Busi­ness Clinic

At a glance

Adult ani­ma­tion spe­cial­ist sup­port­ing cre­ators, stu­dios, and plat­forms in the audio­vi­su­al sec­tor with a focus on edi­to­r­i­al, IP devel­op­ment fan engage­ment and dri­ving Euro­pean genre growth.

Pre­sen­ta­tion:

Mark Tayn­ton, founder of Marky Sparky Media, is an inter­na­tion­al media exec­u­tive spe­cial­is­ing in adult ani­ma­tion. With 20+ years’ expe­ri­ence at lead­ing media com­pa­nies, Mark offers a unique and wide range of skills to sup­port cre­ators, stu­dios, plat­forms, broad­cast­ers, stream­ers, and fes­ti­vals. Offer­ing a wide gamut of assis­tance across edi­to­r­i­al, con­tent and busi­ness devel­op­ment, brand and fran­chise man­age­ment, marketing/​PR, social, fan engage­ment and com­mu­ni­ty build­ing, dig­i­tal sto­ry­telling, research, dis­tri­b­u­tion, and more. With a glob­al mind­set and con­tacts across the indus­try, he brings a hands-on, col­lab­o­ra­tive, and com­mer­cial­ly focused approach. 

Busi­ness Tips: 

— Build your com­mu­ni­ty: ani­ma­tion offers a unique chance dur­ing the long pro­duc­tion time­line to to build a fan­base for your IP on social media, so you have a built-in audi­ence ahead of the launch along­side data as proof of con­cept for future dis­tri­b­u­tion deals. 

— Be local, think glob­al: don’t lose your local charm by cre­at­ing some­thing gener­ic because you think it will sell, dri­ve the genre for­ward by being authen­tic, show­ing the world what hasn’t been seen before. 

— Know your char­ac­ters: don’t get lost in world­build­ing, real­ly know who your char­ac­ters are, what makes them tick and what their rela­tion­ship is with the oth­er key protagonists/​antagonists. And, less is more, don’t add so many char­ac­ters that it becomes over­whelm­ing, focus on the core and build over time. 

ACT&PLAY is a finan­cial con­sul­tan­cy ded­i­cat­ed to the cre­ative and cul­tur­al indus­tries (ani­ma­tion stu­dios, audio­vi­su­al and film pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies, VFX stu­dios, distributors).

We pro­vide tai­lored, long-term or ad hoc sup­port: out­sourced finan­cial man­age­ment (part-time CFO), pro­duc­tion financ­ing and bud­get fol­low-up (financ­ing plans, sub­sidy files, tax cred­its, accounts sub­mis­sion), grant and fundrais­ing assis­tance, and one-off audits or busi­ness plans.

Our exper­tise cov­ers cash-flow and organ­i­sa­tion­al opti­mi­sa­tion, financ­ing plan struc­tur­ing, the legal and finan­cial specifics of the cre­ative sec­tor, and sup­port for for­eign stu­dios inte­grat­ing into France (access to pub­lic sub­si­dies, iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of French co-pro­duc­tion or exec­u­tive pro­duc­tion partners).

At a glance
IPR​.VC is an alter­na­tive invest­ment fund man­ag­er spe­cial­is­ing in media and enter­tain­ment. We pro­vide strate­gic cap­i­tal through long-term part­ner­ships with estab­lished pro­duc­ers, stu­dios and dis­trib­u­tors, invest­ing across film and tele­vi­sion slates rather than financ­ing indi­vid­ual projects on a one-off basis.

Pre­sen­ta­tion
As Con­tent Exec­u­tive at IPR​.VC, Céline assess­es film and tele­vi­sion projects from cre­ative, pro­duc­tion, finan­cial and com­mer­cial per­spec­tives. She works close­ly with the fund’s inter­na­tion­al part­ners on project selec­tion, financ­ing struc­tures, dis­tri­b­u­tion poten­tial and mar­ket positioning.

Her exper­tise cov­ers pri­vate equi­ty financ­ing for film and tele­vi­sion, inter­na­tion­al co-pro­duc­tion and acqui­si­tions, invest­ment eval­u­a­tion, recoup­ment struc­tures and the rela­tion­ship between a project’s cre­ative ambi­tions and its poten­tial in the inter­na­tion­al market.

