{"id":38060,"date":"2020-07-06T05:58:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T05:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/?p=38060"},"modified":"2020-07-06T07:59:38","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T07:59:38","slug":"creating-content-for-children-interview-evgenia-golubeva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/creating-content-for-children-interview-evgenia-golubeva\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Content for Children: Interview with Evgenia Golubeva"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"\n

I first met Evgenia<\/a> (Ev for short) about 8 years ago on a one-off Animation Producers course, where she tackled the intense 2-days training with a smile on her face and an unwavering enthusiasm to soak up everything. In the months that followed I would keep seeing Ev at almost every animation event that I attended – from Annecy to the Children\u2019s Media Conference, and everything in-between – where she would show me yet another idea she was pitching, a project she was animating on, or a set of new illustrations she had been working up.<\/p>\n

This work ethic and enthusiasm has been reflected in her career so far; a CV which could easily fill up this article alone. Some of those CV highlights include: writing (notable for preschool TV series such as Hey Duggee<\/em>, and Becca\u2019s Bunch<\/em>), character design, illustrating children\u2019s books (her latest book I am NOT a Mouse<\/em> has just been published<\/a>), directing and animating award-winning short films (I Want To Live In The Zoo<\/a><\/em> and I Am Not a Mouse<\/a><\/em> are available on the Skwigly Showcase), plus developing and pitching her own concepts. Did I mention she can speak an impressive 6 languages (Russian, English, Italian, German, French and Spanish)? Ev has even referred to herself as an \u201corchestra woman\u201d. Quite.<\/p>\n

Right now, Ev is focusing her career on creating content for children; which includes directing, writing and creating TV shows. But even then, she doesn\u2019t slow down, developing The Saskatoons<\/em><\/a>, a comedy adventure series with a Portuguese company, while simultaneously starting work on a pilot for Russian TV series The Question Club<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

We spoke to Ev about her animation journey\u2026<\/p>\n\"\"\n

There isn\u2019t a hard and fast set of rules for becoming a \u2018creator of children\u2019s content\u2019, so can you tell us a bit about your background in animation and your journey to creating your own series<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was about 10 years old I used to torture my very patient parents with plays I wrote and performed at home. I used to write stories and illustrate them, too, and showed them to my classmates. When I discovered that I could study storytelling \u2013 I was super happy. I graduated as an animation director and writer from the University of Film & TV in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2009. I was hoping to get a job as a director at an animation studio straight after uni (silly, na\u00efve me), so I emailed all of them, but every single one said no. Except one animation studio that asked me if I would consider screenwriting instead, and I agreed. I sent them a couple of ideas for new episodes and got hired as a screenwriter for a kids TV show Moonzy<\/em> which is now on Amazon Prime. It was my first job in kids TV and I loved it. I wrote a few episodes and learned a lot. Eventually I directed a couple of episodes too.<\/p>\n

Then I moved around Europe a bit. I lived in Italy, attended a writing course at the animation school La Poudri\u00e8re in France, and finally moved to London. I freelanced and worked in different roles across kids media: animating in 2D and 3D, designing characters and backgrounds, creating animatics, directing previsualisations for adverts, writing for TV shows, illustrating and writing picture books. It took me a few years to get my first writing job for an international project \u2013 it was Yoko<\/em> a Spanish-Russian co-production that is now available on Netflix. After Yoko<\/em> I did lots of writing for other people\u2019s shows like Digby Dragon<\/em>, Hey Duggee<\/em>, Best Bugs Forever<\/em>, Becca\u2019s Bunch<\/em> and got my agent \u2013 Lucy Fawcett at Sheil Land.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

I love working for my clients \u2013 it\u2019s exciting to be able to contribute to a great TV show. But I also love coming up with my own ideas. So in my free time I started putting together pitch documents for original kids TV shows. I came across some calls for projects for major animation studios and sent my ideas to them. I got some good feedback but nobody picked any ideas. I got frustrated and decided to focus on my career as a writer and director. I made a short film \u201cI\u2019m not a Mouse<\/a>\u201d and sent it to some festivals. It was screened at more than 150 festivals and won a bunch of awards. It gave me the needed boost of confidence and I started approaching studios again. Finally, \u201cThe Riki Group\u201d picked one of my ideas \u2013 \u201cThe Question Club\u201d. And a year later \u201cThe Saskatoons\u201d got the attention of a Portuguese company \u201cSardinha Em Lata\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Could you tell us a little about how your 2 upcoming series, \u2018The Saskatoons\u2019 and ‘The Question Club’, came to be and how involved you are as a creator?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Saskatoons<\/em> is a comedy adventure series for kids 6+. It\u2019s about two sisters and their robot who solve mysteries and save the world from ancient magic. Myles McLeod and I are co-writing it. I\u2019m also co-directing the pilot with Nadia Cardoso. I always wanted to make an adventure series for older kids. Myles and I came up with the idea a few years ago. My animated short film \u201cI want to live in the Zoo\u201d got into competition in Annecy and I received an email from Diogo Carvalho (now our producer). We met for a chat in MIFA and he asked if I had any ideas for kids TV shows. I showed him a couple and he instantly fell in love with the Saskatoons. His studio Sardinha em Lata applied for development funding and we\u2019ve got it! We just finished the animatic for the pilot a month ago and managed to record voices despite the lockdown. Luckily our actors have recording set-ups at home. Now it\u2019s in pre-production \u2013 we are finishing the character design and backgrounds. It\u2019s exciting to see it coming together. We have a great team that is bringing our vision to life. We already have lots of interest for the project and are planning to take it to markets.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Question Club<\/em> is a preschool TV show where kids ask the characters questions and the characters head off to find the answers. I had the idea a while ago. When I was little I used to play with my friends after school and we had \u201can adventure club\u201d. So I picked some characters from my sketchbook and put them together \u2013 a hedgehog, a snow troll, a bullfinch and a girl. They have a clubhouse and a cool car that transforms into a rocket or a boat, or a time machine. When The Riki Group were looking for new projects \u2013 I sent it to them. They loved it and it went into development. Afterwards we received funding from the Russian Ministry of Culture to produce the first 10 episodes. I\u2019m head writer, supervising director and art director on the show. We are halfway through production. It\u2019ll be out next year! We are looking for more finance to make more episodes. Fingers crossed we will find it soon and continue working on it.<\/p>\n\"The<\/blockquote>\n

The fact that you have performed so many roles and explored so many disciplines within animation is quite impressive. Would you give this same advice to someone starting their journey today; to try as many different things as possible, or focus on one thing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think there is the universal way in animation. Our industry is so vibrant and so many people come from various backgrounds and with so many different skills. It\u2019s amazing how some unexpected skills turn out to be very useful. I speak 6 languages and it proved to be useful on so many occasions. My husband Myles has a degree in paleontology and it has been useful many times in scientific projects for kids. So I think the best way is your own way. If you want to try things first \u2013 go for it. If you already know what you want to do \u2013 go for it. Meet people who have the job of your dreams, chat to them, acquire skills you enjoy learning, surround yourself with things that inspire you and make your own work. But my main advice would be \u2013 create your own personal projects. Is it a short film or a spec script? Do finish it and show it to people. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s perfect or not. Just create more afterwards. Done is better than none as my tutor Rilla Alexander told me during Pictoplasma Academy years ago. Personal projects propelled my career in the right direction on many occasions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n