This month we talk animated features, games and the art of networking with Natasha Price (Producer) and Julia Le Gallo (Business Development and Marketing Manager) at Cornwall-based animation studio, Engine House.
I meet Natasha and Julia via a Google Hangout — a scenario that many in our industry have reluctantly become acquainted with over the last couple of weeks. How has Engine House had to adapt to the lockdown, I wonder?
Natasha explains that the adjustment hasn’t been all that dramatic. 'We are so used to working remotely — it’s a huge part of the way we do things.' While their Redruth studio houses a small core team (who are currently working from home), Engine House draws on 'a freelance network who are all over the world'. Their output is similarly far-reaching; they regularly work with clients in Hong Kong, Vietnam and, of course, London.
Engine House was founded in Cornwall by Mike Richter and Jason Robbins. Mike had been in London, working in architectural visualisation, while Jason’s background in games and advertising had seen him work in London and Chicago. Unsurprisingly, they had no trouble finding team members willing to join them in Cornwall! For the first eight years, Engine House was primarily a service-based studio, delivering animation for online advertising, social media, film, television and VR.
In the last couple of years, the studio has entered an exciting new chapter — telling their own stories. 'We decided we wanted to push our own IP (intellectual property) a lot more’, Natasha says, 'and that’s now around fifty percent of the business.'
This shift saw the studio expand, with dedicated team members overseeing the service projects while others focus on original material. Chief among the latter is Back from the Dead Red — an animated feature about the notorious 17th Century pirate, Jacquotte Delahaye. The idea to leap into their first feature came out of a company vision exercise. 'Between us, we realised that a feature film would unlock what we all wanted. Then we took some time to think about the kind of stories we wanted to tell.' In the end, the initial seed of the story came from, of all things, a BuzzFeed article — '10 Badass Women Who Need Their Own Film, or something like that!'
When production on the feature stalled due to challenges with the US funding, Engine House took the skills, resources and networks they had amassed to develop a wider slate that includes another feature and a TV show. Natasha tells me, 'We were actually left in a really good position. We’re essentially fifty percent funded and still hold all the rights.' With Back from the Dead Red now very much alive again, the studio looks set to become a powerhouse of original content in the near future.
In fact, they’re currently developing their first video game. Although Engine House has worked on interactive and immersive projects before — including a 360 degree exoplanet simulation that has almost nine-million views on YouTube, and cutscenes for the Assassin’s Creed franchise — this is their 'first proper game'. When everyone at the company was invited to pitch an idea, Julia presented Just Breathe, 'an emotional short story based on mindfulness mechanisms'. She says developing this game as an employee within a company is a unique and empowering opportunity. 'I’ve always been a very keen gamer. It’s always been a little dream of mine to create a game!'
Julia explains that networking outside Cornwall has played a huge role in making Just Breathe a reality. After a receiving a grant from the UK Games Fund to develop a prototype, she took this to the EGX expo for 'four full days of members of the public, publishers and other studios stopping by to trial it and give feedback'. It was through contacts made at this event that they secured additional funding to continue.
On the film and TV side, networking is just as crucial. They’ve been to 'Berlin, Cannes, Cartoon Movie, Children’s Media Conference, The Book Fair…a whole range!' And, having travelled to London at least seven times last year in her role as Business Development Manager, Julia is well-placed to share a networking top-tip: 'Everyone is pretty open to chatting online, but it’s easier to make a face-to-face introduction and continue the conversation once we’re back in the office.’
In fact, Engine House has not been entirely unaffected by lockdown. The next step for Just Breathe is to seek investment, which Julia had hoped to do at the Games Finance Market. This has necessarily been moved online. 'We’re still going to meet with investors, just not face to face.'
Closer to home, Engine House recently partnered with Golden Tree Productions to adapt the work of author Will Coleman. Tales from Porth is an animated Cornish language TV pilot supported by the Cornish Language Office at Cornwall Council, and commissioned through Screen Cornwall. Having revamped the illustrative visuals and worked with local television writer James Henry on the script, the team is finalising the episode as we speak. They will then work with executive producer Denzil Monk to take a plan for a full series to broadcasters. As Julia puts it, 'Who knows what might come out of this?'
The same could be asked of any of the studio’s slate of exciting projects. Clearly, Engine House is an animation studio that refuses to stand still.
Written by Alex MJ Smith, with thanks to Natasha Price and Julia Le Gallo at Engine House.
