MCLC: A Pig's Tale animation

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: A Pig's Tale animation
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Source: China Daily (6/12/12):
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2012-06/12/content_15495294.htm

A pig's tale
By Huang Yuli (China Daily)

Chen Xifeng, 48, wins awards for his maiden work, Pig Sale, though he has
worked in the animation industry for 26 years.

The award-winning cartoon Pig Sale by Chen Xifeng shows how Chinese
animation is evolving to produce original and locally flavored animated
films. Huang Yuli reports in Shenzhen.

The short animation Pig Sale won the open entries grand prize at the Tokyo
Anime Award in March. The international award for unreleased animations
was a first for China and producer Chen Xifeng. The 11-minute Pig Sale
tells the story of a father taking his two sons to the market to sell a
pig. It features Northwest China's geographical features and customs. It
also won best animation at the China International Short Film Festival in
May.

In Shenzhen, Chen tells China Daily the story behind the awards and of his
26 years in the animation industry.

"Pig Sale is my maiden work," says the 48-year-old from Gansu province,
sitting in a bamboo chair in his living room.

His company, Feng Animation, has processed dozens of popular works,
including the Fullmetal Alchemist and Mushishi. Even so, he says, Pig
Sale, which he originated and directed, is his first original work.
Chen and his team started on the pig tale six years ago, after settling on
a story by writer Jia Pingwa, commemorating his father.

Part of the story tells of Jia's dad taking him and his brother to the
market to sell a pig during a time of food shortages in the 1960s. The
pig, however, evacuated its bowels and didn't weigh enough, so they failed
to sell it.

"This small anecdote attracted me," Chen says, with a loud laugh.

They adapted the story into a cheerful animation demonstrating not only
the inner worlds of the little boy and the pig but also the larger life of
people in the Northwest at that time. As such, there is local music, such
as Xintianyou and Qinqiang Opera.

Chen, his wife Zhang Minfang and art director Ren Congrong went to remote
villages in northern Shaanxi province to learn about local customs and
even stayed in caves with the locals.

They shot tens of thousands of pictures and drew sketches. They drew more
than 10,000 sketches of the pig before finalizing its image.

"There was a storyteller in the Pig Sale. We discovered him when we went
to a temple fair. We drew and recorded him singing and telling tales,"
Zhang says.

"There's also a tramp singing folk songs. We met him in a village and then
in another village about 100 km away. He sings very well."

Zhang was in charge of the animation's roles and coloration. She met Chen
in the first animated film they worked on in Shenzhen.

The 11-minute-long animation cost them more than 2 million yuan ($314,000)
to make and filming was interrupted several times over the six-year period
due to financial difficulties.

"Each time there was not enough money, I would accept more outsourced
processing work," Chen says.
His company is located in a factory building in Futian district, Shenzhen,
where he bought one floor that's 1,700 square meters. The company mainly
does processing for Japanese and European animations.

Typically, Shenzhen companies do the so-called "middle-phase work" of
coloring and setting background scenes for European and Japanese companies
before post-production.

This doesn't require so much creativity but does allow Chen and his
company to earn quick money.

"My company and others support their costly creation of originals using
money gained from such work," Chen says.

The other reason Pig Sale took so long to make was Chen's team, though
experienced as animators, had not produced original works, "which requires
more brainwork and is a longer process, where you have to consider so many
more things".

"Many left the team when they found creating original work was so
difficult and making money from processing is so easy," he says.

In the end, more than 100 animators worked on Pig Sale. The film was
finished in August 2011, after which Chen and Zhang asked friends to watch
and comment on it.

"We were very nervous," he says about the reaction. It wasn't until the
Tokyo award that he felt vindicated about his approach to producing
localized, original work.

Hou Tomoyuki, Chen's friend of 20 years and a Japanese animation producer,
says the couple was "really tough".

"They are really good animators. Even in Japan, there are not so many
skilled talents like them. But I think they should create original work
and work with Japanese companies, rather than outsourcing jobs," he says.

After the Tokyo award, Pig Sale received the Royal Reel Award from the
Canada International Film Festival, the Golden Monkey Award from the China
Cartoon and Animation Festival and best animation at the China
International Short Film Festival.

This gave Chen confidence, and since then he has closed his company's
middle-phase processing business and decided to focus on original
productions with a local flavor.

He intends to do regular long animation films if he can get financing.
Otherwise, he'll continue to produce shorts, possibly about Southwest
China.

"Though the road is not smooth, we're on the way," Chen says.

Contact the writer at huangyuli at chinadaily.com.cn.