Need Business Partner for Animation Studio

[unknownwriter]

Sorry in advance for the very long post.

Hi Everyone,

My name is Nova Chimera, and I'll be honest, i'm more of an aspiring filmmaker/screen writer than I am a businessman, even though I do have a Bachelor’s degree in Business which has provided me with a good amount of knowledge on the key fundamentals of running a successful business. But I feel my strengths are more on the creative side, which is why i am in need of a business partner who can bring their business acumen to this company I wish to start. Basically, I want to be able to focus on the creative aspect of an animation studio, whilst my partner focuses more on the business side, this is by no means to say that I would not be involved in the business side or let my partner handle all of that, I very much intend to be involved, but I think it would be a massive advantage to have a partner who's main passion is running and operating a successful business. Creating an animation studio has always been a dream of mine and I truly do believe that I have come up with an effective strategy to make the business stand out from the jump and make a real impact in the British animation landscape. You may be wondering, am I an animator myself? Nope. I am a writer. In fact, I writ my first novel this past year. So, what makes me think I can run a successful animation studio? Well i have a very deep knowledge of the industry, I am not an animator by choice because i have always been drawn to writing for animation, not actually doing the animating myself, but that does not take away from my love and respect for the craft. I am also being advised by a senior animator with over 20+ years of industry experience and who currently runs his own successful animation business. I am also being advised by my cousin, who also runs his own successful business. Both of these two have provided me with invaluable guidance on what it takes to start and run a successful business.

So what's the plan, Nova? Simple. Well not super simple but hopefully what I say next makes sense. We're an animation studio, so we gotta animate. We're gonna make a short film. A 2D animated short film with the potential for viral success and award consideration. This is how we start and this is how we put ourselves on the map. Me and my financial advisor (My father with over 30+ years of financial and budgeting experience who is currently a Senior Financial Business Partner at an International NGO) have broken down that we will need an estimated £74,060 of funding to do this successfully. I call it the "The VOODOOVILLE Project" The VOODOOVILLE project is a 2D animated short film based on a scene from the novel of the same name. The goal will be to make a short of such high quality that it garners viral attention from it’s select target market, and catches the eye of TV or Movie studios, with the goal of adapting the short film into a TV series or movie franchise. A deal like this will open the door for multiple revenue streams, such as, royalties, merchandising deals, branding deals, publishing deals etc. Our unique advantage is, the book the short film will be based on was written by myself, the reason this is a very vital and big advantage is because if the short film reaches viral status, that will convert to book sales, not only is that another revenue stream, but the studios we're trying to gain the attention of usually only invest in intellectual property that has a proven fan base, has already sold a significant amount and has a full fleshed story already written with sequel and spin off potential. This is VOODOOVILLE. Also, if the short film reaches viral status or garners thousands, if not millions of views, there is a very high chance we will attract the attention of major publishing houses because the book is an independent release, if a publishing house sees a book selling at a high rate and notices that it does not have a major publishing house attached, this will entice them to acquire the rights, but since the book is already selling at a consistent rate, we now have leverage that most authors would not, which is once again key. Part of the funding will also go towards creating an audiobook because we fill this will help increase sales within our target demo.
This is just a very brief overview of the project because this post is already very long as it is so I’m skipping out on a lot of specific details as to why we feel this has a very good chance of success, but hopefully this gives you an idea of why the success of the short film would be the perfect way to put the business on the map and would lead us to be able to fund even bigger, better and more ambitious animated projects.


So, what do I need from a partner? To be frank, someone who’s passionate about being their own boss, owning a company they can be proud of and someone who will go all out to secure the funding. I don’t particularly care if you have boat loads of experience or not, I’d rather partner up with someone who will put in their all and go the extra mile to make this a reality.


What do I bring to the table? Deep knowledge of the industry, a plethora of creative animated project ideas that I believe will achieve critical and commercial success, a team of advisors with large amounts of business experience, and I’m the hardest working person I know and will push myself until we make this studio a success.



If this sounds like something you’d be interested in exploring further, I have a project plan, pitch deck, financial forecast, as well as some project art, storyboards and a completed animatic i'd be more than happy to share. Please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions. Thank you for reading.



Kind Regards,



Nova.

 

[MOIC]

Cheesy sales pitch.

Why haven’t the people you’ve mentioned in your post offered to be the partner you seek?

 

[unknownwriter]

Cheesy sales pitch.

Why haven’t the people you’ve mentioned in your post offered to be the partner you seek?

Good question, unfortunately they're unable to dedicate as much time as they'd like to, to help run the business since they have businesses of their own, which you can imagine takes up a lot of their time, but they're happy to advise, which has been a big help.

 

[MOIC]

Good question, unfortunately they're unable to dedicate as much time as they'd like to, to help run the business since they have businesses of their own, which you can imagine takes up a lot of their time, but they're happy to advise, which has been a big help.

Unless I’ve read your post wrong, your main thrust of what you need from a partner, is to secure the funding, everything else you have.

What else do you require from the investor/partner, that you don’t already have?

