Beautiful pages form Australian artist Liz Steel.

Sydney based architect specialising in media projects, who is also an obsessive sketcher. Since discovering watercolour in a field kit in 2006 she has not stopped painting her life in her sketchbook. Her architectural background gives her an analytical and conceptual approach to art.

Patrick Smith, co-founder and advisor of Cartoons Underground, and co-writer at ScribbleJunkies Blog, started exploring different types of sketchbooks from artists from all around the world. Looking into these Epic Sketchbooks we see more personal work from these artists and get to know their thought process and them as people in a more intimate way. Thanks Pat for sharing these Sketchbooks!

The National Book Development Council of Singapore launched the All In! Young Writers Festival, a festival that is tailored to young writers, on the 12^th and 13^th of March. All In! celebrates its eighth year in 2016, and its latest festival is said to be its largest yet.

Cartoons Underground has the privilege to attend a seminar that includes Harry Corro, who hosts a weekend show at SPH Radio’s ONE FM 91.3. As a veteran in Singapore’s radio industry, Harry speaks to us about how radio has evolved, and how it actively integrates social media into its promotional campaigns.

Radio in Singapore

“There are many ways for us to express ourselves, and to engage our audiences on Social Media.” Harry explains. “I’m here to let you in on what you probably already know.”

“My students tell me: ‘Um, Mr. Harry, radio is dead, right?’ I said: ‘Um, no. Radio is alive and kicking.’ Nowadays, we have to redefine what radio is in this day of social media and digital age.”

“In order to be relevant in this day and age, we have to redefine what radio is.” Harry indicates. “Radio is not just a device. It’s audio-content that is delivered on multiple platforms, including your smartphones. It is the medium that we deliver content through.”

“The question that [my students and I] were thinking about for the past few weeks is: ‘How is Radio or TV coping with social media integration?’ I’m going to talk about the way we’ve been doing things in Singapore, as a social driver. We want to drive people to enjoy our content on air, and on social media as well.”

Target Audiences

“We define our content based on our target audiences.” Harry explains. “For instance, 98.7 FM is targeted to the youth – 13 to 25 year olds. The content that you post online, or give your listening public, is also determined by those who are listening to you.”

“I’m not going to talk about Neil Young or the Beatles when I’m talking to a younger audience.” Harry elaborates. “I’d post about Taylor Swift, Sam Smith or One Direction not being One Direction any more.”

“A station that can’t determine its target audience is kind of lost.” He mentions. “You’d have a hard time promoting your social media platform because [your content] would be all over the place.”

“When you listen and see what [your listeners] follow you for, you can understand what they like, and you can respond to that.”

Harry explains that Radio Stations apply different tactics to entice their audiences: “Instead of just going to ‘www.radio station website.com.sg’, tell your listeners: ‘Hey, go to our Instagram to see that photo of that sexy dog on the beach’, or ‘Hey, go to our Twitter page to see that tweet that got a million retweets.’”

“Don’t just state a website, because people do that all the time in radio,” Harry continues. “Redefine that and play around with other social media platforms.”

Promotional Tactics

[Class 95.5’s advertisements] say: ‘Follow us on Facebook.’ Kiss 92 says: ‘Like us to bring that bucket list to life’. They implicate a few of the things that [our audiences] get if they like us on Facebook.”

The difference is that [Kiss 92] wants to drive you to their Facebook page because you will get something out of it. It’s not enough for us to say: ‘Like us on Facebook.’ There needs to be something for you to like us on Facebook. A lot of times, we mindlessly say: ‘Oh, like us on Facebook right now.’ But what would [listeners get] if they follow you?

Harry cited several examples of how radio stations have changed their social media tactics. He listened potential tokens that their listeners would get if they followed their social media places: “As a prize of an ugly pet contest on social media, the winner gets to go on air with a DJ. They can talk about their experiences.”

Harry states how 98.7 FM launched a “Radio-star hunt” in 2015. The station selected representatives from several secondary schools and polytechnics, narrowed their list down to its finalists, hosted a contest on social media, and then brought the competition on air. According to Harry, Joseph Soh, the winner of this competition, was invited to “go on the air.”

Integrating Social Media into Radio

“You have to make Radio your prize,” Harry elaborates. “Beyond on-air, post [your content] up on Social Media. We use [our listeners’] comments and posts as a way to generate buzz, because whatever the listeners say online when they post something on Facebook, we need to acknowledge that on air as well. That develops the relationship between the DJs and the listening public.”

“You have to promote your online content on air.” He continues. “A lot of people forget this and say: ‘Go to our website and find out more information.’ You are forgetting that you need to drive your viewers to your social media pages.”

In order to promote their Facebook Page, 94.9 FM launched a Promo that said: ‘Win $500 every weekday.’ They mentioned this promo on-air, and drove listeners to their Facebook page.

“Of course, feedback is very important to the existence of radio because we need to find out what’s going on in your mind when you’re listening to us.” Harry explains. “If you’ve heard a story on-air that you like, or you didn’t like, or if you’ve mentioned some things that you don’t agree with, you can post something online.”

‘In order to bridge the gap between [a radio station’s] DJs and listeners, we acknowledge their listeners’ comments on-air.” Harry elaborates. “We’re sure to take them seriously.”

I had the utmost pleasure to interview Bobby or as some of you might know him as YiXiong. I’ve been obsessed with his hamster  guinea pig character since last year. His guinea pig is just too adorable, and hilarious, just look at him go through his daily struggles in life or playing his favourite video game. You can totally identify with it!

You can check out his works of his Ogapadoga guinea pig here: http://ogapadoga.com/ 

Can you tell us about yourself in a short paragraph?

Dear Ladies,

Yo.

Dear Everybody,

First of all Thanks Vicky for interviewing me. Now I feel like a celebrity. Hi my name is Bobby.  It is my super hero name, just like Batman. I am a mammal. I draw all the time. My life goal is to try and live as long as I can. My dad taught me how to draw but I am better than him. I’m starting yoga next week and I’m so excited.

