Animation studios hanging in there amid shutdowns
Demand for new streaming family content a boon for industry
Hollywood North has taken a huge hit since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down film shoots, studios and all the industries that supply them.
But as the industry prepares for Phase 3 of the province’s four-phase restart plan, one sector has been working hard throughout.
Animation studios such as Sony Imageworks, where the 2019 Oscar-winning best animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was helmed; and Atomic Cartoons, home of Netflix hits such as The Last Kids on Earth and Beat Bugs, are keeping busy.
As streaming services keep adding subscribers, the need for new content means more animated projects are getting the green light, as they can be done working in isolation.
“I’m so grateful to be working in this industry, where we do have the ability to be offsite and producing,” said Jennifer McCarron, CEO and director of Thunderbird Entertainment, which owns Atomic Cartoons.
“All 700-plus of our employees are working off-site with little or no interruptions to deliveries and delays.
“That’s exciting, because we would have never considered that kind of operation without the unique situation that we all find ourselves in at the moment.”
In April, a study prepared for the Canadian Media Producers Association predicted $2.5 billion in business across Canada was at risk if the COVID-19 measures carried on through June.
Creative B.C., the provincial agency supporting TV and film production, lists approximately 70,000 jobs in the sector. Having major animation studios keeping their doors open is a big boon to the creative economy.
McCarron notes that the home-based work experience is likely to have permanent ramifications for the way business is conducted in the future.
“I think we’ll change how we approach things, as we will no longer be confined to the four walls of our building,” she said. “Owing to the genius of our various incredibly smart IT and portal teams, most of the Vancouver companies have been able to get up and running off-site and remain functional. It’s relatively easy using secure VPN portals, just don’t have your computer facing windows to the street.”
Full credit for being nimble goes to the IT crowd, McCarron says, who read the potential for an industry impact from the novel coronavirus when news first started coming out of China.
That advance planning has proved to be a major boon just as demand is spiking for new content.
“Content needs to be refreshed to keep subscribers engaged, and you can generate that with animation without needing 250 people on a set interacting to make live action content,” she said.
“There has also been a rise in documentary creation because it is far more guerrilla, with small crews, and capable of social distancing filming measures.
All of our streaming partners are reporting, anecdotally, that more co-viewing material that can be watched with the whole family the better, and that includes animation and factual programs such as cooking shows.”
Mandy Tankenson is senior vice-president, head of production at Sony Pictures Imageworks.
She echoes McCarron’s upbeat view of animation studios’ resiliency in the face of the pandemic shutdowns.
“It’s busier than ever in a lot of ways, and we were so fortunate that we were able to get a crew of over 800 artists out of the office and working from home in under a week,” said Tankenson.
“That was a process that one would prefer to have more time to implement, but talking to our CGI supervisors they were commenting about how efficient they all are now. We went from finishing one show at our two locations to finishing two more at 800 locations.”
Imageworks was just coming into the next wave of productions when the pandemic hit. While Tankenson says they haven’t seen any fast-tracking requests from streaming service partners, the schedule is full for coming features and shows including Over the Moon (Netflix, October) and a number of others.
She noted that the phone had been ringing more in advance of forward production schedules for an industry-wide analysis of what the balance between live-action and animation would look like for the coming season, or seasons.
Imageworks is actively involved in both camps.
“We’re all looking forward to all of that starting up again soon, because this has been hard on the live-action sector,” Tankenson said.
“It will come back, of course. In the meantime, we are in the early stages of the followup to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, which is really exciting, and Hotel Transylvania 4.”
Tankenson echoes McCarron in anticipating more demand for co-viewing content. As families are expected to be gathering together in the home for some time to come, this content will become essential.
Animation is always a strong contributor to that family viewing market.
Vancouver Film Commissioner David Shepheard is pleased that many animation studios have been able to maintain operations, but stresses that the bottom line is still bad for Hollywood North.
Many others have not been able to keep staff working, as they might have been in the project pitching phase in March.
That is peak season for new and returning series to start shooting, as well as for major features to be approved.
There were over 40 productions halted in March.
“We went from completely full employment with film workers to full unemployment overnight, which is pretty stark,” said Shepheard.
“We’ve been through the response phase and now the industry is working day and night on what could be new practices for health and safety moving forward. The film and TV industry is likely to be one of the fastest to get back up and running.”
Noting that the animation and visual effects studios were able to transition quickly and keep a lot of employees working, Shepheard also said that with no live-action filming, the VFX side of things is bound to be taking a bigger hit.
He also wasn’t surprised to hear about increasing demand for family content coming from streaming services, noting that material isn’t a surefire solution in all situations.
“My kids are teenagers, so I never see them anyways,” said Shepheard.