Shanghai Daily news

Animation in movies is no longer just for children. Nowadays it appeals to audiences in every age bracket.
Jayne Pilling, founder and director of the British Animation Awards, has been in town for the just-concluded Eighth Shanghai International Film Festival and she brought loads of inspiring and interesting British short animations with her. The films and some footage of animated works were shown in the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art over the weekend and they transfixed viewers who were spellbound, although sometimes puzzled by them.
Chen Chunxiao, a woman in her 30s, said she just could not understand what the filmmakers were trying to say because most of the works did not have a conventional storyline.
Cao Zizai, a third-year student at a local junior high school, thought differently. "They are very abstract, off-beat and exaggerated. They challenge your imagination yet in a humorous way," says Cao. "Compared with Chinese animation, they have more vivid images."
Indeed, it's a real treat for animation enthusiasts and local cinema audiences alike. Perhaps the local audience has for too long been brainwashed by made-in-Hollywood animated films. The British style seems to perplex some people.
"It's true that a number of short animation films do not have normal stories," explains Pilling. "But what make animation very interesting is that it doesn't work in a conventional way. In feature films, you have a beginning, a middle and an end and everything is clear.
"Short films are a bit like poetry. If you read Chinese poetry, you look at each individual character but you may not totally understand it because it is in a condensed form. It depends on your taste: some people don't like that because they like everything to be absolutely clear and obvious; some people precisely appreciate that you can watch some animation films many many times just as you can look at painting or listen to music many times."
Pilling founded the British Animation Awards in 1996 to cover every aspect of the British animation scene, from student works to commercials and from children's entertainments to short, experimental art films. Other awards cover music videos, the use of new technologies, script-writing and overall craftsmanship.
She is also the author of more than 10 books on animation and the animated film industry in Britain and Europe.
She says that one of the strengths of European animation is that there are many different schools offering students a variety of choices. British animation schools today are seeing an increase in the number of foreign students enrolling in courses and this has helped bring new energy into what is a highly creative field of study.
"Their courses may have different emphases," Pilling says. "Most schools have combined workshops. They have visiting filmmakers coming into intensive workshops and students work on individual projects and also on group projects."
Pilling had been in Taiwan teaching for eight months. She says she was impressed by the standard of graduate students who are producing interesting works that are being shown at international film festivals. As for the Chinese mainland, she says she has visited the Beijing Film Academy only once but hopes to get to know the animation scene on mainland better.
"The only Chinese feature film I saw is the 'Butterfly Lover'," she says. "It's charming but it's in a Disney style. Though it's good to imitate Hollywood style, for practice, you can never go to the world market with this stuff. How can you sell them what they have already done?"
Today, animation covers so many things: movies, video games, computers, short films, cartoons and music videos and Pilling has brought with her an animated music video by the British rock band, Coldplay.
"In Britain, we use animation to advertise all kinds of products, unlike other countries who use it only for children's products," she says.
The Chinese animation industry is just taking off and the first national cartoon TV channel was launched last year. However, it will take some time to develop all the skills needed to sustain the industry.
"It's like if you want to be a pianist - you have to do a lot and practice a lot before you're any good," she says. "Secondly, if you want production, someone has to pay for it so you have to invest money. Even you have well-trained talent, they have no way to make it work."
Most European countries have some kind of system or government arts funding which encourages short-film production and experimental work with new technology. In Britain, part of the income from the national lottery is put aside for making animation films.