Industry Insight Clash on Little Pond

[rogper]

Hello!
My name is Rogério Perdiz, from Portugal and I'm the Producer/Director/Animator/3D generalist/Writter of a 3DCGi short animation called Clash On Little Pond:

​

We started this quest back in June 2021, and it’s still going strong.
We posted every single bit of development publicly at the Blender (the software we use) Artists forum, following the philosophy of building constructors: everyone sees the work in progress, but it’s so boring that it’s still a surprise when it’s finally revealed, complete, at the end.

The story follows Luso, a martial artist frog that is having trouble meditating on a lily pad near the local pond bar.
The bar is infested with bullies who make a lot of noise and cause all sorts of trouble. Before long, the bullies become aggressive with the waitress and bartender, prompting Luso to intervene and teach them a “splashy” lesson!

The project is progressing very well, with no showstoppers. Apart from the slow pace, it presents no real difficulties. The slow pace is simply a consequence of the fact that we all work on it in our free time, outside our regular jobs.
Each one of us has to make a living the traditional way: by working for a living. We have barely any experience in securing funding, and that’s exactly one of the things we’re looking for now.
We need what is known in Hollywood as an Executive Producer: someone who can take care of securing a way for the project to generate money and become financially sustainable.

The Current Progress is at about [■■■■■■■■■□□□] 72%

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We have already made all the scenery, scenery animation, all the assets, all the characters, the original soundtrack, the actors recorded… everything except:

• The animatic is still being made. 70% of the shots are established, but have not yet been ported to the animatic.
• The frog rigs are planned. We already have one secured, and both the method and quality have been approved. Now we need to port it to the other 11 frogs.
• Final character animation and rendering.
• Visual effects (like water splashes and destruction)
• Foley and sound effects.

I'm talking about "We" a lot, but who are we!?

It all started with myself and my wife (Rute Perdiz).
I'm an independent animation filmmaker since 2006 and my wife joined me in the asset making department in 2013 and since them we've been working together, from home, for many clients around the planet. My favorite work until now was that time I worked on a Richard Linklater movie called Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood:

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We started building the project from one of my childhood memories.
When I was about 3 years old, I saw a frog near a small stream. He seemed kind of dry, and I had a water pistol with me, so I sprinkled him with it. Although he didn't seem to dislike it, I felt that perhaps the water jet was a bit too strong for him...
I always loved Western movies, especially Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, and martial arts movies, especially Bruce Lee, Van Damme and Jackie Chan. So, soon after, I wrote a script for it and brought the old water-pistol spirit back!


Because filmmaking doesn't work very well as a one-man-and-one-woman army, we knew we would need help. We were very fortunate that the Universe seemed to be helping us, bringing opportunities our way.

Having no money, we simply welcomed aboard the sailors who showed interest in our boat!

• The first one to come aboard was my good friend Daniel Thiele, a master concept artist, with whom we had already worked on Resilience Satelle (another project of ours). We only had a very rough vision for the scenery, and he was the one that made it detailed and clear.
  
  
• The second one to come aboard was our character rigger and character technical director Michael Colina. He is one of the most active members of the Blender artists community and we are friends since we worked together in the past on another movie, both as freelancers. He is the one making sure the frogs can be animated and deform properly. He did an impressive job and was the only person who managed to nail the frogs' facial rigging. It's super complex and difficult to make these models deform well but he did it.
  
  
• The third was Subin Karkani, the unsung diamond of soundtrack composition, (@Subin1986 here on this comunity) . We were incredibly fortunate that our paths crossed, and he became not only a great addition to our crew, but also a great friend and the biggest supporter of this project.

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• Next we had 12 frogs but no voices for them. Again without any money I wrote the script in a way that the key characters sounded like family and friends, half of them were secured like that, and the other half reached out from a casting poster I did and shared on social networks. Took us a full year but we now have all voices recorded and ready to go.

A handful of other people have also contributed to the project on a smaller scale, and we have credited them all on our IMDb page.

For me, as someone who has always worked under strict NDAs, credit is worth as much as money. It is credit and recognition that allow you to make more money in the future, although, without money, nothing can be made in the first place...

So yeah, our biggest puzzle at the moment is money... because work, we know how to do!
I would welcome any suggestion, comment or idea regarding an honest way to find funding for this project, so that we can finish it faster.

