Creating Content for Children: Interview with Evgenia Golubeva
I first met Evgenia (Ev for short) about 8 years ago on a one-off Animation Producers course, where she tackled the intense 2-days training with a smile on her face and an unwavering enthusiasm to soak up everything. In the months that followed I would keep seeing Ev at almost every animation event that I attended – from Annecy to the Children’s Media Conference, and everything in-between – where she would show me yet another idea she was pitching, a project she was animating on, or a set of new illustrations she had been working up.
This work ethic and enthusiasm has been reflected in her career so far; a CV which could easily fill up this article alone. Some of those CV highlights include: writing (notable for preschool TV series such as Hey Duggee, and Becca’s Bunch), character design, illustrating children’s books (her latest book I am NOT a Mouse has just been published), directing and animating award-winning short films (I Want To Live In The Zoo and I Am Not a Mouse are available on the Skwigly Showcase), plus developing and pitching her own concepts. Did I mention she can speak an impressive 6 languages (Russian, English, Italian, German, French and Spanish)? Ev has even referred to herself as an “orchestra woman”. Quite.
Right now, Ev is focusing her career on creating content for children; which includes directing, writing and creating TV shows. But even then, she doesn’t slow down, developing The Saskatoons, a comedy adventure series with a Portuguese company, while simultaneously starting work on a pilot for Russian TV series The Question Club.
We spoke to Ev about her animation journey…
There isn’t a hard and fast set of rules for becoming a ‘creator of children’s content’, so can you tell us a bit about your background in animation and your journey to creating your own series?
When I was about 10 years old I used to torture my very patient parents with plays I wrote and performed at home. I used to write stories and illustrate them, too, and showed them to my classmates. When I discovered that I could study storytelling – I was super happy. I graduated as an animation director and writer from the University of Film & TV in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2009. I was hoping to get a job as a director at an animation studio straight after uni (silly, naïve me), so I emailed all of them, but every single one said no. Except one animation studio that asked me if I would consider screenwriting instead, and I agreed. I sent them a couple of ideas for new episodes and got hired as a screenwriter for a kids TV show Moonzy which is now on Amazon Prime. It was my first job in kids TV and I loved it. I wrote a few episodes and learned a lot. Eventually I directed a couple of episodes too.
Then I moved around Europe a bit. I lived in Italy, attended a writing course at the animation school La Poudrière in France, and finally moved to London. I freelanced and worked in different roles across kids media: animating in 2D and 3D, designing characters and backgrounds, creating animatics, directing previsualisations for adverts, writing for TV shows, illustrating and writing picture books. It took me a few years to get my first writing job for an international project – it was Yoko a Spanish-Russian co-production that is now available on Netflix. After Yoko I did lots of writing for other people’s shows like Digby Dragon, Hey Duggee, Best Bugs Forever, Becca’s Bunch and got my agent – Lucy Fawcett at Sheil Land.
I love working for my clients – it’s exciting to be able to contribute to a great TV show. But I also love coming up with my own ideas. So in my free time I started putting together pitch documents for original kids TV shows. I came across some calls for projects for major animation studios and sent my ideas to them. I got some good feedback but nobody picked any ideas. I got frustrated and decided to focus on my career as a writer and director. I made a short film “I’m not a Mouse” and sent it to some festivals. It was screened at more than 150 festivals and won a bunch of awards. It gave me the needed boost of confidence and I started approaching studios again. Finally, “The Riki Group” picked one of my ideas – “The Question Club”. And a year later “The Saskatoons” got the attention of a Portuguese company “Sardinha Em Lata”.
Could you tell us a little about how your 2 upcoming series, ‘The Saskatoons’ and ‘The Question Club’, came to be and how involved you are as a creator?
