MEDIA RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATED: 15 September 2008

NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA COMMISSIONS “WAKKAVILLE”

Nine Network Australia has commissioned the first season of Ettamogah Entertainment’s animated children’s program Wakkaville. Wakkaville follows the adventures of Jaz: a city girl, Buzza, a wannabe surfer who’s afraid of water, Martin, a farmboy with dreams of being a NASA engineer and Flick, Buzza’s high octane little sister, as they explore their country town of crazy locals, solve mysteries and right wrongs. Produced by independent Melbourne studio Ettamogah Entertainment, in association with Nine Network Australia, the 26 x half-hour series is currently in production. The series is an original work created in-house at Ettamogah. Jo Rooney, Nine Network Executive Producer, said: “We are very happy to have commissioned the first season of Wakkaville. Audiences of all ages will love the comedy and madcap action of this quality animation.” Ettamogah produces high calibre animation for broadcast, feature film and digital media. The company has recently established a state of the art studio in Melbourne, Australia catering to digital 2D and 3D production.


MEDIA RELEASE: 20 June 2008   

ETTAMOGAH ENTERTAINMENT TO PARTNER WITH
EMMY AWARD WINNING TOON BOOM ANIMATION INC.

Ettamogah Entertainment announces it has partnered with Toon Boom Animation Inc., an award winning, world class animation technology organisation. The partnership cements Ettamogah Entertainment’s credibility as a long-term producer of first-rate animation.  Leigh O’Brien, Managing Director of The Ettamogah Group said: “Partnering with Toon Boom is extremely exciting. They are a leading international software developer whose vision of creating first rate animation of the highest quality parallels ours.”  “We see this as a significant new development to the Ettamogah brand, which has grown from producing animated cartoon projects inspired by the world of the ‘Ettamogah’ characters, to being a cutting edge, multi-media Group. This marks a further commitment to taking Ettamogah’s original vision to a worldwide audience.” Building upon the fast growing Ettamogah brand, the Group has established a state of the art production studio in Brighton, Melbourne. Featuring high-grade facilities the purpose-built studio has production and logistical capabilities to create a new generation of animated feature films, television and digital media products. Toon Boom’s network animation solution, Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro, will be incorporated into the Ettamogah production pipeline. Only recently introduced into the Australasian market, Toon Boom’s fully-integrated workflow is revolutionary technology and the world standard in long-form and feature animation production. Ettamogah Entertainment will be the largest Toon Boom commercial installation in Australia With the implementation of this exciting pre-production and production system; Ettamogah joins other market-leading studios such as Nelvana, Warner Bros and Mercury Filmworks. The Ettamogah Group was founded in 1994 by Managing Director Leigh O’Brien after observing the popularity and public recognition of the Ettamogah Mob cartoons, an iconic Australian cartoon series. Today the company specialises in delivering great entertainment experiences underpinned by outstanding visuals and quality stories - ranging from short form online and mobile content to 2D and high definition 3D productions for broadcast and theatrical release.  The Ettamogah Group continues to extend the Ettamogah concept using an array of strategically correlated products – ranging from animation, consumer goods, restaurants and theme parks to digital media.
MEDIA RELEASE: 20 June 2008   

ETTAMOGAH ENTERTAINMENT TO PARTNER WITH
EMMY AWARD WINNING TOON BOOM ANIMATION INC.

Ettamogah Entertainment announces it has partnered with Toon Boom Animation Inc., an award winning, world class animation technology organisation. The partnership cements Ettamogah Entertainment’s credibility as a long-term producer of first-rate animation.  Leigh O’Brien, Managing Director of The Ettamogah Group said: “Partnering with Toon Boom is extremely exciting. They are a leading international software developer whose vision of creating first rate animation of the highest quality parallels ours.”  “We see this as a significant new development to the Ettamogah brand, which has grown from producing animated cartoon projects inspired by the world of the ‘Ettamogah’ characters, to being a cutting edge, multi-media Group. This marks a further commitment to taking Ettamogah’s original vision to a worldwide audience.” Building upon the fast growing Ettamogah brand, the Group has established a state of the art production studio in Brighton, Melbourne. Featuring high-grade facilities the purpose-built studio has production and logistical capabilities to create a new generation of animated feature films, television and digital media products. Toon Boom’s network animation solution, Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro, will be incorporated into the Ettamogah production pipeline. Only recently introduced into the Australasian market, Toon Boom’s fully-integrated workflow is revolutionary technology and the world standard in long-form and feature animation production. Ettamogah Entertainment will be the largest Toon Boom commercial installation in Australia With the implementation of this exciting pre-production and production system; Ettamogah joins other market-leading studios such as Nelvana, Warner Bros and Mercury Filmworks. The Ettamogah Group was founded in 1994 by Managing Director Leigh O’Brien after observing the popularity and public recognition of the Ettamogah Mob cartoons, an iconic Australian cartoon series. Today the company specialises in delivering great entertainment experiences underpinned by outstanding visuals and quality stories - ranging from short form online and mobile content to 2D and high definition 3D productions for broadcast and theatrical release.  The Ettamogah Group continues to extend the Ettamogah concept using an array of strategically correlated products – ranging from animation, consumer goods, restaurants and theme parks to digital media.
SURFBOAT TITLES AT MAROUBRA BEACH