Thanks for the attention!
Rogério

 

[Cinema Doktor]

Hello!
My name is Rogério Perdiz, from Portugal and I'm the Producer/Director/Animator/3D generalist/Writter of a 3DCGi short animation called Clash On Little Pond:

View attachment 202​

We started this quest back in June 2021, and it’s still going strong.
We posted every single bit of development publicly at the Blender (the software we use) Artists forum, following the philosophy of building constructors: everyone sees the work in progress, but it’s so boring that it’s still a surprise when it’s finally revealed, complete, at the end.
View attachment 203View attachment 204
The story follows Luso, a martial artist frog that is having trouble meditating on a lily pad near the local pond bar.
The bar is infested with bullies who make a lot of noise and cause all sorts of trouble. Before long, the bullies become aggressive with the waitress and bartender, prompting Luso to intervene and teach them a “splashy” lesson!
View attachment 205
The project is progressing very well, with no showstoppers. Apart from the slow pace, it presents no real difficulties. The slow pace is simply a consequence of the fact that we all work on it in our free time, outside our regular jobs.
Each one of us has to make a living the traditional way: by working for a living. We have barely any experience in securing funding, and that’s exactly one of the things we’re looking for now.
We need what is known in Hollywood as an Executive Producer: someone who can take care of securing a way for the project to generate money and become financially sustainable.

The Current Progress is at about [■■■■■■■■■□□□] 72%

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

We have already made all the scenery, scenery animation, all the assets, all the characters, the original soundtrack, the actors recorded… everything except:

• The animatic is still being made. 70% of the shots are established, but have not yet been ported to the animatic.
• The frog rigs are planned. We already have one secured, and both the method and quality have been approved. Now we need to port it to the other 11 frogs.
• Final character animation and rendering.
• Visual effects (like water splashes and destruction)
• Foley and sound effects.

I'm talking about "We" a lot, but who are we!?

It all started with myself and my wife (Rute Perdiz).
I'm an independent animation filmmaker since 2006 and my wife joined me in the asset making department in 2013 and since them we've been working together, from home, for many clients around the planet. My favorite work until now was that time I worked on a Richard Linklater movie called Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood:

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

We started building the project from one of my childhood memories.
When I was about 3 years old, I saw a frog near a small stream. He seemed kind of dry, and I had a water pistol with me, so I sprinkled him with it. Although he didn't seem to dislike it, I felt that perhaps the water jet was a bit too strong for him...
I always loved Western movies, especially Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, and martial arts movies, especially Bruce Lee, Van Damme and Jackie Chan. So, soon after, I wrote a script for it and brought the old water-pistol spirit back!

View attachment 206
Because filmmaking doesn't work very well as a one-man-and-one-woman army, we knew we would need help. We were very fortunate that the Universe seemed to be helping us, bringing opportunities our way.

Having no money, we simply welcomed aboard the sailors who showed interest in our boat!

• The first one to come aboard was my good friend Daniel Thiele, a master concept artist, with whom we had already worked on Resilience Satelle (another project of ours). We only had a very rough vision for the scenery, and he was the one that made it detailed and clear.
  
  
• The second one to come aboard was our character rigger and character technical director Michael Colina. He is one of the most active members of the Blender artists community and we are friends since we worked together in the past on another movie, both as freelancers. He is the one making sure the frogs can be animated and deform properly. He did an impressive job and was the only person who managed to nail the frogs' facial rigging. It's super complex and difficult to make these models deform well but he did it.
  
  
• The third was Subin Karkani, the unsung diamond of soundtrack composition, (@Subin1986 here on this comunity) . We were incredibly fortunate that our paths crossed, and he became not only a great addition to our crew, but also a great friend and the biggest supporter of this project.

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

• Next we had 12 frogs but no voices for them. Again without any money I wrote the script in a way that the key characters sounded like family and friends, half of them were secured like that, and the other half reached out from a casting poster I did and shared on social networks. Took us a full year but we now have all voices recorded and ready to go.

A handful of other people have also contributed to the project on a smaller scale, and we have credited them all on our IMDb page.

For me, as someone who has always worked under strict NDAs, credit is worth as much as money. It is credit and recognition that allow you to make more money in the future, although, without money, nothing can be made in the first place...

So yeah, our biggest puzzle at the moment is money... because work, we know how to do!
I would welcome any suggestion, comment or idea regarding an honest way to find funding for this project, so that we can finish it faster.

