Quite a few Indian studios are getting into Animation IP these days and a very relevant topic for discussion was on How to create an Animation IP with Global Appeal?
Speakers included Crest CEO Madhavan, Virgin Comics & Animation President Suresh Seetharaman, Toonboom CEO Joan Vogelesang, Adlabs Animation Head Siddharth Jain and Paprikaas CEO Nandish Domlur and Film Maker and Virign Comics co founder Shekhar Kapur. The session was moderated by DQ Entertainment CEO Tapas Chakravarti.
“Indian animation has come of age” shared DQ Entertainment CEO Tapas Chakravarti, “We have now received worldwide acclaim and success in terms of the quality of our production. It is now time to introspect what is required to break through and create Intl IP and to see what key elements are”
“And I would like to urge that instead of taking a very broad spectrum, lets concentrate on platforms where the animation market lies. Pre sell your IP, that‘s the key to fiscal success. If content is king, money is queen and without money content will never see the face of this earth” shared Tapas.
“Being there and getting there are two different things and I think we are just getting there” shared Paprikaas CEO Nandish Domlur. The services legacy has helped us build a large talent pool and will help us in building our own IP going ahead, at the expense of the client we have made a lot of mistakes and learnt a lot of lessons in terms of co productions, media financing as well as distribution formats”
“Digital content ownership is the “Home run” ” shared Nandish, “but we need to take a guarded approach”.
Adlabs Siddhartha Jain in his presentation shared that creating Indian IP was the primary goal, Global appeal was a secondary objective and the idea is to achieve the secondary objective witihout diluting the primary goal.
So what does it take to make globally appealing IP?
Script?
Design?
Universal themes?
Visual Styles?
Cultural Hooks?
Emotions?
International Writers & Talent?
All of these above mentioned elements were described as ‘critical to success‘ by most of the panelists.
Drawing from her vast experience, Toonboom CEO Joan Vogelesang gave her take on the subject. ” Fundamentally you need to look at the target audience, quality, format, spin off and market specs”
“You have to think about who the show is aimed at, is it already similar because imitation is not the best way to go ahead. Does the show look, feel and sound right? What makes it special?” she added.
“Can the strength of the stories and characters sustain over 26 episodes? Is it being made on the right medium, is it right format, your production should take care of these while being planned” elaborated Joan.
“Again in International, the kind of content that works in Europe is very different from the kind of content that does well in US. For example for pre school, emotional content with more of life skills works well in Europe, while educational content does better in the US”
“These things have to be kept in mind” she said.
Crest CEO Madhavan shared “It is very difficult to create an IP. You go through a process of development, research and one has to remember that distribution is a key aspect too and greenlighting is very critical to move on”
Adlabs Siddhartha Jain elaborating on his presentation pointed out how his team was working with a team of International writers and artists.
“We have to focus not only on IP but within that sphere how will we be able to create brands? Moderator Tapas urged fellow panelists.
The firebrand Shekhar Kapur however had a radically different view point than the rest of the panel. “We have become very fond of Keywords” he shared, “IP is a keyword, global market is a keyword, brand is a key word, remember that it is people who go against keywords succeed. We have to stop calling and treating this as a business. It is first and foremost an art and that art has to come from the heart and not through keywords”
“Pixar was not formed with Business plans but with artists and dreamers and passionate people who wanted to tell their stories” he added.
“What is needed in this space is passion and people who have and are devoting their lives and believing 100%. But unfortunately I haven‘t hear that” said Shekhar.
Giving an example of his own product, Shekhar pointed out that, “Virgin comics was not created as a business plan. It was more of a passion of wanting to tell stories visually through the comic book and multi platform media. Today we have done around 27 titles and every studio in Hollywood is after us for the rights”
‘The day you stop thinking of this as a business and think of it as an art is when you will graduate from the back office work” added Shekhar.
Defending the back office work that forms a major chunk of Indian animation, Biren Ghose from the audience explained, “If it were not for the production work that comes to India we would have never be even discussing IP. It is only on the basis of the accumulated experience of the artists and talent that we can now think of producing our IP. Animation is collaborative and not an individual thing and the substantial resource pool acts as an enabler to build a team and create IP”
Crest CEO Madhavan shared “It is a business, it is an art, we need to look at both”
And the discussions continued |