Last week, we brought five executives to London to showcase our city's booming animation industry.
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Sophie Boé, CANAL+ (France)
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Jeffrey P. Kranzdorf, Film Roman LLC (US)
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Solveig Langeland, Sola Media GmbH (Germany)
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Pietro Pinetti, Studio Bozzetto & Co (Italy)
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Xie Yang,Shicai Studio (China)
Over three days, the delegates were given tours of some of London's top animation studios, as well as tailored one-to-one meeting sessions.
Generous tax reliefs for film and animation programming in the UK, introduced in 2007 and 2013 respectively, have helped boost our city's offer for international animation productions. We sat down with our delegates to discuss the future for animation in London and beyond.
Changing perceptions
"I didn't really have a good understanding of either the depth or breadth of the facilities, the talent or the variety of product being created here," Jeff from Film Roman admitted.
He added that had been impressed by the ability of London's studios to work across disciplines. "Clearly the animation industry here isn't necessarily restricted to features, or even television. Not only that, but things that are becoming of primary concern for us in the States - apps, video games. The confluent development of all of these - this bundle of things that feed off of one another."
Solveig from Sola Media explained how her initial reservations about costs in London had been overturned. "I thought, London is so expensive, how could they make it competitive against us in continental Europe? But yesterday we went to see Lupus Films, and they're making animation features at continental European budgets."
Image: Delegate Xie Yang looks at artwork for We're Going on a Bear Hunt, a Lupus Films production in association with Bear Hunt Films and Walker Productions, which is being produced for Channel 4
Making connections
What did they find most useful in their time here? "The one-to-one meetings were the most useful part for me," Sophie from CANAL+ said, "because we can see the projects which are in development and react immediately on whether that would work well for our company."
Pietro, who runs animation studio Studio Bozzetto & Co, had other aims for his time here. "I have a production company, so it's a little bit different. The one-to-one meetings are better for television companies who want to acquire particular projects, but for me it's perfect just to see the companies I might want to work in co-production with. The studio tours were very helpful."
All the delegates agreed that the most important part of the trip was the connections they made with the London companies. "I grabbed 50 business cards when I left and I thought, oh that's plenty," Jeff added. "Now I'm finding myself writing on the backs of old cards, because I've met so many people! And I wouldn't offer my card if I wasn't interested in doing business with people. I wouldn't waste my time or theirs."
Image: Delegates visit Blue-Zoo on their London studio tour
Working together
"There's been runaway production from Hollywood, and I'm very glad it came to London," Jeff said. "I'm going to actively seek out production partnerships here in London. We're hugely excited about the prospects for business here."
Sophie was interested to see what co-productions could bring to France's saturated animation market. "With French channels - like everywhere else - they're a bit timid. They don't take a lot of risks," she explained. She went on to say that working with other countries provides the option for producing something refreshing. "Something a little more non-conformist, something irreverent. That's where we could work together, to propose something outside of the mainstream."
"I see a lot of potential here," says Solveig. "I work in feature films, and I think that many of the companies I met are interested in getting into the feature business. I hope that I can help them do that."
