Studio Hari

“The Owl” is a short programme with an iconoclastic humour, produced by Studio Hari and directed in 3D animation by Alexandre So. It is difficult to say whether the main character of the series – a small pink owl with a very expressive face – is looking for problems, or if problems come looking for her, but the fact is that at the end of a minute filled with events, new developments and other excesses, the owl ends up finding herself in pieces, unless she is crushed, melted, grated, exploded, grilled, pulverised, ground, disintegrated, swallowed, vitrified, struck by lightening or even burned to a cinder.

It is, in other words, a TV series which provides a training in black humour for the very young, and which has a tone and narrative surprises which delight (somewhat sadistically?) their elders.

When Julien Borde, having discovered the pilot episodes of the series produced by Studio Hari, decided to select “The Owl” for screening on France 3, no-one was really placing any bets on short programmes.

And yet, right from its appearance in the children’s programming of France 3, “The Owl” made a conspicuous entrance, with impressive viewing figures. In a few months, the series became the third most watched programme on Toowam.

The format of the episodes may be minute (52 featurettes of 1 minute), but the series was so successful in establishing itself on air that it quickly became the guiding light of the Saturday morning children’s slot, which was even appropriately renamed “Owl Toowam”.

After its broadcast on France 3, it rapidly confirmed this success internationally. Barely a year after production, the series was being shown in 200 countries! “The Owl” had thus managed to convert broadcasters the world over to the short programme – and to let a small, but welcome amount of quirky, incongruous humour into children’s programming – a humour which gleefully crosses the limits of the editorially correct.

If, in the series, the prospects for the character of the owl are fairly bleak, its producers are extremely optimistic. The owl has the honour of presenting the 2009 Annecy festival – in the associates’ trailer, she lays into the logos of the sponsors! – and she will soon, on France 3, be experimenting with new formats, as part of a series of four seven-minute specials.

The short format is an experimental environment.

Within the framework of the production of a pilot TV series, the financial stakes are proportional to the format of the series; far more risks can be taken, and many more things can be tried in terms of narrative and visuals, with a very short format.

The brevity of the format, however, pushes makers to free themselves from the codes and structural rules of traditional formats. In terms of the narrative, in particular, the short format imposes very strong restrictions: in one minute, there is little time to build up a situation or present the characteristics of a secondary character. The fastest and most effective mode of narration must therefore be chosen. These constraints – by pushing the writers of the series into a corner – become, in fact, a source of creativity.

Very stimulating from a creative point of view, the short format is also, for young production companies, and excellent way in to the animation market.

Studio Hari, in this case, with “The Owl” achieved a noticeable entrance – and confirmed its status of new entrant by signing, after the production of “The Owl” a development with France 3 on a new short format project: “Leon , (t)error of the Savannah” (52 × 3’).

This new series has as its main character a lion who, to say the least, does not exactly make terror reign in the Savannah To tell the truth, he even has difficulty being respected by all the different pests which abound in the bush – and despite his hunting instinct, he finishes most days having eaten nothing but dust. While he may not be the king of the animals, he is the king of resistance to all sorts of shocks, stretchings, falls and flattenings – in a universe where fantasy and the absurd take … the lion’s share!

Developed by the creators of “The Owl” and particularly by the writer-director Alexandre So, the series is currently in production – and will very soon be seen on France 3.