Best Animated Film for the National Youth Film Awards 2015 went to Princess,
by Andre Quek Xiang Lin, Abdul Hadi B Abdul Wahab and Vivien Tan Liqing
Synopsis
Lucas is an average Singaporean boy who
lives in his world of Western-influenced fantasy.
His dream to seek out friendship can
finally be realized when he chanced upon a broken princess doll. By fixing the doll, Lucas hopes to break
the ice with his neighbour, Angie.
With swords, dragons, and a doll in
distress, ‘Princess’ is a 2D-animated, heart-warming tale of an average child
that we can all connect with. Recall the days when we were young; a time when
we learnt to face our fears and chase our dreams, when we let our imaginations
run wild in our favourite, neighbourhood playground.
How did you get the idea for PRINCESS?
"Princess" was based on a tagline I had
for another film, "Let go of wants and one will get more than
expected" and it attracted Hadi, who suggested to work together in making
a film. So, we expanded along that tagline, brought out our childhood memories,
and we focused on something that we had a common interest about: the dragon
playground. Then it took us another few months to cement the story together while we
progressed on other aspects of the film.
What were the challenges you and your team faced when making PRINCESS?
The main challenge is time. 2D animation is very labour intensive medium,
so when we don't have labour (its just the three of us: Abdul Hadi, Vivien Tan
and me), we have to work extra more, definitely not faster (because we don't
want to sacrifice quality). Also, everybody had different commitment and
interest during the long process, making it a real challenge to put people
together. It definitely needed a lot of understanding and perseverance.
How long did you take to make PRINCESS, and was it your first animation?
It took us almost one year in the making, from pre-production to
post-production. I'm glad we had a good mix of three in a team where we had strong interests in different areas of the whole process. PRINCESS was not my first
animation short, but it was my first time working with the other two (talented) members. It gave us a
lot of opportunities to learn from each other and also helped us understand more about the whole
process of making a film with people. We made many mistakes, discarded almost
half of the film, but the process was enjoyable, as we looked forward to completing it.
If you could, how would you improve on PRINCESS?
I would not improve it anymore. Not that its the best/perfect film, but
it is already a finished product. I would leave it as it is. It signifies what
we can do at that stage of our life. Any progress/improvement will be shown in
my next film (hopefully) :)
Watch the full video here: https://www.viddsee.com/video/princess/emt5p
Director's bio
Andre graduated with honour from School
of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University. Andre believes
motion is the primary drive that brings out emotion in animation. He draws
inspiration from everyday life, because he believes that beauty lies in
the details of reality. By abstracting these details, he transfers them into
his work and enlivens his drawings and animation.
By Gwen X
By Gwen X