Move over Toontown: Albuquerque animator Allan Stevens profits from Roger Rabbit's success - motion-picture 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'

MOVE OVER TOONTOWN

Roger Rabbit has been berry berry good to an animation studio in Albuquerque, even though the flop-eared celebrity has never hopped through town or cavorted with his many jack relatives here.

Bandelier Inc., one of a handful of select cartoon production houses in the country, saw its revenues jump by 30 percent last year, according to owner Allan Stevens. Much of the gain he attributed to heightened interest in animation because of the success of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

That feature length theatrical release booked more than $240 million in gross revenues in 1988 and resurrected the public's -- especially the adult public's -- love of cartoons. And not just simple productions either.

"The nice thing about 'Roger Rabbit' for our industry," said Stevens, "is that it's created considerable interest in rotoscope. The process combines animation with live action for more sophisticated and higher dollar projects. A 30-second animated spot that costs $35,000 to $45,000 to produce can easily double if the strategy changes to a rotoscope concept.

Price is the primary selling point Stevens uses to lure clients to Bandelier, which traces its Albuquerque roots back some 36 years. Stevens offers network-quality 30-second spots for as low as $14,500, and he can point to three Clio awards and a client roster that includes Saatchi & Saatchi and N.W. Ayer of New York, CBS Entertainment in Hollywood, J. Walter Thompson in San Francisco and other such agency luminaries as Grey Advertising, Evans, Ogilvy & Mather and W.B. Doner and Co.

That a city the size of Albuquerque in its relatively remote location even has an animation house is news to most folks outside Toontown. But it's true.

Stevens' father, Bob, started the company in 1953 as an outgrowth of one of Albuquerque's first advertising agencies. He'd settled in the city after a military tour of duty that brought him to Kirtland Air Force Base at the end of World War II. Though the agency flourished with auto dealerships, regional banks and state accounts, the elder Stevens felt specialization was the key to long-term success.

"A lot of people don't know it, but Albuquerque was one of the country's first television markets," said Stevens. "We had TV in Albuquerque before San Francisco. My father very early on decided to get into the most difficult, highly specialized and often most expensive aspect of the business."

And Stevens is glad he did. "These days anyone with a camera on his back can call himself a film producer. They're a dime a dozen," said Stevens. "But there are only 10 or 12 animation houses in the whole country that can do what we do. Animation takes a lot of specialized equipment and experienced talent."

Bandelier, named after the great outdoor national monument near Los Alamos, operates out of its own 7,000 square foot building full of high tech editing and photographic equipment. The centerpiece is an Oxberry animation stand that photographs individual "cels" and adds computerized motion-control special effects. Post production functions, such as matching the sound track with the film and transferring it all to video tape, are handled in the Los Angeles area.

It being a closely held family business, Stevens is tight-lipped about Bandelier's annual income, but industry estimates put the company's gross revenues at between $1 million and $1.5 million annually -- a reflection of the company's discount pricing strategy.

"We can come in at a third to a half of our competition's rates because of the low overhead in Albuquerque -- and because we know how to operate our business economically," said Stevens.

Bandelier employs only 12 full-time workers and most of them technicians and office workers, not high priced staff artists. Instead, the company uses independent animators in New York, Denver, San Francisco and elsewhere working on specific contract projects.

They do basic outline drawings of different scenes and separate characters in various poses, which are transferred to acetate sheets. Those are then painted and assembled with overlays in-house.

"It allows us a much wider variety of drawing styles, such as Blechman, Disneyesque, Frazetta or Lichtenstein," said Stevens, himself a trained artist/animator. And the budget is much more manageable.

"I've noticed in the trades that the average cost of producing a national spot went down last year, and I think that's a trend that will continue as television becomes more segmented," said Stevens, adding that downward pressures on production costs should work to Bandelier's advantage.

Low bids occasionally work against Bandelier, Stevens said, because some prospective clients "don't think we can turn out high quality production at our rates."

Stevens said, "Animation is not well understood by even some of the biggest agencies. It's often the case we're dealing with people who've never produced an animated spot before. Not always. But sometimes we've had people come to us with their ideas sketched out on cocktail napkins that they've used to clean up split drinks."

Stevens says he frequently assists art directors in developing ideas, story lines and characters. At least 70 percent of the firm's work is comprised of commercials, with the remainder being industrial, educational and medical films.

Feature length work is rare, though a few years ago Bandelier produced a 30-minute CBS special called "Harry the Fat Bear Spy" that was narrated by TV's Capt. Kangaroo Bob Keeshan and was nominated for an Emmy.

"The majority of our work is 30-second spots," said Stevens. "The 60 is dead, of course, and lately we're seeing more and more 15-second commercials."

Bandelier's biggest recent project is a special feature for the County of Nassau New York State Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Department. It's a Sherlock Holmes takeoff called "The Mystery of the Disappearing Parents."

The educational film is aimed at young children whose parents are drug and alcohol abusers. "It tries to explain to the kids why their parents are never around when they need them," Stevens said. "There's tremendous guilt felt by these kids that somehow they're responsible. The film tries to explain that it's not their fault."

Stevens said he expects the film to be distributed nationally.

On the lighter side, the company has just finished a new spot resurrecting the Strawberry Quik hare. "And why not," asked Stevens, "with the success of Roger?" Every good milk mix should have a spokesrabbit.

PHOTO : Bandelier's Allan Stevens with Pal, spokesrabbit for Strawberry Quick.

PHOTO : Stevens holding one of many awards for animation.

COPYRIGHT 1989 The New Mexico Business Journal
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