International broadcasters,investors, production studios like Disney, Turner, Jetpack, CBBC, Netflix, Amazon to judge the animation and gaming pitch at Bengaluru B2B AVGC summit 2017
The world will come down to Bengaluru to make the dreams of producing original animated and gaming IPs come true. Yes you heard it right!
Bring out all those crazy creative ideas which have been waiting to get produced since long. Its time to dust off the shelf and pitch your IP to international broadcasters, investors and production studios.
Bengaluru B2B summit 2017 is all set to host India’s largest animation pitch for original IPs. This global event is indeed a great boost for the Indian animation industry. For the first time ever, it is an opportunity to have a 1:1 meeting with leaders from Turner, Disney, Jetpack, BBC and many international and national channels, producers and distributors right here in India. The whole of the world will be descending to ITC Windsor Manor hotel, Bengaluru on 16 and 17 November for the summit.
To register for the animation pitch or for any queries regarding the rules and regulations one has to log on to http://abaib2bsummit.com. The last date for submission of pitches is 6 November, 2017. Also interested participants can write in to abai.b2b@gmail.com for any queries or call 08025721959. Few days are left for registration, so one needs to hurry up and register fast!
ABAI president Biren Ghose whose ABAI team is organising the event in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka (KBITS) spoke to Animation Xpress. He gave us an in-depth idea about the B2B summit for the AVGC industry.
As a pioneering B2B event in kids content space, what are you trying to achieve?
Biren: Broadcasters have a specific editorial strategy that guides what they buy and co-produce. Creators on the other hand often develop themes which do not fit into the broadcasters or buyers’ current objectives. Such B2B events help to reconcile the expectations of the buyers with the offerings of the creators through feedback, discussions and negotiation.
Can you tell us the kind of people who will be able to assess the quality of the pitches from the buyers end?
Biren: We have world leaders like BBC, Turner, Disney, Jetpack and many other stalwarts from both the international and domestic markets. Broadcasters all over the world will be attending the event. Some of the names are BBC, Technicolor, Jetpack Distribution, A Stark Production, Turner (EMEA), Mighty Serious,League of Geeks, Demente Creative Studio, Just B, Netflix, Amazon.
What are the kind of pitches that you expect will be made at the local market?
Biren: This is really a pioneering event as some of the pitchers would have been developing content for a while, while many others will be in relatively ‘early stage’ in understanding the process. I expect that the pitchers will make efforts to listen to what the broadcasters are looking for and to be creative and yet authentic in presenting their concepts, characters, formats and story ideas.
What are the minimum pitching materials that a person should bring with him/her to the event?
Biren: ABAI has not attempted to create any filters nor has it attempted to impose too much regimen on the manner in which the creatives will be presented. The buyer is essentially looking to be convinced that the project is fresh, carries the conviction and passion of the creator and is presented in a clear, concise and easy manner to follow the pitch. Given that the time slot available is 15 minutes, good pitchers might be able to go even beyond a single pitch and lay out two or three concepts in broad strokes. My personal belief is that a simple one sheet is necessary and a pitch bible (however short) is an essential. Showing clips is great provided that the pitcher knows that he/she is on target.There is a list of jury members who will be overseeing the animation pitch which will be out soon. These are some of the names which has been announced.
CBBC productions head – animation Tim Searle
Tim is head of animation at CBBC Productions and executive Producer of ‘Danger Mouse’. He has worked in the animation industry for over 25 years. He has set up ‘Triffic Films’ and quickly started producing animation and graphics for a wide range of comedy shows including: ‘Absolutely’, ‘Two Fat Ladies’ (C4) ‘Have I Got News For You’ (BBC) and many others. In 2001, Tim helped create ‘2DTV’, directing 5 series of the successful topical sketch series for ITV. In 2013, Tim moved to Tiger Aspect, as series director of ‘Mr Bean’ (52 x 11’s) for ITV and the world. He then joined Tiger Aspect as the creative Director for kids and animation in 2015. Tim joined CBBC in 2016.
Zia Bales from Turner
Senior acquisitions manager EMEA Zia Bales who works for kids’ channels at Turner Broadcasting will be attending the event.In this role, Zia oversees and negotiates shared acquisitions for Turner Broadcasting’s EMEA kids business, working closely with the local heads of programming and acquisitions of each of the channels and the content heads within EMEA.Zia has been at Turner since 2013. Prior to this she handled an acquisitions role at Disney. Zia has a background in television production having held various positions in Production Management. Zia is quite hopeful of finding good talent at India and looking forward to some really awesome pitches.
Avrill Stark from A Stark Production
CEO executive producer and creative leader of A Stark Production Avrill Stark will be attending Bengaluru B2B AVGC summit. Some of her credits include the wonderful pre-school series Zigby the comedy animated series, Zeke’s Pad; the epic adventure series, Enyo; the hilarious Erky Perky (season 1 and 2). Currently the company is into live action as well.Her first animated feature film, Santa’s Apprentice was awarded the prestigious UNICEF Award at the Annecy International animation festival. A Stark Production is committed to encouraging and nurturing talent and it is in search of talented Indian studios as well freelancers who will be pitching for their IPs.
Miriam Lopez, 2D producer Demente Estudio
Miriam Lopez is 2D producer of Demente Estudio and she will be overseeing the animation pitch . Lopez is a development and production executive and creator in animation storytelling. She is a co-founder of recognised companies as Monster View and Jellyfish and has won several awards for animation including Ideatoon 2015, GIFF, Quorum and A! Diseño. Currently she is working in Demente Estudio as a producer.She is looking for concepts and also bringing some ready concepts for co-production and partner search. Lopez is quite excited to meet talented pitchers from India and get to know about their innovative ideas.
CBBC programme executive Aubrey Clarke
Aubrey has been a programme executive for the children’s animation and acquisitions team within the BBC for 5 years and is editorially across co-productions, pre-buys and ‘Off the Shelf’ acquisitions for CBBC and CBeebies. He is the channel executive on shows such as ‘Scream Street’, ‘The Zoo’, ‘The Deep’ and ‘Tee & Mo’ plus is brand manager of ‘The Next Step’.
B2B AVGC Summit 2017 : Event Itinerary
The Bengaluru B2B AVGC summit will also have panel discussions and other informative and educative sessions for the AVGC industry. The itinerary is as below:
Day one that is 16 November has an opening panel discussion from 9:30 am to 10:00 am with an introduction. It will be followed by one-on-one sessions from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm. The second half will have an enlightening panel discussion on co-production from 4:30pm to 5:15 pm. Day two that is 17 November will have a panel discussion from 9:30 am to 10:15 am about “The Tips and tricks to Pitching”. This will be indeed very useful for pitchers and those who are planning to do so in future.From 2:00 pm to 2:30 pm there will be a case study about developing,marketing and IP. From 4:30 pm to 5:45 pm there will be a master panel discussion with feedbacks and suggestions from international visitors.
Also on 18 November, there will be a special session for animation, visual effects, comics and gaming named as “AVGC session” at Bangalore Palace from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm at the “Bengaluru Tech Summit”.
So, get ready for the greatest pitching platform connecting India to the world. More news coming up about Bengaluru B2B AVGC summit 2017. Stay updated with us for more news and start registering for the pitch!