CEE Animation Workshop Went Online

CEE Animation Workshop is a year-long training programme for professionals: established producers and creative teams with animated projects. The first module (Ljubljana, December 2019) hosted 24 participants with 12 animated projects, 5 film professionals focusing on career development and 23 acclaimed international experts and professionals from the industry. The second module was planned to take place in Tallinn (Estonia) from 16 to 21 March 2020, but due to the situation regarding the spread of the coronavirus, the organizers decided to go online.

We made the decision to cancel the second module of our workshop just one week before the announced date of the workshop. Everything was already arranged, everyone had their flight tickets, so it was a very hard decision, especially because at that moment, at the beginning of March, some workshops were still holding their activities and the situation in Europe didn’t look as it looks today,” explains Juraj Krasnohorsky, Head of Studies.

CEE Animation Workshop offers participants continuous work throughout the year, which is essential for the future successful development of their animated project. During the first module, the work was aimed at the development of projects and feedback from experts as well as defining new strategies of development. The second module was focused on financing, animation production management, and legal matters and conflict resolution. As the tutors already knew the projects and participants from the first module, the organizers decided to try to offer at least some parts of the programme online. “Everything was new, we tested an application called BlueJeans which proved very efficient and simple to use, and together with our closest collaborators, producers Jean-François Le Corre and Ole Wendorff-Oestergaard, and script-advisors Rita Domonyi and Phil Parker, we designed a full week programme based on some lectures, online script meetings, feedbacks on production packages and a full day of online pitching trials,” adds Juraj Krasnohorsky.

The online programme was divided into two parts: 2-hours morning sessions and 2 or 3-hours afternoon sessions. The sessions were almost fully attended by all the participants, despite some of them having to deal with some practicalities connected to closed schools and kindergartens. The quality of image and sound was above expectations, and the large group quickly understood the basics of how to communicate in large groups, by using the chat cleverly.

To see the involvement of all participants and other additional guests (children and dogs), check the video made by the participant Vessela Dantcheva (Compote Collective, Bulgaria). Thank you for your great work!

 

Future plans

This online practice was evaluated as a very good experience, and Juraj Krasnohorsky adds: “In the end, we concluded, the workshop team, the experts and the participants, that this could perhaps be a usable solution if the situation in the coming months makes all travel impossible. For the moment, we didn’t take any clear decisions on how to proceed with the programme this year. We now have a few weeks to decide what to do, but online seems to be a viable option, that tested well.

The one crucial element missing in the online sessions is networking, which is one of the essentials for the CEE Animation Workshop. “On the other hand, the situation motivated us to find some clever solutions. Our participants spontaneously proposed to meet during lunch breaks to have coffee together. Even a birthday was celebrated online. The participants also exchanged links to their previous films with each other, so that even across distance, the group that was formed in Ljubljana in December stays in touch even in times of social distancing,” explains Juraj.

The online programme consisted of:

  • Lectures
    Financing and cash flowing by Ole Wendorff Oestergaard
    How to work with a broadcaster by Jean François Le Corre
    How to manage time, money and creativity by Juraj Krasnohorsky
  • Individual sessions
    – producer package feedbacks
    – script consulting
    – pitch trial
  • Two group sessions, where participants exchanged feedback on the current development of their projects.

The third module of CEE Animation Workshop was initially planned to be held from 4 to 9 May 2020 in Liberec, Czech Republic (merging with the CEE Animation Forum). The planning is temporarily “on hold”. Updated details will be provided when available on the webpage www.ceeanimation.eu.

Close

CEE Animation is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and co-funded by state funds and foundations and professional organisations from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

More info
facebook