The Saskatoons is a comedy adventure series for kids 6+. It’s about two sisters and their robot who solve mysteries and save the world from ancient magic. Myles McLeod and I are co-writing it. I’m also co-directing the pilot with Nadia Cardoso. I always wanted to make an adventure series for older kids. Myles and I came up with the idea a few years ago. My animated short film “I want to live in the Zoo” got into competition in Annecy and I received an email from Diogo Carvalho (now our producer). We met for a chat in MIFA and he asked if I had any ideas for kids TV shows. I showed him a couple and he instantly fell in love with the Saskatoons. His studio Sardinha em Lata applied for development funding and we’ve got it! We just finished the animatic for the pilot a month ago and managed to record voices despite the lockdown. Luckily our actors have recording set-ups at home. Now it’s in pre-production – we are finishing the character design and backgrounds. It’s exciting to see it coming together. We have a great team that is bringing our vision to life. We already have lots of interest for the project and are planning to take it to markets.
The Question Club is a preschool TV show where kids ask the characters questions and the characters head off to find the answers. I had the idea a while ago. When I was little I used to play with my friends after school and we had “an adventure club”. So I picked some characters from my sketchbook and put them together – a hedgehog, a snow troll, a bullfinch and a girl. They have a clubhouse and a cool car that transforms into a rocket or a boat, or a time machine. When The Riki Group were looking for new projects – I sent it to them. They loved it and it went into development. Afterwards we received funding from the Russian Ministry of Culture to produce the first 10 episodes. I’m head writer, supervising director and art director on the show. We are halfway through production. It’ll be out next year! We are looking for more finance to make more episodes. Fingers crossed we will find it soon and continue working on it.
The fact that you have performed so many roles and explored so many disciplines within animation is quite impressive. Would you give this same advice to someone starting their journey today; to try as many different things as possible, or focus on one thing?
I don’t think there is the universal way in animation. Our industry is so vibrant and so many people come from various backgrounds and with so many different skills. It’s amazing how some unexpected skills turn out to be very useful. I speak 6 languages and it proved to be useful on so many occasions. My husband Myles has a degree in paleontology and it has been useful many times in scientific projects for kids. So I think the best way is your own way. If you want to try things first – go for it. If you already know what you want to do – go for it. Meet people who have the job of your dreams, chat to them, acquire skills you enjoy learning, surround yourself with things that inspire you and make your own work. But my main advice would be – create your own personal projects. Is it a short film or a spec script? Do finish it and show it to people. It doesn’t matter if it’s perfect or not. Just create more afterwards. Done is better than none as my tutor Rilla Alexander told me during Pictoplasma Academy years ago. Personal projects propelled my career in the right direction on many occasions.
Out of the many roles you have done, including writing and illustration, what has been your most enjoyable job?
I love the variety. I like to divide my day between writing and drawing. They are such different activities. I usually write in the morning and then switch to drawing in the afternoon. When I’m working on a script – I also sketch and doodle to come up with visual gags. I love directing too – it’s amazing being able to work in a great team with talented people. I really enjoyed directing my latest short film The Witch & the Baby. I had a very talented background artist, head of animation, sound director, composer and animators. They just took the film to the next level and really enhanced the story. I’m always open to ideas from my crew because I believe that film making is a group effort. Now our film is traveling around the world and just got its first two awards – the Colour Box Audience Award at Flatpack Film Festival in Birmingham and the Young Jury Award at Leeds Family Film Festival.
One of the things that stands out about your work is your bright, vibrant, almost quirky illustration style. What have been your artistic influences and when did you realise you had your own visual style?
I love Japanese kawaii illustrations, South Korean character design, the bright colour of fauvists, and quirky vinyl toys. Since art school I’ve loved bright colours. My teachers used to call me ‘Evgenia the Fauvist” because I couldn’t help but use bright bold colours in my still life pieces. One of my favourite painters is Martiros Saryan. He is an Armenian painter who used bold colours in his landscapes. I also adore Kandinsky and Natalya Goncharova. I’m also influenced by modern illustrators like MUXX and Luke Pearson. I love the colourful work of Susie Hammer, beautiful prints of Natalie Andrewson and my Instagram friends like Ekaterina Trukhan and Lizz Lunney.