What inspired you to explore art?

It is the only school subject that I have a  A star distinction. The other subjects are very scary. I remembered during O levels I was so scared that I squirted urine. (Oh dear….)

What or who inspired your work of the hamster series? Is the hamster you draw an avatar of yourself?

Ogapadoga is a guinea pig. Guinea pigs are like potatoes with hands and legs. I cannot explain the feeling but I can feel it inside my heart. They are not like hamsters who are small and fast and cause me a lot of anxiety when I look at them. Guinea pigs just sleep all day and mind their own business. I love guinea pigs with all of my body. If you don’t believe guinea pigs are cool you better get a life now or they will chomp your head off.

Can you name three artists that inspires and share how their work inspire?

Alfonso Wong is my favorite artist. Old Master Q just do his daily stuff and jokes arises. Aliens kidnap him, boulders fall, massive car accidents, ghosts appearing for no reason. He is a legend. I will donate my kidney to him if he ever needed it.

Richard and Maurice McDonald of McDonald’s. The first time my mouth sink into a Filet-O-Fish I felt it is a great work of art. They also turn you into a chubby if you eat enough of it. They have so many outlets across the world that if Aliens come and visit us they will think it is the symbol of our world.

The folks who created Banana in Pyjamas. It is a show that you can watch with your friends and stay up all night chatting and getting wet about bananas and 3 bears.

What are you currently working on?

By now, we all understand that I am making a website about a guinea pig. But they have one small weakness: super scary real live ghost stories. Since my website is all about guinea pig –the good and the bad—I must now start working on a few real live ghost stories related to guinea pigs.

I’m sorry.

If you could have a super power, what would it be?

To transform into a pillow. First you can sleep wherever you want. Second you will not die when hit by a car or fall from a building. If you understand what the heck I’m talking about, then you have to go and thank your pillow for being a superhero.

What do you like about Cartoons Underground?

Basic Reasons why you should attend Cartoons Underground.

1.  It is Underground, the government doesn’t know where you are on this day.
2. You can drink Popcorn and Beer
3. It will teach you about cartoons

Basic Reasons why you shouldn’t attend Cartoons Underground

1. You are a moron
2. You think you are very mature and feel that cartoons are only for kids.
3. You have a curfew impose by your parents because you are a baby

Thanks for reading!

Patrick Smith, co-founder and advisor of Cartoons Underground, and co-writer at ScribbleJunkies Blog, started exploring different types of sketchbooks from artists from all around the world. Looking into these Epic Sketchbooks we see more personal work from these artists and get to know their thought process and them as people in a more intimate way. Thanks Pat for sharing these Sketchbooks!

Four days in Varanasi, India, By Suhita Shirodkar. Don’t miss these drawings, makes me want to go to India.  Suhita Shirodkar is a graphic designer based in San Jose, California. She blogs at sketchaway.wordpress.com

The first time I came across Sandhya’s work was on Facebook through my good friend and one of Cartoons Underground’s pioneers as well as director whom we screened in 2013, Arjun Chatterjee, who now works at Big 3 Productions as a Director.

Sandhya Prabhat is an Indian artist from Chennai, who graduated from NYU Tisch Asia with an MFA in digital art and animation. You may see more of her works here: http://www.sandhyaprabhat.com/ and on her instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandhyaprabhat/ 

I was drawn to her whimsical and colourful characters that each told a story. She uses textures and strong vibrant colours to bring to life characters from fantastical stories like Alice in Wonderland to the everyday Indian ladies in traditional sarees. As much as she thinks she’s a “boring” dud, I have to disagree!

Could you tell us about yourself?

I live in Chennai, India. This is home and I independently work out of here. I speak Tamil. I did my BA degree in Literature from Stella Maris College in Chennai and MFA degree in Animation and Digital Arts from NYU Tisch Asia, Singapore. I like reading and drawing. I live in a cave, from where I work. I love my cave. I’m mostly boring and I like being so. It’s easy on the mind.

You have a distinct style about your drawing which I find very fun and whimsical, could you tell us how you developed the style?

Do I? I’ve always dreamt that someone would say to me that I have a distinct style, and you call it such nice things too! Thank you, I’m thrilled!

Fortunately, since I work independently, I get to dabble in drawing for print, video and the web, for clients with various requirements and for diverse target audiences. When I first started out, I was merely trying to draw or imitate styles that would fit that project’s brief. This method worked to the extent that it helped me explore while getting paid, and over time discover what comes naturally to me. I’m not consciously trying to build a style. I’m just having a blast experimenting. But hey, if I have one, I’m really excited to know!

When I’m not drawing for work, I’m still drawing my own stuff, or stalking an artist or filmmaker and lapping up their work. Mostly, it’s inspiring and I get really productive. But sometimes when I see art that blows me away and I just want to dig a hole and sit inside it, and never ever draw again. Either way, I enjoy this. I have the best job in the world.

Can you name three artists that inspire you and what you like about their work?

This is such a difficult question. About 3000 names come to mind simultaneously.

I love Lewis Carroll. I re-read Alice in Wonderland once every few months (okay, weeks). It’s the best book in the whole universe and I’d recommend it highly. I believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast as well everyday. On lucky days, I get to draw some of them.

I adore Marjane Satrapi. I admire breathtakingly beautiful compositions. Her storytelling is something else: It’s magical how her narratives are so tragic, so hilarious and so ironic, all at the same time. Although her diverse characters are set in specific cultural, political and temporal settings that are not so familiar to me, they never fail to remind me of people from my own life.

Oliver Jeffers. I have all his books. I know they’re for children but hey, who says I can’t enjoy them! The Heart and and the Bottle is so moving.

Aaaand…I’ll need a few pages and a few weeks to list out all the animators and studios I look up to. I’m way too nervous to pick.

What inspired you to explore animation as a professional career?

