Hasta La Motion!

Raindance 2017 – WINNER, Best UK Short SXSW 2017 Main Competition. Palm Springs Shortfest 2017 Encounters Film Festival 2017 LSFF 2017 The area is changing. People are disappearing. What has that got to do with coffee? Written and directed by actor and playwright Nathaniel Martello White, CLA’AM is a short film about a man who notices that his area is changing and suspects that darkness may be afoot. As Hog, a long time resident of a certain south London district known as Cla’am searches for his friend JJ, he starts to see patterns and signs pointing to a mysterious plot. But no one will listen to him. As the mystery deepens CLA’AM is the story of Hog’s mission to expose the conspiracy, and save his friend. Is it all in his head? Or might the disappearance of the locals really be somehow connected to all the new coffee shops. Starring Joel Fry as Hog Ivanno Jeremiah as Weezle Brian Bovell as Bickle Director of Photography Liam Iandoli Production Designer Damien Creagh Editor Christopher Watson Music by Cristobal Tapia de Veer Produced by Rob Watson Executive Producers Carly Rich-Conway and Jaimie D’Cruz Written and Directed by Nathaniel Martello-White

A group of young men try to interpret their friends art, so they can save face and show support.

One of the reasons I try and get to different conferences is that there often ends up being presentations on VFX and animation that you get early access to or don’t get shown anywhere else.

That’s exactly what looks set to be shown soon at SIGGRAPH Asia in Bangkok, taken place between 27 and 30 November. During the week, in addition to a whole bunch of technical papers and courses, will be featured presentations on films such as Coco, Blade Runner 2049 and Thor: Ragnarok.

For Coco, a large contingent from Pixar will be on hand to go behind the scenes. Framestore is showing its Blade Runner 2049 VFX, which included the Vegas sequence. With Thor: Ragnorak, presenters are coming from Framestore, ILM and Method Studios.

If you’re thinking of heading to SIGGRAPH Asia, vfxblog readers can sign up with a 10% discount. Head to http://bit.ly/sa17reg and use the code EP107010MS71.

Hope to see you there!

The brutal and barbaric rape case of Nirbhaya on 21 December 2012 has left an indelible mark on our country. Not only did it bring the safety of women into dire question, but also caused a national outrage that culminated into wide-spread protests.

Priya’s Shakti comics co-creator Ram Devineni was one of the many to partake in those protests, simmering with anger and resentment at what had transpired and what responses garnered from the political lobby. But amid all the chaos, Devineni, the producer of The Russian Woodpecker, came up with the idea of turning the issue into comics; not only to vent out the frustrations, but also provoke a change in the antediluvian mindset that exists in certain section of the masses.

Priya’s Shakti co-creator and producer Ram Devineni

To quote Devineni himself, “I was in Delhi when the horrible gang rape happened in 2012, and was involved in the protests that followed. Like many people, I was horrified by what had happened and angered by the indifference exhibited by government authorities at every level. There was an enormous outcry, particularly from young adults and teenagers.

At one of the protests, my colleague and I spoke to a Delhi police officer and asked him for his opinion on the incident. His response was as scandalous as ‘no good girl walks home at night’, implying that she probably deserved it, or at least provoked the attack. I knew then that the problem of sexual violence in India was not a legal issue; rather it was a cultural problem.”

Cultural problem it is, and in an attempt to overcome the same he started Priya’s Shakti, an ode to all the women in the country, that chronicles around the life of Priya, a rape survivor-turned superhero who inspires people to change.

The rave reviews of the comics paved way for a second instalment titled Priya’s Mirror, this time shifting the attention to the acid-attack victims from New York, Bogota and New Delhi, and how the protagonist tackles such gender problems.

And now, Devineni and his talented team are working on the third chapter of Priya’s life. The topic? Well, another compelling and equally relevant issue of sex trafficking!

Titled Priya and the Lost Girls, Priya’s Shakti has collaborated with the non-governmental organisation Apne Aap Women Worldwide to develop the story, with Vikas Menon and Parasmita Vohra the co-writers. Legendary American artist Dan Goldman is the co-creator, alongside whom he interviewed some exploited women in Kolkata in 2016 for the story.

(From left) Ram Devineni with Benjamin Dix and Dan Goldman

Critically acclaimed for his web comics Shooting War, Goldman met Devineni in New York and the two would go on to create the popular AR comic series. Upon the experience of working with him as well as with the founder of PositiveNegatives Benjamin Dix, he beams, “Working with Dan Goldman on the comic has been an immense pleasure. Both of us have gone on this journey together and he is a major talent who has created a powerful symbol and character in the global movement to fight sexual violence – Priya.”

“Both Ben and Dan are not only talented creators and artists, but also social activists. And they have both used comics to address social issues. I had the privilege to travel with them and attend universities in Bangalore and Chennai on using comics for social good in Jan. The students gave an amazing response to their presentations,” he further states.

