How to reduce cost by €1M on a €6M production

[hcjehg]

HoBSoft (http://www.hobsoft.net) is about reducing the total cost of production of animated feature films through:

Reducing number of people by implementing automation.
Reducing travel costs by improving communication.
Eliminating expensive assembly in post production.

Along with the savings, creative benefits are gained.

Assemble the film in Final resolution every day for review. (http://www.hobsoft.net/info/mastering),
Fast turn around times due to automation.
Synchronized editing stations in different studios for common review of action during conference calls with supervisors (http://www.hobsoft.net/info/editing).

and management (http://www.hobsoft.net/info/management) benefits such as

automatic progress tracking
automatic reporting

Why is that important? Having such knowledge may significantly change the way your budget should be put together.

Study this page (http://www.hobsoft.net/budget) and the sub pages to learn about savings in Salary, Traveling and Post...

http://www.hobsoft.net/budget

...and ponder for a moment that on an average 2D animation film there are in the order of 10.000 scene approvals (Animatic, Layout, Rough, Key, Inb/Cleanup, Color, Composite = 7 milestones x 1400 scenes=9.800 approvals. 5% retakes pushes you up to ~10.300) for the director to do, and the same number to be supervised.

Each minute the director spends pr. approval means one month (at least) of full time director work, not counting the time to drink coffe, to pee or to be creative.

You must think the same way when it comes to the animators(and every one else on the production). Don't make them waste unnecessary time in uploading/downloading/importing/exporting/rendering/e-mailing/phoning/reporting... Each minute wasted pr. scene = 1+ month salary that they could use for animation instead....

... and animation is what it is about... right ?

We have extensive experience from several international co-productions with budgets of €6M and above. See here (http://www.hobsoft.net/cases/).

HoBSoft is hired as a department or team on your production.

First we help you develop workflows, editing procedures, IT-infrastructure, security strategy and much more.

Then we visit all the studios in your production and implement the procedures and strategies.

A HoBSoft contract always includes a license for our combined automation and tracking system.

Visit the HoBSoft website www.hobsoft.net (http://www.hobsoft.net) to see how we can help your production.

HC

[joedorsey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdpsfBsN_Dg

[johncbeggs]

This guys a professional ;)

[Benjy]

This guys a professional ;)

Actually, this is great information for any new studio trying to get off the ground. The savings may give traditional 2D animation a chance for revival if production costs can be trimmed. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with trying to pimp to this target audience after all, many here will be looking for jobs in the animation profession and this guy could be the key that allows a studio to hire you.

[hcjehg]

Dear Sirs and or Madams

@dorseytunes, @johncbeggs

Thank you for your comments to my posting on Off-Topic

Much as I do appreciate them I would have rather have had some relevant comments on the actual content...

like:

I don't think it is true that more than €1M is wasted on a €6M production in 3 studios. - followed by your arguments based on your experiences

or:

I think the artists should do their own uploading/downloading/importing/exporting/rendering/e-mailing/phoning/reporting, that will teach them to be humble about their job (I obviously do not share this opinion).

or:

It is a waste of time to assemble the film in full resolution every day, nobody will ever look at it. - followed by your arguments based on your experiences

or:

"Synchronizing editing in several studios for common review during conference calls" is a bad idea because... - followed by your arguments based on your experiences

or:

Automatic progress tracking doesn't work at all. I tried it once and it was a disaster because... - followed by your arguments based on your experiences ... how do you avoid these problems?

or: questions....

Then we would at least have something relevant to discuss!

You should, in my humble opinion, try to understand the huge amount of work included in making Animated Feature films, so that you understand how your speciality, be it animator, clean up artist, I&P or compositor, fits into the big machine. And make no mistake, making an Animated feature takes a big machine.

If you want to be a director, then you have to understand those things (except if you become so important that you have people doing it for you, and then you have to understand at least some of it anyway).

@Benjy

Thank you for your comment, much appreciated, and you are rigth, there are some degree of "pimping", as you phrase it, when discussing a commercial method that will streamline production. We believe it is possible though without taking away (too much) creative freedom, and that makes this, in my humble opinion, important for a lot of people connected to animation.
We worked hard on this method, and our business model (Yes, no one does anything for free unless to learn... and we did that too) is to make something that is for the mutual benefit for the client(the producer) and for us. We even believe that splitting the delevopment cost between 10-15 productions is a very good deal for the producer that would never have been able to lift this task alone.

If you are interested I can post a small description of the life cycle of at least 4 production systems in Europe undertaken by large European producers. Of course none of those systems EVER made it into production... and millions of €/$ wasted on projects that in some cases even delayed the productions they were supposed to help. The conclusion is: Don't try to develop anything like this during production, this infrastructure must be in place from day one of the production.

I believe you are right, this (or even just the info about it) might be, as you write it, the difference that allows the producer to hire either of the two gentlemen above.

And then after all it is posted in OFF-TOPIC, even if this "pimping" is highly relevant to the animation industry... In my humble opionion.

HC