I’ve always been drawing. Through school and college I’d experiment with illustration and painting and animation, but I had no idea these would help me make a living one day. My family helped me figure it out eventually, and I went on to study animation. Time and circumstance have been most favourable. I’ve been lucky to have discovered what I love to do, very early.

If you could travel back in time and tell your younger self something, what would it be?

And here I was, thinking that I’m still young. You broke my bubble.

I’m not sure I have anything grand to say to my younger self. I’d probably say something really awkward and embarrassing that would make us both red.

What are you currently working on?

Currently working on kicking my own butt to make my own film, in addition to projects I have going. I get so excited by work that I forget to pursue my own ideas. Two children’s picture book projects and an animated narrative video are now in the making. I’m also drawing one graphic story for Studio Kokaachi’s very cool Mixtape 3 graphic anthology.

What do you like about Cartoons Underground?

I think it was unfortunate that I left Singapore just before Cartoons Underground was curated. Singapore has had a lot of art and film-related events and communities, but was indeed missing this sort of scene that’s animation-specifc, and who better than you and Patrick (whose student I was at Tisch and whose epic animation wisdom I treasure) to start something amazing like this! I’ve stalked your updates, blog posts and events unabashedly on the web and can’t wait to attend one of the future chapters of the festival!

You may see more of her works here: http://www.sandhyaprabhat.com/ and on her instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandhyaprabhat/ 

Patrick Smith, co-founder and advisor of Cartoons Underground, and co-writer at ScribbleJunkies Blog, started exploring different types of sketchbooks from artists from all around the world. Looking into these Epic Sketchbooks we see more personal work from these artists and get to know their thought process and them as people in a more intimate way. Thanks Pat for sharing these Sketchbooks!

I met Oyo at the Tisch-Asia drawing sessions, he’s a french artist living here in Singapore, working for a video game company. Call it fortunate or unfortunate that he was sitting next to me.. not sure if i’m depressed or inspired. Regardless, Oyo is truly a gifted artist and an all around cool dude, enjoy these and more samples on his blog.

Below is me and Oyo at a drawing salon in Singapore last week. I’m shocked at the talent that is in this town.. people like Oyo, Don Low, Tia, and even animation legends such as Hans Bacher.. we’re all here enjoying the capitol of Southeast Asia! That said.. I’m home in New York next week! Let the summer begin.

Patrick Smith, co-founder and advisor of Cartoons Underground, and co-writer at ScribbleJunkies Blog, started exploring different types of sketchbooks from artists from all around the world. Looking into these Epic Sketchbooks we see more personal work from these artists and get to know their thought process and them as people in a more intimate way. Thanks Pat for sharing these Sketchbooks!

Miguel Herranz did these pages during a presentation of Roberto Saviano’s new book in Barcelona. Great stuff from one of my favorite artists on urban sketchers.

Patrick Smith, co-founder and advisor of Cartoons Underground, and co-writer at ScribbleJunkies Blog, started exploring different types of sketchbooks from artists from all around the world. Looking into these Epic Sketchbooks we see more personal work from these artists and get to know their thought process and them as people in a more intimate way. Thanks Pat for sharing these Sketchbooks!

This is such an amazing city, and to see it captured in the pages of the sketchbook stokes my artistic fire!!  Tia is a buddy of Don Low, previous epic sketchbooker. dang.

“View of Singapore River from Boat Quay where it used to house the old godowns and warehouses. Now this area is a ‘must visit’ place for the tourists. The bumboats at the left which used to transport goods in the past have been transformed into bumboat rides for the tourists. I was sitting at the outdoor dinning area of an Indian Restaurant in the hot Sunday afternoon. They only came at around 5.30pm to do the table settings and I had to leave. The waiter told me they open from 11.30am in the week days but only open at night on Sundays. The customers are normally tourists and business is not very good”.-Tia 

Cartoons Underground met Adiba Mustafa or more popularly known as Merry Leona on Youtube at Lasalle’s Animation Grad show a few months back.

Adiba is a young, aspiring voice actor and animator, who is still in Lasalle continuing her studies. This dynamic lady likes to consider herself a Jack of all traders but Master of none, as she has many hobbies from artist pursuits such as singing and handicrafts to more physical activities like dancing and swimming.

“I am also a firm believe of indulging the kid in me and learning to look on the bright side of life whenever possible” Adiba Mustafa.

This is reflective of Adiba when you meet her, her positive attitude, friendly demeanour, made it interesting for us to interview her.

What inspired you to explore art and animation?

I think for the most part, my biggest inspiration for most of my artistic pursuits is mainly inspired by Disney and Dreamworks animated movies. The music, the colors and the magic were the most shining memories of my childhood and they still are to this day. But I think I really got into it the whole animation process when I began watching a lot of Disney behind the scenes special on tv.  Watching the process from the conceptualizing stages to watching still images turn into moving images was like an entire magical process for me. Even now, when I feel like I want to just give up on drawing, I watch the behind-the-scenes specials on youtube and my love is re-ignited everytime.

It’s really interesting how you got into voice overs for cartoons, could you share how you got started on that?

Like I mentioned before, I watched a lot of behind-the-scenes specials regarding Disney and Dreamworks movies. My most favorite segments was always the voice-acting bits because when I watch the actors and listen to them talk during interviews and comparing them coming to life in the recording booth,  it completely puts me in awe everytime. Also I watched the Disney movies so many times that I practically had the dialogues memorized by heart.  I loved to entertain my older sisters by imitating the scenes from movies while trying to sound like the cartoon characters. I guess to me, I wanted to be part of the magic that I grew up with my whole life.

At some point in my teens I really got into the whole anime craze and I watched english dubs for quite a while. Then I found out about voice actor panels and comic-con and I started watching clips online and I realized how much people loved and were inspired by these voice-actors. Compared to standard acting where looks count as much as ability, voice-acting relied solely on an actor’s ability to bring a character to life by vocals alone.