 

[unknownwriter]

Unless I’ve read your post wrong, your main thrust of what you need from a partner, is to secure the funding, everything else you have.

What else do you require from the investor/partner, that you don’t already have?

Yes I would very much like the a partner to come along and help secure funding which is a skill all on it's own, but i also want them to come on aboard, look at the plan and offer their own thoughts on the best course of action to secure the success for the business. I also want someone who will also be able to keep a keen eye on potential avenues for growth once the business starts which i might not see, someone who will be able to negotiate when needed, someone who has strong presentation skills and who will be able to sell this idea effectively, someone who will also be able to focus on the more technical business side whilst i can focus more on the creative side once we start making projects consistently. Once again I must reiterate that i do plan to be very much involved with the business side, but I think it would be very beneficial to have someone who's main drive is to run a business. I know i can look for investment myself and look to run the business myself but i think having a partner who's more business minded than I am will only help the studio chances for prolonged success.

 

[fisicx]

What does the partner get in return? Are there any financial benefits?

Right now all it seems is you want to make a film and can’t get funding. If that’s the case you are no different from thousand of others. Looking on you tube there are thousand of animators who have created stunning films without funding. If you have the skills why not make the film at home. No need for business funding.

 

[Mark T Jones]

The funding requirement isn't huge - I'd recommend you do a private crowd- funding round amongst friends and family (if they don't believe in you, nobody will). Alternatively I believe there are specific crowd- funding sites dedicated to film.

Also bear in mind that costs are very likely to exceed budgets- have you done detailed projections?

Ultimately, this is a variant of the ubiquitous 'I have an idea, now I just need funding' pitch - the answer to which is always ideas are worth nothing.

Start focusing on the actual business aspects before you seek help from outsiders

 

[The Byre]

Film (and animation in particular) is a chicken-and-egg situation. It used to be like that only at the beginning. Once that successful first feature was completed, the rest got easier and easier. Now everybody has to fight for every investment penny! And I do mean all the way to the top. Big, established names for both producers and directors have to pitch just as they used to have to do when they started out!

To cut to the chase - crowdfunding is your only realistic option - either that, or you just have money for that first short film. Or you find animators, voice artists, sound designers, music designers-composers, background artists, etc., etc. who will work on-spec and for points. Then you have to find a distributor, but before you do that, you will need an agent.

Hoping against hope that a TV exec will 'notice' your short (amongst the thousands out there and get sent to them - and get binned, unseen!) is just a non-starter!

So here's how you succeed despite all the gloom-and-doom I have written above -

Step One - get the book by Houston Howard called 'You're Gonna Need a Bigger Story!' Read every page and make notes. It's 342 pages of tightly written instructions on how to succeed in film written by a former Hollywood lawyer. He tells the reader how to build an audience for your story-world BEFORE you make any film, short, medium, or long!

Step Two - OK, you've got the book. Now you need other media to create momentum. That means a website and a printed comic or comic book. What you are doing, is creating a community. Nobody will invest in a movie or a TV series unless he/she can see that you already have an established audience eager to see more of their cartoon heroes.

Step Three - Try to get some sponsorship from a product that can be featured in your cartoon and in the book and in the comic. One youngster in Texas did this by approaching the owner of a local car dealership chain. His whodunnit short film featured clues around the dealership. Now he is making a feature film also featuring that dealership.

"Hell, I'm spending $1m-plus on advertising and most of that is wasted, so setting aside $100,000 into a short film and getting that out there looks to me like a no-brainer!" said the dealer.

See if you can't put an illustrated novel together - that will even act as a storyboard for any future film. D'you see where we are going here? Building momentum by building an audience first!

OK - them's your instructions - now get going and good luck!

 

[unknownwriter]

I have read through what everyone has said and want to thank you all for your input, I will take what you've all said on board and continue to work on my plan and my approach moving forward. Thanks again.

 

[The Byre]

continue to work on my plan and my approach moving forward.

The good news -

The plan as outlined worked for so many people over the years in the indy scene. That was roughly how the Coen Brothers put 'Blood Simple' together back in the 80s - minimal budget and almost everybody above the line was on points. They schlepped from living room to living room (no Interweb back then!) raising a thousand here and a thousand there and a finance guy helped them to get it all together! Great. It was always how the indy scene got stuff done.

And just as you are hoping, that movie was a success and the investors made a reasonable profit and even got the residuals from TV and DVD and then BluRay, pay-per-view, etc. And just as you hope, it came to the notice of the major studios and they were able to sign a two-movie deal with Fox. The first earned a ton of money and continues to earn to this day. The second didn't do so well, but Fox still agreed to a third. The next one bombed, but then came Fargo and the rest is (as they say) history!

The Bad News -

That was then. Them days is over!

After a string of big international hits, the movie and the TV markets just diminished and today only the streamers have money and they are now getting harder and harder to deal with. Creative control is almost impossible to keep. Budgets are getting squeezed and the studios and the streamers are only buying existing IP. They only want something that exists already and is a hit in other media.

The best you could hope for is a modest 360-buy-out deal from one of the three streamers. No residuals, no merchandising, no points and no further involvement. If you are very lucky!