Thanks for the attention!
Rogério

Rogério, I think the fact that the project is already 72% complete could be a real advantage when looking for funding. You’re not just presenting an idea or a script to a potential executive producer you already have characters, environments, music, recorded voices and a render test to show.

Have you already worked out exactly how much funding you would need to complete the film, and how long it would take to finish if that funding were secured? I think those could be two of the most important pieces of information for a potential investor or executive producer.

-Cinema Doktor

 

[rogper]

Rogério, I think the fact that the project is already 72% complete could be a real advantage when looking for funding. You’re not just presenting an idea or a script to a potential executive producer you already have characters, environments, music, recorded voices and a render test to show.

Have you already worked out exactly how much funding you would need to complete the film, and how long it would take to finish if that funding were secured? I think those could be two of the most important pieces of information for a potential investor or executive producer.

-Cinema Doktor

Hello! Nice to meet you! Thanks for the reply!

I’ve tried pretty much everything over the years ...crowdfunding, Portuguese film funds, etc. ...but the only funding method that has consistently worked for me is… working.
I’m not famous, mostly because since 2009 I’ve been working under NDAs, so I can rarely show what I do professionally. This is one of the few old projects I can actually show because the game was cancelled and my supervisor uploaded it:

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I directed it and handled about 75–80% of the work. The production pipeline was entirely my own.
I'm no YouTuber either... just don't have time for that.

For Clash on Little Pond, I estimate we need around €35,000 to finish the film in about one year, while I continue working and do my part in my spare time:

• Rigging — €3,500
• Animation — €25,000 (2 freelance animators × 4 months)
• Foley & sound — €2,000
• Original soundtrack — €2,000
• Contingency — €2,500

Everything else I can handle myself after work.

Finishing it in 6 months would be much riskier, as I’d have to stop freelancing completely. In that case, I’d need roughly €100,000 to cover the project and allow me to dedicate those six months to it full-time.

My realistic goal would be those 35,000 Euros / 40,000 USD.

But yeah, what bothers me the most is that I have no clear idea of how I could recover that investment once the movie is finished. I do this out of passion… I’d be more than open to someone taking care of the business side and making the financial part work.

 

[Ryan]

Hello!
My name is Rogério Perdiz, from Portugal and I'm the Producer/Director/Animator/3D generalist/Writter of a 3DCGi short animation called Clash On Little Pond:

View attachment 202​

We started this quest back in June 2021, and it’s still going strong.
We posted every single bit of development publicly at the Blender (the software we use) Artists forum, following the philosophy of building constructors: everyone sees the work in progress, but it’s so boring that it’s still a surprise when it’s finally revealed, complete, at the end.
View attachment 203View attachment 204
The story follows Luso, a martial artist frog that is having trouble meditating on a lily pad near the local pond bar.
The bar is infested with bullies who make a lot of noise and cause all sorts of trouble. Before long, the bullies become aggressive with the waitress and bartender, prompting Luso to intervene and teach them a “splashy” lesson!
View attachment 205
The project is progressing very well, with no showstoppers. Apart from the slow pace, it presents no real difficulties. The slow pace is simply a consequence of the fact that we all work on it in our free time, outside our regular jobs.
Each one of us has to make a living the traditional way: by working for a living. We have barely any experience in securing funding, and that’s exactly one of the things we’re looking for now.
We need what is known in Hollywood as an Executive Producer: someone who can take care of securing a way for the project to generate money and become financially sustainable.

The Current Progress is at about [■■■■■■■■■□□□] 72%

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

We have already made all the scenery, scenery animation, all the assets, all the characters, the original soundtrack, the actors recorded… everything except:

• The animatic is still being made. 70% of the shots are established, but have not yet been ported to the animatic.
• The frog rigs are planned. We already have one secured, and both the method and quality have been approved. Now we need to port it to the other 11 frogs.
• Final character animation and rendering.
• Visual effects (like water splashes and destruction)
• Foley and sound effects.

I'm talking about "We" a lot, but who are we!?

It all started with myself and my wife (Rute Perdiz).
I'm an independent animation filmmaker since 2006 and my wife joined me in the asset making department in 2013 and since them we've been working together, from home, for many clients around the planet. My favorite work until now was that time I worked on a Richard Linklater movie called Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

We started building the project from one of my childhood memories.
When I was about 3 years old, I saw a frog near a small stream. He seemed kind of dry, and I had a water pistol with me, so I sprinkled him with it. Although he didn't seem to dislike it, I felt that perhaps the water jet was a bit too strong for him...
I always loved Western movies, especially Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, and martial arts movies, especially Bruce Lee, Van Damme and Jackie Chan. So, soon after, I wrote a script for it and brought the old water-pistol spirit back!

