Primed for Success Volume 3

Telling A Cultural Story

The global animation industry earns an estimated US$250 billion annually, with approximately one- quarter outsourced mainly to the Philippines, South Korea and India. With the rise in demand for this new media product, many of these markets are buckling under the weight of excess work. This therefore presents an opportunity for other markets to fill the growing need. In the Caribbean, animation is still a relatively new industry, but one regional animator is intent on changing the script.

Chief Executive Officer of Full Circle Animation Camille Selvon-Abrahams has been attributed as the driving force behind the fledgling animation industry in Trinidad and Tobago. After spending 13 years in London, she returned home with the hopes of establishing her career. “In 2002, there wasn’t much happening in animation, so it was difficult for me to find a job in the field I studied”, Camille recalled. “I decided to open a studio not only as a way to generate income for myself, but to also provide a platform for others who wanted to pursue a career in the same area.” Today Full Circle Animation is a state-of-the-art design studio that employs a core complement of 10 persons full time and up to 40 part-time during bigger assignments. The company focuses on animation, new-media production and training. In the local market, Full Circle’s clients are educational institutions, advertising agencies, government agencies, and non-governmental organisations, among others. In terms of international clients, the studio provides outsource services to the US and Jamaica. Most of the animation content created includes commercials, public service announcements and children’s series. The studio is also involved in content creation. “We have several intellectual properties (IPs) at different stages that we are seeking to develop, and this is a major achievement for us as a company to create our own stories for distribution.” As the largest animation studio in Trinidad and Tobago, and one of the most established in the region, the majority of Full Circle’s bigger competitors are animation studios in China and India. “There are smaller studios in the region that we consider our competitors as well, but most of the

outsourcing is done in those bigger countries, and that is where we want to be. I think in order to get on that level Caribbean animators need to utilise the region as a platform rather than trying to compete as a single country.” The multi-media specialist considers animation itself as a niche in the field of communication, but the one benefit her company has had is the fact that most people weren’t involved in animation when they started. “Another distinct advantage we have is the fact that we are able to market ourselves for overseas clients because what we have is a Caribbean product. In our animation the voices are Caribbean, the characters are Caribbean, and we showcase our culture, something that is unique to us.” Camille has been able to jumpstart an industry in the region that has become a major sector within the very lucrative creative industries. But there was much work to be done to get to where she is today. “There was a lack of knowledge about the industry in Trinidad and I first had to overcome that. Acquiring capital from traditional financial sources was also difficult. In fact I’ve never secured a loan from a bank and that’s because they never saw animation as a tangible income earner.” Another challenge Camille faced was limited human resource capacity within her company. “We had to turn away big jobs because we didn’t have the number of animators needed to undertake the assignments. This is why training is so central to what we do as a studio. With training, we can ensure that the region’s animation industry is sustained in addition to being well nurtured and mentored.”

Primed for Success / Vol. 3 / 2014-2015

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