Industry Roundtables
BFI NETWORK Masterclass: How to Budget an Animated Short with Producer Chris Hees
In this masterclass, animation producer Chris Hees will explore the most common issues faced when putting together an animation budget for a funded short film. Find out how animation technique, script length and post-production workflow can all have a large impact on your budget and how best to manage these areas to keep costs from spiralling out of control.
Open to animation writers, directors and producers, this session will be led by BAFTA winning, Oscar nominated producer Chris Hees, who recently produced BFI NETWORK South West backed short animated film KNOT, which is screening as part of the Animation ‘Elemental Moods’ programme at Encounters this year.
Chris will use the short film KNOT as a real-world example, giving first-hand insight into the challenges the team faced and highlights of their journey. He will also elaborate on the role of the producer and how they work alongside the animation writer and/or director.
Hosted by Alix Taylor - SW Talent Executive, BFI NETWORK
Special Guest:
Chris Hees
Director & Founder of Bridge Way Ltd (recipient of the BFI Vision Award 3), Chris Hees is a BAFTA winning, Oscar nominated producer and alumnus of the National Film and Television School. His BAFTA winning animation, “The Bigger Picture,” along with his live action short, “How I Didn’t Become A Piano Player”, racked up over 200 festival screenings and 75 awards between them.
With one hand on the pulse of the UK film industry in London, and the other on the thriving energy of regional filmmaking, Chris produces talent-led films with appeal beyond the UK. His current slate, a mixture of live-action and animation, includes adaptations, comedies, thrillers and period dramas – each project being packaged to suit its position within the international market.
Chris is also a two-time alumnus of the Berlinale Talents Campus. Working with UK-based European filmmakers such as Tommaso Pitta (“Little Boy Blue”) and Weronika Tofilska (“The Fall”) has allowed him to build a growing expertise and network within the world of European co-productions.
ABOUT BFI NETWORK
BFI NETWORK exists to support, develop and champion new filmmakers looking to kick-start their career.
Made possible through National Lottery funding, we collaborate with film organisations and leading cultural venues across the UK to provide short film and early feature development funding, industry-backed professional development and networking support to producers, writers and directors of all ages.!
SHORT FILM FUNDING
Our Short Film funding programme supports projects with directors based in England and is run in partnership with the BFI NETWORK Talent Executives who work with filmmakers on the delivery of funded projects.
This fund is for fiction shorts, in both live action and animation. We want to support short films that:
bring exciting new voices and bold narratives to the screen;
provide space for experimentation and idea-testing;
advance the careers of the filmmakers involved through showcasing their abilities to the industry and the public.
EARLY DEVELOPMENT FUNDING
Our Early Development funding programme supports projects with writers based in England. If you’re a new writer with an exciting, bold idea – particularly if you’ve not yet teamed up with a producer – this is the fund for you.
‘New writers’ are people who have not yet have written a feature film script that has been produced and distributed. This fund is also for producers and directors working with new writers.
This fund is the first step in the BFI’s development support for live action and animated fiction projects from new writers. It supports people at the very beginning of their development process to produce an initial treatment and related materials.
QUESTIONS?
You can get in touch on: bfinetwork@watershed.co.uk