Ian Graham.
Flying Bark Productions is expanding its Sydney operations to 400 crew capacity and opening a studio in Los Angeles early next year.
To accommodate the growth, the animation producer owned by Germany’s Studio 100 is moving to new premises in Alexandria, due to be completed in mid-2020.
At present the operations in Sydney are spread between three buildings with a maximum capacity of 260.
Ian Graham, a 20-year animation veteran, will be chief creative director of the LA studio, spearheading a development slate for original production with local and international talent and helping to supervise pre-production teams.
Graham’s CV includes storyboard artist, director, animator and producer at companies including Fox Animation, Nickelodeon Animation Studios and DreamWorks Animation.
He has worked on such titles as SpongeBob SquarePants, Family Guy and Invader Zim and directed the Nickelodeon series The Legend of Korra and Nick’s upcoming Glitch Techs.
The expansion was flagged by Flying Bark Productions MD Barbara Stephen when she was promoted to CEO of content, Studio 100 International, overseeing the creative businesses Studio 100 Animation (Paris), Studio Isar Animation (Munich), Little Airplane Productions (New York) and Flying Bark Productions.
“Flying Bark continues to grow with full-service teams specialising in hand-drawn, traditional 2D animation and CGI production in Sydney and the new LA studio will help cater to an increased demand for high-end animation services,” said Stephen.
Stephen tells IF the LA facility, location to be determined, initially will have a small crew of pre-production talent across development, design and story.
In Australia the slate includes 100% Wolf, the Alexs Stadermann-directed movie adapted by Fin Edquist from Jayne Lyon’s book of the same name, and the spin-off series in co-production with the ABC and Germany’s Super RTL.