I used to think I can’t draw characters – but 10 years ago I joined Instagram and started posting my work there and quickly got 14K followers. It gave me confidence to pursue the visual development route. I landed my first illustration agent and started illustrating books. I left the agency after a while and focused on character design. I’ve been working a lot with Moonbug lately and designed characters and environments for their new kids TV show Mia’s Magic Playground and other projects that are in development. They are great to work with – they know my strengths and let me do it my way. I love creating super cute and appealing characters that you want to cuddle.
Can you take us through a typical day in the life of Ev?
I take my daughter to school and then go for a walk with our sausage dog Astra around the river with my husband Myles (he also works from home and is a writer).
I start work at about 10 am. I focus on writing first. My creative brain is at its best in the morning. I do some emails after lunch and then draw in the afternoon.
Sometimes I wake up and have an idea for a book/graphic novel or a TV show. Then I will move my paid work to another day and focus on my own ideas. I think it’s important to invest time in my original IPs especially if the muse knocks on the door. I enjoy freelancing. It’s so easy to move things around and focus on the projects that inspire you the most that day. I take regular breaks to have a coffee and chat with my husband who works upstairs.
Some days I go to London for a writers’ room or meetings with potential clients. I love meeting the people I work with face to face. I think it’s important to build personal relationships in the industry. It’s also fun – you can have a good old whinge about stuff. I also love seeing my agent Lucy Fawcett and my book agent Gaia Banks. They are just so lovely and inspiring. When in London I try to go to an exhibition or two. I always carry a sketchbook and write down any new ideas I have.
Some weeks I go to conferences or film festivals. Among my favourite ones – CMC in Sheffield, Cardiff Animation Film Festival and Annecy film festival.
Some days I feel down and don’t feel creative at all. Then I just do accounts, watch a film or go for a long walk with a dog. It’s okay not to feel super creative all the time.
When our daughter is back from afterschool clubs – we play together, go for a bike ride or watch a film.
In the evening I do yoga at a local yoga studio or a training session with my husband at our local gym. I love exercising – it helps to forget about work completely and relax. Afterwards sometimes I do a little bit more work if I have a deadline. And then I read. Some evenings I go out to my local cinema and watch a film. I prefer watching films on a big screen. Some evenings I sit and doodle. Or lie down on a blanket in the garden and watch the stars.
Now during the lockdown our life changed a lot. Myles and I share childcare. I usually wake up at 6 am to do 1-2 hours of work before our daughter wakes up. Then we go for our daily exercise together as a family. Afterwards one of us works for 4-5 hours and then we swap. Once our daughter is in bed – we are back to our desks to work again. It’s challenging and it’s harder to be creative all the time. I really miss going to film festivals, miss traveling, miss going to exhibitions, miss having more free time to just doodle and sketch. But we are managing well so far. Let’s hope that the emergency will be over soon.
With two different series in development and production, I imagine you have your plate quite full at the moment… Are you working on anything else you can tell us about?
I’m writing for a couple of animated TV shows for different clients – one of them is a very exciting project with Disney. I also just finished designing characters for a TV special and am about to finish illustrating some books for a publisher in Belgium.
In terms of my personal projects – I’m writing my next comedy short with Myles. I enjoy writing in a partnership – especially when it comes to comedy. It’s so much fun bouncing ideas off each other.
Just before the lockdown I got a commission for a mini-series for a UK digital platform. But because of the coronavirus the starting date of this project has been postponed. I hope we can start on it once things settle down.
I’m also working on new books – a comedy chapter book for 6+ and another comedy picture book too. As well as developing more TV ideas. I really do love coming up with new ideas – I just wish I had more time to work on them all!
You can follow Evgenia on Instagram, on her illustration Facebook page, or her website. But do keep an eye out for her at the next festival or industry event – there is a good chance you will bump in to her pitching her latest project!