Everyone loves a contest, right? I know I do, they’re a great way to arouse interest in a particular cause and people normally make a decent effort because they want to win the prize. Some contests are boring though; like the one to choose the very lucky contractor that will someday have the distinct pleasure to build, yes, that’s right actually construct, the intersection in south-east DC I’m currently designing.
With all that in mind, let’s turn our attention to the FOX-Aniboom contest, where the submissions are 2-4 minute cartoons and the prizes total $35,000! (caution: exclamation point contains sarcasm). The overall winner also gets a development deal with FOX.
If one is to take it at face value, then it would appear that FOX is looking for animators to contribute content that could give FOX a new animated hit. In theory, this should work (although as Homer Simpson notes: “In theory, communism works”). However, it’s just not that simple, and as you already know; if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
The first big pitfall is for the entrants. They absolutely have to create the content in their free time. The official rules state that the content may not have been previously published, broadcast or marketed in any way. In which case a product like Geoweasel (hi Niko!) would be ineligible because it’s already been successfully established. You’d also be signing away your rights to the content. Matt Groening saw this one coming 20 years ago, which is why he created a family named after his own so that he wouldn’t lose the rights to the bunnies in his comic, Life in Hell.
The prize money, while it sounds nice, consists of $15,000 for the grand prize winner, along with a $25,000 development deal. That sounds great, until you realize that Seth McFarlane (oh, you should know who he is by now) got $50,000 to develop Family Guy, and he ended up doing the entire pilot episode (that’s kitchen sink and all) by himself.
So there’s not much, if anything in the contest for animators, but what about the network? I believe they’re highly unlikely to get a full series out of it, despite the development deal. While many series’ being life as a pitch, they are developed over a period of months (sometimes years) before getting the go-ahead. Pitching a series is also a bit of an art in that you have to get in there and sell yourself, getting a series based on a short clip is very, very rare (South Park and The Powerpuff Girls are the only two I know of).
For a very thorough guide to pitching, you can pre-order Animation Development: From Pitch to Production by the exceptionally knowledgeable David B. Levy.
All in all, I think this competition is just a chance for FOX and Aniboom to engage in a bit of self-promotion. It’s also highly unliekly that we’ll see any serious animtors having a go either; they’ve got access to the people they need to talk to and can therfore skip this contest. There doesn’t seem to be any long-term benefit for either party, so I don’t expect to see a series coming off the back of something like this any time soon.
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