Success flickers

INTERVIEW/John Rice, Jam Media:IN THE foyer of Jam Media's animation headquarters in Dublin hangs a framed cheque for 74 US cents - the first payment John Rice received after he graduated from Trinity College and decided to hit the big time.

"It was for a series of animated jokes featuring a character called Jimmy The Penguin which we sold to an American entertainment portal," recalls Rice (35). "The problem was that we were being paid per download - and whereas we confidently expected thousands of downloads, we only got about eight."

It wasn't the first time Rice's career as an animator had had a false start. Having completed a post-Leaving Cert animation course at Ballyfermot Vocational College, he joined Sullivan Bluth (at the time the second-largest animators in the world) the day it went into liquidation, in 1992.

However, Rice was one of about 100 Irish employees of Sullivan Bluth taken up by Fox Animation and flown over to work at its headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.

"One moment we were out of work, the next we were being given the full relocation package. I stayed with Fox for three years and the work experience was top-tier. Then I spent a spell in New York with MTV, where Beavis and Butthead famously started."

By the end of the 1990s, computers were having a dramatic impact on the animation business, and Rice felt his skills were already falling behind.

"You could see computers creeping in. Animation production was changing, but I wasn't changing with it. I was still doing it the old way - drawing with a lead pencil and paper-flipping."

He returned to Ireland and a master's degree in multimedia at Trinity College. And, as he upgraded his skills, he realised he'd been right about the impact of new technology.

"I came across Flash, the software programme for creating interactive content, and realised that it would allow me to produce broadcast-quality animated content very economically. Whereas before it would have taken 10, 12, maybe 20 people to produce an animated feature, now you could do it all yourself. It was like a light bulb going on. Suddenly there were virtually unlimited possibilities."

It was the start of a path which turned Jam Media - Jam takes its name from the first names of John Rice and his two long-time colleagues, Alan Shannon and Mark Cumberton - into a company with a turnover of €3 million this year, with €5 million anticipated for 2009.

Their big success has been Picme, a series of animations which feature the faces of real children superimposed on cartoons using Jam's proprietary software, Headhunter.

Picme is now in its fourth series with RTÉ. In 2004, it was picked up at the Cannes Film Festival by children's broadcasters Nickelodeon. Believe it or not, it's now being broadcast on every junior channel in the world.

"We license the programme to a broadcaster, as any other producer would," Rice explains.

"Then we also license the Headhunter software, which allows that broadcaster to superimpose, for instance, Japanese faces on the animated characters in Japan.

"We've also been able to generate additional revenue by creating bespoke web applications for each broadcaster."

Jam's most recent project is Badly Drawn Boy, which it has just started to produce for the BBC. Instead of placing real children in an animated world, this series places an animated boy in the real world.

But it's Picme which still surprises Rice when he ponders it today.

"I often think it's like a modern version of putting your head into a cardboard cut-out of the Fat Lady or the Muscle Man on Blackpool Pier. I still can't believe somebody didn't get there before us."

Name:John Rice

Company:Jam Media

www.jammedia.ie

Job:Co-founder and CEO

Age:35

Background:First studied animation at Ballyfermot Vocational College, and later did a master's in multimedia at TCD. Worked with Sullivan Bluth, Fox Animation and MTV before returning to Ireland and founding Jam Media with Alan Shannon and Mark Cumberton. Picme and Badly Drawn Boy are their best-known productions.

Inspired by:As a children's animation producer, his own kids, Rebecca, Sophie and David . . . In terms of content creators, the Coen Brothers and Academy Award-winning animator John Lasseter at Pixar . . . in terms of a businessman in the media space, Rupert Murdoch.

Challenges: Jam Media won't be immune to the economic downturn, says Rice, but they've already signed a deal with the BBC for Badly Drawn Boy, which is due to be aired from September 2009.

They're also looking at new projects aimed at the 15-25 age group.