Californian Andi Copley says she is a northern girl now that she’s taken up the reins as managing director of Hot Animation.
andi copley
Relocating from Los Angeles in February, the 25-year veteran of the animation industry now heads the Altrincham company behind children’s favourites Pingu and Bob the Builder.
Award-winning Hot is Europe’s largest stopframe model animation studio, ten years old this year. But that alone will not protect it from global competition and Copley, whose producer credits include Pee Wee's Playhouse and The Mr. Potato Head Show is on a mission to cut costs.
“I will be trying to bring down permanent costs and make sure Hot stays in the UK,” she says. “There’s lots of cheap competition from Canada and India.
“We are going to tighten our belts – a little bit here and a little bit there – and make sure all the money goes on screen.”
Hot is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hit Entertainment, the London-based independent children’s entertainment producers and rights-owners. With a portfolio that includes Thomas and Friends, Barney, and Angelina Ballerina as well as Pingu and Bob the Builder, it was bought by private equity group Apax Partners in 2005.
Copley, whose career in animation includes spells at Warner Bros, Film Roman – the studio behind the Simpsons – Klasky Csupo and the Disney Channel, reports to Hit’s executive vice-president of production and programming, Leonara Hume, who has praised her “wealth of studio management and creative management”.
Copley herself believes that creativity and a commercial outlook need not be in conflict. “Not when you’re surrounded by so many savvy and talented people. The people here are a dream team – they don’t compromise.”
Hot has six animation studios, an art department, four prop workshops, a set workshop, costumes department, four offline edit suites, Foley suite and sound suite.
Pingu is a stop-motion clay-animated television series about the adventures of a penguin, while Bob the Builder sports complex stop-frame animation.
Copley – whose other production credits include Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen, a one-hour stop-motion animated special for US television and Clay for Playhouse Disney - wants to increase the amount of third-party work produced by Hot, such as the animation scenes it completed for the recent hit TV series Life on Mars. The company is developing its expertise in software such as Toon Boon and is also moving into high-definition production.
“We need to be flexible and not just rely on stop motion,” says Copley. “I wanted to work for the best and Hot is the best.”Something to add? Then leave a comment below or email us now.
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