April 27, 2004

• ML Flash Animators

  Photos from abroad! Here are the Korean and Indian ML Flash animation crews wearing their crew t-shirts. (ML Flash production is divided between Bardel, Dong Yang and Jadoo)

  
  The Dong Yang crew

  
  The Jadoo crew

  Now, where’s the Bardel photo?

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  Oz-Animation issues

  One reason why the Australian Film and TV industry is in turmoil -  The US-Australia Free Trade Agreement Issue . Here is a more recent article.

  “US interests will now determine what we can see on our screens into the future. The US studios are renowned for applying political pressure on governments throughout the world when governments try to promote local culture along side the dominant American product.”

  While the folks over at Animation Nation Forums (USA) complain about the outsourcing of Flash animation to overseas studios, here in Australia we often get asked:

  “So why isn’t Mucha Lucha produced in Australia?”

  It’s a similar question, really. People want to know: Since the concept was birthed in Australia, since the creators are from Australia, shouldn’t the work be done in Australia? Why is it produced in the States?

  Of course, most people in Australia have not been aware that ML was never a US-Australian co-production. WB Animation owns the property 100%. Kids WB Network has final say over creative matters. Legally, it is not our show and the powers that be had decided from the moment that the show was greenlighted, to keep the preproduction in-house at Sherman Oaks.

  Things have not been so fortunate for our Australian industry. In the past decade, all 2D animation work had been outsourced to Asia and Flash had never really taken off here. (with the exception of Quads - a Canadian-Australian series which was animated in Perth). Funding opportunities for long format animation are scarce.

  And now this Free-trade treaty which some say, threatens to do away with the need for Australian original content.

  SPAA has organized a meeting in Surry Hills to discuss “the need for an Animation Division within SPAA ­ to look after the needs of producers of long-form series and other animation formats.” (quote Tim) …amongst other industry-related issues.

  We are not sure how the Free Trade Agreement affects us exactly, as Fwak! has never relied on Australian government policies and funding for our TV work. We would be interested to know how we can support our local industry without limiting our output to whatever constitutes “Australian content”. (and we don’t mean we want to churn out generic American product either)  Can this work?

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  Links

  From the latest Mu-Mesons (Sydney) newsletter:

  “The Naked City” radio show- every Thursday between midday and one o’clock on FBI (94.5) with Jay Katz, Miss Death and Coffin Ed and guests that have included JJ (from Good Times), Roger Rogerson (from Bad Times),Solomon Burke, Jack Sargeant, Keith Mansfield (KPM Stock Music Legend), Neil Hamburger and many more. An adrenalin charged look at the sad arsed city of Sydney!

  From Lisa@Cartoon Network.com: The Megas XLR website! A hotrod cartoon by George Krstic which premieres in the USA very soon.

  • 10:24 pm
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