Un modelo de negocio de un estudio de bajo presupuesto: Copenhagen Bombay production
por CARTOON (European Association of Animation Film)
- El artículo presenta una entrevista con uno de los jefes de producción que trabaja actualmente en proyectos de animación de bajo presupuesto en Copenhagen Bombay Productions. El empresario nos expone las ventajas de trabajar con un presupuesto reducido y nos explica cómo organizarlo, además de cómo dividirlo y ocuparse de la financiación.
Petter Lindblad, has been working in Copenhagen Bombay since January 2007, as producer and line producer, mainly on animation projetcs. He worked, among others, on the feature animation Princess (2006) with a budget of € 1.200.000, the short feature Carsten & Gitte’s Movie Madness (2008) € 930.000, The Apple & The Worm (2009) € 2.480.000, and more recently on the development of the low budget 3D-feature The Great Bear (2010) € 1.500.000.
Why do you work with low budgets?
It is important to produce films, to tell stories and
it is easier to finance the projects if the budget
is not too big, and if you don’t enlarge it to get
additional fees.
We just want the necessary amount to produce. Finance becomes faster and easier without having
to involve so many people in the project, keeping
and exploiting more rights in that way, hopefully
making a bigger profit at the end, instead of selling
off territories in the beginning.
Keeping the productions small, has the advantage
of having a smaller team and keeping the physical
production in-house. This is important and helpful
in different ways: each person feels more involved
in the development of the project, has a bigger
role and can influence the project. Also the director
can establish a better relation with the team.
How are you organised when you work
with low budget?
We start with a thorough development – all our
projects go through pilots and tests phases so we
know what can be done, with a better result for the
production. In fact the budget will be more precise
and we will be able to prove that we can deliver
the work, so the material delivered matches the
project. In this way you can also make the team
members feel more comfortable and involved.
When we start the production we have a long preproduction
phase in order to have a very precise
animatic, in order to avoid making unnecessary
animation. There is no room for extensive retakes
of scenes. We have room for corrections, but the
animatic needs to be very precise.
We must keep the production informed and the
director close to the team. This makes it easier to
catch issues early on, adjusting the production
accordingly.
Flexibility is an important element both for the
production and the people. Even with thorough
planning, unexpected things will appear. By having
a talented team that is flexible in assignments,
optimizations can be done until the end.
Here we’ve found that new talents are better to
work with in some departments, than experienced
one, set in their ways.
Which film are you producing
at the moment?
We are now producing The Apple and The Worm,
a 75’ long animated feature produced with an
innovative animation method: Digital cell-animation
(TV-Paint). The total production time has been
calculated around 20 months, and the animation
time 12 months, with a team of 25 people involved
in creating all the storyboard (all visual departments). It
is a Danish – Swedish co-production,
with a total budget of € 2.480.000, financed for
80% by Denmark and 20% by Sweden.
We do not have so many partners for this film, but
we are supported by our co-production partner in
Sweden, Garage Film International, by the Danish
and Swedish TV both investing in the project. We
also have the Nordisk Film MG for Nordic distribution
as well as the rest of the world, and being a
Nordic country we have the advantage of being
supported by Nordisk Film & TV-fund. Finally we
got Eurimages fund.
Financing structure
> Copenhagen Bombay (DK) € 366.000 (14.8%)
> Garagefilm International (SE ) € 38.000 (1.55%)
> DR - Danish TV € 400.000 (16.1%)
> S VT - Swedish TV € 77.000 (3.12%)
> Danish Film Institute € 740.000 (29.9%)
> Swedish Film Institute € 165.000 (6.67%)
> Nordisk Film MG € 200.000 (8.09%)
> Nordisk Film & TV-fund € 190.000 (7.68%)
> Eurimages € 300.000 (12.1%)
How is the budget divided and how do you
deal with the financing?
We do not believe it is wise to increase the budget
just in order to obtain a high production fee. Our
aim is to create the film and make profit later,
making sure that all the team has a salary. When
we have the great project we will start generating
profit for the company.
The essential point is to cover the costs for production,
animation and equipment, money for
putting everything on the screen; expenses hard
to cut down. It will be easier for us to make a film when digital
screens are available, with a lower budget, without
having to invest money for a 35mm copy but
only with the digital version instead. We try to keep the budget as low as possible, making
sure all the basic expenses are covered.
Cartoon Master Donostia – San Sebastian, Spain, November 2008
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