Around the World in 30 Days

by Kelsey Miller

What a wild, whirlwind this past month has been! Verité’s René and Donald have been gallivanting all over the world, from Costa Rica to Las Vegas.

Verité was honored to have been invited to the Costa Rica Services Summit. It was exciting to explore new opportunities and learn all about the amazing things Costa Rica's film industry, animation studios and game developers have to offer. It was great meeting José Castro, the Costa Rican Film Commissioner.

From there it was onto Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, where they attended the 13th Annual Animayo Festival. In addition to being special guests and jury members for the animated film competition, they also taught a Master Class and workshop on voiceover. Animayo's lucky winner for best short went to Cartoon Saloon's Late Afternoon.

During the voiceover Master Class, they discussed casting, working with actors to find the voice for a character, and getting the best performance out of your voiceover artist. It was a big hit with all the attendees!

Next up, still in the Canary Islands, was The Cartoon Business seminar where they listened to top-level speakers. Some of the topics covered were licensing and merchandising, new business models, private and public funding, and digital opportunities in animation. They also were lucky enough to meet with Jackie Edwards from BBC and Nuria Guinnot, the Gran Canary film commissioner.

Roll out the red carpet because from there it was onto France to attend the prestigious Cannes Film Festival and the Marché du Film, the largest film market in the world. It was truly an honor to rub shoulders with some of the most influential filmmakers and professionals in the industry, so many inspirational films and talented people. Most of their time was spent networking, going to screenings, and exploring business opportunities… and somehow they still found time to reconnect with Mr. Mads Mikkelsen! It was a pleasure, sir.

VIVA LAS VEGAS! Last stop on the Verité Around the World tour was Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Licensing Expo. The event was an educational crash course in building brands and expanding brand awareness. We loved seeing Mattel Enchantimals there in particular, a series René voice directs. Plus Donald and René got to meet two of their favorites: Bert and Ernie! It was such a great way to end the trip.