Round table opportunities and threats of animation for globalization; Take your foot off the animation’s throat

Fars News Agency – Cinema Group – Ehsan Hoshiargar – Sajjad Rezaei Moghadam: A little while ago, in a detailed conversation with the creators of the “Smart Kid” animation, we talked about the process of creating this animation in order to get more familiar with the production process of Iran’s only 50 billion animation.

The challenges of the “Smart Kid” production team may be a good road map for the continuation of animation works.

Now, in the second part of Fars news agency’s interview with producer Hamed Jafari and director Behnoud Nekoui, we are going to discuss the conditions of animation in Iran.

This year and in the 42nd edition of Fajr Film Festival, many works in the form of animation have entered the competition of the festival, maybe the experience of the success of the animation “Smart Kid” in the previous edition and its records in the screening have encouraged different series to participate in this kind of cinema.

You can read the details of the conversation below.

Fars: If we want to explore the path of animation entering the Fajr Film Festival, where did this path come from? I think it was the first animation work of this festival for your collection.

Parsley: In 1994, for the animation we had in the festival, the selection board saw the work and said that it was good, but the secretary said that we would appreciate it apart from the competitive part, and Mr. Rezadad honored us that year. The next time, the animation “Elephant Shah” entered the Simorgh soda contest, but the judges announced that we could not judge this animation.

Now, in the previous period, “Smart Kid” could compete with other works in all the categories and won the best film award. Every time in this festival, we moved one step forward. When “The Prince of Rome” entered the Fajr Film Festival, the following year, 8 animations applied for participation in this festival, which means that this animation was presented as a successful model in this festival and opened the way for other works to this event.

After “Filshah” and the protests we made that why did you enter a work in the festival that cannot compete, the festival accepted to enter these works in the competition. In that year, it was praised in the separation section from the existing animations, which of course was wrong.

Fars: Well, what is the right thing for an animation to be in the festival?

Parsley: The exact same thing happened to “Smart Kid” which competed with the rest of the worksEven in the Oscars, an animation can compete with real works in the text and screenplay section. Even sections such as voice acting have the same feature.

Fars: I think what happened to “Smart Kid” faced critics.

Parsley: Probably, their understanding of the issue was not complete, as it was said, animation has a special award at the Oscars, but it competes with real works in different sections. The way was opened last year that animation can compete with real works in the sectors.

Fars: If we accept that works after the festival need to be shown to the public and return investment, can animation be considered as one of the profitable options of cinema? Don’t things like sleeping too much money and the cost of equipment increase the cost of making animation? What is the guarantee of profitability of an animation?

Parsley: Animation is definitely profitable in Iran, maybe it is true that the profit margin of animation is lower for the reasons you said, but all the works of our group from “Prince of Rome” to today were profitable at the domestic box office.

Fars: This happened only to you as an exception, many works failed in this way.

Parsley: No, this is not an exception for dynamic art and our group, because it has been repeated in all the works we had.

Fars: This is my opinion, this is only for your group.

Negoi: Animation is a profitable process, if someone does something wrong it has nothing to do with the animation itself, the animation industry is profitable in the world. If you see the sales list of works in foreign cinemas, you will understand this.

Parsley: It is the same in our country, in Iran they set a limit so that this success does not happen completely, if they had not set a limit on screenings and screenings for “The Smart Kid” at this time, it would have had a higher rating, the occupancy rate of its screening sessions confirms this issue. he does.

Now, in this limitation that exists, your foot is on the throat of a film and the rest of the works are sold, and this film burning is the policy of the screening. But even with these conditions, if you use the right tools in making an animation and know the audience correctly, you will definitely be profitable.

For example, a good thing has happened in the field of “Smart Baby” stationery, which was shown at the same time as Rokel’s release, and it has sold nearly 14 billion tomans.It has only 13 or 14 products that sell a significant number that no other product has.

Why did this happen? Because we have seen the foreign examples and checked what they do and compared the same and we are designing the same path for this work. Wherever we operate based on proper study and accurate design based on market knowledge, we will succeed.

So, based on the value chain and events related to the field of screening, we can achieve success in domestic screening. Now we have this possibility abroad.

Fars: What do you think is the reason for the success of an Iranian animation in foreign screenings?

Parsley: Due to the fact that animation is a child’s work, it unconsciously has an international literature, because what the audience needs as prior knowledge to understand a story is almost similar. The adult has been trained for years before seeing your work. But the child is not like that and he has at least one or two years of previous education and most of the data in his mind is natural.

Fars: When a product is successful, there is a risk of copying its process, does this risk also exist in the case of animation?

Negoi: Based on this case, it is wrong for a producer to move towards making animation, because the mechanism of making an animation product is to have a studio, and providing it is a specialized and complicated task.

