Manila based Top Peg Animation to complete TV series Jobert by Q4 2009

MANILA:Manila based Top Peg Animation is currently in the midst of completing its work on 'Jobert' (13 x 22 mins, 2D) which is based on an adaptation from the Comic Book "Jobert at iba pang Superpinoys" by Edward L Tan of Miracle Publishing who is also the creator and producer for the show.

Being made at a budget of PHP 15 Million (US $320,000.00), 9 episodes of the show are ready with 4 more slated to be complete within the last quarter of this year. 30 artists are currently working full time on this project at Top Peg.

Trailers of the show have been reviewed by four of the major broadcasters in the region GMA 7, ABSCBN, ABC 5 and Hero Tv with all of them liking the show, but in order to get the show on air, the studio will either have to buy the airtime or sell advertising spots in revenue sharing with the networks.

Speaking to AnimationXpress Asia Pacific regarding the same Top Peg MD Grace Dimaranan shared, "The deals final closure is that either we pay the airtime from our pockets and get profits from the sponsors we have secured, wherein the network will not get anything from our secured sponsors.In this kind of a deal we can choose the time slot we want our show to be aired."

Talking about the other option she added, "Or we do not pay airtime but have 50- 50 co-production sponsor deal that all advertisement/ sponsorship that both our marketing teams will get, we only receive 50%. The network will choose the airtime schedule."

Grace informed that for the latter option, the studio first needs to get in confirmed advertising and sponsorships through its own marketing team.

The story and characters for Jobert were adapted from the comic book "Jobert at iba pang Superpinoys." Edward L. Tan wanted to use the ideas in the comic to create a good animation product for the local as well as the international market. The animation series is dubbed in English for international marketing & distribution.

Edward L. Tan commented, "Jobert is both a business and artistic endeavor. Since it is a business there are many risks involved. So far, there has been no Philippine company that has been able to produce original content for a full 13-episode series. This is because of the small market and low earning potential in the local market. There is no way to recoup the investment if the animation show is just limited to the local market, hence, out of necessity, we have to make the animation in English. But since there many different types of English accents, we just hope that it would be redubbed by the networks both here and abroad either in English or the vernacular. The local tv stations also have prioritized their own production soap opera series or other higher earning productions. Almost all of the animation shown in the local market is from Japan or America. The Japanese ones are mostly redubbed to the vernacular.

We hope that our show would be shown in some developing countries in Asia, Africa, Middle East and Sout America. We are not able to compete with the developed nations in terms of quantity and quality of their animation output. But I am very satisfied with our quality, given our level of budget and know how. This is my second attempt to produce animation, the first one being "Tutubi Patrol" which has some episodes having live videos. The said animation has been sold to Top Peg Animation.

The show is dubbed in English for a long term goal of marketing it internationally after showing it in the local market.

It has been previously showcased at the HK Filmart in March 2009 which The Animation Council of Philippines has been attending this event for 4 years now. The Council promotes the services and original content created by local studios there.

Jobert is essentially an action-comedy series with some twists and turns in the evolving stories.

"Ordinary" people in the Philippines are suddenly abducted by aliens from the planet "Akala". The said people are either abducted by the good aliens under "Frogee", the friendly cop or the bad guys under the mad scientist "Balhalya". Balhalya wants to rule the earth, having the Philippines as a starting point. The people who are abducted are infused with super powers that are latent and unknown to them.

The unique powers are activated by the orbs in their super costumes whose powers are from the star formations and manifested in the various crop circles occassionally occurring in some parts of the the globe. The classic encounter with good versus evil culminates in the last episode where the fate of the planet rests in the hands of "Jobert" and a few others against "Balhalya" and his team of warriors.

Top Peg Animation & creative studio Inc. was founded in November 1996. Talking about the studio, Grace shared, "All of the owners & founders have been involved as artists, animators,animation & creative directors in the business since 1986 before we decided to form the company. 80% of our production is outsourced work. This is the bread & butter of our Studio. 20% is into IP and local content creation. We can confidently say that we are ONE of the few local owned studios in the country to produce local content series. "

"We want to contribute something that truly brings out the artists/ animators in us & express our creative ideas freely for our own content . We didn't establish the studio just to do outsourced or subcontract work - ALL the partners agree on this goal. Outsourcing fuels our funds to continue our ideas in original content creation." she concluded