Q - Tell us about yourself and how did you get into the industry?
RegularCapital is an unofficial news service covering the latest animation news from Warner Bros. Discovery. Around 10 years ago, I came across an opportunity on Turner UK’s Twitter account to get the latest monthly highlights for Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Cartoonito in the UK, this included the latest information about new animated shows and new episodes before they broadcast, and have been doing it as a hobby ever since. At the time, there wasn’t really anything unofficial on social media covering Cartoon Network in great detail. To my knowledge, RegularCapital is the only place that posts the UK highlights as soon as they are released and in full. I have also grown to cover international channels. My aim is to be the fastest and most accurate.
When I started RegularCapital, I was a member of the ToonZone Forums and joined the forums a day before CN UK’s 20th Anniversary (16th September 2013). I also have a quite popular YouTube channel (85,000+ subscribers), where I upload all the latest promos from the channels. I am often told that I am a great resource of info by the people at Cartoon Network and Adult Swim in London. I have also met show creators such as Ben Bocquelet (The Amazing World of Gumball) and Daniel Chong (We Bare Bears). Even though I have an IT background, I always had an interest in animation, when I was a teenager I was interested on how animation worked, and experimented with Flash (now Adobe Animate).
Q - What do you hope to get out of attending Get Animated conference?
Get Animated Conference is a great opportunity to meet new people and to stay updated with people I met before. It's a way to find out how the whole animation industry is doing, and what interesting new projects they're working on, the amount of topics covered at Get Animated is extensive, covering not only production but also product licencing, copyright, and financing, which are all important if you want to get your animated show idea off the ground with minimal issues. I'm also at the conference to build connections for my friend's animation podcast as they're always looking for guests.
Q - Are there any tips or advice you would give to students, graduates and juniors coming into the business?
It can be rather difficult starting out on your animation career, all I can suggest is to build up a portfolio and ask around for any animation work, this includes local businesses, local councils, online advertising, YouTubers, or contribute to an online indie project. I have a close friend that makes animated music videos for local bands. It's also important to attend Festivals and Conferences, as this is an opportunity to talk to people that work in the industry, it's a great way to build connections and even find a job opportunity.
Q - What do you think the industry will look like in five years?
I think the industry in the next five years will be a mixed picture but there still be plenty of opportunity, the preschool market will always remain stable as PSBs (Public Service Broadcasters) are always looking for educational programming. There's potential growth in adult animation which is a market the UK animation industry should tap into. The current weakness is the traditional ages 6-12 market, this is because there's a lot more competition, kids are looking for interactive experiences and they get their entertainment from websites such as YouTube, studios/streamers/channels need to utilise both to retain their audiences.
Q - What projects are you working on at the moment, or have just launched?
I run an Audiovisual Wiki as a side-project, this is where I write articles about the history of UK Kids TV channels and post other obscure and hard to find information about broadcast media, some of my best work include the History of Disney Channel UK between 1995-2020, The History of Jetix, articles about TCC's (The Children's Channel) final days which was Europe's first children's channel, the early days of Cartoon Network and TNT, the failed 1994 launch of Nick at Nite, and also a whole article about the History of Toonami in the UK.