News:
All digital, Filipino-made animated film due November
By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 11:44:00 05/20/2008
MAKATI CITY, Philippines -- An all-Filipino production team is scheduled to come out with a full-feature animation film done using digital animation technology, its director told INQUIRER.net.
"We've been called crazy before. But the animation industry in the Philippines is two decades old. We've been doing outsourcing, so Filipino talent has gone unacknowledged. Recently there's been a clamor for original content," said Robert Quilao, director of Dayo, a full-feature animated film that feature the story of an 11-year-old kid named Bubuy.
The story revolves around Bubuy who has to save his grandparents who were abducted and brought to the strange land called Elementalia, which is home to a host of strange creatures.
Quilao said the animated film is expected to become ready by October or November, a year after production started.
Thanks to digital technology, Quilao stressed that the production cost was a fraction of what Hollywood-based animated films would spend.
Dayo, which would roughly cost over $1 million, is the third full-feature animated movie in the country, Quilao said.
"We're not the first. Ibong Adarna and Urduja, which is set to come out in June, came out before ours," Quilao said. But he noted that Dayo is perhaps the first Filipino full-feature animated film that is an all-digital production.
From the storyboard to the editing, Dayo used digital animation technology. Traditional animation production involves artists drawing the action that would be animated on paper. Quilao said the animation of Dayo was all done digitally, with artists doing digital storyboards from the very start.
"But the drawing process is not automated. It is still drawn. Our technology, however, allows you to directly draw on screen. Thus we call it 'tra-digital' animation," he added.
The voice talents or actors behind Dayo are also Filipino. Filipino directors Peque Gallaga and Laurice Guillen are among the local voices featured in the animated film. Gallaga will be the voice behind the character Nano, while Guillen will play a diwata.
Voices of child stars Nash Aguas as Bubuy and Katrina "Hopia" Legaspi as Anna Manananggal are also featured in the animated film, along with comedian Michael V as Narsi, and actor Johnny Delgado as Anna's father.
Dayo is a production of local advertising company Cutting Edge Productions, which has been doing TV commercials among other projects.
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