Augmented reality is an instrumental part of Priya’s Shakti comics. In fact, they go hand in hand. Both the Priya Shakti comics are AR enabled, whilst the third one will be one too. “I always wanted the comic book to have an interactive component that is accessible and reach wide audiences in India and around the world. It was when I travelled to Italy and spent time in the Sistine Chapel did the idea of augmented reality fully come to me. I was captivated by the splendor of Michelangelo’s achievement. Each fresco panel told a distinct story, and together illuminated a greater and divine experience. I wanted to go deeper into each painting, but was limited by the periphery of my senses. That’s when the idea of using augmented reality technology came to me as a way to experience the real world without being removed from it” Devineni recalls.

But how does this all work, you may wonder. Here’s what he has to explain – “Augmented reality compels you to interact with your surroundings, and gives you additional information and a new perspective on what you see around you.”

And in case you didn’t know – “By scanning the comic book with the popular augmented reality app Blippar, you can view animation, real-life stories, and other interactive elements pop-out of the pages!”

How’s that for a comic experience?

Devineni also shares his insights about the influence of AR on its readers, and also exudes pride in being one of the torch-bearers of AR implementations in comics. “We believe the use of augmented reality will have a significant impact on readers in India who are not as familiar with this approach. There is a huge wow factor when readers first experience augmented reality. Our comic book will be one of the first publications to use augmented reality in India, and can help define the new frontiers of integrating books, exhibitions, and public art with augmented reality.”

Priya’s Shakti is also known for AR exhibitions around the world, and if you wish to gain the experience, fly off to Santa Clara University in California this year end! On organising one here in India, he says, “Hopefully next year!”

Priya’s Shakti augmented reality art exhibition

There are also plans of touching upon the mixed reality concept too. “Currently we are learning how to do it since it is very new and cutting edge. But I am only interested in continuing the Priya series and haven’t thought of branching into other series.”

Devineni and co.’s efforts for social causes extend far beyond the illustrations in the comics. They’re a part of the World Bank’s WEvolve global initiative too! Here’s the whys and wherefores – “The World Bank saw how successful the first comic was and the amount of press coverage we got, so they approached us in creating the second chapter, Priya’s Mirror. The goal of the comic series and our partnership with the World Bank’s WEvolve program is to reach teenagers. The comic format and use of AR technology through Blippar is perfectly designed and popular with teenagers. We hope to distribute the comics in schools for free in future.”

Ram Devineni (second from left) with his creative team

Now that isn’t just a great movement, but also a testament to Priya’s Shakti’s popularity. It’s something even the creators themselves didn’t anticipated. Devineni says, “Our team was surprised by the reaction to the series and it continues to grow. We knew we had a great project and cause, but none of us expected it to go viral.”

So what’s the secret to its success? “I think the power of the comic book series is that we are presenting very difficult topics – gang rape and acid attacks – in a very approachable and empathetic way. Readers can relate with the characters and the story, especially the main character Priya and understand these problems without being turned off by them. Creating a female superhero and using the genre of superheroes provides readers with a familiarity and accessibility to the comic book and these problems.”

The post Priya’s Shakti Comics Co-creator Ram Devineni and his tryst with social awareness appeared first on AnimationXpress.

After a gap for quite a while, Wacky Races started airing on POGO in Wacky POGO in August 2017. In a overview interview, the producer of the show, Mike Disa, opens up on the re-launch of the show and what is there in store for us. What’s new and what’s still there?  Find out!

What inspired you to bring back “Wacky Races”?

I had done feature films for Warner Bros. in the past and am very close with several of the creative showrunners there – Jeff Siergey being one. He and I are dear friends and made many movies together.

When he heard they were doing something for Wacky Races, he called me up and said you ought to come in and talk to them about this because you’ve probably got the right amount of “wackiness” to pull this off!

So I came in and I sat down with the creative execs – Jay Bastian – and we had a very casual, very fun conversation where we just threw around a lot of jokes about metafiction and making fun of media, and basing a show that’s all over the world and making fun of how terrible American tourists are whenever they travel – and they liked the idea and so they just had me go off and reconceive the show as something a little bit different than it originally was, but still mostly about action.

What elements did you keep from the original series and what are you bringing to the table with this reboot?

The things we kept were the things everybody recognises from the original show. So the music obviously, some of the best cartoon music I’ve ever heard. I mean honestly the Wacky Races’ score is the best 1960s or 1970s music put on TV. I think it’s one of the best things ever.

So we definitely wanted to keep that. And we wanted to keep the characters familiar, even though we updated them obviously. So you look at Dick Dastardly you know he’s Dick Dastardly, you look at Mutley you know he’s Mutley, and Penelope Pitstop and all the same. Characters like Penelope and Peter Perfect and Dastardly and Mutley were absolute no-brainers – they had to be in the show.

