Putting this out for producers with experience packaging animated features: I'm leading a small team in the development of our animated family movie. I've got experience and a network in the animation/effects world. But I'm still coming up zeroes getting a budget made for our project. Someone referred me to a generic low cost line producer. I asked if they'd ever budgeted for animation before, they said no, but they could learn. I had to pass - I know there's a huge difference between live action and animation budgeting. What do you think of this approach? -Contacting animation production companies with the intent of signing a coproduction deal, getting the script to them to see if they connect with it, then having them budget the script. We are going the indie finance route, so my belief is that attaching an experienced animation company will make our package that much more appealing and realistic for private equity investors. Am I on the right path? Much appreciation for your responses!
Producing : Creating a budget for an animated feature by Scot Byrd
Creating a budget for an animated feature
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Hi Scot, I'm responding to only Part 1 of the post, as Part 2 is a more complicated matter. If you are still looking for a budget, I can try to introduce you to a few animation producers. They would need to be paid for their services. (I was a studio exec on Curious George at Universal, and I worked with a handful of animation producers on the movie and others. I don't know which of them are immediately avail to prep a budget and production plan, but I can check around if you have an overhead budget to pay their fees.)
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I think Laurie Ashbourne is probably the Animation expert on S32, so you might want to reach out to her. In my limited experience, there are very different production plans an indie animated movie could take, so you'd want to explore your options, evaluate your existing personal network, etc. That is a VAST oversimplification.
Hi Regina - Thank you for your response. Glad to meet you virtually - I worked on numerous projects for Universal as a publicist and always enjoyed it. Yes! - I'd welcome introductions to qualified professional animation producers for the purpose of developing a budget for our project. I understand and anticipate they will need to be paid. Also, I'll reach out to Laurie Ashbourne as you suggest and hopefully gain some insight from the indie perspective. Thanks again!
Hi Scot, I'm happy to ask for you. I've never asked these animation producers what they'd charge for a budget and production plan. I'm assuming it would cost somewhere around $4000-8000, along the lines of what their live action colleagues would charge for a live action budget. Is that OK for you? I don't want to waste their time if that's not OK. I will not make a cent for a referral. Maybe someone would buy me lunch, but it's not about me making money here. Every person I would ask has been a production manager, animation studio exec, animation line producer, etc. I have a contact at Pixar too who might be able to refer someone but need to know the fee works for you. These are all very legit people whom I met when we hired them at Universal, or whose services we contracted as vendors when they were employed by Warner Animation, for example.