Nick Dorra – Blog

This episode features Gary Mine of Zodiak Kids, and we go deep into one of the most exciting (in my opinion at least!) areas of animation: development!

As before, if you like my podcast, please let me know! Send me an email, tweet me, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This way I’ll know if there is an audience for this, and if I should keep doing more episodes.

This episode is kindly sponsored by CelAction, developers of CelAction2D, the 2D animation software used on some of the most successful series in the world, like Peppa Pig, Bluey and Mr. Bean.

Gary Milne is the current Head of Content Development at Zodiak Kids Studios and oversees the creative development and production of a broad slate of projects across both animation and live action.

Recently, Gary provided artistic guidance in the development and production launch of Lilybuds (52 x 11′), a preschool series for France Télévisions and Discovery Kids Latin America. He was also an integral part of the small team that produced a pilot for the preschool reboot of Mumfie (based on Britt Allcroft’s Magic Adventures of Mumfie), which was awarded the Pulcinella Award for “Best TV pilot” in 2018.

Before moving into development and production, Gary worked in distribution, across both sales and coproductions. This gave him a good grounding in the financial realities of content production and enabled him to develop a solid understanding of the kid’s content market and where to spot commercial potential.

Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when new podcast episodes go up:

With today’s guest Jean Kitson we get to talk about (among many things) what an agent does, how an agent can best help creators and producers with their challenges and how you should approach an agent when you’re looking to hire the talent they represent.

As before, if you like my podcast, please let me know! Send me an email, tweet me, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This way I’ll know if there is an audience for this, and if I should keep doing more episodes.

This episode is kindly sponsored by CelAction, developers of CelAction2D, the 2D animation software used on some of the most successful series in the world, like Peppa Pig, Bluey and Mr. Bean.

Jean Kitson runs Kitson Press Associates with her partner Julie Press. Based in London’s Covent Garden, they represent creative talent across all media, including writers, directors, producers, script development talent and heads of department.

Jean herself specialises in writers in drama and kids media, and in the last six years has built up a list of international kids writers working across all ages and media.  Jean started working in production and development – she was at Bentley Productions on the first ever episodes of Midsomer Murders – before moving into working for agencies, becoming a Junior Agent at MBA Literary Agents where she rose to become and Agent and Director before leaving to start her own agency in 2014.

Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when new podcast episodes go up:

This episode features Heath Kenny as guest, and we go deep into the joys and pains of development.

As before, if you like my podcast, please let me know! Send me an email, tweet me, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This way I’ll know if there is an audience for this, and if I should keep doing more episodes.

This episode is kindly sponsored by CelAction, developers of CelAction2D, the 2D animation software used on some of the most successful series in the world, like Peppa Pig, Bluey and Mr. Bean.

Starting from the ground up and with more than 20 years of experience in the animation biz, Heath is a creative executive with an extensive knowledge of animation production and the dark arts of developing a project from mind vomit into your next potential hit.

After escaping the island of New Zealand, and a brief but industrious stop in the UK (he served as Animation Director on the Gorillaz music video “Dirty Harry,” for example), Heath jumped ship to the land of stinky cheese and stripy tops, a.k.a. France. He took on the role of Co-Director for the second season of Cartoon Network’s Robotboy.

After spending eight years in France, Heath was promoted to VP of Creative Development at Gaumont Animation. In this role he drew on all his industry experience to provide a never-ending supply of creative solutions to even the stickiest of co-production needs. In this role he provided a link between France and the rest of the world with clients like DreamWorks, Disney, France Television, Tf1, RAI and Teletoon Canada and Netflix.

After making the decision to go it alone as the founder of You and Eye Creative in 2017, Heath has set out to create a safe place to be creative and a creative place to do business. 

Now as Chief Content Officer for Canada’s Mercury Filmworks he continues to prove that a French Kiwi is indeed a very rare bird. 

Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when new podcast episodes go up:

This episode takes a bit of a different angle from the rest. While I’ve tried to keep the usual episodes more or less timeless, in this episode we go right at it: How can companies in the animation industry cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and its ripple effects?

To go deep into that topic, I called up Tom van Waveren of CAKE.

As always, if you like the podcast, please let me know! Send me an email, tweet me, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This way I’ll know if there is an audience for this, and if I should keep doing more episodes.

This episode is kindly sponsored by CelAction, developers of CelAction2D, the 2D animation software used on some of the most successful series in the world, like Peppa Pig, Bluey and Mr. Bean.

Tom began his career in animation at Nelvana in 1996 as Director of its London office. In 1999, Tom moved to Copenhagen to head up Egmont Imagination as its President where he was involved in the production of over 100 hours of animation.