I found it amazing how in one animation you can have a single actor play a variety of characters and yet keep each character unique. For someone like me who comes from a conservative family, I thought that voice-acting was the most perfect career for me. It became my biggest dream for me. I wanted to become a voice actor so badly.

My first role ever came to me when I was 18. My aunt who knew of my love for voice-acting, emailed me a casting call for a show called Patch Pillows. I went for the audition and scored the role of a character called Annie, and later on another character called Chiquita. Playing two roles was a little tricky because I had to create distinct voices for both characters. Annie’s character spoke in a high pitched British accent and was really perky while Chiquita had a Hispanic accent and a more mellow voice.  Considering it was my first role, it took a lot of practice but I somehow managed it.

What is your favourite voice over and character, and why?

My favorite voice-acting job actually was my second production where I was hired to dub another kids series called Megaminimals. The original production is from Barcelona but the studio I was contracted with was to do their own dub for Hong Kong.  What I loved about this job was because I got to voice multiple charactersfor this production. Two of them were main characters and the rest were incidental characters.

My original role the voice of Cassie the kitten who I absolutely adored playing because I got to channel my inner kid with her voice, and the fact I am a huge cat-lover made it extra special. My other favorite role was the other main character I played, Larry the Lion Cub. As you could tell from the name, Larry is a male character and being my first male role it was also very special to me. Since I always favored playing female characters I enjoyed the challenge that came with making my voice sound boyish and channeling a different attitude into Larry’s character.

That being said, I honestly love every role I ever played.

What are you currently working on?

Currently, I’m working on a pet project with a couple of friends overseas.  It started out as a fanfiction which we reworked and adapted into an entirely new storyline. It is still in its conceptual stages unfortunately but we plan to develop it into an animated web series in the near future when we have the funding.

What do you like about Cartoons Underground?

Honestly , I only fairly recently  learned about Cartoons Underground so I don’t really have a solid opinion on it. However, I am intrigued that there is such a festival and it really makes me excited. I am a bit sad that I missed the submissions but I can’t wait for next year. Hopefully I will be able to show something by then. Just the thought of it is most exciting!

You can check out Adiba’s youtube page here. 

The Tiger of 142B, a short film by Harry and Henry Zhuang and produced as part of Utter 2015, was selected to compete in the Grand Competition category of the 26th Zagreb Animafest. The film’s narrative, adapted from a short story by Dave Chua, explores the spaces – at once physical and metaphysical, visible and invisible – that surround us and examines our relationships with people we share these spaces with. This National Day, we speak to the filmmakers who flew the Singapore flag high at the esteemed animation festival in Croatia.

Cartoons Underground: Could you share a bit about yourselves, and what got you into animation?

Zhuang Brothers: We can still remember the first animated film our mum brought us to watch at a cinema was Beauty and the Beast. We were mesmerized by the ballroom scene. It left a deep impression. In 2000, we enrolled into NYP – Digital Media Design (now known as School of Interactive & Digital Media) and Srinivas Bhakta was one of our animation lecturers.

After National Service, we were quite clueless about how to get a job, so we did a 3D animated short film with an intention of using it for our job interview. We got into Sparky Animation and worked as 3D animators for around 2 years. At around that time, we started to wonder if there is more to learn in the art of film-making. We talked to a couple of people and concluded that the most affordable option for us was NTU’s Art Design Media (ADM).

Fortunately, we managed to get a scholarship from MDA to pursue our studies. Through MDA’s tea session, we got to know Tan Wei Keong, the director of Pifuskin and he introduced us to the film festival circuit. The lecturers at NTU ADM also played an important role as well. Hans Martin Rall constantly showed us all sort of animated shorts, opening a whole new world for us. Subsequently, we attended our very first film festival, the Singapore International Film Festival. It was an amazing experience and we were very inspired by the films we saw that day, in particular Kirsten Tan’s short film ‘Sink’. It is then we started exploring the possibility of animation and made “Contained” which premiered in the following Singapore International Film Festival.

CU: What are some of your inspirations and influences?

ZB: We try to watch a wide range of animation and films! From popular Japanese animation by Ghibli to quirky ones by Koji Yamamura. European animation have a huge influence on us as well. We are particularly attracted to award-winning animated short films by Igor Kovalyov, David O’reilly or the National Film Board of Canada. We really enjoy seeing how these artists find new ways to present their narrative. We find it very inspiring!

Screening of Grand Competition short film 6, QnA moderated by Alexis Hunot
Photo credits: Nina Đurđević, Julien Duval Photography

CU: Any interesting stories or memories from your time at Zagreb Animation Festival? How did it feel watching your film screened at such an esteemed festival?

ZB: Animafest is a respectable festival and we are very fortunate to have our short film The Tiger of 142B selected in 26th Zagreb Animafest Grand Competition. We feel that the festival focuses a lot on the spirit of animation and it attracts a lot of like-minded artists like ourselves. Most of the animators we met are very devoted to the art form, and would spend years of sweat and hard work on creating their films. They just love what they do. And it is the pureness and sincere attitude that drives their films, each having it own unique voice.

Animafest’s selection ranges from films that are very experimental and avant-garde to touching films that follow a classical narrative. All of them are great in their own ways and watching them allows us as filmmakers to learn and grow. The organisers, the judges – they are very friendly and approachable people. At any time, we can just walk up to them and ask questions about their work. No barriers, no snobbish attitudes. They just love to share. On top of that, the festival provides a carefree platform for animators to chat and talk. We got to know friends from all around the world – filmmakers, sound designers, producers, scholars and festival directors. We are really humbled by the experience.

 With Peter Lord, Co-founder of Aardman Animations studio]

CU: I first encountered your work upon watching Contained, and was mesmerized by it, not only by its technical mastery but also the unconventional narrative, harnessing the possibilities of medium to convey story and emotions (eg. the ever-moving textures of the clay as a mode of expression) and trusting the visuals to speak in a space of non-dialogue.

