How much interest is there in an animation project?

[Oblesklk]

Among the various silly things I've wanted to do in my lifetime is to produce a short animated tickling film. When I say short, I mean 5-15 minutes or so. And we're talking either on the web via Flash (or equivalent), or on a DVD that you could pop in and watch. Either way...

I'm curious about how much serious interest there would be in such a project?

When I started seriously thinking about this, I guesstimated it would cost about $1,000 per minute to produce such a piece. And after speaking with a few studios around the globe, this estimate isn't too far off the mark.

So if I were to produce an animated piece, say 5 minutes or so, it would cost roughly $5,000. Now understanding, naturally, that I'll never make a dime off this project, any thoughts on how to mitigate these costs a bit? If we were to charge $50 for this piece, not only would we have to sell 100 copies to break even, but I think we'd be tarred and feathered for suggesting anyone pay that much for 5 minutes of tickle footage 🙂

Any thoughts on this subject? The pricing above assumes that I'd be writing the script, or at least be on a committee of writers that would write it. And then the animators would do all the production and post production work including animation, voice acting, editing, scoring it, and all that fun.

I've always wondered if there existed enough talent within the tickle community for us to do this ourselves. But the problem is that it takes such a wide array of talent to get something like this from beginning to end, that I doubt it's really feasible.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

You wouldn't be the first to mention this, and probably won't be the last. Alot of people have had this grandious vision before. Unfortunately, from what I've seen, all efforts start well but never finish or only produce so-so results. Number 1 bit of advice: You have to hire people who are completely committed to this, won't back out and won't leave you hanging. They HAVE to make this a priority just as much as it is to you. You have to be able to keep them motivated and believe in the effort whole-heartedly.

So far anything that has been put to sell probably hasn't sold, and anything done for free and with inexperienced artists and voice talent (which is visually and audiably the backbone of a project in the end) only got enough attention from people that already knew these individuals and were fans.

The whole question then is this:

Are you aiming to share this with the world or just with the community?

If you want to make a profit, you could make one here, but you'd merely cap off I think, and would basically just be paying yourself back what it cost you to make this project work. You may only break even with no profit at all.

If you want to make any real money off of this you'd have to hire the best of the best talent here to help you or hire outside talent. But then you're sacrificing that sense of "community togetherness" and "group effort" whatnot especially if some people are pulling more weight than others or theres a weak link in the chain thats slowing the rest of the team down.

It really depends on your ultimate goal of audiance and how far you want to allow this to soar, how much you're willing to spend total, and how bad you really want this.

If you go about this with the mentality that its just a little pet project I don't think it will work for you. Even though its small, you have to think like a producer and director and be willing to learn a thing or two yourself.

 

[Oblesklk]

I am committed to this project. It's not a matter of "if" in my mind, just a matter of "when"

Most likely what I'll do is go with outside talent (meaning talent from outside the community). The ones I've been speaking with are the real deal, and they do this for a paycheck. That's where my $1k/minute figure comes into play. If we do this as a community, the costs would be slashed, but then you're depending on everyone's spare time...which is non-existant for most 🙂

It is a pet project, and it's something that would only interest the tickling community, most likely. An outsider might be able to appreciate it on some level, but would find it boring for the most part.

And I realize ahead of time this will be a losing venture. What I'm looking for is suggestions on how to mitigate the loss. If I could get the cost from $1k/minute down to about $400-500/minute, that would be quite a bit more acceptable in my opinion.

 

[Soulfly]

I would definetly purchase something like that if it were to happen, it would be great! I hope you move forward with this, keep us updated!

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

Theres also something else to consider -getting professional outside talent to appriciate this at a high enough level that they understand what you are trying to express or elude to.

Its one thing for them to know that you want a tickling or fetish type of video, but even with professionals, alot of nuance can be missed if they aren't completely understanding of the material itself or your attachment to it.

Its your job as director to be as blunt with them and honest in what you think the community would want to see and then, on your buck, doing their best to duplicate that and make it into something tangible. Motivating a professional would be alot harder than motivating an amateur, even though one is getting paid.

Its a gamble.

Yet on the other hand, you can slash your expenses by using people from the community, but theres so many problems with that that it would make your head spin.

I think it really boils down to choosing who you want to do this.

I don't think there is any way for you to save money on this if you use professionals because they will want to use their own tools and may include their usage in their fee.

Perhaps you could ask if there are different levels of quality they can work at, and you can choose a render or quality thats more in your price range. For example, a less expensive production might not have all the bells and whistles but delivers the basic animation and sound and may be several minutes shorter than a longer version with better clarity.

They may scoff at the idea, but its worth asking them since price is an issue, seemingly the main issue.

Honestly, you're better off having professionals do it. I'm not selling any of us short, but its just too many problems you'd have to deal with and potentially more expense than you originally estimated.

So I'd suggest asking if they can work at different quality levels. Most professional artists pride themselves on delivering their best, so being paid less to perform to a lesser standard may be a joke to them, but its really worth asking them. If they're hard up for cash themselves, are trying to break into the business further, it would look good on their portfolio, etc, then they may just hear you out.

I hope this goes well for you.

 

[DEV]

Several people on Tickle Theatre are making a flash tickling game. Perhaps if you were thinking of an internet cartoon you could ask them for help.

 

[Mandrake]

I would be more than happy to write the screenplay for one. But unfortunately my art skills are not that good. Still, if the content is up to what I like (nylons/shoe removal), I'd probably pay to see it.