We recently asked animation studios around the world to tell us how they are coping with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business and productivity. Our friends at super-busy French animation studio Teamto, which is based in Paris and has a second production studio in Bourg-lès-Valence (as well as offices in L.A. and Beijing) shared an entertaining video about their daily lives during these challenging times.
Studio founder and president Guillaume Hellouin told Animation Magazine, “We were able to convert 100% of our work force to telecommuting from home within three days — 70% by the second day — because of several logistical advantages. First of all, six months ago our tech team carried out exercises to test how we could work remotely, keeping the data at the studio, in preparation for moving to our new studio in 2021. For security purposes we want to have centralized data servers in the studio. Right now, with this system, our staff has encrypted access to images in their computers in the office, but not the data, which has allowed us to transition to working from home without risking the security of our clients.”
Hellouin, who founded the company in 2005 with his wife Corinne Kouper and Caroline Souris, added, “Another advantage is that we use HP computers which have a very efficient protocol for working remotely already installed, enabling us to move very quickly. And also, all of our work is done in house, in our own studios with nothing subcontracted to the Far East, removing another layer of coordination and delay from the process.”
TeamTO is currently working on several animated series, including Presto! School of Magic, Mighty Mike, PJ Masks, and Ricky Zoom, (with eOne), Creature Case, and several projects in development and one imminent greenlight with a U.S. platform to be announced soon.
For more info, visit www.teamto.com.