I’m very curious about your pre-production process, which I find very unique. Sometimes pre-production is something students assume follows a certain standard method/structure. But for your films, you have experimented with different approaches – making Contained spontaneously without storyboards, and making The Tiger of 142B by adapting a short story into a script and storyboarding it out. In this respect, could you share about your approaches to film-making?

ZB: In the usual pipeline production for an animated film, you begin production only when the storyboards are ‘locked down’. However, there are some directors that do not adhere to this practice . One notable example would be Hayao Miyazaki. He is known to start animation production even before he even figured out the ending. During an interview for the making of Princess Mononoke, he mentioned that to convey something that one already know, it is just a ‘transmission’. But to convey an ‘expression’, one have to struggle to get a hold of the unknown. His approach in making films has since then played a major influence in how we made films.

We were very certain that both Contained and The Tiger Of 142B would adopt such an approach, even though we do not do this for all our films. For ‘Contained’, the idea came from one of Henry’s class assignments. Our intention was to explore the idea of a tsunami consuming an island. As when we progressed, we began to add a character and some props. We had no clear idea how the film would turn out and the only storyboards we did were 2 – 3 thumbnails to communicate our ideas with one another. And as we animated, we were very open to spontaneous ideas. For example, we got the idea of the flower petals dropping because the actual petals of our props just kept dropping! Each time we finish a shot, we would immediately include it into our edit. Some shots was originally planned to be appear earlier, but was subsequently placed at the end. The whole process was very spontaneous and fluid. It is with time that we began to understand what our film is about, and what we wanted to convey.

As for The Tiger of 142B, although it is an adaptation of Dave Chua’s story, the whole process felt like we were making a very personal film. The main reason why we decided on Dave Chua’s story was because we could both empathize with the main character’s struggles. Thanks to Dave Chua who gave us the permission to adapt his story in anyway we wanted. We cherry-picked parts of the story that we felt strongly
for. Our original intention was to not do any storyboards like what we did for Contained. But because we are working on a larger scale and had to show updates to
our producers and the National Art Council (NAC), our approach straddle between the usual pipeline production and the experimental approach. Hence, we storyboarded the whole film and had it presented as an animatic. We were still mindful to not get stuck in the storyboards. Even towards the very end of the production, we were still making changes to the storyboards. There were quite a few portions where we already had them colored but had to remove them because it did not fit. The ending of the film also went through changes along the process.

CU: I noticed that the concept of “transformation” is consistent between your films. There is also a sense of mystery that pervades the film, even as the film ends. Was that a conscious aesthetic decision, and maybe why?

ZB: We usually do not make films with a conscious effort to have any consistent theme or style. Instead, we try to destroy people’s expectations. It could be because we dislike being ‘labelled’ into a certain category? Which is why we keep switching mediums and trying out new things. We believe in pushing boundaries and constantly reinventing ourselves. Maybe that’s why we subconsciously have our characters in the midst of some ‘transformation’?

As for our films’ mysterious endings, to be honest, we did not set out to make films with ‘no proper endings’. Personally, we felt the film ended in a very natural way. We remember when we first screened Contained in Singapore International Film Festival, we could sense that the audience was unsure if the film had ended or not.

 CU: Any upcoming projects that you are currently working on?

ZB: We have a few things going on. Some are at ideation stage, some are short animation workshops for students. At the moment, we are trying to bring ‘Voices for the Myths’, a series of stop-motion animation done by students, to different public libraries. We are also creating some very short animation for Wesley Leon Aroozoo ‘s live-action documentary.

CU: Lastly, what are your hopes and dream for the future of Singapore animation?

In Singapore, we see more and more animators creating films that either aim to mimic big animation studios or recreate animation styles that has already been done before. These works tend to have a highly-polished look but no much originality. The way their stories are told also follow a conventional and safe approach as well. We are guessing that Singaporeans growing up in a pragmatic society could be a factor. Being once young ourselves, we too wanted to create animation that can help secure a job employment. However, moving forward, what Singapore animation really needs are better storytellers and creators.

Which is why what we really hope is to see more animators in Singapore who can ‘step out’ and explore the possibilities of animation. Singaporean animators need to understand that every animated piece is a chance to have his/her own voice. Animation is a malleable medium that gives the artist a chance to control the look and feel of a film. It is a young medium and there are still many ways one can use animation to tell stories. We are already seeing quite a few animators exploring and doing different kinds of animation. We hope there will be more to come!

CU: Thank you for your time! We wish you the best in all your future endeavors, creative or otherwise!

The Tigers of 142B
Harry Zhuang, Henry Zhuang
Singapore / 2015 / 11′ 10”

A young unemployed man finds himself having difficulty in communicating with his girlfriend. As he struggles to cope with his fragile state of mind, a series of mysterious killings unsettles the residents of Block 142B. Some claimed to have seen a tiger roaming at the estate. Adapted from Dave Chua’s short story ‘The Tiger of 142B’ from the book ‘The Beating and Other Stories’.

Contained
Harry Zhuang, Henry Zhuang
4’13”

A flower, a man and an island. A man sets up his containment in an isolated island with his beloved flower.

https://www.viddsee.com/video/contained/ag27f?locale=en

07:38 // Animation // 2016 // LASALLE College of the Arts
Lak Boh Ki is a Hainanese term for “Drop Nowhere”. A one-and-a-half year old baby who dropped his plush Merlion toy onto the ledge outside of his HDB apartment window tries to get it back, and in the palm-sweating process reveals the contemporary Singaporean landscape made up of foreigners.

              

CG Render of Kitchen Set in Lak Boh Ki

Film Still from 5 Shades of Solitude / 5种孤寂与静默

I think Singapore animation is still at its infancy stage. There are several key players in an unstable position, especially our friends who own animation studios, and I really respect them for holding the fort! Our other friends – the independent animators – seems to be slowly finding their paths, and I think it is exciting to have all of us continue producing animation regardless of how bleak the industry may look. All we need is just one or two major sustained breakthrough… it may come a few years later or perhaps a few decades, but what is important is that everyone in this small community continues to create and help one another out or even collaborate!

interview conducted by Jerrold Chong

WE ARE BACK!

