New series struggling to find animators

Razzberry Jazzberry Jam, an animated kids show produced in Charlottetown, is having a hard time recruiting animators to move to Charlottetown to work on the show.

The show is the latest success story from P.E.I.'s small but dynamic computer animation industry. It's produced by Trapeze Animation Studio in Charlottetown and started airing last month on the CBC. The show combines cartoon characters and live-action sequences to teach kids about music, and how to work as a team.

"Razzberry is about a group of instruments who live in the House of Jam and every week they put on a show," Brian Sharp, the show's producer and studio manager, told CBC News Wednesday.

"There's an overall theme that sort of is reinforced through every episode, which is you can be an individual and still be part of a group."

The show has completed a successful first season and is waiting for the go-ahead for season two. Last month the Charlottetown studio was busy with more than 20 animators working to finish season one, but a lot of the work had to be done off-Island because animators wouldn't come to Charlottetown to do it.

At the height of production, 85 people worked on the series, but most of them were in Halifax and Toronto.

"Our intention was to do it all in-house, but we couldn't find enough people on the Island," said Sharp.

"It's a bit difficult to recruit off-Island unless it's a really, really long contract, like two years or more."

Editor and filmmaker Mille Clarkes, from Belfast, P.E.I., is enjoying the opportunity to work in her home province.

"Unfortunately there's such a brain drain on the Island," said Clarkes.

"People with any talent or experience seem to have to go to bigger centres to get any kind of fulfilling work,so the fact that I can live my great P.E.I. life and have a job like this here yeah, it's pretty good."

Staff are hopeful that Razzberry Jazzberry Jam will run for at least three or four more seasons, and that a successful show will help encourage animators to move to P.E.I.