Animation Blog

Ilive from the CGTalk forum has posted a few questions upon my invitation to ask questions regarding getting cartoon series produced and funded. Below is his original post and my answers to his questions.

Ilive’s Question: How did you get your involvement with Hi Corp Japan? Are they investing money in your project?

Aldric’s Answer: We met at a local gaming convention. I prefer not to discuss financing issues with any of our partners here due to confidentiality issues. I hope you understand.

Ilive’s Question: Where is the best place to look for financiers?

Aldric’s Answer: The best place to meet financiers from my experience are at international broadcast shows like MIPCOM, MIPTV and Kidscreen. Any such similiar shows on a smaller scale also fit the bill. As a visitor or a participant, you will receive a participant’s directory. Look up who lists ‘financing’, ‘animated series production’ or something of a similar nature as their agendas, and write a nice polite email to request for a meeting. These kind of financiers usually come in the form of production companies, distribution companies, financing companies, government agencies and even banks. Be sure to check out their websites and see whether the shows they produce match your genre before contacting them. It’s no good trying to sell a matured show to a company who has a track record of producing preschooler series. Try not to divulge too much of your property, but not too little that you sound overly cautious (some companies view that as untrusting them unless you are a big name already). Mention that you want to do a ‘pitch’ and ask them if they would be interested in hearing further. As far as possible, try to request for a meeting so that you can present your story in person. If you find that you need to provide more information before they want to meet you, provide a one-pager which describes your concept briefly but clearly along with some completed concept art. I wouldn’t worry too much about copyright issues because you wouldn’t get anything done otherwise. This is a business decision and I leave it to your discretion, but I would throw too much caution out of the window if I were you.

Ilive’s Question: Where can you find sponsorship instead? We all know who can invest, angel investors, vcs, etc but how do you find these people and keep things legal?

Aldric’s Answer: The above questions are similar to the previous. As mentioned, you want to visit international broadcast shows to find production companies and financiers. To keep things legal and water-tight, I would always advise anyone to hire a lawyer! If you are on a budget (as most of us are at earlier stages), then I would tell you to ensure that everything you divulge is accompanied by a NDA (non-disclosure-agreement). But be realistic in realizing that not every company may want to sign a NDA for a non-solicited pitch. Copyrights are assigned automatically as soon as you create your work. If you want double protection,

1) send everything by email and ask for return-receipts so that you have proof of sending
2) get NDAs signed
3) register copyrights with Washington DC Copurights Office
4) send a self-addressed envelope with your creative work enclosed within as soon as you complete your works (don’t open your envelopes!)

Ilive’s Question: Any ideas on areas to visit to find funding?

Aldric’s Answer: The above question is confusing, can you please rephrase?

Ilive’s Question: I have some characters do you want to evaluate them?

Aldric’s Answer: I would be happy to see them and give you my feedback. But we don’t sign NDAs because we produce cartoon characters all the time too and we don’t want to be accused of stealing incase our concepts are similiar to what you have. Although if we like your characters enough and they are unique, we may make a proposition to work with you. If you are uncomfortable with this arrangement, you don’t have to do this. If you do, I will try my best to give you useful feedback.

Ilive’s Question: Do you have a list of production companies or know of any looking to create a project?

Aldric’s Answer: You will have to do this homework yourself unfortunately. I do know of many production companies that produce animation series all the time (my company Mediafreaks is one of them). But to be honest, this kind of information is something that you can find out on your own. Just look out for the credits at the start or end of the animated series on broadcast and find out the studios behind producing them. Look up their contact details on the internet and drop a nice email introducing yourself and what you want to do to them. Remember to find the animated series that best fit your genre.

You can visit the Mediafreaks site to learn more about our 3D animation services and also receive a free report regarding 3D animation services here.

This article was written by Aldric Chang – a creative businessman who is active in music composing and production, internet marketing, casual games production, animation production, cartoon production and character licensing. He’s currently intent on growing his up-and-coming 3d animation company into a behemoth entertainment enterprise.