Christmas is half a year away but it is already jingling bells for the Ketan Mehta promoted SFX and animation studio Maya Entertainment Limited.The studio has recently landed a bounty of international projects totalling over a million dollars.
The show ‘Jack Frost’ shall be based on a UK childrens best seller ‘THE TALE OF JACK FROST’ by David Melling.
Amongst the assignments, is a substantial amount of work (production and possibly post production) for a BBC show titled Jack Frost. The show has been alloted a total budget of $7,50,000 and is scheduled for a Christmas ’04 telecast on the BBC Worldwide channel.
A company press release states that the show which is based on a UK childrens bestseller is a 30 minute animated feature will be created in 3D.
According to a BBC Worldwide press release issued in April’04, the programme is to be animated in toonshaded CGI, giving the show a more illustrative quality than the usual ‘shiny’ 3D style of Hollywood studio produced movies.
Says MEL CEO Rajesh Turakhiya, “The assignment came to MEL through UK’s Jack Frost Productions who are associated with BBC Worldwide. While pre-production functions like storyboard and modeling have been done in UK, we are involved in production activities related to animating the entire show, the background elements and compositing.â€?
Giving details about the other assignments that add to MEL’s recent bonanza, the press release mentioned that, MEL had also bagged assignments to create content for Nickelodeon and for a leading toy manafacturer in the US.
The studio has been assigned 2 projects by the toy makers, of which one is a special program worth $250,000 around the toy makers products and the other a gaming animation project worth $150,000 .
The Niceklodeon project involves creating 10-12 fillers for the channel at $25,000 a piece and was handed over to the studio by The Zoo Group, an associate of Jack Frost productions.
To meet its required output, MEL is renovating its infrastructure and plans to increase its animator headcount from 65 to 215 . The release also stated that a division of the studio’s stake holder INTEL, will aid in the design, restructuring and update of the hardware and software to meet the expanding client base.