Pirate Party spot

[slowtiger]

[Edit: add translation]
This spot was commissioned by the Pirate Party of Hamburg for the upcoming election in February. Everything by me, script, animation, sound. The assets were drawn in TVP, the characters animated in TVP, then everything put into 3D scenes and assembled in AnimeStudio.

The time frame was nearly impossible for a 90 sec spot, due to lack of communication I couldn't start as early as I wanted, then I had difficulties to translate their program into a script, and then I had to rush everything because a certain delivery format was required, which they told me really really late. All in all I did this in just over a week.

Because it was impossible to find suitable voice actors I had to speak all characters by myself. Yes, that's my voice ...


(https://vimeo.com/117669324)

(Here's the translated script:)
What do the citizens of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg actually think of it?

I do not feel really free right now, since the police may simply define entire neighborhoods as risk areas, and I'm being followed by cameras everywhere.
We want freedom for each individual, a society in which nobody is left behind and everyone can be happy in his own way. This includes to curtail the obsession with security and police to remind them of their primary responsibilities.

It's impossible to cross the roads safely, and when I drive myself, I'm really just stuck in traffic!
We want a different transport policy for Hamburg, and we want a public transport without ticket so more citizens travel with HVV and the streets are relieved.

Everywhere only offices and shopping malls and luxury apartments are being built, but we do not even find affordable housing in the outskirts!
We want more social housing in Hamburg, and we want more affordable housing in the city center.

I'd really have liked to know more about where my tax money is going to and what contracts are signed between the city, and with whom.
Hamburg has the first and most comprehensive transparency law in Germany, initiated also by the pirates, but we want to improve the implementation.

I thought that if we win the referendum everything would be all right - but then the administration blocks the process and does not want to implement the decision!
We want to work to ensure that the citizens' will should be implemented in law and administration faster than before.

For a free and civil city of Hamburg on 15.2. Elect pirates!

[Paul Fierlinger]

This is really nice. I like the pacing, even though I have no idea what you are saying. I like the occasional graphics shortcuts such as using a FO while not waiting for the large truck to pass completely through the scene. The soundtrack and flow of colors and scenery are well balanced with one-another that it creates a simple mood and made me stay with the spot all the way to the end. Is this a TV spot?

BTW, I have the same sort of experiences with clients on commissioned jobs. For the past few years I've always stipulated that my quoted production time starts with the final green lighting.

[slowtiger]

It is especially for TV. In Germany TV stations are required to show spots of all parties before an election, without being paid. This spot will run regionally in Hamburg for one month.

I'm just glad it turned out so well. 90 sec are not much to convert a whole political program into a script. I was able to cram 5 themes into 2 sentences each. The idea of interviewing ordinary people lend itself to the pacing.

The colour palette was quite restricted, with lots of grey. It's the same 1 sky for all scenes, the same skyline in 4 scenes, the same green in 5 scenes, the same 2 trees in 2 scenes, the same ground - no time for creating different stuff, but usually you watch the spot only once and will not notice.

I made the decision for the nearly stick figures after I tried fully coloured characters first. But this lead to problems, since this party's clientele demands skin diversity and so on, which is hard to create in simplified drawings without using clichés. To avoid being accused of some -ism I abandoned colour for all characters completely.

[Paul Fierlinger]

You solved the backgrounds very well because I never noticed after watching it 3 X. I was once confronted with the multiracial color/features issue for a film for UNESCO, and was forewarned not to make the children polka dotted and purple like too many animators were doing at the time. I solved the problem by showing a single child going through several stories by means of chameleon like metamorphosis. When showing the film (it was three minutes) to a school class I asked the children if they noticed what I had done. Not a single child had -- they all thought it was the same kid going through different stories. They completely missed that they changed colors and features throughout even though I drew them in my fairly realistic way. These are the wonders of animation.

[Elodie]

Nice job Slowtiger ! It's really well-done and before I noticed you wrote the translation, I could "understand" questions from people and answers from Pirate Party.

[schwarzgrau]

I came here, cause I thought some pirates need a spot for their party.

However nice spot slowtiger. I can imagine how much work was needed to stuff their whole program in a 90 second script, which needs to have a good timing and pacing. It's really fun to watch and I really like the "drölftausend" side joke.
Oh and by the way nice voice, I don't know why, but I expected you to have a completely other voice.