Money maker – Caribbean must take advantage of billion-dollar animation industry

The Caribbean has the potential to become the centre of animation excellence, thereby attracting
outsourcing work from major studios in Hollywood and other places.

This is according to Phil Phillips, a local consultant for Toon Boom Animation, who spoke with the media recently at an animation training workshop at the Barbados Defence Force (BDF).

He stated that this is a billion dollar industry  which could create several employment opportunities for the youth in the region.

“Our mission for the Caribbean is to stimulate the development of the region as the next animation hub. Why animation hub? Because the animation industry requires quite a bit of labour. It is also attractive for young people who are looking for careers. Certainly in terms of the demand for content, that is almost exponential now in the sense that through your computers, your iPads, your tablets, your digital devices such as even the mobile phones, the demand for content is extremely high. This industry is now a US$200 billion industry.”

He noted that this company was instrumental in developing the growth of the animation industry in India and the Philippines, to the point where major studios in Hollywood outsource their work to persons there.

Phillips added that he would like to see the Caribbean get their share of this pie and he believes that the region offers a viable option since geographically speaking it is closer to North America; it offers an attractive destination for Hollywood studios to visit; and the young people in this region are creative and fast learners.

“We think that we have a lot of the pre-requisites that are required to build the Caribbean as an animation hub and we have started doing this over the last two years,” he said.

In fact, there is a new studio in Jamaica that has managed to get outsourced work from Europe, which has led to further opportunities for the persons involved in the industry in that island.

The consultant stated that before we can even think of attracting outsourcing work to the region, we must ensure that we have the skilled labour to be able to do that work.

“Now the challenge that we have in the Caribbean is which comes first, the chicken or the egg? We can get the outsourcing contracts, but when we get the outsourcing contracts, we may compromise those contracts because we do not have the trained talent.”

Therefore, some of the young people are currently going through a six-week training course where they would learn   “how to achieve global standards and they [would then be] able to conduct training to introduce animation to other young people. So this is pivotal because it is in preparation of outsourcing contracts for Barbadian studios on one hand, but it is also on the other hand, an opportunity to train other young people in the animation industry because we need hundreds of people to be trained in animation to make it an industry.”

Currently 21 young people from West Toons and the Caribbean Digital Media Centre (CDMC) – both of which are on the verge of attracting outsourcing work – are undergoing training. (PJT)