Cartoons Underground in partnership with Sideshow celebrates FIVE YEARS OF UNDERGROUND ANIMATION!

Grab a beer and a fistful of popcorn and catch award-winning animated films by directors from Annecy, Hiroshima, Fantoche and Edinburgh international film festivals including globally acclaimed Cesar Diaz Melendez, Junyi Xiao, Indra Sproge and more.

This year we celebrate with not just one but two jam-pack programs curated by award-winning independent local animator, Tan Wei Keong, titled: Time Loop and Life Warp. Join us for heart palpitating scenes and plots that will drive you to the edge of reality while hanging out with the creators themselves!

Cartoons Underground – TRAILER 2016 from Jerrold Chong on Vimeo.

“Singaporean animators are creating world-class and groundbreaking films, (and) yet there are few outlets for their work to be seen by the local public,” said Chris Shaw, Head of Animation at LASALLE College of the Arts. “It’s important for us to recognise and support young and talented local directors. Cartoons Underground is a perfect platform for that.”

This community-driven festival was founded by Patrick Smith, Director of MTV Daria, and Vicky Chen in 2012, and has grown through crowd-funding and artists’ contributions. This year’s festival line up was. The festival has expanded to a community of 1000 members, not limited to the arts and animation community in Singapore.

We celebrate five year of underground animation with Singaporean designer, Jia Lee  who has designed Cartoons Underground Official poster for 2016. Jia Lee is an illustrator and a scholar from Rhode Island School of Design, who dabbles in the whimsical. Cheerful and imaginative, her work strikes a quirky balance between digital and analogue methods.  Jia has designed and illustrated for different commercial clients, including Apple, Ethos Books, Elixirin, and Digital Media Partners.

Opening our show, we have partnered with Cartoons Underground’s Head of Communication, Jerrold Chong for his rendition of underground animation as seen in the trailer. Director/animator Jerrold Chong graduated in 2016 with a BFA in Animation at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

Admission is by donation,so if you enjoy the films please help contribute to ensure the future of our artists and the festival!

**Get your tickets now on EVENTBRITE HERE!**

**RSVP TO FACEBOOK EVENT HERE!**

Showtimes:
Early Evening:
Time Loop & Life Warp – 6:30PM & 7:30PM with a 15 min personal Q&A with directors after
Late Night Screening:
Time Loop & Life Warp- 8:30PM & 9:30PM with a 15 min personal Q&A with directors after

Barfing Squirrel Productions and Sideshow:
CARTOONS UNDERGROUND
SATURDAY 22 October 2016
6pm to 10pm (First screening starts at 6:30pm)
Kult Kafe, Emily Hill, 11 Upper Wilkie Road, 228120

Cartoons Underground speaks to Don Bosco, the founder of Super Cool Books, and a talented writer who has established himself in Singapore’s literary circles.

Filled with insight and expertise, Don shares about his business, as well as his observations about Singapore’s literary industry.

May we know a more about how you started your career?

Thank you for your kind and generous introduction! To be honest, I don’t think I can call my writing experience a “career”. Seems like a career is when you have a plan, and you work within a system, and there’s an institution that rewards you for your contribution. Whatever I’ve done as a writer is pretty much the opposite of all this.

I started out writing articles for magazines. And then I created content for websites. And then I wrote corporate and education books. And then I wrote TV shows and screenplays. And then, in this current chapter of my life so far, I got into writing books for children (and more recently for teens too) because I became a parent and it was a nice way to connect with my family. There wasn’t any system that held it all together and carried me along, just my own different interests and openings along the way. And lots of nice people, of course, who guided me and taught me stuff.

These past few years I’ve had to create a publishing studio called Super Cool Books to produce and market my books, and I oversee design, supervise technology development, hire the social media team, etc. All of this so that my books will have a chance to reflect my creative vision more fully, and also to help me reach more readers. So, in short, create cool stuff, keep doing it long enough and good enough to make a difference, and just do whatever it takes to reach the next milestone.

Be entrepreneurial. It was only in 2015, at the end of the year, when my Lion City Adventures book won the Popular Readers’ Choice Award in the English (Children) Category that I realised I should take my current path much more seriously. And so this year I expanded Super Cool Books by launching new titles with two other co-authors, and launching our first Young Adult paperback (Magicienne, co-authored by Ning Cai AKA Ning the Magic Babe), and also creating a guide book for fellow writers who want to specialize in developing their own stories (Imagine All This: How To Write Your Own Stories). So I think my real journey is only just starting at this point.

Are you inspired to write for a specific genre, or do your stories encompass multiple themes?

I like survivor stories. Narratives about someone decent who survived a nasty experience. It can be a war, or a bad day at work, or even a romantic experience that went wrong. I find it really satisfying to explore the ways that a character might develop the emotional strength to go beyond her limitations and fears, as well as the maturity to turn away from the illusions of life.

These stories can come in any form or format, but mostly I like writing thrillers and mysteries. I like to play with the passing of time, the turning of history, the unfolding of actions across generations. In my Sherlock Hong Adventures series, for example, there are families that are still feuding after many generations. This gives the characters a sense of identity, but also traps the characters in a certain destiny.

Congratulations on the release of ‘Imagine All This’! May you please describe how you’ve managed to get your books into Singapore’s major bookstores?

How it works is that there are two categories of bookstores. The big chains mostly take books from established distributors. So if you want to get your books in the big retail outlets, you’ll need to get a distribution agreement with one of the few distributors in Singapore.

If you’re self-publishing your books, you can approach the distributors and they may or may not agree to represent your titles, I think it really helps if they feel that your books are part of a current trend and so might sell quite quickly. The smaller bookstores might agree to sell your books for you directly, so you won’t need a distributor.

