Nov 18, 2022

Nuria González Blanco, Producer and Director of Cartoon Saloon, gives career advice at World Animation Day Master Class

For the first time, the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences organized two days of presentations, master classes, and audience Q&A sessions for World Animation Day.

There I had the privilege of interviewing Nuria González Blanco, producer of Cartoon Saloon, during an hour-long master class. She has worked at Cartoon Saloon for nearly a decade and talked about her background, her work abroad, and the joys and frustrations of her animation career. Originally from Spain, she offered advice not only to her local audience, but also to aspiring artists watching online. The interview was originally conducted in Spanish, but the Madrid Ministry of Culture dubbed it into English and made it available for free on Youtube.

Blanco's resume is impressive and includes the Academy Award-nominated short "Late Afternoon," the short "Violet," which was in competition at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Netflix series "Puffin Rock," and is currently He wrote and directed "Silly Sundays," a series for preschoolers produced and developed with Cartoon Saloon. What you won't find on IMDB, however, are projects she worked on that never went into production.

While acknowledging the obvious frustration that comes with having a project cancelled, she also insisted that every job provides a learning opportunity, explaining:

"It's great to be part of the credits of the first film that gets the green light. As long as we can keep working and learning, the time will come. ...... Try to learn as much as you can from the work you have. If something is missing from that job, don't burn out and dedicate your personal time to side projects and showreel making.

While working on the first season of Netflix's Puffin Rock, Blanco was working as a line producer, but did not yet have that title attached to her name. She did not care at the time, as she is not usually one to worry about such things. But when she was asked to do a second season for Cartoon Saloon, she knew it was time for her to be recognized:

I really have to recommend this to everyone. If you don't say it, people can't read your mind. So when the second season of Puffin Rock came up, I said, 'I'll do a second season, but I need credit for the work I'm doing, and I'm a line producer.' They said, 'Sure, no problem. It's easy not to think about credits when you're working, but those credits are how you get your next job.'

Blanco explained how he decides which projects to take on:

When I decide whether or not to work on a project, I don't think about how successful that project will be. I think about the story I want to tell and the story I want to work on. I need to fall in love with the story and its characters and want to share it with the world. If it doesn't work out, at least I had fun while I was doing it and I always learn something.

The full video is available above and on the official Youtube page of the Madrid Ministry of Culture.