The greatest danger in pitching ideas is not rejection. While rejection is common, the one benefit to rejection is that your idea remains your property. The greatest danger is finding a buyer, and that's dangerous because in exchange for getting your idea produced, you will generally lose ownership and control of the very thing you created.
Mike Valiquette of Canadian Animation Resources is now associated with Startoon, a competition to find an animated property worth producing. This competition is different, because they make no claim to your ideas if you don't win. This is in direct contrast to most other competitions, where the contest runners have the right to use your work forever in any medium simply because you entered.
It's too soon to know if this will result in a successful project or if the winning creator will feel satisfied at how he or she is treated, but it is encouraging that someone is willing to do business in a more creator-friendly way. Watch Mike's pitch below and find the complete details here.
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2 comments:
Thanks for sharing Mark! Were going to try our best.
"This is in direct contrast to most other competitions, where the contest runners have the right to use your work forever in any medium simply because you entered."
Of course the contest runners will always argue that no one is forcing the creator to enter their works and they are right. Still it's a practice that is despicable. I've had opportunities to enter such contests (not in the animation field) and always walk away. Screw them. They want artwork then, as Harlan Ellison says in his famous rant about getting paid (it's on Youtube and worth a view or two), cross my palm with silver.
Still, I don't know what is worse: the contest runners who continue crappy practices such as this or the people who enter these contests knowing this. Oh hell, no contest: The entrants. Sorry, but by entering contest with these rules entrants allow the practice to continue. There is no reason, in this day and age, apart from work for hire (a whole other kettle of fish), why anyone should lose control of their own creative endeavors.
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