Just got back from an exhausting yet productive week at the Kidscreen Summit in New York. Was a great mix of informative workshops from talks on Co-production by Steven Denure of Decode to creative sessions on character development with David Freeman.
It also had great 30 minute sessions with broadcasters such as Paula Rosenthal from Disney Playhouse to Finn Arneson of Cartoon Network & even our very own Sheila DeCourcy from RTE. These sessions are great for anyone hoping to pitch their own shows to a broadcaster. Its essential that you know what they are looking for and how it fits their schedules. Nothing will kill off your pitch faster than not having done the basic research on who you are pitching to in the first place!
Of course its also an opportunity to have meetings with other studios & it was great to meet up with some great guys like Paul Rigg of copernicus in Canada & Steve Vyner of liquidanimation in Australia & see some of the amazng work going on around the world.
Enterprise Ireland had a stand which was a great help for all of the Irish studios attending and of course held the by now famous annual party in Rosie O’Gradys.
Its always a good chance for a bit of socialising & catch up with the other Irish studios & it was well attended by the likes of Caboom, Cartoon Saloon, Kavaleer & Monster animation among others. Funny that we sometimes need to go halfway around the world before we can get the time to have a chat!
Kidscreen has become one of those essential weeks in the animation calendar for getting things done… even if you need a while to recuperate afterwards.