Tom started his own company in 2004 and merged his pipeline of projects with CAKE in 2006. Since that date, he has been responsible for scouting, development and the executive production of all CAKE content.

Tom has been nominated three times for a daytime Emmy and is currently overseeing a development slate of over 20 properties from pre-school to animation for 6-12 years, as well as overseeing all CAKE’s current productions, which include Netflix’s first African animated original Mama K’s Team 4, the first long-form animated Angry Birds series Angry Birds: Summer Madness also for Netflix and a long-form series based on web phenomenon Lucas The Spider for Cartoon Network.

Tom is CEO and Creative Director at CAKE, as well as Vice-Chair of Animation in Europe, where he is working to improve support for the European animation industry.

Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when new podcast episodes go up:

In this episode I have the pleasure to talk with living animation legend Fred Seibert!

As before, if you like my podcast, please let me know! Send me an email, tweet me, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This way I’ll know if there is an audience for this, and if I should keep doing more episodes.

This episode is kindly sponsored by CelAction, developers of CelAction2D, the 2D animation software used on some of the most successful series in the world, like Peppa Pig, Bluey and Mr. Bean.

Fred Seibert is the founder of Frederator Networks, the Chief Creative Officer of WOW! Unlimited Media, and a serial media entrepreneur.

He was the first creative director of MTV and the last president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. Fred founded Next New Networks (acquired by YouTube). He’s on the board of directors of Sawhorse Media, and was the first investor in Tumblr.

Frederator Networks is Channel Frederator, the leading online cartoon network, Frederator Studios, an independent production company with hits on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, Cartoon Hangover, the home of Bravest Warriors and Bee & PuppyCat (the most funded web series Kickstarter in history), and Frederator Books. Frederator distributes hundreds of independently owned, animator operated, YouTube channels.

WOW! Unlimited Media is the merger of Frederator, Rainmaker Entertainment, and Ezrin Hirsh (founded by veteran producer Bob Ezrin and animation pioneer Michael Hirsh).

Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when new podcast episodes go up:

I’m super excited to start a new experiment: I’m launching a podcast with the focus on interesting and/or accomplished people in the animation business. As this is an experiment, here are the conditions I set myself:

• I’ve recorded six episodes. If making and distributing these turns out to be fun, AND the feedback warrants it, I’ll create more.
• I’ve produced these in a quick & dirty fashion. This means there are some audio glitches and the episodes are almost completely un-edited. I hope it also adds some authenticity and conveys the vibe of the great conversations I got to have with my guests.
• With both the choice of the guests as well as the questions, I’m mostly going to scratch my own itch. This was a great way for me to get answers from people I respect to questions that I have been pondering myself. But I hope that if the question interest me, there’s at least a subset of an audience that shares that interest.

And then, I have an ask: If you like the podcast, please let me know! Send me an email, tweet me, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This way I’ll know if there is an audience for this, and if I should keep doing more episodes.

With all the housekeeping items sorted, let’s get to the first episode, with the amazing Alison Warner!

This episode is kindly sponsored by CelAction, developers of CelAction2D, the 2D animation software used on some of the most successful series in the world, like Peppa Pig, Bluey and Mr. Bean.

Alison Warner recently joined Blue Zoo Productions as MD of a brand-new division, Blue Zoo Rights, and is charged with managing the company’s portfolio of original content, which includes BAFTA award-winner Numberblocks and BAFTA nominated Digby Dragon.

Prior to that, Alison served as Vice President of I.P. Sales, Acquisitions and Co-Productions for Technicolor Creative Development. Alison developed and implemented funding and sales strategies for TCD’s in-house animated properties and also sourced new properties to acquire or co-produce. 

In this role, she was instrumental in securing the rights to The Deep and is part of the team that helped put Technicolor’s animated shows Atomic Puppet and The Deep into production through structuring an Australian/Canadian co-production for The Deep and a French/Canadian co-production for Atomic Puppet. She pre-sold The Deep to key broadcasters across the world including Super RTL, BBC, ABC, YLE, SVT, NRK, France TV, Ketnet, Universal Kids and Netflix. 

Alison also helped manage the exploitation of all rights of The Deep worldwide. The Deep has become a global hit, topping the children’s TV charts in the UK, Germany and Australia with toys and books already launched autumn 2018. 

Alison is passionate about making outstanding animated shows for children of all ages that excite, enhance and entertain.

She is also on the Advisory board for the Children’s Media Conference.

Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when new podcast episodes go up: