Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1506448
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 AUGUST 2023 9 INTERVIEW about cartoons could be a younger version of himself; or pretty much anyone, really. So... does he even regain his lost memory, in the end? Well... let's just say that I left that a little ambiguous, on pur- pose. For me, the nostalgia ele- ment was more like a 'pull factor.' It's only natural that one would be driven back to remember... be- cause he lost something very im- portant; and doesn't want to part with it, forever. But to tell you the truth: the idea itself is still a work in progress. There's now quite an extensive back-story; and I'm thinking about how to possibly adapt it a bit more... In fact, 'Somewhere' – being on- ly 6 minutes long – feels like it could easily be the precursor to a much longer film. Do you have any plans to turn it into a full- length feature? Not really, no. The problem with features is the sheer extent of money that would be required; and also, the time. Even just plan- ning the movie, frame-by-frame, would probably take you around two years... So the next best thing would be to develop it into a graphic novel instead: which is a lot more 'do- able', at this stage. This is some- thing I'm already working on. This morning, in fact, I submitted a teaser to the same Berlin pub- lishing house that already dis- tributes my other graphic novel, 'Sarangu'. So hopefully, if all goes well, it might provide a good basis to develop it further... Earlier, you mentioned expense. Perhaps naively, I had always assumed that animation was intrinsically 'cheaper', than live-action. But apparently, this isn't the case at all. How ex- pensive was it to make 'Some- where', anyway? First of all: just to be clear, the project received public funding. All the information is publicly available on the website: it ob- tained E18,500. And this covers mostly the wage-bill, of all the people who worked on the project. The ani- mation process we used is called 'rotoscoping' – where you basi- cally convert live footage, into line-drawings. So I paid the the person doing the filming, which amounted to a day-and a-half; but then, I had to pay the person who did all the line-drawings, frame by frame. And I paid him 'by the frame', too... so the cost rose to a certain amount. Then I paid someone else for all the colour work; someone else, for the backdrop drawings... not to mention myself, for my own con- tribution. And when you add it all up, it amounts to a lot. Just to give you a rough idea: one shot – like the one where the 'Ford Escort' spaceship flies over Exiles; and then, a man is seen walking across the landscape – amounts to just five seconds of footage. But when you add up all the work that went into it: it's around 48 hours. And it's hard work, too. So te- dious, in fact, that nobody would be willing to do it, if they didn't get paid. Nor should they, ei- ther. Personally, I think artists SHOULD get paid, for the work they do... No doubt; and I don't think an- yone's really questioning that your project was publicly fund- ed, either. I was more interest- ed in the actual cost involved... Oh, I wasn't referring to you. But I do think there this is very wrong idea, out there, that - espe- cially when it comes to the arts – people are somehow expected to 'work for free'. And this irks me, because it seems to especially apply to peo- ple working in the film industry. I won't say everyone, obviously, but... some people do end up ac- cepting to 'do things for free', al- most by default. And it shouldn't be that way: even just on principle... let alone, when you consider how much work, and time, we're actually talking about. Just to do a backdrop, for in- stance: if everything goes well, it can take up to six hours. If things go badly, however: it will end up being more like 60 hours. We're talking about two, three days, of continuous work... just for one image. Could it also be that animation itself – being regarded as a 'chil- dren's medium' – does not com- mand the same level of respect, as live-action? There's a bit of that, too. I don't think we really have a culture, of appreciating animation as a cine- matic medium for adults. For me, the transition was very natural. I come from a traditional artistic background; and then I switched to digital art. So I've always been into animation, since I was child. But I don't think there is that culture, out there; or at least, I don't think it's very widespread. To be fair, it's not just Malta. I think that it's quite a Western trait, to view animation as essen- tially 'childish'. It's certainly not that way in Japan, for example; and that also explains why the Japanese anime tradition encour- ages so much experimentation. The audience doesn't want to be given the same old 'run-of- the-mill' stuff, that always works so well for children. They want to watch a serious movie. They go to watch anime, with adult expecta- tions... And it shows from the results. On Netflix right now, there's 'Pa- prika': the latest series, by Satoshi Kon. If you haven't watched it yet: trust me, it's mind-blowing.... Meanwhile, it seems to me that – while animation is undeniably popular, even among Maltese adults – there isn't much of it actually being made here (apart from your own work, and a few other isolated examples). Is that just because of the expense? What other hurdles do budding animators face, locally? Money is certainly one of the biggest hurdles; but let me start with the more positive aspects. Today, there are definitely more opportunities, for local ani- mators, than ever before. Both MCAST and the University of- fer BA courses in Digital Arts; and now even the School of Art - where I teach myself – has launched its own introductory programme; with the full course starting next year. Another advantage is that a lot of the technology involved has become much cheaper, than it used to be. A lot of the software is, in fact, 'open-source'. So you don't really need a massive start- up investment, like you did 20 years ago. On the flipside, however: I think the main difficulty – certainly, the biggest one for me – is distri- bution. Because there are always avenues, for funding. There is always a chance that you will get the funding, to make your film. Distributing that film, howev- er? Getting audiences to actually watch it, at the end of it all? That's something else entirely. That is where you are going to find a 'gatekeeper'. Let's take comics, for instance. Now: in Malta, it might be possible to reach an agreement, and get your comic-book sold in local shops. But let's say you're aiming for the international market. You can- not just go to a specialised com- ic-book shop... because they will have an agreement with a par- ticular distributor. You need to go directly to the distributor. In my case, I managed. I found a distributor who was particularly forward-looking; I sent them my work; and they said 'Yes', basical- ly. So I now have a distribution network in the UK, and Europe. My book can be found in Lon- don, and in Berlin. For me – as a small, self-pub- lished author - that's a big suc- cess. But... what if they said 'No'? In that case, I would have been stuck. There are simply no other ways, to get your work distribut- ed... so that's it. End of the line. And it's the same with films. It's a very competitive market. Take my own animation work, for ex- ample. It's true that it did very well – in the sense that many fes- tivals agreed to show it - but I also got plenty of rejections. Because you have to compete with maybe 2,000 – 4000 other submissions. The competition is fierce. So this is where something like the Arts Council, or the Film Commission - or the National Book Council; because it's also about publishing, and the arts in general - can maybe help out, a little: by pooling their resources together, so that – apart from fi- nancial assistance, with the con- tent-creation – film-makers are also given assistance, to 'get to the gatekeepers': which are the distributors, basically. Because that, from my own ex- perience, is where you are most likely to get stuck...