2023-06-16 15:06:52
More than a hundred young people in their final year, from the prestigious Gobelins school, took part this week in a “speed recruiting” session, exchanging for 10 minutes with studios. Netflix, Illumination (“The Minions”), Nickelodeon… Representatives of nearly 40 companies chained meetings in a hubbub. Julien Motteau, 24, specializing in 2D animation and storyboarding, spent one with Xilam, Marc du Pontavice’s studio (“Oggy and the Cockroaches”, “I lost my body”).
“I showed what I was doing, they told me about what they were looking for at the moment, they gave me contacts, it went well, very friendly”, summarizes the young man, in bermuda shorts and floral shirt. Despite the stress of the interviews, “it’s an environment which is still quite relaxed”, underlines his comrade Mathieu Giazzi. “No one is in white shirts, neither the recruiters nor us,” he smiles.
With the pandemic and the explosion in demand for content, there is no shortage of work: animation is in games, live action (live action), motion design (graphic animation), on phones “and all possible screens”, notes Cécile Blondel, director of international development at Les Gobelins.
Students do not necessarily need Annecy to find work before leaving school, as Bénédicte Duhamel, head of business relations at the Rubika school in Valenciennes, explains. “Last year on the specialization in 3D, 3/4 were placed after the jury” at the end of studies, she adds, referring to a “placement rate of 90% at one year”.
According to the animation director at Gaumont, Cyril Le Pesant, “the great excitement” of the market continues even if the platforms “slow down their order books in a context of increased competition”.
Return of the 2D
Netflix still produces “nearly a dozen animated series in France” per year, underlines one of its leaders John Derderian, citing the studios Fortiche (“Arcane”) or Blue Spirit (“Blue Eye Samourai”). “There are great schools here in France and a love of animation” which is found in Annecy, he adds.
The festival, which brings together more than 15,000 participants, is an “interesting mix of super talented young students who (…) know that here they are going to see people who love this craft more than anyone”, completes Karen Toliver, director of animated films at Netflix.
“One of the best things about the animation boom is the sheer number of opportunities in the industry for young people,” said Orion Ross, vice president of animation for Disney in Europe. For studios, this boom can cause difficulties, with “the best” talent being “always busy”, he says, but since animation projects usually take two years, young recruits have time to gain the necessary experience. .
The golden age of animation is also accompanied by a return to grace of 2D (faster to produce), as evidenced by the growing success of the studio La Cachette, author of a short film Star Wars for Disney+.
And this even though its founders, former Gobelins, were told 10 years ago that “2D was not the future”, according to one of them, Oussama Bouacheria. Specializing in 3D, the Rubika school created a training program in 2D animation three years ago.
“It becomes much easier to do 2D because there are tools that allow you to go much faster, suddenly it has become profitable again”, analyzes Angèle Legras, student at Gobelins. In addition, “Japanese animation has really infused French culture, there is a demand”. “Japanese animation is often what fuels our passion”, confirms Manon Dulas, 20, a 2D student at ESAAT Roubaix, looking for a work-study contract.
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