For Super Cool Books, we started out in 2011 with the Time Talisman series, which was published by Select Books as ebooks, and by coincidence they also have a distribution arm. So this was helpful when we moved on to publish our own paperbacks, and they’re still our distributors today and bookstores contact them if they want our titles.

For the books that we publish with Marshall Cavendish, which is a big international publisher, they have their own distribution arrangements, and thanks to them our books are in the bookstores as well as online bookstores like Amazon and Book Depository and many more.

Some of your previous work, such as the Sherlock Hong Adventures Series, are also carried by Popular and Kinokuniya.

What were the challenges of getting these earlier titles into bookstores, and how did you overcome them?

Always, the biggest challenge is to coordinate your distribution and your marketing. Basically the distribution side has to make sure the books appear in the bookstores, and the marketing side has to make sure your fans or readers turn up in the bookstores to buy the books.

If this isn’t coordinated right, which means if the readers turn up but the books are not there, or the books turn up but the readers haven’t been informed yet, then you won’t be selling any books. And you often have a very small window to do this, because the bookstores always have more and more new books coming in that they need to sell.

One way around this is to try selling online. When Super Cool Books started out, I would receive many orders, sometimes by email or even WhatsApp, and we would pack the books and have them delivered. This takes a lot of time, but you’re able to create a nice connection with your readers. That’s important. These days there are a lot of online stores that carry our titles, so when someone says they can’t find my books in the stores, I send them a link or two and that takes care of it. It’s more convenient, but I do miss the interaction.

You mentioned publishing books with Marshall Cavendish. Based on our experience, co-productions normally happen in film/animation more than they do in publishing.

How do publishing companies engage in co-publishing ventures?

The film and animation industries are quite new, compared to the book publishing industry. They’re good at using the media to create a buzz around everything that happens. So you hear a lot about how a project is put together, how a deal is developed, how much projects earn, and so on. You hear a lot about their collaborations and co-productions because that’s one way to create publicity. But book publishing is a lot more traditional, more discrete, more reserved.

Some people have even called it secretive. Not that it is, but it started back when business wasn’t something you talked about in conversations, or announced and bragged about. It’s still based on some old ways of approaching business relationships. If you look at the books that are produced today, you might be surprised at the level of co-productions. It’s everywhere. All the movie tie-ins, the bestseller translations, the different story franchises, celebrity books, and even business books.

There’s no one fixed model. Everything’s possible, as long as it makes sense and the readers are keen to support the projects. And most of it is not even called co-publishing. It’s just publishing. It’s about getting something exciting packaged in a book and then delivering this to people who are enthusiastic about owning it.

Marshall Cavendish is a large international publisher. How did you protect your rights?

You need to have all your paperwork, of course. Contracts and payment details and proof of ownership and stuff. But more important than that, I’d say it’s really the same way you’d protect your own rights as a human being. Be sensible, respect other people’s rights, and try and see that everybody else involved continues to benefit from your work.

If you’d like to know more about Don Bosco’s work, you’d be interested in his newest book ‘Imagine All This: How to write your own stories’ (Marshall Cavendish).

‘Imagine All This’ is a fun and inspiring guide to help you use your imagination in clever ways and turn your ideas into a great story experience. All the basics of writing fiction are covered: how to create captivating characters, how to build rich worlds, how to plan and plot, how to write scenes and more.

Follow this link to purchase the book.

It’s less than 24 hours (!!) before the 5th edition of Cartoons Underground kicks off with a bang! In an exclusive interview, we speak to Vicky Chen, Co-Founder and Festival Director, Tan Wei Keong, Program Director, and Jia Lee, graphic designer/illustrator responsible for the brand-new CU identity and the beautifully illustrated poster for this year’s festival!
Cartoons Underground: What makes CU such a unique alternative to the other usual film festivals?

Wei Keong: Cartoons Underground breaks boundaries and pushes limits and expectations on what animation should look or be about. The 20 films selected from almost 500 submissions from around the world, dealt with themes uncommonly seen within the animation medium, and are exceptionally well-done with technical diversity. ‘In Other Words’ by Israeli director Tal Kantor, is a great film on an adult theme of estrangement between father and daughter. She blends live-action footage with traditional drawn animation, which resulted in magical visuals. This year’s program was curated with the Singaporean audence in mind. There has always been a gap between auteur and commercial animation in Singapore, and we hope to bridge that by bringing in works by international animation artists and shining a spotlight on our artists who are in the right direction.

CU: Now that the festival is at the five year mark, you have seen it grow like a child, what do you see as the future of CU?

Vicky: Haha, funny that you say that, Cartoons Underground really is like a child to me! While I’m protective over it and what Cartoons Underground is about, it is still a community driven festival, and that means that the idea of Cartoons Underground can and needs to be shared in other countries. I see the festival growing through connections with people from different countries who would want to start similar underground animation festivals in their home country. When we first started out, it was in a bar, and look how it has grown! The most important part would be maintaining the true essence of Cartoons Underground. That could mean having the screenings in a bar, or even as an online film festival with directors on Google Hangouts!

Time Travel back to 2014!

This year, Cartoons Underground underwent an identity revamp – a rebirth if you like. Jia Lee (artjelly.com), a graphic designer who graduated from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with experience as a designer in Apple, is the artist responsible! If you live in a hole somewhere (underground perhaps?), and have yet to see it, here’s the brand new logo of Cartoons Underground :

CU: What was the inspiration behind the new branding identity of cartoons underground?

Jia Lee: Googly eyes! There’s something very curious and quirky – maybe even a little creepy – about googly eyes. That’s very true of the festival itself, it’s a bit weird and doesn’t take itself too seriously! The eyes, peering out from the depths of the logo, is suggestive of underground culture as well. You can’t help but consider the creatures or monsters lying behind those eyes.

CU: As a graphic designer, what is it about animation that fascinates you?

 22 OCT 2016, 6PM @ Kult Kafe! See you (or should I say CU!)

Cartoons Underground – TRAILER 2016 from Jerrold Chong on Vimeo.

