Working with Animation

WORKING WITH ANIMATION

Ever since I heard Brett Morgen of “Chicago 10” speak about using innovative technologies in storytelling, I’ve been curious how to integrate mixed media in my work. Liberia??? Check! is the first project where I’m working with animation and I’m learning a lot in the process.

I decided after not being able to pull enough young Liberians in Park Hill together for a mock debate about the elections, that I would set up my piece as sort of a “delegates” meeting where representatives from places like Colombia, Palestine, Jamaica and finally, Liberia, are given the opportunity to share their thoughts on the election. My good friend, Sol Guy, whose own work I really respect agreed to do the voice over for “MC Unite” who is presiding over the meeting. It was fun to work on this with Sol because he also shot a segment in Liberia so we talked about how interesting it is that Liberia is so fascinated with the U.S. (A short plug – he traveled with the artist, MIA, to check out the work of youth advocate, Kimmie Weeks, for his new MTV Canada 4Real.com – check it out to learn more about Liberia.) When MC Unite calls up PJ – our Liberian delegate – we segue into a video shown to the delegates which gives context to U.S.-Liberian relations and then on to the footage I have of him in Park Hill.

Lovisa Inserra is my new animator and she is fantastic! We decided to first develop the storyboards for the piece that she will then animate once we get feedback from the Open Call community. Pulling the stills she created into my sequence, I came to realize that when you decide to work in animation, you essentially become a sound designer. The background noises of the courtroom, the VO, the music, the clanking of the gavel, all help to enhance the credibility of the scene. So, I had to add about 6 audio channels to get it going.

The other interesting thing about working in animation -and probably in fiction in general which I don’t get a lot of exposure to – is the ability to “set up” scenes in order to relay information critical to your story. After going through my interviews and footage with PJ, I realized that in order to best contextualize the relationship between Liberia and the U.S. (in a few seconds!), that I will need him to read from a script. I’ll cover this with archival images from the slave trade from the WGBH Sandbox and my own broll of contemporary life in Monrovia, but because I didn’t think of this prior to shooting, I will definitely need to make another trip out to Staten Island. Not sure yet what I’ll add in place of it for my initial rough cut.

I’ll end this with posting a few more stills from the opening animated scene. I opted to go for a very colorful, youth feel in order to attract a younger audience.

The Mix for “Liberia??? Check!”

 

Liberian DJ PJ (far right) with Sam and Frank Davis (aka AKG)

in Park Hill, Staten Island

One of the things I enjoy most about the filmmaking process is the opportunity to mix with creative types of all sorts. I met with an artist in my neighborhood – Pete Miser – about music, I have talked with several beginning filmmakers about assisting as a PA and I had coffee with an animator – David Sutton – who will do an opening for my piece. But probably the most fun I had was mixing with the young Liberians in Staten Island during my first shoot there yesterday.

I came up with the idea for my pitch after spending 10 days in Liberia last month for a shoot I’m doing with the UN on young people in areas of conflict. I was in awe with Liberia’s serious fascination with our country. They L-O-V-E George Bush and think 50% of Americans do too(!) I guess this should not be surprising given it’s historical relationship with the U.S. – freed American slaves returned to Liberia in 1822, formed a new government and now the “Americo-Liberians” as they are called, are often the ones running the show, holding political and financial clout. Liberia also has the first female President in all of Africa. So, in Monrovia, e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y was talking about Obama and Clinton and to a lesser degree, John McCain. Being from the States, I became an “official” ear for Liberians to share their thoughts on the elections.

“The White House is about to become the Black House!”

“A woman should not be President when a country is at war. She could not handle it!”

“If the United States had a female President, they would take better care of the community.”

So when one kid asked me if I thought Liberians should get to vote for the next U.S President since the outcome will have such an impact on Liberia and the African continent as a whole, I appeased his question by developing my pitch, “Liberia??? Check!”

I needed to get more footage though than what I could use from Liberia. Thanks to a wonderful Brooklyn-based writer-now-collaborator, Ruthie Ackerman, I was able to enter the gritty, but fascinating world of the Liberia that’s been resettled Stateside. It’s called Park Hill and is located in Staten Island. It boasts the largest Liberian population outside of Africa. The streets there aren’t too different from Monrovia where old women set up shop to sell small goods for income, young men blast hip hop from blown-out speakers and parent-less children weeble-wobble through deserted lots on too-big bicycles. Like Liberia, it has roots in conflict. The sunset gives permission for drug deals and gang violence to throw down civil war-like tension between Liberians and the African Americans who lay claims to the neighborhood. The Wu Tang Clan who grew up there refers to it as “Crack Hill” or “Killer Hill.” Ruthie has been working with the Liberian refugee community for more than a year now, collecting their stories for a book and a longer documentary film. (If you want to know more, read her article, “Liberia: From One Battlefront to Another” here.)

Ruthie introduced me to PJ – a thirty-something year old slim man sporting a gold chain bearing the seal of his home country. Back in the Gambia, PJ was the hit DJ, spinning music for his refugee brothers and sisters before coming to the States. We first met PJ’s mom who was questioning his choice of an outfit, urged him to hurry up to not keep his guests waiting and was tending to things he kept asking of her. Moms and sons in little Liberia are apparently no different than anywhere else.

I couldn’t ask for a more perfect “host” to this community than PJ. Outgoing, comical, charismatic and definitely confident, he took to the streets asking Liberians young and old alike who they would vote for in the elections and why while interjecting his own commentary and ideas. I originally had hoped to set up a mock debate and vote with young high school students but the candidness of the interviews with a back-drop of real Park Hill life bustling in the background, gave me plenty of material to work with.

 

Liberian Auntie Selling Goods on the Street

At the end of the day, I started thinking about how this project has brought together an interesting group of people and situations in such a short amount of time – the ex-combatants in Liberia and a former DJ celebrity in Park Hill and Pete Miser’s beats and Ruthie’s dedication and the beautiful old Liberian women selling plastics on the streets and the dude in the wheelchair smoking a cig. This may seem like a strange mix for a short 3-minute film on the elections, but in many ways, it symbolizes what this election is all about.

Lisa Russell

www.governessfilms.com