View attachment 206
Because filmmaking doesn't work very well as a one-man-and-one-woman army, we knew we would need help. We were very fortunate that the Universe seemed to be helping us, bringing opportunities our way.

Having no money, we simply welcomed aboard the sailors who showed interest in our boat!

• The first one to come aboard was my good friend Daniel Thiele, a master concept artist, with whom we had already worked on Resilience Satelle (another project of ours). We only had a very rough vision for the scenery, and he was the one that made it detailed and clear.
  
  
• The second one to come aboard was our character rigger and character technical director Michael Colina. He is one of the most active members of the Blender artists community and we are friends since we worked together in the past on another movie, both as freelancers. He is the one making sure the frogs can be animated and deform properly. He did an impressive job and was the only person who managed to nail the frogs' facial rigging. It's super complex and difficult to make these models deform well but he did it.
  
  
• The third was Subin Karkani, the unsung diamond of soundtrack composition, (@Subin1986 here on this comunity) . We were incredibly fortunate that our paths crossed, and he became not only a great addition to our crew, but also a great friend and the biggest supporter of this project.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

• Next we had 12 frogs but no voices for them. Again without any money I wrote the script in a way that the key characters sounded like family and friends, half of them were secured like that, and the other half reached out from a casting poster I did and shared on social networks. Took us a full year but we now have all voices recorded and ready to go.

A handful of other people have also contributed to the project on a smaller scale, and we have credited them all on our IMDb page.

For me, as someone who has always worked under strict NDAs, credit is worth as much as money. It is credit and recognition that allow you to make more money in the future, although, without money, nothing can be made in the first place...

So yeah, our biggest puzzle at the moment is money... because work, we know how to do!
I would welcome any suggestion, comment or idea regarding an honest way to find funding for this project, so that we can finish it faster.

Thanks for the attention!
Rogério

At 72% complete, I wonder if it might help to position this less as funding a film and more as financing a clearly defined completion plan.

Since so much of the creative work already exists, you could potentially break the remaining work into specific milestones rigging, final animation, rendering, VFX and sound with a cost and delivery target attached to each one. That could make it much easier for an executive producer or investor to see exactly what their money would unlock.

I’d also be curious about what kind of financing or partnership structure you have in mind. Are you looking for one executive producer to finance the remaining work, several smaller investors, or are you open to different structures? And if the funding were secured, when would you ideally like to have the finished film ready?

 

[Michael]

At 72% complete, I wonder if it might help to position this less as funding a film and more as financing a clearly defined completion plan.

Since so much of the creative work already exists, you could potentially break the remaining work into specific milestones rigging, final animation, rendering, VFX and sound with a cost and delivery target attached to each one. That could make it much easier for an executive producer or investor to see exactly what their money would unlock.

I’d also be curious about what kind of financing or partnership structure you have in mind. Are you looking for one executive producer to finance the remaining work, several smaller investors, or are you open to different structures? And if the funding were secured, when would you ideally like to have the finished film ready?

One question I haven’t seen addressed yet is what the €35,000 completion investor would actually receive in return. Would the investment be recouped first, followed by a share of revenues, or would there be some form of participation in the underlying IP?

I’m also curious about the economics of the project itself. You mentioned that the film is approximately 72% complete and that around €35,000 is still required for the remaining work. What would you estimate the total production value of the completed film to be, including the work and resources already contributed to the project?

And given that this is a relatively short animated film, how do you see the commercial path to recovering a €35,000 completion investment?

Finally, if Clash on Little Pond later develops into a series, feature, sequels or other projects using the same characters and world, would the original completion investor participate financially in those future productions as well?

 

[rogper]

One question I haven’t seen addressed yet is what the €35,000 completion investor would actually receive in return. Would the investment be recouped first, followed by a share of revenues, or would there be some form of participation in the underlying IP?

I’m also curious about the economics of the project itself. You mentioned that the film is approximately 72% complete and that around €35,000 is still required for the remaining work. What would you estimate the total production value of the completed film to be, including the work and resources already contributed to the project?

And given that this is a relatively short animated film, how do you see the commercial path to recovering a €35,000 completion investment?

