Decode Entertainment does business during Australian trade mission

A trade mission by new media producers in Canada to Australia has led to at least one new joint undertaking by companies in both countries. A joint pitch to a juried contest on February 24 in Adelaide by Decode Entertainment and Australia-based Fusion Studios won the $7,500 prize offered by the South Australia Film Corporation and the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund. The money will be used to co-develop a new interactive property for a proposed television show being considered by Decode that already has the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) taking notice. Details of how a co-production between the two companies might work have yet to be hammered out, but the Decode/Fusion property could be the first test of a new unofficial agreement struck between funding agencies here and down under (see story in this issue). The winning pitch by the two companies was focused on content licensed by Decode from Australian artist Nathan Jurevicius. Decode is working on a television series called mini treehouse based on Jurevicius’ characters. The characters are a group of figurines that live in a tree stump surrounded by a "nightmarish" urban environment. The characters are already popular as a line of licensed merchandise being sold by niche comic shops around the world, and Decode interactive head Dan Fill says a community of users has already been formed around the characters. Each of the characters, which when sold in stores are mix and match like Mr. Potatohead dolls, has a dual personality and story that comes with them. The winning pitch proposal put on the table by Decode and Fusion sees the two companies develop an interactive corollary to the existing character stories by giving users a chance to take on their figurines’ personalities in a virtual avatar world. Building on similar work done by Decode on its Girlstuff/Boystuff Avatar World project, users would be invited to interact in the virtual world in which the characters live, with a focus especially on collaboratively building multimedia art pieces. Fill acknowledges the resemblance between the mini treehouse project and Girlstuff/Boystuff, as well as Habbo Hotel (recently licensed in a Canadian version by MuchMusic), but says the potential interaction between users on the treehouse site will be much richer. "It’s an extension of both of those. Probably in some cases more sophisticated activities...It’s doing art in tandem with other people while communicating with them in real time. It’s making music together that can then be played in another location like a club. And then having the ability to listen to other people’s music. In terms of the actual community, it won’t be as extensive as Habbo in terms of the numbers of sets and all of that. But, in terms of the actual activities, the collaborative activities, it’ll be substantially more compelling than that." The two companies have yet to negotiate the terms of the development deal since they only won the Adelaide pitch late last month. For now, Fill guesses that the key creative and animation elements would be done by Decode in Toronto, while the content management system would be built in Australia using Fusion’s existing IP technology, and post-production would also be done in Australia. Decode would handle international distribution. "It’s actually been a really great fit with Fusion, but they wouldn’t have even been on our radar (until the Australian trade mission). And, I don’t think we would have (been) for them, either, because they’re primarily a corporate production group," says Fill. "They do work for some pretty sophisticated DVDs and they build IP technology for fairly sophisticated online offerings. In many ways, it’s an awesome fit with us because we’re interested in driving the creative, and we’ve got Nathan right on our doorstep. And, they’ve got already a technology solution that’s pretty overwhelming…It’s a way of taking a lot of art assets and a way of collecting important information that you need and making it available in a very easy-to-use format. It’s kind of something that we’ve been talking about needing for some time. To be able to have this as part of our project is just phenomenal." Decode and Fusion will also have to sort out the revenue split between them. The mini treehouse property is unlike many interactive projects mounted in Canada because it’s being built on pre-existing merchandise and licensing activity. Fill notes that he sees several potential ways in which the project could make money. "We’ve got obviously a property that we know has a solid merchandising and licensing campaign already, and an existing audience that’s there. On some of our other projects we’re looking at subscription right now, so we could see that as a very nice little place to go, and then our usual Decode model of licensing the web content to the broadcasters that buy the show. It’s the no-brainer. We know the ABC is itching for a Nathan project. We’ve talked with them several times about other ones in the past, so I would say that it’s a very compelling offering to them, and then, most of our Canadian broadcasters, as you know, are fairly supportive of interactive content. So, we’ll see what’s there."

Decode Entertainment does business during Australian trade mission

Broadcast | March 14, 2005

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