There are some changes, one of which is, and there’s nothing we can do about it, that Hanna Barbera doesn’t own the rights to all the characters from the original show. So I couldn’t use the characters we didn’t have the rights to yet. But, I have a scoop for you – in the last couple of days I’ve been informed that we do now have the rights to The Anthill Mob, so I will be writing a show in the next week that brings them back into Wacky Races.

They’re funny and I’m looking forward to it…and it’s a lot of characters so that will be fun to do. But the fact of the matter is we just didn’t own all of the original characters, and instead of trying to do sad imitations we said let’s just work with the smaller cast and see if we can grow it as it goes and that’s what we’ve done.

Mike Disa

How many characters are there in total right now?

Well, there are seven regulars and five recurring, and so far we’re up to 44 guest villains and racers. They go all around the world and meet different people wherever they go, so every episode has a different cast.

The original show is from the 1960s – can you tell us about some of the modifications you’ve made in order to make it attractive for the current generation and the challenges you faced with that?

The cars themselves and all the action scenes in the show are all shot in full state-of-the-art computer-graphic CG. So it is a very dynamic, very exciting show in how it is shot and how the racing works. So you’ve got a show that looks a little bit like a video game when the camera starts to move around – or like a Fast and the Furious movie.

So you’ve got feature quality CG and that kind of action all over it, and so the challenge was to make the Hanna Barbera characters work in that world and still bring the sense of classic WB, slapstick, silliness and absurdity and weirdness to the show and make the CG all work with that. We’ve got a great CG studio working with us and those cars turned into little characters… they can morph and stretch around and move in different ways, they’ve got special attachments and they turn into planes and submarines and hot air balloons and spaceships.

It became a real advantage as we went on that we had all that extra technology and flexibility and storytelling because we can set stories now on other planets, in other times and worlds and dimensions, and we do a lot of that, so there’s a sci-fi quality to the show that was inspired by the idea of doing these high-tech CG cars.

What do you think is keeping a child’s attention especially in this era of streaming and on-demand media consumption?

Slapstick humour. Big visual funny classic slapstick humour. We don’t do anything that’s inappropriate for family viewing but I’m a big fan of classic MGM, classic Bugs Bunny, classic comedy. The show is very fast-paced and it’s got a lot of explosions and sight gags and people turning into different things. It’s a very cartoony very visual, very action show – but action in a good way, in a very kid-friendly way.

Do you think action is Wacky Races most distinctive feature?

No, but the wackiness is. When you’re trying to keep kids’ attention, you just don’t want cars turning left the whole time. You want things like car crashes and flying through the air and driving up a mountain, or avalanches and explosions – so there’s lot of cool stuff like that. But the most distinctive feature is that it’s way more about wacky than it is about racing.

Which car would you get into and why?

I would not get into the Mean Machine because it would probably explode! Dick Dastardly does not know how to handle explosives so I would stay out of the Mean Machine. The one that’s probably the most fun to do stuff with is the Turbo Terrific – which is Peter’s car because it’s got a jet engine that unfolds.

We recently did an episode about the Gruesome Twosome’s car – their Doom Buggy – and it turns out in their trunk is an infinite Halloween universe, where you can go to anywhere, anything you’ve ever seen in a Halloween episode, so it’s got graveyards and haunted houses and swamps and bogs. So if you got into the Gruesome Twosome’s car you’d have a lot to do.

How would you encourage guests to watch Wacky Races?

When I reconceived the show, I reconceived it personally as Penelope being the star. Penelope is the action hero of the show and she is the only person who I would call “on the ball”. Peter’s not the brightest bulb and Dastardly obviously has problems, and all the other characters are quirky but it’s really Penelope’s show to me. She is definitely the action hero.

We’ve also introduced her twin sister, Pandora, and we do a lot of shows around Penelope and Pandora. Also Penelope is played by Nicole Parker, who is a Broadway star who plays Elphaba in Wicked. And so we do entire musical episodes and song numbers with her… so she is often the star of the show and we have music and action with her and so she is the whole package. She is the superhero, action star, race car driver, singer, songwriter, movie star. So she’s the hero for sure… she’s my favourite.

Are there other Hanna Barbera reboots?

Well there’s an interesting thing about this show – they gave us not just the Wacky Racers for this show but they gave us the whole Hanna Barbera library to play with. So about 50% of the episodes you’re going to see classic, old HB characters come in, sometimes in major parts.

We just finished a Hong Kong Phooey episode that could very well work as a pilot for a new show for him. We brought back Winnie Witch, Huckleberry Hound and Snagglepuss in major roles, so if you watch our show you’re going to see guest stars from Hanna Barbera – they’re all over the place – and I hope they do spin off in their own series.

The post Producer Mike Disa’s take on what to expect in the revamped ‘Wacky Races’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.