I was involved in a docu-series for the BBC last year and all they paid were the mastering costs - corporate sponsoring paid the real money. That followed the plan I outlined - other media, followed by a book and then came corporate sponsorship and that paid for the TV programmes.

We have also done stuff for Russian TV and we are doing something now for Korea and I am developing two feature films that will be distributed to niche audiences directly. And I've been in this business, starting as a gofer, since 49BC, so I do have some idea about how things are done!

You can do it the way it was done 40 years ago - or you can do the way things get onto TV for the first time today.

 

[unknownwriter]

The good news -

The plan as outlined worked for so many people over the years in the indy scene. That was roughly how the Coen Brothers put 'Blood Simple' together back in the 80s - minimal budget and almost everybody above the line was on points. They schlepped from living room to living room (no Interweb back then!) raising a thousand here and a thousand there and a finance guy helped them to get it all together! Great. It was always how the indy scene got stuff done.

And just as you are hoping, that movie was a success and the investors made a reasonable profit and even got the residuals from TV and DVD and then BluRay, pay-per-view, etc. And just as you hope, it came to the notice of the major studios and they were able to sign a two-movie deal with Fox. The first earned a ton of money and continues to earn to this day. The second didn't do so well, but Fox still agreed to a third. The next one bombed, but then came Fargo and the rest is (as they say) history!

The Bad News -

That was then. Them days is over!

After a string of big international hits, the movie and the TV markets just diminished and today only the streamers have money and they are now getting harder and harder to deal with. Creative control is almost impossible to keep. Budgets are getting squeezed and the studios and the streamers are only buying existing IP. They only want something that exists already and is a hit in other media.

The best you could hope for is a modest 360-buy-out deal from one of the three streamers. No residuals, no merchandising, no points and no further involvement. If you are very lucky!

I was involved in a docu-series for the BBC last year and all they paid were the mastering costs - corporate sponsoring paid the real money. That followed the plan I outlined - other media, followed by a book and then came corporate sponsorship and that paid for the TV programmes.

We have also done stuff for Russian TV and we are doing something now for Korea and I am developing two feature films that will be distributed to niche audiences directly. And I've been in this business, starting as a gofer, since 49BC, so I do have some idea about how things are done!

You can do it the way it was done 40 years ago - or you can do the way things get onto TV for the first time today.

Thank you for taking the time to tell me this, this has been very helpful. You say "Budgets are getting squeezed and the studios and the streamers are only buying existing IP." This is why the short film will be based from a scene from my novel, which i writ and own. If we are able to release the film and the short film goes viral e.g. garners millions of views, and lets just say the popularity of the video translates to book sales, so let's say the video garners 1 million views on YouTube which leads to 3k books being sold Independently, with good fan feedback and now leading to a growing fan base for the book. With the short film now a viral hit and the book it's based on selling thousands of copy's independently with no major publishing house backing and getting good reviews, and also we could even start a hashtag trend on twitter saying "#getvoodoovillegreenlit" something like that, once again proving we have fans and they want more. Would that not entice some studios or networks to been drawn to adapting the book into a movie or TV show? I know these studios want proven IP with a fan base already, hence why i want to make a short film that will work as a trailer of sorts for the book. This is what i feel is our advantage, we already have IP which has the potential for adaptation and which was written to appeal to a certain demographic with sequel appeal also because i know studios ask about that too.

 

[The Byre]

I am not being disrespectful (I hope!) but you seem to be writing from a 'Make my dreams come true!' point of view.

I won't try to describe the bombardment of studios, TV stations, and just about everybody in between (inc. myself for some reason) by thousands of hopefuls, trying to pitch their scripts, ideas, treatments, music, formats - people like Disney, Universal, Fox and the larger TV networks get thousands every damn day and they ALL go in the bin.

Only stuff that comes via an agent that they know and can deal with gets through the front door. It's like that for legal, as well as business reasons. Unsolicited scripts, showreels, whole TV pilots, shorts, entire features, you name 'em and they arrive by the bin-load and the bin is where they all have to go!

In today's fraught world, you won't even get a stand or a look-in at a decent TV or film festival where buyers might be sniffing around without an agent and distribution in place - that's how crowded the market has become!

My advice to you is to start by making music videos for people you know. It's how all sorts of people ranging from Peter Jackson to Roger Deakins began. Look at it as a learning exercise - walk before you can run! And whilst you are doing that, you can be learning about the business.

I would not be so hung-up on animation - if it's to be good, it is expensive. If it's cheap, well, then it just looks cheap! But then I know very little about modern animation and the last time I was in an animation studio was back in the 80s and it involved cellophane sheets.

If you want to make a proof-of-concept reel, make it for nothing. Whole giant movie projects get made for nothing (everybody above-the-line is on points and all the below-the-line costs like crew and studios are met by corporate sponsorship). That way, huge movies costing tens of millions get financed (just as long as the CIA all drive black Audis and the hero has a Beamer and the nerd cracks the code on a Sony laptop, while the love-interest splashes on the Chanel No.5). And if they can do it, you can do it.