Animation Television Series Production
If you have an idea for a TV series or a one off special, we are happy to review your material under an NDA and discuss your production, we work as a pay to hire studio for all TV work so you will need to come with the seed investment to be able to take your idea from concept to reality.
Where does Nottage Productions come in?
If you were to come to us with a concept we loved and were as passionate about as you were then we could come on board as a production company, Tony Nottage would normally take on the role of Executive Producer or Producer depending on the level on input required and Nottage Productions would help you develop your production. This comes in a variety of stages and requires seed investment of anywhere between £15,000 to £100,000 to enable us to develop the production to a level where it can be pitched to Distributors and Networks.
The Stages of Development...
- Screenplay - The first step is to write a first draft of the screenplay for at least one episode (normally one from the middle of the series), this is the heart of your series and regardless of anything else this is the most important starting point, we always recommend bringing on an established and experienced screen writer at this stage, you as the creator could have put together a series of stories, but having an experienced screenplay writer attached to the production will not only enhance the quality of the screenplay, ensuring the structure flows smoothly and the dialogue flows naturally, but it also helps when pitching to distributors, different target age groups require different formats, for example pre-school series need to be targeted at that age group, keeping screenplays to around 11 minute episodes. The normal format for TV series is 26 or 52 episodes of either 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 11 minutes or in the case of an older audience 22 minute episodes - these are designed to fill 30 minute slots and the number of weeks networks have to air.
- The Production Pack - This is often referred to as the Production Bible. This has two uses, the first is to demonstrate the quality, style and look of the series, who the cast and crew are, details and visuals of the main characters, locations and details about how the series may connect with the real world (ie. is it educational, comedy driven etc), why did the idea come about and the passion of the creator and and production studio. The second use of the production pack and the most important part for financiers and distributors alike is how the series can be made, the budget, the schedule, the production partners - Nottage Productions works with some of the worlds leading studios for pre-production, Animation and post production, these partners have worked on major TV series and bringing partners like this on board and having a realistic budget and schedule will demonstrate that the series can be produced by the skilled team behind it.
- Sample animation - this is where budget comes in, often distributors and networks will want to see what the actual finished series will look like, so the ability to be able to secure production partners and a good director is essential, if budget allows producing a small sample scene or a pilot is an ideal way of showing the quality of the series.
- This is a business - Often creators get so absorbed in their film that they forget to step back and remember that this is a business, your production pack is a business plan and your film is your business, just like any business you are starting you must have a clear understanding of your goals, your target audience, will your budget provide a return on investment - always try and step back and look at your series from the financiers and distributors point of view as well as just a creative one.
- Pitching to distributors - Once the screenplay and production pack are both at a level you are happy with, they are ready to be pitched to distributors, this can be a slow process, Tony Nottage will often go to the main animation events such as Annecy and MIP to pitch projects as well as meeting up with distributors and networks directly to discuss productions, if your idea is strong, your screenplay is good and your production pack proves to the distributor the series can be made to the highest quality and they love everything about it, you can receive offers in the form of a commission, it can then take months to agree deals and sometimes it is not the right time to actually agree the deal, this all relies on finance, if you do not have the finance to produce the film then that is the next step, but having interest from distributors or networks is essential to being able to raise the finance, investors will want to know that the production is going to be picked up and released - some series raise their finance, produce the series and then try and sell the finished production at markets but that relies on you being able to raise all the finance without a distributor or network or any form of minimum guarantee, this is called an acquisition and it is where you sell a finished series to various networks around the world to recoup your production cost.
How does the Production get financed?
If you are lucky enough to get an offer from a distributor or network for a commission, this will normally come with an offer of an MG (A minimum Guarantee), this will be a percentage of the budget, unfortunately the remainder of the films finance still needs to be raised, this can be from a mixture of tax incentives, grants, investors or even people you know who can use schemes such as the SEIS and EIS schemes. Unfortunately Nottage Productions does not finance TV productions, if we have come on board as a production partner we will help in any way possible to find production partners, grants and tax incentives and we can try and help find investors, but this is not an area we specialize.