Queenscliff win the open men's surfboat title at Marouba Beach last Saturday. In the women's event, Bondi Beach Surf Lifesaving club defended their title.
ETTAMOGAH GETS ANIMATED USING THE TOON BOOM PIPELINE

Ettamogah is an independent, privately-owned media & entertainment company, producing high calibre animation for broadcast, feature film and digital media. The studio produces carefully crafted animated cartoon projects and fully original concepts developed by the in-house creative team. With its substantial content library spanning over 50 years Ettamogah has a significant resource of wholly owned original IP from which to draw. Ettamogah animation properties are developed with strong and entertaining story lines, characters and environments, with a mind to creating an enduring brand that translates into strong consumer product and home-entertainment potential. The vision includes the development of a fully interactive cross media platform allowing users to download clips and gaming content for mobile devices, enter multiplayer online games, follow character blogs, contribute story ideas, order DVDs and other merchandise. Ettamogah has recently established Australia’s newest production studio of it’s kind in Melbourne, catering to digital 2D and 3D long-term episodic and feature-length projects. Utilising a fully scalable gigabit Ethernet network, which provides the foundation for a large-scale production environment, all data is mirrored between two Sun NAS Devices located at two separate physical locations via a Dark Fibre pathway. The studio operates Windows/Linux/Mac operating systems to support production and administration requirements from pre through to post production. In establishing the 2D production environment, Ettamogah was seeking a true animation pipeline and selected Toon Boom Animation Inc, to equip the studio with the network animation solution, Toon Boom Harmony. With years of collective experience in animation, film, television, new media and games, the Ettamogah Entertainment team embarks on the company’s latest project, Wakkaville. Wakkaville follows the adventures of Jaz: a city girl, Buzza, a wannabe surfer who’s afraid of water, Martin, a farm boy with dreams of being a NASA engineer and Flick, Buzza’s high octane little sister, as they explore their country town of crazy locals, solve mysteries and right wrongs. With 26 x 24 minute episodes, Wakkaville uses the unique landscape of the outback in Australia as the background for the series. A rich painterly look is achieved using Toon Boom’s design tools. Episodes are fast paced, colourful, and action driven. The series has been commissioned by Network Nine Australia. Ettamogah is currently negotiating rights deals with for overseas broadcasters. In addition to producing Wakkaville, Ettamogah Entertainment has begun pre-production on a 3D animated series, and is currently negotiating production and co-production deals on a further two series, as well as an animated Feature Film. “Storyboard Pro has become a valuable asset to our production process. Artwork is easily created and modified through the use of vector graphics and the intuitive hotkeys, whilst onion-skinning allows for the creation of successive panels within a shot to elaborate action. A huge timesaver is the way in which backgrounds can either be imported or copied from existing shots. Editing is a breeze, with the ability to easily change the fielding of shots and the fact that camera moves are colour-coded. Shot-number-bookkeeping is a thing of the past,” commented Leigh C. O’Brien, Executive Producer. “There are many features within Toon Boom Harmony that we enjoy using in our current production. Being able to view and organize library items, productions, episodes and shots from within one environment saves substantial amounts of time, as does the ability to set up cutout characters using a hierarchical system. This ability also eliminates many problems inherent in digital cutout animation. The availability of a graph editor enables animators to push the level of animation further while maintaining an uncluttered timeline. This in turn makes the animation easy to readjust when needed.” “The compositing tools are very powerful. The ability to apply effects like motion blurs within the vector animation environment saves the need to export scenes to be composited in separate software. The effects modules that ship with Harmony coupled with the node based approach to compositing allow us to achieve what we need without wasting time.” “Having an integrated production system, with every aspect of production working together cohesively is a significant asset in setting up a studio. The animation capability of the program is impressive and helps us achieve the polished results we require whilst improving productivity and reducing operational costs.” “An added bonus is that although developed for a 2D environment, specific Toon Boom products such as Storyboard Pro, work equally as well in 3D animation production, providing greater productivity in the design and storyboard stages,” concluded Leigh. The software will streamline production methods, implementing a completely integrated animation solution. The partnership cements Ettamogah Entertainment’s credibility as a long-term producer of quality animation. As one of Australia’s fastest growing production studios, Ettamogah Entertainment is set to move forward with an exciting slate of new projects in the coming months. Stay tooned!



