People Profile: Not To Scale md Daniel O’Rourke

Daniel O’Rourke is the founder, executive producer and managing director of  Soho-based animation and design studio Not To Scale. We caught up with him to find out why he was drawn to the animation industry, what makes a director stand out and what’s in store for Not To Scale.

What was your background before becoming md at Not To Scale?

A degree from Film School and then starting as a young bewildered production assistant at M&C Saatchi when it was just a start up agency in Davies Street. I was in the same room as Charles Saatchi, Moray Mclennan and James Lowther and trying to listen and learn as much as I could about advertising. They were so short staffed you were just thrown straight into the media blender and expected to survive or die. After a long work placement I moved to Grey’s TV department and worked on big international brands such as Smithkline and P&G. It was not always a barrel of laughs but I learned the nuts and bolts on this type of work. It was the perfect bedrock for process, it was a young fun department and I was a confident (perhaps overly) production assistant before attending and topping the IPA/APA producer course and getting a diploma in commercials production.

This meant being promoted at 23 to become one of London’s youngest producers, then poached to work at then Agency of the Year St. Luke’s. A hip co-operative, this was the place to work and a pre-cursor to agencies like Mother and W+K LDN. Lots of young talented people worked here that I’m still friends with today. Even though I was working on creative stuff with more responsibility, I couldn’t help hear the inner voice calling me to work on the production side. I’d long had a burgeoning interest in design and was aware of the graphic design and animation boom that was happening so I followed the development of this scene closely and after three years I said adios and walked away from St. Luke’s with no job to think on it and went traveling with my girlfriend in Mexico. It rained one day and we went to see Catch me if You Can. The title sequence was beautiful and I saw it was made by Nexus who we’d worked with at St. Luke’s. It was a Damascan moment, I knew making this was what I wanted to do and like all things fated, upon returning to London I discovered their studio was 200m from my flat and they were looking for a producer. I applied, got the job and worked my crackers off to learn everything I could about animation. It felt like a calling and then, of course, I left to set up Not To Scale one brave winter day and the rest is the best.

What made you want to work in the animation industry and why did you set up Not To Scale?

I guess I felt I had an appreciation for the considered design and aesthetics of things for as long as I can remember. I can remember my dad telling me “you’re very observant Daniel” as a young boy. It felt innate. Through animation production I rediscovered those pleasures I had enjoyed as a child. Not personally illustrating of course, but more generally I love working directly with the directors. As artists they’re gentler folk than most live action directors I know and generally have more personal skills, rather than just surrounding themselves with talented DoPs, casting directors, art directors and post people. It makes the job, which is pretty stressful, a lot easier to bear.

Setting up Not To Scale has no overarching manifesto. I wanted to work in a friendly creative environment which was perhaps a bit less grown up but still serious about the quality of the work. I felt there was room in the marketplace for a small ‘cool’ studio and thankfully, through a lot of hard work from all of the Not To Scale staff, my hunch has thus far been proved correct. Of course since then animation has been increasingly successful and more studios have launched with varying success but we’ve still retained a nice place in the market, kept the energy of a start up and are building things up slowly one careful brick at a time.

Which of Not To Scale’s projects are you particularly proud of and why?

The Volvo C30 campaign; 16 films by five different directors for the European launch of the new Volvo C30, a car Volvo had invested millions in developing. For a studio one year old to be trusted with the task was huge and humbling. That it went so well and went on to win so many awards around the globe was of course satisfying. Ford motors awarded it their most creative campaign across any marque, model or territory that year. It put us on the map as serious contenders and gave us such a varied reel all in one mammoth swoop.

The company represents a selection of directors. What makes a director stand out?

For me there needs to be a voice in their work, something they enjoy getting across and visualizing in pictures. If you look at the work and it’s not trying to tell you something more about the people behind the film it can be difficult to connect with the film. Try and stay true to yourself, take care of the details and your reel will develop very nicely and success will surely follow.

What projects are you working on at the moment?

Commercials wise we’re working with W+K London on the new Cravendale film which I’m hoping will be the best yet. Ubik are working with WCRS, National TV with VCCP and we’re in the early development stage of developing a TV pilot with illustrator Will Sweeney and director Steve Scott. Plenty of pitches and lots of interesting things on the horizon.

What plans do you have for the company in 2010?

Not To Scale has only been going for four years so we’re still a very young company. Next year we move into a larger four storey studio space just off Greek Street, remaining in the heart of London’s West End, so we need to get that sorted and settled in 2010. We also are looking at the possibility of opening another studio in Europe next year but I can’t say anymore just yet on that. We want to extend our representation links better in the United States and China and are in discussions on these matters currently. Long term, creatively we’ve really enjoyed making our self-funded projects and shorts this year, from Exos (Steve Scott) to Voxel (Ubik) and the short film/music video for Birdy Nam Nam. This was a project where we put every last penny into just getting the film made as it was more short film than traditional music video. This exploration into longer format may in time lead to more short films, a TV series or feature. We’re in discussion on a project now, but either way I’ve discovered the creative freedom of self funded projects and I pledge to invest more of the company’s time and financial resource into this area. The films will, I’ve no doubt, cover their original costs by attracting interest in particular directors and generating more traditional fee paid work for them and the studio. They will also be a lot of fun to work on with caution on creation very much being thrown to the wind.

Filed under: Animation, People by admin