cinematography and comedic timing, for the story and it's appropriate audience. Story is Key! as it's the foundation which can be the difference between success or a flop, no matter how great everything else is. Also it may be worth considering other regions when producing a show to have a much wider market potential. Epic mega grants are given to projects that utilise Unreal engine to help get them off the ground if they meet the requirements.
Leverage tools and technology to work for you and get it done to the best quality you can. there is ever-growing tools and technology out there to be used for you to create, (nothing can stop you from doing what you love). main difference between a pitch for children's and adults shows is that the investors would want to know about products and merch for the kids shows. And adults in general have fewer buyers as its not as big a market, but when launching a niche it may be worthwhile talking to investors with similar launches or interests.
Lindsey Adams - Founder & Producer at Daily Madness Productions
Working on a fresh project, "put new ideas in quickly and take out the ones that don't work early" to have a stronger framework to work with. When pitching your animation show idea, 3 things needed: -World Bible -Script test -Anim test (and slates/ backup shows ideas- as 1 of your ideas might not be what they are looking for at the moment) YouTube originals- have a fund to support animated content, especially for kids. Useful sites: https://worldscreenevents.com/festivals/ https://www.youtube.com/@TheChildrensMediaConference
Building relationships, as you can have an incredible idea, but without the right contacts, it might be a struggle to get it off the ground.
Be involved in the community, trying to bring people together, Build a presence and present yourself, build a YouTube Channel as a platform to show your content and use the analytics to understand your audience. and start a conversation with commissioners once your established e.g. Netflix. show it off online and in person at animation events- where the whole animation industry comes together, where people know people and can get crucial feedback and tips or contacts.
Do your best to try remember names so when talking with contacts you can have a mutual connection, also try to avoid negative talk of others as it may work against you.
Don't wait for permission! try to push it as far as you can by yourself or with a small group and build your confidence with your work.
Pitch Rejection:
-timing, applying again or another time can help as long as you have a product you believe in.
-Can get really good feedback from the judge panel to give you a better chance next time.
-show a slate / another project variety.
Uniqueness for character design is really helpful to make your animation stand out.