Busi­ness Tips

— Pri­vate equi­ty is not sim­ply anoth­er source of gap financ­ing. A project must offer a cred­i­ble route to recoup­ment and mean­ing­ful upside for the investor.

— Present a coher­ent pack­age com­bin­ing strong cre­ative ele­ments, a real­is­tic bud­get and financ­ing plan, a clear dis­tri­b­u­tion strat­e­gy and a trans­par­ent recoup­ment structure.

— Dif­fer­ent sources of financ­ing serve dif­fer­ent types of projects. Under­stand­ing whether your project gen­uine­ly fits an equi­ty invest­ment mod­el can save con­sid­er­able time.

— The most suc­cess­ful struc­tures align the inter­ests of pro­duc­ers, dis­trib­u­tors and investors, allow­ing each par­ty to con­tribute its exper­tise and share in the project’s success.

At a glance
Ser­i­al media entre­pre­neur and kids’ con­tent pro­duc­er who helps IP own­ers build a direct, last­ing rela­tion­ship with their audi­ence, through a dig­i­tal hub they own, turn­ing their IP into a sus­tain­able D2C busi­ness, mon­etis­ing their con­tent across app stores and con­nect­ed TV. 

Pre­sen­ta­tion
Sebas­t­ian Wehn­er, founder of Won­derz, brings 30 years of media expe­ri­ence, from pro­duc­ing kids’ con­tent for ZDF and Super RTL with Wolken­lenker to build­ing D2C apps for part­ners such as Warn­er Bros. Dis­cov­ery, Xil­am and Sky­ship Enter­tain­ment. He helps pro­duc­ers and IP own­ers build a direct, last­ing rela­tion­ship with their audi­ence through a dig­i­tal hub they con­trol, bring­ing togeth­er con­tent, com­mu­ni­ty, data and rev­enue in one place. His approach is big-pic­ture: where a paid D2C offer fits along­side broad­cast, stream­ing and licens­ing, how own­ing the audi­ence increas­es an IP’s long-term val­ue and nego­ti­at­ing posi­tion, and what it takes to grow that hub into a sus­tain­able rev­enue stream across app stores and con­nect­ed TV.

Busi­ness Tips
— Own the rela­tion­ship, not just the rights: broad­cast­ers and plat­forms rent you reach. A direct link to fam­i­lies, and the data that comes with it, is what makes your IP more valu­able over time and strength­ens your hand in every deal.

— Build a hub, not a chan­nel: treat D2C as the cen­tre of your IP’s ecosys­tem. Bring con­tent, com­mu­ni­ty, data and rev­enue togeth­er in one place you con­trol, and let your oth­er chan­nels feed into it.

— Com­ple­ment, don’t com­pete: a paid D2C offer works best along­side broad­cast, stream­ing and licens­ing. Plan win­dows and offers so each chan­nel sup­ports the oth­ers instead of can­ni­bal­is­ing them.

— Think in years, not launch­es: a hub grows through reg­u­lar releas­es and a deep­en­ing rela­tion­ship with fam­i­lies. Plan your IP as a long-term busi­ness, not a one-off delivery.

At a glance

Inter­na­tion­al ani­ma­tion exec­u­tive turned sus­tain­abil­i­ty advo­cate, with 30 years of expe­ri­ence in grow­ing com­pa­nies and devel­op­ing inter­na­tion­al activ­i­ties. Now at Eco­prod, dri­ving the eco­log­i­cal tran­si­tion of ani­ma­tion and help­ing to launch ANi­M­PACT, an inter­na­tion­al stan­dard­ized frame­work for the ani­ma­tion sector. 

Pre­sen­ta­tion

For 20 years, Cecil­ia Bossel led and co-found­ed an inde­pen­dent ani­ma­tion stu­dio, help­ing build the com­pa­ny from a small French ani­ma­tion stu­dio into an inter­na­tion­al group.