Finally, if Clash on Little Pond later develops into a series, feature, sequels or other projects using the same characters and world, would the original completion investor participate financially in those future productions as well?

Hello @Ryan and @Michael ! Nice to meet you, and thanks for the replies!

This is actually simpler than that
We have a very lousy boat sailing around! It’s the piece of crap that nobody cares about in the harbor. It does sail, though.

• Consider me the guy who built the boat with a hammer and a saw.
• I don’t know how to compose a soundtrack, so Subin Karkani joined the boat and became the boat musician.
• I don’t have time to do the character rigging, so Michael Colina joined the boat and became the boat’s character technical director.

You probably see where this is going!

We’re looking for someone willing to sail with us into the unknown. There are no certainties at all. Ideally, this person should have a goal of their own that they feel we could help them get closer to, and be passionate and inventive enough to endure the rough seas ahead.

If you feel like you can be the executive producer and find a way to make this boat pay for itself (for the project and for yourself) feel free to come aboard! If you’re crazy enough to do that, then maybe we have a chance, and someday we might actually be able to build a proper ship and sail a little farther away.

 

[George]

Hello @Ryan and @Michael ! Nice to meet you, and thanks for the replies!

This is actually simpler than that
We have a very lousy boat sailing around! It’s the piece of crap that nobody cares about in the harbor. It does sail, though.

• Consider me the guy who built the boat with a hammer and a saw.
• I don’t know how to compose a soundtrack, so Subin Karkani joined the boat and became the boat musician.
• I don’t have time to do the character rigging, so Michael Colina joined the boat and became the boat’s character technical director.

You probably see where this is going!

We’re looking for someone willing to sail with us into the unknown. There are no certainties at all. Ideally, this person should have a goal of their own that they feel we could help them get closer to, and be passionate and inventive enough to endure the rough seas ahead.

If you feel like you can be the executive producer and find a way to make this boat pay for itself (for the project and for yourself) feel free to come aboard! If you’re crazy enough to do that, then maybe we have a chance, and someday we might actually be able to build a proper ship and sail a little farther away.

I think I understand the boat analogy now

Reading your answer, it sounds like what you’re really looking for may be more than someone who simply puts €35,000 into the film. You’re looking for a partner who can bring the business side that the existing team doesn’t currently have — financing strategy, commercial direction and potentially a longer-term plan for the characters and the IP.

In that sense, maybe finding the right person is actually more important than finding the money itself.

The boat may be a little rough, but at 72% complete at least you’re not asking someone to help build it while you’re still standing on the beach.

 

[rogper]

I think I understand the boat analogy now

Reading your answer, it sounds like what you’re really looking for may be more than someone who simply puts €35,000 into the film. You’re looking for a partner who can bring the business side that the existing team doesn’t currently have — financing strategy, commercial direction and potentially a longer-term plan for the characters and the IP.

In that sense, maybe finding the right person is actually more important than finding the money itself.

The boat may be a little rough, but at 72% complete at least you’re not asking someone to help build it while you’re still standing on the beach.

That's exactly that! You got it.
We build and take care of the boat maintenance.
We're looking for the right person to make this boat profitable.

We have 3 short animations in development right now.
Clash On little Pond -> 72%
Resilience Satelle -> 50%
The Gate Sheriff-> 2%

So when one fires up the others wont take much longer to get done.

 

[George]

That's exactly that! You got it.
We build and take care of the boat maintenance.
We're looking for the right person to make this boat profitable.

We have 3 short animations in development right now.
Clash On little Pond -> 72%
Resilience Satelle -> 50%
Clash On little Pond -> 2%

So when one fires up the others wont take much longer to get done.

Exactly Then maybe the real challenge isn’t finding someone to fund the boat it’s finding someone who knows where to sail it.

And that’s probably a very different search. You may be looking less for a traditional investor and more for a genuine commercial partner who sees potential in the film, the characters and possibly the world beyond this one short.

That might actually be worth making very clear when you present the opportunity to people.

 

[rogper]

Exactly Then maybe the real challenge isn’t finding someone to fund the boat it’s finding someone who knows where to sail it.

And that’s probably a very different search. You may be looking less for a traditional investor and more for a genuine commercial partner who sees potential in the film, the characters and possibly the world beyond this one short.

That might actually be worth making very clear when you present the opportunity to people.

Thanks for the advice!
I'll take it and next time will make sure it sounds correct from the start!