Chennai
based 2D
animation studio Dessin
Works is eagerly awaiting this year's MIPCOM. The studio
has plenty of reasons to look forward to its 5th consecutive
visit to the event.
Bucking the usual trend in Indian animation, that of building
business around outsourced assignments, Dessin
Works plans to pitch not one, not two but three original
shows at MIPCOM this year!
Even though a few Indian studios have got
into original IP recently, it is still quite a rarity
in Indian animation.
Speaking to Animation 'xpress, Dessin Works
Directors Rajini C & Clifford Raj shared,"We
are eagerly looking forward to this year's MIPCOM as there's
a lot of content and concepts that we are planning to
pitch. We are going into the event with 3 original IPs.
We will be looking for distributors and buyers for Dollaly
Jinks (26
episodes x 11mins - France
territory already sold) which is already complete and
pre sales for the other two"
On being asked to elaborate on the two new shows, Clifford
quipped,"Jelly Bean Land (26
episodes x 4mins)
is a co production with Brazilian studio Moonshot Pictures
and we will be looking for doing the pre sales. Space
Stage 3047 is ready in terms of the pre production
and we are scouting for co pro partners"
One
of the most interesting things about the Dessin Works'
shows is the fact that though produced locally, the storylines
(by Julia Fairley and Padma Nagarajan), characters, dialogues
and voicing (Voicetoons, U.S) are all done keeping global
audiences in mind.
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Dessin
Works' Dollaly Jinks
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Targeted
primarily at 7-12 year olds, Dollaly Jinks is the
story of Chip, a new kid in town and his friendly neighbor
Stolly who's a professional inventor with the mind of
an eight year old. It is a humorous series with funny
inventions, and funny instances but with a happy ending.
"The message of the show is how happy you can make
yourself if everything you do benefits others rather than
hurt them" remarked Rajini.
"Of the entire cast in Dollaly... my favorite
is Janice...the sane and focussed one and my favorite
episode is SNOW ZILLA where Stolly invents a machine
which would make or break ice. Chip wants to use it to
avenge but ends up using it to help his ever irritating
neighbour, and feels happy to have done that in the end"
she added.
"I
must say that both the writers Padma who did the initial
research and the first 13 episodes and Julia who wrote
the next 13 have been brilliant and have managed to get
out the essence of each character" she further added.
Being
co produced with Brazilian studio Moon Shot Pictures,
Jelly Bean Land is targeted at pre schoolers.
It revolves around a kingdom where everything is made
of food. The local kids ski on big vanilla ice cream mountains
and have fun jumping on jelly trampolines. They use super
market carts instead of cars and houses are made of different
eatables such as candy bars, cheese and even pop corn.
The orchards have exotic fruits like banapples and orandeberries
and all other mixtures of fruits. There's rivers of rich
yummy chocolate where they go rafting on their doughnut
boats.
The
Dessin Works duo are also very Gung Ho about Space
Stage 3047 which is targeted at teenagers. The
hook is that of Theatre, Adventure and Laughter in 30th
Century space.
"With
the experience Dollaly Jinks has given us. We are
now moving into the development of Space Stage..The
story plot is developed and the characterizations have
been done and the episodic breakdowns are ready. Last
MIP we had tested the concept and got very encouraging
feedback, a lot of studios and potential partners were
hooked with the original idea of theatrics involved"
said Clifford.
"The best part of Space Stage... is
that it involves characters from all of the globe, one
of almost every region who come together..to study the
art of theatre" quipped Rajini .
From
being a studio that started off with just 5 people, Dessin
Works has come a long way. "It was our dream to do
our own animation content right since college" beamed
Rajini, speaking of her and her Husband's animated ambitions.
"We had infact set a goal that we'd start on our
own at 35 but god-willing we were able to do it at 31
and after an initial struggle for the past three years
things are finally looking good"
So
how did a small studio in downtown Chennai suddenly dare
to dream and create global IP? "There are no big
investors with us, no big hype, nothing. We are simpletons
wanting to do well and it is truly and fully the people
around us, who have made it possible. A lot of credit
goes to Naagarajan of Pyramid Entertainment who gave us
ideas on how to go about kick starting our studio in a
bigger way, he was the first one to guide us towards towards
the potential of creating our own IP for international
markets, he also introduced us to the MIP market"
shared
Clifford.
"The first time we particpated at MIPCOM things were
pretty vague for us and we were actually looking for a
service job? Absorbing whatever we saw around us, we were
convinced that we could straightaway pursue our dream
of original content, because if done right we had the
entire market as potential partners and buyers" reminisced
Rajini.
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Jelly
Bean Land Characters
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"By
the third time at MIPCOM we had taken 13 episodes and
to our great relief there were takers. We are really happy
to see that several producers are interested in our next
concept. We are also getting offers for co-prod, especially
in pre-production and post-production, except the scripting"
she continued.
"MIPCOM
is an excellent platform to understand the requirement
in terms of entertainment, and gives us a wide scope to
expose ourself and our talents, capacities and passion.
But
it is needed that one's presence is felt continuously,
one
market or 2 markets are just not sufficient, it is after
4 times that you have people seeing you when they start
talking real business" quipped Clifford.
"Amongst
the most important things that studios abroad look for
in an Indian partner is consistency" he added.
MAKING
THE MOST OF MIPCOM
Talking about how Dessin Works makes the most of its MIPCOM,
Rajini shared," Once we register, we send mailers
to the database that we collect from the MIPCOM site.
Next we follow up on the responses that we get, but prior
to that we study the companies and how relevant they are
to us. No point in just having the diary filled with appointments,
that will not justify your cause. It depends on the focus
of the company, We divide between selling and co-producing"
"Someday we plan to have our own booth there"
she added.
We
really wish that there were guidelines on pricing and
some pricing standards that we could follow. Most of us
Indian Studios are so busy surviving individually, that
we forget about the larger picture about how we as India
could do better if we could have a standard format.
As the conversation drew to a close, the Dessin Works
duo shared a parting thought...
"Sometimes
studios with great investment model can fail...and why?
Sometimes studios with a basic investment..could grow..and
again why?
Don't
you think the underlying factor is passion for work...rather
than for money?
Money & all other things of course follow good work.
And this MIPCOM we plan to promote our ideas and good
work, to the entire globe"
-
Anand Gurnani
