| THE PERILS OF EDITORIAL ANIMATION Beaver Fever...on indefinite vacation says creator Pat LaMontagne April, 2007 |
Patrick LaMontagne is the creator of the animated cartoon, Beaver Fever. The weekly
animated show, starring a talk-show host beaver named Tim Castor, poked fun at a number
of aspects of Canadian life, from the political to the social. After achieving some success
with exposure through a few news media websites, he has decided the demand for
animated cartoons is not enough to keep Beaver Feaver going...
Last week's episode was the last episode of Beaver Fever, at least
for now it is. This animated editorial cartoon was created because
newspapers and news media sites have been quite vocal about the need for
change and the need to bring new content to their websites. While
animated editorial cartoons are gaining a following in the U.S., it
would appear that Canada is not as interested right now, at least not in
the one I've created.
Beaver Fever has received a lot of positive comments and interest over
the past 5 months and 19 episodes, and while I've had many media and
news sites kick the tires on this idea, only one small website was
willing to make a commitment to it. Unfortunately, with syndication
rates being what they are, that one website doesn't justify the devotion
of 20 hours of my work week to this project.
I actively marketed this, made many phone calls, and sent emails out to
over 200 people every Monday when a new episode was up. I could tell by
my hits that people were watching each week, but just not buying.
Some of the interested parties I spoke with were large newspapers, both
individual and chains. Most of the time, however, it didn't even get to
the money stage. I had given them free reign to sell an advertisement
specifically for Beaver Fever and to put it in the frame around it. I
also offered to incorporate an ad before and after the episode if need
be as well. Some of the reservations expressed were:
- We're not sure it's right for our readership.
- We don't know how we would make money off of it.
- We don't have a budget for this sort of thing.
However, I had a lot of offers from people wanting to run it for free.
And I think we can all agree, we've all had enough of that. One thing I
was firm on when I started this, was that I wasn't giving it away. It
never seemed to be the content they were objecting to, it was having to
pay for it.
Since Beaver Fever is modeled after a TV format, let's just say that
this is the end of Season 1, with no date set for the beginning of
Season 2. The website will remain up and running, at least for the
immediate future.
I just wanted to share this, so that if anyone else wants to give it a
go, they know what they're up against. Flash animation is a lot of
work, as I'm sure you can guess. I've had to give up the majority of my
weekends to get this done each week. There are upsides, of course. I
have learned a LOT more about Flash these past five months, and know
that it is possible to get one done every week, although it requires
sacrificing a lot. And finally, I had been think for quite some time,
"what if?"
I no longer have to wonder.
PREVIOUS ARTICLE: BEAVER FEVER OUTBREAK
PREVIOUS ARTICLE: Flash animation and the 2005 election
animated show, starring a talk-show host beaver named Tim Castor, poked fun at a number
of aspects of Canadian life, from the political to the social. After achieving some success
with exposure through a few news media websites, he has decided the demand for
animated cartoons is not enough to keep Beaver Feaver going...
Last week's episode was the last episode of Beaver Fever, at least
for now it is. This animated editorial cartoon was created because
newspapers and news media sites have been quite vocal about the need for
change and the need to bring new content to their websites. While
animated editorial cartoons are gaining a following in the U.S., it
would appear that Canada is not as interested right now, at least not in
the one I've created.
Beaver Fever has received a lot of positive comments and interest over
the past 5 months and 19 episodes, and while I've had many media and
news sites kick the tires on this idea, only one small website was
willing to make a commitment to it. Unfortunately, with syndication
rates being what they are, that one website doesn't justify the devotion
of 20 hours of my work week to this project.
I actively marketed this, made many phone calls, and sent emails out to
over 200 people every Monday when a new episode was up. I could tell by
my hits that people were watching each week, but just not buying.
Some of the interested parties I spoke with were large newspapers, both
individual and chains. Most of the time, however, it didn't even get to
the money stage. I had given them free reign to sell an advertisement
specifically for Beaver Fever and to put it in the frame around it. I
also offered to incorporate an ad before and after the episode if need
be as well. Some of the reservations expressed were:
- We're not sure it's right for our readership.
- We don't know how we would make money off of it.
- We don't have a budget for this sort of thing.
However, I had a lot of offers from people wanting to run it for free.
And I think we can all agree, we've all had enough of that. One thing I
was firm on when I started this, was that I wasn't giving it away. It
never seemed to be the content they were objecting to, it was having to
pay for it.
Since Beaver Fever is modeled after a TV format, let's just say that
this is the end of Season 1, with no date set for the beginning of
Season 2. The website will remain up and running, at least for the
immediate future.
I just wanted to share this, so that if anyone else wants to give it a
go, they know what they're up against. Flash animation is a lot of
work, as I'm sure you can guess. I've had to give up the majority of my
weekends to get this done each week. There are upsides, of course. I
have learned a LOT more about Flash these past five months, and know
that it is possible to get one done every week, although it requires
sacrificing a lot. And finally, I had been think for quite some time,
"what if?"
I no longer have to wonder.
PREVIOUS ARTICLE: BEAVER FEVER OUTBREAK
PREVIOUS ARTICLE: Flash animation and the 2005 election