UK Animation is Open for Business

From the team at Animation UK and UK Screen Alliance, we hope you are all well and healthy and finding ways to get through these unprecedented times. It’s difficult to chart the future, and we are all finding new challenges and ways to overcome them, but we hope the message from the Animation sector brings some positive news.

The UK Animation sector is dynamic, known for its quality, and inventiveness iconic characters, humour and skill. We rightly enjoy a global reputation for creative and excellence.

We have spoken to a huge range of studios and production companies and the vast majority have rapidly and successfully moved to off-site working and are in production.

UK Animation is not just fulfilling existing contracts but winning new business in the UK and internationally. Animated content for TV & film, for advertising and corporate messaging and for kids and adults – we are in a great position to make sure we can fill the ferocious appetite for new content.

The message from our small to the larger studios and service providers is strong and clear- “We are Open for Business” :

“Both of Magic Light’s current animated productions – special ‘Zog and The Flying Doctors’ at Giant, and new preschool series, ‘Pip and Posy’ at Blue Zoo, have efficiently moved to remote working. We’ve also seen renewed interest in our existing catalogue and are busy working on distribution deals internationally. It’s been a challenging few weeks, but the way in which the UK animation industry has managed to continue uninterrupted is a testament to its strength and creativity.”

– Barney Goodland, Associate Producer, Magic Light Pictures

“We’re in a privileged position of not having any physical blockers like live action. Jellyfish Pictures alone now has 250 mini studios up and down the UK and beyond working on a Hollywood Feature Film, a British heritage Kid’s TV series and a high-end series of short features. The care and passion we put into each project has not changed because we are in a different set up, in fact in some areas we have seen productivity increase. I truly believe animation could be what weathers the storm for UK TV & film during this time and emerges as a beacon for the creative industries.”

– Phil Dobree, CEO, Jellyfish Pictures

“With most of our work being long-form CG series, after rapidly switching over 150 artists to WFH, we thankfully remain largely unaffected at the moment. We’re still actively recruiting, as we have 5 exciting series in production in both 2D & 3D animation. However we are remaining cautious on a long-term outlook, stemming from how advertising-funded broadcaster’s incomes and budgets will be disrupted. The situation has forced everyone to work in a way that is unfamiliar for many and uncomfortably distant, and to up their communication and workflow game, with employee and employer trust being more important than ever, so we can work together on a shared goal, even when we can’t be in the same room.”

– Tom Box, Co-founder/MD, Blue-Zoo

“Animation is a truly global business.  We work with partners around the world all the time and have robust pipelines and communication protocols in place.   We already had a work from home policy in place – pre pandemic and for work/life balance – and that is serving us well now as we have been able to transfer our whole operation seamlessly. There is definitely an increased demand for children’s content right now. Being nimble and flexible in our creative approach to animation is allowing us to harness and create new opportunities for our own brands and for third parties too.”

– Deborah Thorpe, CEO, Kelebek

“I am pleased to say that with true “can-do spirit” we have transitioned to working remotely very quickly, allowing our CG and interactive teams to work on animation, commercials, gaming, VFX and post production projects from home. We have a number of extremely exciting new projects in the development pipeline – very shortly to be greenlit and announced to the public  – and are continuing to do production prep wherever possible. Aardman is very much open for business.”

– Sean Clarke, MD, Aardman Animations

“There are obviously more challenges for stop-motion (as opposed to CGI) but we have radically re-organised our fabrication practices to enable remote working.  Many of our puppet / model makers can be productive safely and flexibly in their homes, which means that the company can continue to deliver to our UK and US clients who have been exceptionally supportive.  As each day goes by we are increasing capacity.  Our studio production team are successfully working remotely on developing new high quality, funded projects and we’re looking forward to bringing those shows to audiences in 2021.”

– Ian Mackinnon, Co-founder, Mackinnon & Saunders

As the sector is working together, Animation UK is actively in partnership with Government and other key industry organisations, to ensure a thriving animation sector is maintained even in these extraordinary times. We aim to develop a world leading sector of the economy creating new jobs and growth on the basis of being a world leading sector.

So even now we must look to the future to to ensure we have access to funding & investment, competitive tax relief and other incentives to maintain our businesses ensure that the UK continues to be an attractive place to do business and support our export potential.

Source： UK ANIMATION