This year, the multi award winning Irish production house Brown Bag Films celebrates its 15th Anniversary. In our interview, IFTN talks to creative director Darragh O’Connell, who co-founded the animation company in 1994 with Cathal Gaffney.
On their 15th anniversary year Brown Bag Films have much to celebrate having recently come away from the 2009 Cartoon forum with the title of European Producer of the Year. In addition, the company scooped an IFTA animation award in February for their alternative fairytale series ‘Granny O’Grimm’ and Cathal Gaffney, co-founder and managing director, has also recently been nominated in the International category of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2009 for his outstanding work with the company.
Olivia |
For the last 15 years Brown Bag Films have produced TV series such as this year’s ‘Noddy In Toyland’ for Chorin; and the 3D animated series, ‘Olivia’, based on Ian Falconer’s books, which made its debut in 2009 on Nickelodeon in the US. Other series produced include ‘Wobblyland’ for HIT Entertainment and Nick Jr. and ‘I’m an Animal’ which has sold to more than 100 countries worldwide.
Brown Bag Films also produce animated short films with credits that include the Oscar nominated ‘Give Up Yer Aul Sins’, ‘The Last Elk’ and ‘The Boy Who Had No Story’, as well as the aforementioned IFTA-winning ‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’, a short that was directed by Nicky Phelan and has since inspired a Granny O’Grimm website and a 52 x 11mins series which was launched at this year’s Cartoon Forum in Norway.
IFTN caught up with Brown Bag Films’ co-founder and creative director Darragh O’Connell to talk about the company’s success over the last 15 years and the team’s plans for the future.
IFTN: Why did you and Cathal originally feel the need to set up Brown Bag
Films?
Darragh O’Connell (DO’C): We started up at a time when Ireland had the biggest animation industry in Europe but yet none of the studios were Irish owned and the key creative posts were held by Canadians and Americans. Myself and Cathal wanted to make our own films and there was just no way of doing this at the time so we set up our company in order to do so. It was a pre-digital era so everything had to be hand- drawn, painted and shot on 35mm film so it was a lot more expensive to put anything together than it is no when you can make a Flash animated film on your home computer.
What was the original goal of the company?
DO’C: Looking back I don't think we were overly goal orientated. We didn't have any formal business training so the idea of just being allowed to make our own films was enough at first. The idea of actually being paid for it seemed like a distant dream! The important thing was to keep going and be persistent, myself and Cathal were always the last to get paid as long as it meant we had enough money to make the next project.
Have you had to change your business approach in the last 15 years?
DO’C: We have had to change a lot over the years in order to stay in business.
Running an animation studio is an expensive undertaking and so we always had to ensure we had funds to invest in keeping the ship afloat while investing any money we did make into developing projects for an International audience and also keeping up with the latest changes in technologies.
The fact that animation was expensive to produce made us realise that we had to make programs and films that people wanted to see and that we could sell overseas. We allowed ourselves the odd indulgence of making things for ourselves but we couldn't do it all the time.
Wobblyland |
You now have 15 years of award-winning animation under your belts, what projects are you most proud of?
DO’C: There are lots of things I'm proud of but I suppose I would have to say 'Give Up Yer Aul Sins', 'Wobblyland' and 'Olivia' just for the reactions that we got from audiences and the fact that they really helped to put us on the world map. One of our most recent projects that is working very well is 'Granny O'Grimm', this recently was the most popular project at the Cartoon Forum in Norway out of 65 projects from all over Europe, which made me very proud indeed.
How has the Irish animation sector changed/evolved since Brown
Bag Films has come into existence?
DO’C: I think that Ireland has changed enormously over the years. From being a place where we were dominated by large overseas studios, Ireland has now become one of the centres of excellence in the world and the great thing is that all of these studios are now Irish owned. For years Ireland has been known as the land of great storytellers and I think this has really taken off with Animation as we depend on telling our stories in such a visual way.
What's next for Brown Bag Films?
DO’C: We are still very busy producing television programs for an international audience and have signed deals with some of the biggest players worldwide which should see us making some great work over the next couple of years. We are also ready to embrace the new technology of Stereoscopic 3D which appears to be the next big thing and is ideally suited to CG animation. We are also developing our first feature film in 3D and hope to begin production on this sometime next year.
Granny O'Grimm |
How do you explain the enormous success of Brown Bag Films thus far?
DO’C: Passion for what we do and recognizing how brilliant the people we have working for us are. We have always tried to encourage and train people in-house to up their game as much as they can and the response we have got from the people working here is fantastic. I also think a part of our success is absolute respect for our audience and taking the challenge of creating entertainment for five year old kids as seriously as we can.
How do you see Brown Bag Films changing in the next 15 years?
DO’C: Looking back we have always changed as a company every three years. From cel-painting to digital ink and paint, hand drawn animation to 3D CGI, our medium has undergone so many revolutions in the past that the idea of sitting still is alien to us. Change is a positive thing and something we embrace and relish, the changing faces of distribution and how our audience are going to consume what we do is something we keep a keen eye on but one thing that will never change is the need for great stories and engaging characters.
Brown Bag Films are currently in production with a new 52 x 11 mins series for Chorin called ‘The Octonauts’. The new preschool series has already been acquired by CBeebies and follows a team of heroes who dive into action whenever there is trouble under the sea. In a fleet of aquatic vehicles, they rescue sea creatures, explore new underwater worlds, and often save the day before returning safely home. The three leading characters are Captain Barnacles Bear; Lieutenant Kwazii Kitten, and Medic Peso Penguin and the series is being directed by Darrgah O’Connell with Emmy Award-winning writer Stephanie Simpson and Chorion’s senior vice president Kurt Mueller
- Brown Bag Films are being honoured at this year’s Darklight Festival with a screening of past Brown Bag Films productions, a discussion and a public interview with Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O’Connell on Friday, October 9th starting at 1.00pm in the Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield.
- For more information about Brown Bag Films visit www.brownbagfilms.com