2016 was a great year for Cartoons Underground (though sadly not so great for the rest of the world) We saw the biggest festival for Cartoons Underground in 2016, our fifth annual edition, with 600 attendees, 8 screenings, five local films, one awesome looking poster by Jia, and are looking to expand further this year, more films, and possibly introducing awards too.

If we’ve learned anything in 2016, it’s that relationships and people make the festival. Without people, there won’t be the festival. We’ve come far from a kickstarter project in 2011, raising USD 800 to start the first project, with close to 300 people in the first festival and one program. We have now doubled our audience, and our program (20 films), welcomed new team members (Jerrold and Jia), work with long-time team mates (Wei Keong and Tiffany Lim), work with new partners like Mi5chief Makers, Jevg, and Under The Bridge team, and old partners like SideShow, Kult Kafe and Kult.

All of this isn’t possible without a strong team, and our passion to bring these awesome independent cartoons to the mass. Thank you everyone for making Cartoons Underground possible in 2016, and on wards to a better and more epic 2017!

Eat Pray Bird is the graduation film of Jeremy Teo, Huang Ji and Derrick Fun, made during their final year at NTU School of Art, Design and Media (ADM). In November, their CG animated short made waves across Asia, winning the “Special Mention Award” at the 18th DigiCon6 ASIA Awards Ceremony held in Tokyo, Japan. This was after they clinched the “Next Generation Award” in the Regional Awards (Singapore), and was invited to represent Singapore at the competition in Tokyo.

Synopsis:
An apprentice monk is tasked to endure 7 grueling days without food or rest in a secluded bamboo forest amongst the mountain peaks. The monk came prepared with food to cheat, but was held back by his master’s presence. A hungry bird steals his food and now he has to get his food back without alerting his master. The bird however, proved to be an evenly matched adversary, and the monk grows desperate while he struggles for survival. In the delicate balance between the master’s watchful gaze and the feathered annoyance, the monk finds enlightenment in the most unexpected way.

Cartoons Underground: Could you tell us more about what got you all into animation? Your inspirations and influences?

Jeremy: I loved illustration, comics, video games and manga while growing up, and chose to major in animation as it seems the closest fit to my interests. I never imagined that it would draw me into its wholesome nature as a visual storytelling form. My main influences include James Jean’s illustrations, Kinu Nishimura of Capcom, Eiichiro Oda’s story genius, Final Fantasy IX, and director Brad Bird.
Derrick: I grew up watching a lot of anime and playing a lot of games, it would be a dream for me to work on a renowned title seeing my creations come to life on screen. My inspirations and influences come mainly from the stuff that I watch in my childhood and teenage years: Ridley Scott for Blade Runner, Mamoru Oshii for Ghost in the Shell, Hideaki Anno for Neon Genesis Evangelion, to name a few.
Huang Ji: Most of my inspiration came from watching cartoons growing up. I grew to love CG animated films like Toy Story, and the fact that I loved playing games naturally led to me studying animation.

CU: What was the seed inspiration for your film Eat, Pray, Bird and how did the story develop?

Jeremy: Huang Ji and Derrick were developing an idea about a monk and his test of virtue. In trying to push the story further, I realized that the team’s strengths favored comedy more so than a serious film about morality, with Huang Ji’s exaggerated and snappy animation style and Derrick’s bright beautiful paintings.
Derrick: If I were to put it into one word, it would be determination. We rolled with the idea of a young and foolhardy monk stuck between two influences. Between obligation and desire, it creates a dilemma and an internal dialogue within the monk for us to play around with.
Huang Ji: Comedy and light-hearted films are my favourite, as they leave the audience with a feel-good emotion, especially after a long stressful day. That was what inspired me to come up with an idea that is playful and fun, to brighten people’s day and put a smile on their face.

At the DigiCon6 ASIA award ceremony in Tokyo

Enrico Casarosa. Big fan, especially of his girls. I bought his sketchbook Fragments years ago (he published with Ronnie del Carmen, another genius), and it remains one of my favorites.

I was lucky enough to be in Monkeysuit anthology so long ago with him, this was the closest brush with the master i got!

Patrick Smith, co-founder and advisor of Cartoons Underground, and co-writer at ScribbleJunkies Blog, started exploring different types of sketchbooks from artists from all around the world. Looking into these Epic Sketchbooks we see more personal work from these artists and get to know their thought process and them as people in a more intimate way. Thanks Pat for sharing these Sketchbooks!

Cartoons Underground 2017 is happening in October 2017 and we are calling all independent animators to submit their short film and stand a chance to be featured in this year’s festival alongside other award winning directors!

All you need to do is to fill in the following form below, please contact me at vicky@cartoonsunderground.com or programme@cartoonsunderground.com if you have any questions!

Header by Jerrold Chong.

“It’s fascinating to look at the 2 very different ways we (Lapin and Sagar) choose to sketch this event. I spent my time sketching few detailed models while Sagar choose to represent the ambiance of the show on the cathedral place. I like that the “true” representation of it is not one or the other, but the juxtaposition of our 2 visions”

Check out more works by Lapin here and Sagar here.

Works below are by Sagar:

Works below are by Lapin:

Patrick Smith, co-founder and advisor of Cartoons Underground, and co-writer at ScribbleJunkies Blog, started exploring different types of sketchbooks from artists from all around the world. Looking into these Epic Sketchbooks we see more personal work from these artists and get to know their thought process and them as people in a more intimate way. Thanks Pat for sharing these Sketchbooks!

“Extraordinary Tales” is an animated anthology of 5 stories adapted from Edgar Allan Poe and includes the voice talents of Sir Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi, Julian Sands and Guillermo Del Toro.

Raul Garcia was previously a Senior Animator at Walt Disney and his movie credits including The Lion King, Aladdin, Tarzan, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Land Before Time and Pocahontas. He is currently a visiting lecturer at Puttnam School of Film & Animation, LASALLE College of the Arts.