SA gets animated

The industry is a happening place with many successes and some high-energy entrepreneurial activity, but could more be done to take full advantage of the country's animation talent and skills, and the good value offered by local animation services? by Penny Haw

Last month Cape Town-based Triggerfish Animation Studios, which produced two of SA's most successful long-form animated films to date, Adventures in Zambezia and Khumba, received a special Global Reach Award and was named First Runner Up Emerging Business in the Premier's Entrepreneurship Recognition Awards, which recognise the economic development potential, innovation and resourcefulness of Western Cape entrepreneurs.

Zambezia was nominated for two Annie Awards (the Oscars of animated movies) last year and grossed more than $34m at the international box office. It is Africa's most successful film export since The Gods Must Be Crazy more than 30 years ago. Khumba and Zambezia were recently heralded as two of the most successful independent animated films of all time in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Animation isn't only about telling stories, making movies and providing services, whether for other studios, advertising, augmented reality products and apps. It's also about being entrepreneurial, building businesses that do not depend on long-form projects (which are expensive to develop and take a long time to yield returns) and spinning off your own intellectual property, says Glenn Gillis, MD of another Cape Town studio, Sea Monster Entertainment.

Animation companies are expanding into genres such as animated explainers, augmented reality, branded entertainment, e-learning, games and gamification (the use of game thinking and game mechanics in solving problems).

Launched on Monday with Property Junction, Sea Monster's Houzz-it game is designed to teach people about buying and selling property. It uses graphics and interactive play to demystify the world of real estate by teaching players about bonds, interest payments, managing finances to invest in multiple properties, potential problems, tenants, how to improve amenities to generate more rental and other concepts in managing a property portfolio. Recognising its marketing value, Nedbank features as the in-game banker.

Also in Cape Town, the fourth annual Kunjanimation festival took place at the Labia Theatre and Animation School last week, bringing together all the creative, technical, production and business skills required by the sector. Lovers of animation were invited to watch some of the world's finest new animated movies. Other guests included a delegation from the French animation industry, which has become a dynamic business partner for SA.

For the first time this year, the event included a series of 12 workshops put together by incubator Pop The Culture, designed to help build the visual arts and animation industry by promoting local talent and original intellectual property.

There was a two-day master class with Justine Bannister of French consultancy Just B. Her experience spans more than 20 years in distribution, acquisitions, co-productions, production, postproduction, marketing, brand and community management at companies including 20th Century Fox, The Lagard re Group, Disney Channels France, TV Loonland, Dupuis, Dargaud and PGS Entertainment.

Kunjanimation director Dianne Makings says the festival originally focused on the animation industry, but has evolved to cater for other closely aligned creative industries and the general public. She says: The festival addressed the two key aspects of this fast-growing sector: artistic skills and business development. We formed close ties with our French sponsors from the Institut Francais SA, Annecy International Animation Festival and Imaginove Animation Cluster, and several internationally acclaimed French animation schools and studios.

The result is that members of the National Film and Video Foundation (a Department of Arts and Culture agency), the Department of Trade and Industry and Wesgro met with the French delegation and local industry to discuss a proposal for a special call for South African projects at Annecy's international animation film market, MIFA, in 2015.

Not all things animated take place in Cape Town. Bugbox Animation in Chartwell outside Johannesburg produced the Adventures of Toby, a children's DVD series that won the Best Animated Film award at the International Christian Film Festival in 2009.

Other local studios include Shy the Sun, which produced advertisements that came out tops at The Mobius Awards and in Best International Animation at the International Competition for Excellence in Media & Entertainment Awards; and Wicked Pixel, which has won several international awards for its animated advertisements.

On the face of it, SA's animation industry is bullish. It has proved the world likes its work, and it lacks neither drive nor talent. Gillis says animation is one of the best ways of engaging digitally, whether for entertainment, marketing or learning. It's culturally neutral, cuts across different languages and isn't literacy based. With growing use of technology among all ages and income groups, it's available to more and more people. And, once production is complete, it's available quickly.

But for the sector to have a more significant effect on the economy, the government needs to take big, bold steps and provide tangible resources.

Part of the problem, Gillis says, stems from the intangible nature of animation and visual art. Until production begins, it is just knowledge and ideas, making it difficult to attract funding. As a result, studios lurch from one project to the next, often using contractors and freelancers instead of employing people.

That's not to say the industry is not entrepreneurial; studios are co

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