Lighthouse Studios beefs up exec team
Details
Faye Sutton
| 24 November 2020
Lighthouse Studios, the joint venture formed by animation studios Mercury Filmworks and Cartoon Saloon, has appointed MD Claire Finn to the board of directors. Finn joins Clint Eland, Gerry Shirren and Nicole St Pierre.

claire finnFinn brought nearly two decades of media experience to Lighthouse including four years as head of content and executive producer of branded entertainment for London-based Firecracker Films. She also previously served as head of content production for Channel 4 agency 4Creative.

As MD, Finn is responsible for growing Lighthouse’s development commitments and expanding production projects, focusing on children’s and family animated content as well as increasing the number of global production services clients.

Since joining Lighthouse in 2018, Finn has grown the company from 75 employees to 200 with a mandate to employ people of all nationalities, class, colour, gender and ability. Under Finn’s leadership, the studio has begun to develop its own intellectual property with one new, and as yet unannounced series, based on a book written by a Maurice Sendak Fellowship Award Winner.

Clint Eland, Lighthouse Studios board director, commented: “Claire has applied her wealth of experience in content development, production, design and the management of artists to growing Lighthouse Studios and its content pipeline. It’s Claire’s acumen for strategic planning that has **led to our growth, and she has implemented hiring policies that draw talent with diverse backgrounds from all over the world that make the studio a centre of excellence.”

Added Finn: “Since joining Lighthouse Studios in September 2018, I’ve truly enjoyed getting to understand the art and artistry behind animation and am impressed by the creativity and dedication of our team of artists.

“We seem to be in a platinum age of animation right now and despite the hurdles in 2020, with a global pandemic and a national lockdown, work is continuing on all of our projects as our team has come together to find new ways of working that are both productive while retaining the culture we have developed within the studio. I’m honoured to join the board at Lighthouse as we continue to grow the company and further develop its own unique identity.”

Lighthouse Studios specialises in the production of 2D animation, and offers end-to-end production services, from script to post including design, storyboard and animation. Currently, the studio is in production on three series and part of a feature, including Little Ellen for WarnerMedia, a children’s series featuring Ellen DeGeneres as an inquisitive seven-year-old; and The Cuphead Show, with Netflix, based on the video game by Studio MDHR, known for its stunning visuals, based on 1920s style animations, and its notoriously difficult gameplay.