Natural Born Animators
By Emma Masters
When Nick Deboar and Huy Nguyen first met while studying multimedia and film
at UniSA’s Magill campus, little did they know that a few years later they
would be working side by side in their own award-winning production team,
making a name for themselves in the world of animation and new media.
These two UniSA graduates are key members of the People’s Republic of Animation (PRA), a collective of six under 25-year-olds who work together producing animated short films, music videos and advertisements. And in their spare time, they develop pilots for animation series, such as ClayFL (pictured).
PRA describe their work as a combination of traditional clay and hand drawn animation with innovative digital techniques using three dimensional modelling and video effects.
“We like doing a bit of everything, we’re all about mixed media and integrating styles,” says Nick, PRA’s full-time digital director.
“I mean a lot of people work with 3D, but they’re just doing the same sort of stuff. We see 3D as a tool rather than a medium in itself, so we use it and combine other things with it.”
And when you see their work, you can understand what Nick is talking about. Sixxx Legs, a music video PRA produced for Triple J unearthed band, the Fuzz, after winning the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) Four Minute Wonders competition last year, is a perfect example of their mixed media approach.
“For Sixxx Legs (pictured) we used hand drawn characters on 3D backgrounds, and we also rigged and controlled the characters with 3D technology,” says Huy who works as PRA’s technical director while completing UniSA postgraduate studies in Business Information Systems, as well as some tutoring at the University.
“There’s a bit of live action as well, such as the fire, and it was all created in-house in eight weeks.”
During the last two years the production team has gained a reputation for creating innovative work. They recently collected five awards including three at the ZOOM! Short Film Festival and one each at Triple J’s Framebreaks Festival and the BelowGround Music Video Fest. in Sydney.
Although PRA has been working seriously for the last year and a half, it originated from the enthusiasm of three young high school students who made a short film, Natural Born Animators, that won Most Outstanding Film and an Award of Excellence (Schools Section) in the 1998 SA Young Filmmakers Awards. Huy was a part of this original team, as was PRA creative director Eddie White and animation director James Calvert.
But there’s also another UniSA connection in this diverse group of creatives. Producer and production manager Sam White is currently in his final year of a UniSA Bachelor of Business.
“I get the projects ready for pitching and arrange funding applications, as well as manage the actual production schedules, budgets and things like that,” says Sam.
“The more I do this job, the more I’m able to apply what I’m learning in my studies – I see the theory working in practice on a daily basis.”
“University is how I met the guys in the first place and doing multimedia and film also helped me to find my interests and define where it was I wanted to go,” adds Nick.
And while there is already a list of projects on PRA’s show reel, they have some exciting projects in production.
“One of the big projects we are working on is a seven minute animated short called Fritz gets Rich, which is being funded through SAFC, the Australian Film Commission and the Adelaide International Film Festival,” says Nick.
The film will be premiering at the Adelaide film festival next year.
PRA is also working on a game for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and SAFC’s Game On project. Aptly named Athenian Graffiti, their game combines Greek mythology and contemporary street culture, placing Greece’s mythical creatures and gods in a contemporary hip hop style scene.
“We are all about ideas and want to do more series animation, music videos and short films – works that we come up with ourselves,” says Huy.
“That’s why we’re all here. We could all get jobs in other places but the environment here allows us to create ideas and to pursue them from development through to production. Every person here contributes their own individual skills in a collaborative way and that is what we’re all about,” adds Nick.
And it seems that with such an innovative and successful team of enthusiastic media makers, their imagination and ideas will take them as far as they want to go.
You can check out PRA’s work online at www.thepra.com.au