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Feature: Green Paddy Animation rides on wave of interest

Green Paddy Animation Studio general manager Tricia Chen, left, and her husband Lin Po-liang, animation director, are photographed in their studio last Tuesday while displaying one of their animation productions on the computer screen. PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

It has been a fruitful year for Green Paddy Animation Studio (青禾動畫). Its production A Fish with a Smile (微笑的魚), based on renowned Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao's (幾米) book series, won the Special Prize of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk for best short film at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival in February. At the Asia-Pacific Film Festival in Taipei last month, the 10-minute film was again crowned with the best animation award.

What makes the firm most excited is its achievement of beating 290 competitors from 34 countries to win the Best Original Made-for-Mobile Content award for its work Jokes at MIPCOM, the world's leading audiovisual content show, in Cannes, France, early last month.

"After the ceremony, the French presiding judge walked up to me putting his index finger in his month [mimicking a funny scene in Jokes], saying `I like that!' That really makes me proud and strengthens our belief that Taiwanese people's sense of humor can be shared with foreigners despite cultural and language differences," animation director Lin Po-liang (林博良) said during an interview last week.

"Some Taiwanese youngsters are quite imaginative. They just need training from experienced teachers to turn their ideas into real work."

Lin Po-liang, animation director at Green Paddy Animation Studio

The 52-year-old artist usually stays silent, sitting in the corner of a room while his articulate wife Tricia Chen (陳春霞), general manager of Green Paddy, briefs interested investors on the company's work at expositions or in their Taipei office overlooking Daan Forest Park.

"As soon as one financier asked `Do you need investment?' he [Lin] immediately jumped forward with his eyes wide open," Chen said, referring to one of the meetings with potential buyers at the latest trade fair at the Asia Media Festival held in Singapore late last month.

"We have abundant creative ideas. But without equipment, talent and capital injection, we cannot mass-produce animation works to meet the surging demand," Lin said.

The animation master, a graduate in fine arts from National Taiwan Normal University, established his first firm, Blue Bird Animation Club (青鳥動畫社), with one of his friends in 1986 as a contract manufacturer, with clients mostly from Japan and the US.

In its heyday, the company had 70 employees, who were kept constantly busy when contracts for long series of TV animations were inked.

But the situation turned unstable when a low season came.

"Doing animation requires creativity, but contract making is the opposite. You have to strictly follow what your clients said and lock up your imagination in the corner. It's not the way for the long term," Lin said.

Three years later, when Lin transformed his firm into Green Paddy Animation Research Club (青禾動畫研究社), US snack giant Cheetos happened to be looking for a local company to produce animated commercials in hopes that its mascot, which looks like a leopard, would be warmly received here.

This proved a turning point, as Cheetos loved Green Paddy's work and paid them a hefty NT$750,000 for a 15-second commercial.

"We then believed doing animated commercials would be the path to follow," Chen said.

Since then, Green Paddy -- a name which represents Lin and Chen's wish that the seedlings of their dream will spring up -- has produced some famous commercials, like I-Mei Foods Co's (義美食品) Iris-branded wedding biscuits, the cute figure of juice drink QOO and HSBC's line-drawn figure.

Making animated advertising has brought in stable income, accounting for 80 percent of the company's total revenues, enough to support Lin's passion for creating mobile content, an area where creators' originality can really be brought into full play.

Lin has produced more than 100 humorous short films. Some were aired on Taipei City buses and others are available from telecommunications providers.

Green Paddy has teamed up with the nation's five major telecom operators to offer short animation clips for download. However, as third-generation (3G) wireless service has just taken off and download fees remain high, it will take some time for the market to mature, Chen said.

The company's business lines have also stretched across the Taiwan Strait, a market that holds great potential in various fields.

China has yet to release 3G-compatible phones, but users can download films via WAP phones. The latest figures show that 50 million WAP mobile phones had been sold in China as of the end of last month, Chen said.

Green Paddy did not want to miss out this great opportunity. It has signed deals with China Mobile Communications Corp (中國移動), China's biggest mobile carrier, and China Unicom Ltd (中國聯通) to provide its animated works.

"The Chinese government has really pulled out all the stops to promote the digital content market," Chen said.

"In addition to having built several animation and cartoon bases, which require no rentals for companies to move in, the Chinese government would offer subsidies of between 1,000 yuan [US$127.75] and 1,500 yuan for every one-minute animation made. If it's 3D, the subsidy is higher," he added.

What's more impressive is Beijing's closed-door policies, Chen said. Every day between 5pm and 8pm, more than 3,000 TV stations around China are not allowed to air foreign programs, which gives rise to an immense demand for domestic content.

Lin, who never stops drawing, thinking and creating, said he obviously felt itchy about moving operations to China but that the company is confident that the business model of making creations in Taiwan and marketing them around the world was the right thing to do.

"Some Taiwanese youngsters are quite imaginative. They just need training from experienced teachers to turn their ideas into real work," Lin said.

The Taiwanese government has earmarked NT$20 billion (US$613.6 million) from this year to 2010 to subsidize the digital content and cultural creativity industry.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs expects to boost the output value of digital content from last year's NT$290 billion to NT$391 billion next year before reaching the target of NT$500 billion in 2009.

Green Paddy may have a chance to put its hands on more funding, as international investors — including private equity funds — have showed an interest in investing or acquiring Taiwanese media firms.
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