Today, she has joined Eco­prod, a non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion that dri­ves envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty in media, accom­pa­ny­ing ani­ma­tion stu­dios in their eco­log­i­cal tran­si­tion. In this task she can count on the numer­ous tools at Eco­prod such as their online course mas­ter­ing green ani­ma­tion on their elearn­ing plat­form StepUP, themed webi­na­rs and train­ing ses­sions, and the inter­na­tion­al green ani­ma­tion guide.

Cecil­ia is dri­ving the launch of ANi­M­PACT, an inter­na­tion­al stan­dard­ized sus­tain­abil­i­ty frame­work designed by the sec­tor, for the sec­tor. Now in its pilot phase the frame­work is seek­ing 2D and 3D projects. Want to join? I’ll tell you more.

Busi­ness Tips

— Start ear­ly. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty works best when it is built into the project from the beginning.

— Be prac­ti­cal. Don’t try to change every­thing at once. Iden­ti­fy your biggest impacts and start there.

— Share what works. Ani­ma­tion is col­lab­o­ra­tive and inter­na­tion­al. We can move faster by learn­ing from each other.

— Mea­sure, learn, improve. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty is a jour­ney, not a box to tick.

— Think col­lec­tive. The biggest change will come when stu­dios, pro­duc­ers and broad­cast­ers move together.

At a glance

L Avo­cat law­firm is born from the will­ing­ness to pro­vide an organ­ised work­ing method for media cus­tomers, as effi­cient as larg­er scale law­firms but with a spe­cif­ic focus exper­tise, an impor­tant reac­tiv­i­ty, and a bet­ter knowl­edge of the customer.

Pre­sen­ta­tion

The field of exper­tise of L Avo­cat law­firm cov­ers all essen­tial domains of activ­i­ty with­in the media sec­tor L Avo­cat inter­venes on all types of cas­es in rela­tion with the activ­i­ties of the film and audio­vi­su­al indus­try. The law­firm advis­es notably pro­duc­ers, dis­trib­uters, broad­cast­ers, authors, direc­tors, tech­ni­cians, artists or indi­vid­u­als and com­pa­nies whish­ing to invest in audio­vi­su­al projects.

Busi­ness Tips

— Focus on the over­all con­trac­tu­al num­bers of a chain of title and not only on the one-by-one nego­ti­a­tion of contracts

— Secur­ing your invest­ment of time and expens­es by nego­ti­at­ing prof­itable exit and ter­mi­na­tion clauses

— Watch out on adapt­abil­i­ty of con­tracts in a world of con­tin­u­ous changes of for­mats and needs

— Bet­ter ear­li­er than too late, think to orga­nize your­self upfront to enter in pro­duc­tion with the right backup

At a glance
HR sup­port for artists and stu­dios in the audio­vi­su­al sec­tor, with a focus on con­tracts, employ­ment sta­tus, and legal-admin­is­tra­tive guidance.

Pre­sen­ta­tion
As an HR spe­cial­ist at Amp­lo, Anaïs Pirenne sup­port cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als with prac­ti­cal ques­tions about work sta­tus (employ­ee, artist sta­tus, free­lance), con­tracts, salaries, and HR man­age­ment. She works close­ly with many stu­dios in the audio­vi­su­al sec­tor, espe­cial­ly in ani­ma­tion, help­ing them with the hir­ing and con­tract­ing of artists and tech­ni­cians, and guid­ing them through the legal and admin­is­tra­tive aspects of their projects. Her expe­ri­ence comes from dai­ly work with both indi­vid­ual artists and pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies across Bel­gium, as well as through pro­fes­sion­al events such as Car­toon Busi­ness or Ani­ma Film Festival. 

Busi­ness Tips
— Think ear­ly about the HR part of your project. Clear con­tracts and the right work sta­tus for your team mem­bers will save time, mon­ey, and prob­lems later. 

— Plan your HR bud­get care­ful­ly, make sure it is real­is­tic, and always con­nect it to the legal and fund­ing require­ments of your project. 

— Don’t hes­i­tate to ask for advice: good HR plan­ning helps you build a strong team and gives your project a sol­id foundation.