Euro-anime

The Euro-Anime project aimed to develop European collaborations inspired by the success of Japanese animation. Ideas for European animated films with the addition of production methods from the Japanese animation industry was to be the result of the project. Through collaborations between three European animation schools, European animation studios and anime experts and producers, the project aimed to develop an animated feature film to be pitched at the CARTOON Movie in the spring 2018. The feature would then go into production late 2018 with the aim of offering employment to the students who had contributed to the project. Euro-Anime had three participating universities, and four participating organisations. The core production expertise on the project came from Touchwood Animation’s CEO Andy Frain, who in his role as founder and CEO of Manga Entertainment, almost single handedly popularised Japanese animation in western markets, and through his unique relationships with Japanese animation directors, producers, studios, distributors and publishers, led to the first ever animated feature co-production between Japanese and Western companies. Passion Pictures is one of the world’s foremost animated commercials production companies, and was to provide extensive experience from animation productions and international co-productions. Raindog Studios has a unique provenance in that it began as the direct result of a course at Volda University College, and comprises of one teacher (Dave King, who filled the Euro Anime project’s main creative role) and seven of the students, helping to cement the course’s already strong links between education and industry. Kouzelna Productions is a well-established animation post-production studio in Zlin, Czech Republic. While the other studios taking part mainly focused on the pre-production and production phase, Kouzelna were to bring expertise in post-production to this joint project. Arts University Bournemouth is a leading university of the creative arts in the UK. The Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) has extensive contacts with the British animation industry and well-established contacts with Japanese animation schools. Volda University College (VUC), through the Department of Animation, is the oldest animation course in Scandinavia, and has been essential in the development of the Norwegian professional animation industry. The animation department coordinated Erasmus LLP Intensive Projects for more than 5 years (2008-2013). Tomas Bata University took part in the IP project 'What's Up After UNI? How to prepare and produce your first professional animated film' with VUC. Euro-Anime was based on the experiences from the IP and developed the ideas behind the IP further. The main objective was to make the students ready for a professional career. After an initial planning meeting in London, attended by all the partners, the next step was a research trip to Japan, visiting many animation studios and manga publishing houses (the two are very interconnected), as well as a number of animation courses at schools in Tokyo and Kyoto. The initial concept for the film was pitched to all appropriate students and three teams were assembled. The project then entered full pre-production, with the story concept for the feature film developed further by Frain and King, and developed visually by the students at all three schools. The pre-production phase culminated in a two-week production workshop in Zlin, where the students worked on visual aspects of the film, and attended a number of story workshops, helping to refine the film’s narrative. At the end of the two weeks, full production began on a trailer for the film, and this continued through the rest of the school year and, due to a number of complications with the number of students involved, eventually finished the post-production phase (editing, sound & music) just in time to submit the trailer to Cartoon Movie 2017. This was a great learning experience for staff and students alike, in terms of project coordination on such a scale, in terms of the creative and logistical challenges facing a production spread between three different schools across three countries and from a purely creative view of developing a feature film concept. The project faced a number of challenges, and a great deal was learned from the huge amount of work needed to coordinate and sustain involvement and engagement from three different educational institutions, as well as a number of professional organisations. While there were a number of problems faced, most were successfully overcome and the kind of insight gained would be applied to any future projects of this nature. For the students specifically, this was a unique experience, one which saw them creatively involved at a level which would be unusual for several years after graduation. Also, the cooperative nature of working with students internationally was greatly enriching to them.