On Monday, I attended the launch of RTÉjr, Ireland’s new dedicated children’s channel. Broadcasting twelve hours a day, the channel brings content directly to Irish children, expanding what was once a block on RTÉ2 into a full channel sitting along with all the other children’s channels on Sky, UPC and Saorview. Now I should point out that I have five shows currently airing on the channel so it’s likely I would say some pleasant things about it – I have been referring to the channel as my ‘showreel’, after all. But there is more to RTÉjr than just being a place to catch some of my shows.

RTÉjr is a big positive step for all Irish children. An important step. Here is why -

It is a dedicated children’s channel focusing on children aged seven and under. I have previously expressed my appreciation for dedicated children’s channels on this site. I feel they give parents more control, lessen the risk of inappropriate content and they simply make it easier to pick and choose what our children watch.

It is a channel focusing on delivering specifically to Irish children. Local content is so important to children. Each country has its own culture, its own ways of looking at the world. That unique point of view should be represented in the shows kids watch. Anyone in children’s content will know just how difficult that is to achieve – most shows need to be sold all over the world to stand a chance of breaking even so how can they be culturally specific? Well, that’s why local content in any country needs support.

RTÉjr has, yes, content bought in from abroad but it also currently carries a large amount of content created here in Ireland for Irish children. For example, one of my own shows now airing on the channel, Ballybraddan, is about Irish children playing hurling, an Irish sport. That show just couldn’t be made anywhere else. And it is wonderful now to see it sitting in the schedule, seeing it among the NickJrs, the Disney Juniors and all the other juniors. And RTÉ’s own produced content (of which I am not involved with) has jumped in quality recently and the level of talent has risen. So it is not just content tailored for Irish children, it is better content for Irish children.

The biggest part of this whole channel for me as a parent?

RTÉjr carries no advertising. None.

It was so encouraging to hear RTÉ’s Director General, Noel Curran, focus on that point at the channel’s launch on Monday, calling the lack of advertising a strong statement and positive for parents, while expressing his and RTÉ’s commitment to children and the new channel.

So what we have now with RTÉjr is an ad-free channel, focused on children aged seven and under, delivering some uniquely Irish content that children just can’t get anywhere else.

As a creator, a producer of content, RTÉjr offers a home for existing content and makes it much more accessible for our audience. With the channel sitting in the Kids section, it is now far more likely that children and parents will see our shows, take a chance on them over some of the more international content. It also creates a need for new content. The challenge laid down by the channel and the commitment is to keep it relevant, keep it current. Oh there will be budgetary constraints (there always are), but this channel will need content as it evolves. And with such a strong start, I am looking forward to seeing the channel grow.

The launch event was tons of fun. I got to meet Reuben and Bó, Donie (who, as a children’s presenter, I was very impressed with – this guy could be the Irish Justin Fletcher) and almost got to pet a hedgehog before his minder told me he gets a bit bitey. And my girls have been testing out the channel for the last couple of days and have been enjoying it immensely. So congratulations to Sheila DeCourcy, RTÉ’s Cross-Divisional Head of Children’s Content, and all her team on a great launch, a strong schedule, and for giving something really positive to Irish children.

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If you’re in Ireland, you can find RTÉjr on Saorview (Channel 7), UPC (Channel 600) and Sky (Channel 624). For my own shows, you’ll find Fluffy Gardens at 1.15pm and 4.55pm, Planet Cosmo at 9.05am and 1.40pm, Roobarb & Custard Too at 11.05am, Punky at 8.40am and Ballybraddan at 6.15pm. But be sure to check out some of the other excellent Irish content on there too – Beo Show, Garth and Bev, Why Guy and more.

Filed under: General Posts by Jay
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Tags: animation, Ballybraddan, Fluffy Gardens, Geronimo Productions, Planet Cosmo, Punky, Roobarb, RTÉjr

As many of you will have seen, it was announced last week that Monster Animation & Design has changed its name to Geronimo Productions. Monster Animation, started by owner and producer Gerard O’Rourke, has been going for 17 years and I joined very early in its history, taking the position of Creative Director of the company more than ten years ago. From there, we took Monster Animation from advertising into broadcast television, starting with us producing Roobarb & Custard Too and then creating Fluffy Gardens and moving us through Ballybraddan, Punky and now our new show and my latest creation, Planet Cosmo. All the while, I have been overseeing the creative vision of the company, building the studio methods and systems and creating, moulding, nurturing and producing shows.

We have come a long way together.

The name change is something Gerard and I have discussed for many years (mostly because of international confusion with another Irish Monster) and, with a brand new show launching, the time finally seemed right to make the switch. So this week, we’re working hard as Geronimo Productions to finish Planet Cosmo and you’ll be hearing a lot about that very soon. The studio at Geronimo is gearing up for more Punky (I’m serving as script editor at the moment with Andrew Brenner writing) and everything is moving forward with a new name and a new identity.

Will it bring exciting things? I think it will. It’s going to be a big and rather interesting year for all of us.

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Tags: animation, business, Cosmo, Geronimo Productions, Monster Animation, Planet Cosmo, Punky

Voice recording for Cosmo begins today and we’ll be recording all week. I have been buried in the scripts to make sure they are nothing less than excellent and I am very much hoping I haven’t missed something. We will also be making decisions on our animation team this week and beginning to put together our systems and libraries for the upcoming production. So it is going to be a very busy week.

The busy times are a test.

