Borisfen-Lutece plays with the Western big boys, and fears talent raids
Thomas Digard ,studio director of the Ukrainian-French Borisfen-Lutece, says Ukrainians usually laugh at him when he says he makes his living from animation.
Digard, 25, runs an animation studio that employs 300 people. For him, cartoons are no laughing matter. For the last 13 years, his company has been animating for French, British, German, and U.S. TV channels, and has been responsible for cartoons such as MTV’s “Da Mob” and the French “Firequest,” “64 Zoo Lane,” and “Corneil & Bernie.”
Digard says that even relatives of some of his newer employees disapprove of the business. They don’t consider animation a reliable source of income.
His dream is to get Borisfen, with its animation studios in Kyiv and Mykolaiv, working on a feature-length animation project that will win him and his people an Oscar, or its French analogue, the Cesar.
“That will for sure change the way we are treated. My people surely deserve this. They are really precious and amazingly talented,” Digard says.
No-name animation
Precious or not, Digard says some of the leading animators at Borisfen already get paid what they would earn in France, and sometimes more. Still, Digard claims that the shadow of Disney Studios, the world’s biggest animation player, is looming over the heads of Borisfen’s most talented people. He says other major studios like Dreamworks and their competitors also could lure talent away.
To avoid brain drain, the location of the animation studio and animators’ names are sometimes kept off the credits of Borisfen’s cartoons. That’s to prevent Disney, which Digard refers to as the “animation mafia,” from knowing who and where they are.
Digard says he is especially nervous about the latest and most challenging work in which his studio is involved, a seven-minute animated introduction to the French one-man show “Arthur En Vrai” (Arthur As He Is), in collaboration with the top French producer and director Luc Besson. The project involved a mix of traditional hand animation and the most sophisticated computer 3-D technology. Digard says it had to be done on such short notice that no other studio would take it on.
“If Disney knew it was being done by Ukrainian animators, they would simply lure them away, no matter how much we pay,” says Digard.
Digard says Borsifen-Lutece is mentioned in the credits only if the project is in no way unique, for example if it’s just a regular kids series that anyone could do. He calls this a ‘policy of protection.’
Cheap local customers
When Digard talks about working locally, his language tends to be laced with French and English expletives. Ukrainians, he says, lack proper respect for animation.
Digard gets especially carried away relating a conversation he had with the producer of a famous Ukrainian female pop singer, who came to the studio to discuss the star’s next video. The producer wanted to avoid the costs and hassle of a regular shoot, and offered Digard nearly 10 ten times less than what animation typically costs.
Digard, who says he had great respect for that singer, was offended.
“How can a guy like that be a producer of such a diamond. He should go back to the farm and take care of his chicken,” he says.
He is no easier on a female client who wanted to do a two-minute commercial for Christmas, a piece that would require the work of up to 100 artists. She expected to pay a mere $1,000. “I simply told her not to waste my time. Making such proposals is like spitting in one’s face.”
Generally, depending on the job’s complexity, Borisfen charges no less than $2,500 per minute of animation. The price can go as high as $14,000 in some cases.
The last island of animation
“Traditional animation by hand is dying,” says Digard sadly, adding that he anticipates having to cut employees in the future. He says that just four years ago Borisfen had 800 employees. The expense of drawing by hand scares away many clients.
To keep the studio afloat, Digard is introducing new technologies, such as computerized Flash and 3-D animation. He hopes that modern and more cost-efficient technologies used for cartoons and commercials will bring the revenues needed to retain the studio?s animators for as long as possible.
“In a few years, hand-drawn animation will become a rare luxury, just like fine arts. Most of it will be done on a computer, and that makes me really sad.”
