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Today's
animated children movies are absolute creative
marvels. Titles such as Finding Nemo, Shrek,
and The Lion King have not only entertained
and inspired children across every part of the
globe, but have captivated adults alike. The superb
details in human like emotions on animated characters
such as Shrek, the flatulent swamp-dwelling
ogre with a heart of gold, are the result of combining
cutting edge 3d animation technology and the most
talented, creative geniuses of the world. Backed
by the powerhouse Hollywood marketing machine,
each title is reaping billions of dollars through
global distribution, merchandising, and other
marketing deals.
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The
center for such technology, marketing, and
talent has undoubtedly been the U.S today.
Not that this fact is about to change, but
amongst many other emerging animation centers
around the world is a small Jordanian company,
Rubicon, rising and making its mark
with a unique focus on the Arab/ Muslim
audiences.
The
Ben & Izzy Series
Since
1994 Rubicon has been providing high quality
3-D animation and computer graphics driven
educational and entertainment solutions
serving the Jordanian and broader Arab market.
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Ben & Izzy
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Humbled
to learn from the best and yet deliver content
that is relevant to the Arab/ and broader Muslim
audiences, it is about to complete its most ambitious
project to date, the 'Ben & Izzy' children's
animation series. The series is to be distributed
throughout the United States and the Arab Middle
East and slated for official launch in October
of 2005.
This
thirteen episode series, to be available in Arabic
and English at first, is a co-production between
Rubicon and some of the best animation
directors from the U.S., including pioneers of
the US animation industry, Mr. David Pritchard
(Former executive producer Simpsons, ex Paramount
and HBO executive), and Mr. Charles Weber (ex
CEO of Lucas Film).
The
production will follow the exploits of two pre-teen
boys, one Arab and one American. The boys meet
in Amman, Jordan, where their respective grandfathers,
who are life-long friends, are working on a massive
archeology excavation project. There, the mischievous
boys become friends, and through their adventures
uncover an ancient treasure room containing a
time travel mechanism that takes the boys back
to great historical moments. The series is about
the east-west cultural differences presenting
it from a children's point of view. The stories
will be educational both for the western and the
Arab audience as it includes many of the Arab/
Muslim historical accomplishments with the characters
traveling through Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Bahrain,
Iraq and other places.
Mrs.
Randa Ayoubi: An Inspired Entrepreneur
Mrs.
Randa Ayoubi, started Rubicon in 1994 to
marry her two professional passions, technology
and education with a desire to make a difference.
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to Rubicon, Mrs. Ayoubi had worked
as a training and technical documentation
manager at a bank in Jordan, but wanted to
seek her passion of doing her part in improving
the quality of education and the equity of
education across the Arab world. Mrs. Ayoubi
talks about how there are different levels
of education in private and government schools,
or in cities versus villages. |
"We are trying to put
a sense of pride in our children."
Mrs.
Randa Ayoubi,
CEO, Rubicon
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So
in 1994 she started with educational curricula
on CD-Roms going to one village after the other
in a rented van. "For those days it was a very
far fetched idea; they didn't believe that anyone
would want to learn on computers." Says Mrs. Ayoubi.
So Rubicon began first by creating CD-Rom's for
corporate training on topics such as management,
banking etc. until enough money was made to show
to VC's/ other investors that multi-media was
a powerful tool for education. Rubicon
had a round of financing only three years ago
and has since focused on its passion; making knowledge
interesting and relevant for the region's children.
"We are trying to put a sense of pride in our
children."
Today
Rubicon has 75 employees with clients that
include corporations and governments across the
Arab world.
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Rubicon's Creative Production Team |
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Parallel
to its vision of having a positive impact on society,
Rubicon, is well positioned to prosper
financially as well. Perhaps with the success
of Ben & Izzy and other possible series,
Rubicon could be generating millions of
dollars worth of consumer spending through merchandising
and other marketing deals as well.
Mrs.
Ayoubi is certainly aiming high. When asked about
how she sees Rubicon in the next 10 years,
her instant reply;
"You
know Pixar? We're going to be Pixar!"
Pixar,
of course is the company that has been the leader
in 3d animation having produced global hits such
as A Bug's Life, Toy Story, Finding Nemo,
and many others. She adds, "We are aiming to actually
contribute to the culture of the Middle East,
getting high quality programs out there that talk
about, actually who we are, where we came from,
and where we are going, in a very entertaining
way."
Mrs.
Ayoubi's goals should be taken seriously. Afterall,
she is already a proven entrepreneur with a line
of business, which for its region is innovative
and non-conventional. She has also received the
Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2000 from the
Jordanian Young Entrepreneurs Association, as
well as the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for
2003 from the Sheikh Muhammad / Crown Prince of
Dubai, and is focusing on a market that has a
huge gap in high quality, relevant education/
entertainment based animation.
Fostering
Creativity in our Society
It
should be no surprise that in the Arab or the
larger Islamic world, exceptional innovative or
creative minds are far and few in between. For
Rubicon, getting resources and talent to
build its 3d animation and digital graphics company
is a continuous challenge that Mrs. Ayoubi holds
the educational system of the region responsible
for.
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She
is of the view that the education system
across the Islamic world, Arab and non Arab,
is archaic; that it stifles any sort of
creativity and kills any kind of initiative
"We have to shift the mindset of education
to give children the leeway to do something,
get it wrong, and learn from it, and then
do it better."
Mrs.
Ayoubi points out that our cultures don't
have risk tolerance or failure tolerance
aspects to it. "Any innovative idea has
as much a chance to fail as to succeed.
But even if it fails, if it was a genuine
effort, the society learns something from
it. Someone else will pickup and do something
else."
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"At home when children ask a question, they
are told, 'this is the way it is', and are
asked to just be quiet! This is what needs
to be changed. If we don't, then we're in
big trouble."
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Rubicon
is seeking to do its part in reforming the education
system, to where it is based on experiment learning,
on creativity, on entrepreneurship, on getting
the kids to ask questions. Mrs. Ayoubi gives the
example of a common negative behavior, "At home
when children ask a question, they are told, 'this
is the way it is', and are asked to just be quiet!
This is what needs to be changed. If we don't,
then we're in big trouble."
Nurturing
a Creative Environment at Rubicon
So
how does Rubicon deal with shortage of
the creative skill-set. "We train people a lot;
because the line of work we are doing, very few
people have university degrees and very few people
in the Arab world go to University and study animation,
or script writing, and this and that." Rubicon
has setup an environment that provides continuous
training and gives its employees room to express
themselves, and have input into their products.
For
Rubicon the biggest opportunity for raising
the standards of creativity and quality animation
has been its co-production partnership with the
leading U.S based animation experts on the Ben
& Izzy project. "It is a fantastic, fantastic
opportunity," says Mrs Ayoubi. "What we're learning
from the American team, David Pritchard and the
others is immeasurable." The co-production has
taken the shape of active mentoring by the US
counterparts where the director will sit and explain,
for every episode, why certain things will or
will not work well in animation. Indeed, this
kind of coaching cannot be gained in universities,
but can only come from experience.
Reflecting
about the future of creative minds in the Arab
world, Mrs. Ayoubi says, " I don't think we lack
innovation, and I don't think we're made of a
different caliber; I think there will be a lot
of innovative people if given the room and the
chance." At Rubicon, It certainly feels so.
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