Not really a test of our abilities to stay on top of things. Most of us who make shows have to have developed tight management systems, studio pipelines and tricks for dealing with many completely different jobs at once. Being able to keep up really is such an essential requirement that it just has to be a given or else you go and do something else for a living. And, for me, both writing and directing Fluffy Gardens (as I’m doing for Cosmo) taught me lot about juggling.

No, the real test when things get busy is keeping the most important person in your mind at every moment of production, during every decision: that child who, some day, will be sitting there watching what we have made.

Keep that person in mind at all times and it’s hard to go wrong.

Of course I’m hoping it will be more than just one child. Two or three at the very least…

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Monster Animation attended the IFTA Awards on Saturday night and, while Punky didn’t win, it was a great night and a testament to the quality of Irish productions right now. But that was a looooong ceremony. They don’t even televise the longest section – shame they can’t just do it in highlight form live. Still, we had lots of fun and congratulations to all the winners.

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Tags: animation, Children, Cosmo, Punky, writing

When my daughter Daisy was younger, TV shows were real to her. They were like whole other worlds and the characters existed, albeit behind a layer of glass. At five, she still loves TV but now knows they are created, acted, drawn and produced. She has a pretty clear understanding of the process and what I do for a living. And yet the characters are still alive to her.

The other day, she was watching Punky – Monster Animation’s show about a little girl with Down syndrome – when she came out with a question: “Daddy, why did you make Punky have Down syndrome?”

In a way, the answer was very easy. There are children who have Down syndrome and they should be represented on television and it’s good for children and parents to see a little girl like Punky. But the way the question was phrased gave it a specific spin – why did you give Down syndrome to Punky? Not making a particular positive or negative judgement on it but aware that, if you were Punky herself, this decision would be a pretty big deal.

Not long after, she asked why I made Cranky so grumpy. This question came from a different angle in that Daisy very much disapproves of Cranky’s biting one-liners. This one was a decision that affected Daisy herself.

Of course I could point to creator Lindsay J. Sedgwick and writer Andrew Brenner, who both had a bigger part to play in defining these characters, but that would have been wrong because she could have been asking about Cosmo or anyone in Fluffy Gardens. What was important about the question was the very clear sense of responsibility.

We create characters.

We give them life and we make them who they are, for better or worse. We make decisions on how they’ll act and react, whether we’re writing words to put in their mouths or even just animating a single scene. Everyone involved in the process plays a role in bringing these characters to life. And then we show them to children.

Different people will take away different things from that life we create and some characters, lines and even whole shows won’t suit some children. That’s to be expected and it’s why it is important that parents play an active role in choosing content for their children. Nevertheless, we are responsible for who we create and what we show to the world. We’re responsible for the scenes we animate, the lines we write, the details we add to a background, everything. And what’s more, we’re not just responsible for what an audience might take away from the show. We also have a responsibility to these characters. In some way they’re like teenagers screaming “I didn’t ask to be born!” but we brought them to life anyway. Are we doing that with honesty? Sincerity?

It all comes down to us and the choices we make. That’s what makes content creation so amazing. All of us involved in even the periphery of the process can make a difference and contribute. And then we own that responsibility, both to our audience and the little lives we create.

It seems even a five-year-old understands that.

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Tags: animation, Children, Punky, writing

Punky, Monster Animation’s animated show about a fun little girl with Down syndrome, has been nominated for two IFTA awards: Best Children’s Show and Best Sound. Seeing as there’s only so much I can say in a 140-character tweet, I thought I’d give the nominations a little mention here to let you know a little about the show and those involved.

Punky is the creation of writer, Lindsay J. Sedgwick. She took the show through a long development process, supported by the Irish Film Board, and eventually the show landed on our desks at Monster Animation. My first thought? Are you serious?! No way. You can’t make a cartoon show about a person with Down syndrome because a cartoon is, by its very nature, a caricature. Even with the absolute best of intentions, this would go horribly wrong.

And, sure enough, one of the primary concerns from everyone who heard about the show was – how will you show her visually?

It wasn’t easy.

But just because something isn’t easy doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be attempted. In fact, maybe the closer it is to going horribly wrong the more chance it has of turning out to be rather special if it works. Because many others would have backed out earlier. Our producer, Gerard O’Rourke, didn’t back out. Of course, he wouldn’t have to design her!

As it would turn out, designing Punky was really only the first of many challenges in making the show work. It would take the wonderful children’s writer, Andrew Brenner, to craft the funny, honest and often touching stories for Punky and her family. It would take design work and early direction by Ciara McClean and fantastic visual storytelling for each episode by director Simon Crane to bring those stories to life. It would take Aimee Richardson’s perfect voice. In many ways, Aimee became Punky. It would take support from the Irish Film Board and broadcaster RTÉ. And it would take Creative Director Jason Tammemägi getting over his initial urge to flinch.

Through all that, the show still had Lindsay’s soul.

And eventually… it worked.

So now we have a fun little preschool show that is really just about a girl and her family. It’s about what she does, what she enjoys, what makes her laugh. She also happens to have Down syndrome. Due to the lack of main characters like that on television, that makes the show important. Important for children and parents, regardless of whether they have someone with Down syndrome in their lives.

And now a couple of IFTA nominations. That’s nice. Will it win one? Who knows. The IFTAs are what they are. But I guess, for me with my head deep in Cosmo right now, the nominations are just a reminder of what we made, why it’s important and those fantastic people who made it what it is.

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Tags: animation, IFTA, Punky