Hey All, My name is Michael. I am a screenwriter in New York who is looking to secure funding and production on an animated series about the adversities of Killer Whales living in a human’s world. Themes include the need for coexistence and harmony between species which intentionally doubles to metaphorically reflect the relationships between races.
Does anyone have connections to any literary agents or sales representatives who are looking for animated teleplays?
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Hey, Michael Zanowiak! Thanks for reaching out, and congrats on your series. Where are you at with your pilot script? Have you put together a pitch as well?
If you're ready to start pitching it, then your next best step would be pitching to Stage 32 executives. You can sign up to pitch them here: https://www.stage32.com/scriptservices/pitch-sessions If you'd like a recommendation, definitely reach out to our Director of Script Services, Jason Mirch, who is excellent at matching projects with potential executives (or managers, in your case): J.Mirch@stage32.com
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Thank you Karen! The pilot is complete as well as multiple versions of a pitch deck (from the "one sheet" to full bible length following the format presented by Chris Mack from Netflix). I have reached out to Jason and he pointed me in some directions. I submitted to the animation screenwriting contest and have a pitch Friday that I found in the pitch sessions. I haven't seen too many producers/execs in the pitch sessions looking for animations : /
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You can try shopping it to animation management companies as opposed to agents. Might be a good idea to turn it into a book series and either find a publisher or self publish it and make it an IP. Good luck!
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Thanks Bob! Yeah I thought about publishing for IP. I will do some research on this as well as look into animation management companies.
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Michael Zanowiak Ooo, congrats on submitting it to the animation contest! Have you considered transmedia to get your IP off the ground? Concept art, comic books, animatics?
Karen, I would love to start moving in that direction. Know any artists who might be interested?
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We just started a discussion in the Transmedia Lounge generating ideas about all the different mediums "transmedia" is offered, so that could be a good start. If you're looking to start with concept artists, I would suggest checking out animators' profiles. You can look up members on Stage 32 by occupation: https://www.stage32.com/people There are also a slew of websites for concept artists to post their portfolios to, like Character Design References: https://characterdesignreferences.com/
One final thought - if you're considering hiring a concept artist, consider hosting a challenge event where multiple people can submit their artwork with the same guidelines, maybe the finalists are featured on your website, but the winner gets the prize money (which would have otherwise been the flat rate for the art). This can be immensely fun for artists as an exercise, gives you and them some newsworthy buzz, and you still pay for the work you'll use.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
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Karen: unless the artist is just starting their career and wants to get some samples for their portfolios, most professional concept artists do not do work on spec or pursue unpaid competitions for the best design . They expect to be paid for their creative efforts. It is not unusual for a company to hire more than one artist for concept work and then they just select the design or concept they prefer. That's where ' kill fees' are applied. If the artwork is rejected, then the artist may agree to charge perhaps 50% of what would have been the complete cost if the work was accepted.
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I agree with Hanna. The animation community is very leery of contests, especially those that are fishing for development art. Basically it is getting a bunch of free development art while only paying one "winner" Then there would be copyright issues if something similar to one of the "losing" contender's work gets used.
It would be best to have a budget in mind and find an artist whose works fits our vision.
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Definitely love the storyline, Michael! Wishing success for your project.
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Thanks Evelyn. And thanks Hannah and Bob for the engagement in the post. We’re all learning a lot here : )
@Hanna - Agreed, those contests are usually aimed at novices in the industry. That is a very good point, Bob Harper - I hadn't thought about the copyright issues should something be too similar to one of the "losing" contender's work. Thank you both for sharing!