Having a studio is a specialty that is not a short-term process and you cannot create a studio for one or two jobs. It is the same as what you said about the sleep of money, in the process of having a studio, usually the group is not only involved in doing one thing and the projects can be synergistic with each other. These are examples of things that we do not include in our calculations, and in fact, it is the studio that is profitable.

Fars: Does the animation studio mean animation production facilities? Give the features that make it progress.

Parsley: Studio means to continue a path and apply experience in a set, all these together can be the process of a successful studio.

Fars: Explain about the danger of copying.

Negoi: Just imagine that “Smart Kid” will become the best-selling work of Iranian cinema at the moment, but making and referencing its process is a complicated task. In real works, copying takes place in the meaning of its content, but in animation, this happens not only in its content, it has a process that cannot be copied.

Parsley: See, for example, you make a successful real work with a process of several months, now it will either be successful or not; But in making animation, this is a process that takes 4-5 years.

This practice and resistance to go through this time and to a review output is a point in itself and the investment risk is also high because the manufacturer says that I produce this work and how do you know that in four years these will be in the market. .

Fars: In this direction, is there more reliance on the producers or the collection that you call a studio?

Parsley: You see, when “The Prince of Rome” was made, a number of children from the cast of the film went abroad; A series of people also went to different people, that we built such and such a project and come and invest in our work. This happens a lot. What percentage of these people get results?

We had key people in the Hornopoya group who left the group to start a new work, but they did not succeed, but the group continues to work, because it is the process and the group that succeeds.

Fars: If we talk about the existing infrastructure in the country for making an animation, do you consider the existing facilities sufficient for the development of this industry in the country?

Parsley: I don’t want to talk about whether it is sufficient or not in the country, the main point here is that the progress of the animation industry in Iran does not stop at these things. We were in a hurry when making “Filshah” and we wanted to get the work to the festival, so we went and did part of the output of the work outside of Iran.

We were not in a hurry to make “Bacha Zarang” and we used domestic capacities, and after “Filshah” several series with the same look were created inside the country so that there is no need to make them abroad. Facilities and infrastructure do not hinder the progress of animation in the country.

Every day our dreams in Iranian animation are getting bigger. We used to say that if we had 1 billion tomans, we would do something important, but now we should have 100 billion.

Fars: You said about your dreams growing up, what is your most important dream in the field of animation?

Parsley: We are nearing the beginning of the 17th year of the artistic activity. On the first day, we entered this field with the concern of making works for children. Today, when an audience goes to the cinema, they reach out and pick a movie according to their taste from the window of the cinema, but this is not the case in the field of children. It doesn’t exist, that is, there are at least one or two good movies that have quality standards in the cinema every year. Our wish is that one day there will be a movie in the cinema portfolio that suits the different tastes of children. We ourselves grew up with the heroes of foreign works, now let’s make our children grow up with domestic heroes.

Negoi: Visually, Iranian animation has reached such characteristics that it can be introduced as an Iranian style. Previously, the question was always what the Iranian style looks like, today we have reached a style and there is no need to have a certain element in the work.

The production of animations is completely Iranian and is being formed based on our styles; If we can expand this event and be a good broadcasting platform in the international arena, you can be sure that we will reach an important position in the world animation industry.

Fars: Does this mean that Iran’s animation has a special production style, just like the works of Japan and other countries that have a famous style of making these works?

Negoi: Yes, definitely, you see the volume of works that we see from other countries, if one or two works from these countries were released to the animation world in a few years, this language would not have been formed for them. you will arrive. If the volume of production is not high, its characteristics will not be determined.

Iranian animation is completely unique in its content, design and form of expression. Whether we like it or not, Iranian works have this feature, and no matter how much we follow the example of foreign countries in the production of a work, our production is still expressed in the form of our own culture. It doesn’t need any guidance and it just happens.

We gave a silent work with Mr. Jafarian abroad and they said that it has a new narrative, even though we thought that we made it entirely from foreign works. So we have our own expression, but the volume of our production should be increased so that this issue is seen and the Iranian animation industry is formed specifically.

Fars: Considering the conditions you mentioned about the production of animation, I think starting the path of a new series is very difficult and time-consuming. Is it possible that one day several series will operate in the field of animation in Iran?

Parsley: According to the need that exists in the country, there is definitely a field for the activity of new animation series in Iran, because the market and audience needs are more than the volume of production today. The reason for the success of these collections is the path and roadmap of these collections, and this path must be followed correctly.

Negoi: This is like football, some teams were taken to different cities and because they were not natives of that city they did not succeed, a group with its own approach and roadmap should be formed and continue its path.

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