© 2009 Southern Equity Pty Ltd Licensed to Ettamogah™ Entertainment Pty Ltd.
MEDIA RELEASE DATED: 21 September 2009

Li’l Larikkins

Independent Australian media and entertainment company Ettamogah Entertainment is launching its Li’l Larikkins ( 26 x 24 minute) 3D animated adventure for 6-12 year olds. Each episode is fi lled with exploration, action and comedy. The series was screened at MIPCOM in 2006 (Amy’s Gang) where it rated second overall, and is now in full production for a 2010 release, having been sold to Network TEN in Australian. Set in the Australian country town of Tabletop, it follows the adventures of 10-year-old Amy, the leader of the gang, together with Trev, Jimmy and Bub, and their pet animals Maddie the Koala, Bob the Dog, Tucka the Rabbit and Roo the Kangaroo as they go about solving problems for the local kids. Li’l Larikkins’ characters and backdrops are visually stunning. The well-rounded, identifi able characters and their unique stories are underpinned by a distinctive, rich design that brings together 2D and 3D computer generated elements. Li’l Larikkins is bright, colourful and fun to watch; the animation style is fast, fl uid and highly character-driven. With every new Tabletop adventure growing from the smallest of beginnings and wrapping up just in time for dinner, life for our Li’l Larikkins heroes is packed with daily doses of excitement and hilarity, sure to delight all!


Wakkaville

Ettamogah Entertainment is at MIPCOM with its new 2D series Wakkaville (26 x 24 minute). Produced with the Nine Network in Australia, the series completed production in mid-2009. Filled with action and humour, this animated adventure for 8-12 year olds follows the adventures of Jaz, a spirited teen who has been wrenched from her awesome life in Sydney and sent to live in the sleepy country town of Wakkaville. Jaz is a total city slicker and is determined to bring this old-fashioned country town into the 21st century, whether it wants it or not. In every episode, Jaz’s over the top and city-hyped energy come up against the independent and often batty country mind-set of the townsfolk and her newfound friends, Martin, Buzza and Flick. And little by little, her friends show her that perhaps there’s more to life than what the city has to offer. Episodes are fast-paced and draw upon multiple intertwined sub-plots. Action is paramount, whether taking place inside Jaz’s imagination (Karma Cam) or through a real life plan gone incredibly right, or catastrophically awry. Wakkaville is animated in a crisp, expressive 2D style that enhances the action of the stories and sets off the colourful backgrounds. It is entertaining, fast-paced, and above all, fun.


My Dad’s an Evil Genius

Created by independent Australian media and entertainment company Ettamogah Entertainment, My Dad’s An Evil Genius ( 52 x 12 minute) 2D animated action/adventure is a side-splitting series in active development, about fi tting in, not fitting in and about the huge value in being total weirdos! Aimed at 8-12 year olds, the series follows the story of Plague and Apocalypse, the son and daughter of an Evil Genius, who discover that the secret bunker in their home on Doom Island leads to a dilapidated cottage in the quiet suburb of Hopbottom. When Doom Island is sunk by Government Agents, Plague and Apocalypse convince their Dad to move to the cottage and set up shop there. Plague and Apocalypse try so hard to blend in, but their idea of normal just isn’t the same as everyone else’s! Focusing on the traditional “bad guy” and delving into the lives of his family, My Dad’s An Evil Genius turns the family-based children’s cartoon on its head. It’s snappy, fast and completely joke-driven, where every episode two kids have to deal with a dad who’s so bad he’s hilarious. Media Inquiries (Pre-MIPCOM):


Annette Cullen
Producer/General Manager
Email: acullen@ettamogah.com
Phone: +61 424 697 450


Ettamogah Entertainment Pty Ltd
228-230 Bay Street, Brighton VIC 3186 Australia
T + 61 3 9596 1600 F + 61 3 9596 1601
sales@ettamogah.com

© 2009 Southern Equity Pty Ltd Licensed to Ettamogah™ Entertainment Pty Ltd.