Design and Development of a Pitch for a Short ...

Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) 2016, Vol. 6, No. 2

Copyright 2016 by ASCO Amity University Rajasthan

Design and Development of a Pitch for a Short Animated Film based on the Success of Japanese Anime in India Sanjhiya Mayekar Abhilash B.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, India Abstract Children’s television programs in India have received a tremendous growth in recent times with a lot of Japanese Anime being aired which help bring very high ratings to them. This dissertation tries to investigate the reasons for popularity of Japanese anime in India as well as in the World. The results are then applied to develop a pitch for an animated series/short film for the target audience of teenagers and young adults. Factors for the success of Anime around the world, like collaborative creativity, universal appeal etc., are derived after reviewing the literature on the popularity of Japanese Anime in India and the success of Japanese anime in the world. A few factors such as unique and complex storyline which is reflective of the current post-modern society etc. are chosen, which could cater to the Indian audience. Considering the current Indian animated content on television, a unique plot is developed, which tells the story of a girl in search of her missing father under extraordinary circumstances. Characters and environments are designed to incorporate the nuances of the postmodern society. A pitch book is designed, which contains information of the entire story and its characters. Finally, a teaser trailer is made which showcases the gist of the story and a small survey is conducted to test the success of the pitch. Even though the survey was conducted on a small scale, nearly 50% of the respondents felt that Indian animation has the scope of doing better. With the small amount of data, it can be concluded that though there was interest in the teaser due to the visual appeal, it lacked in creating the expected amount of hype. Keywords: Japanese Animation, Indian Animation, Children, Television Series, Story

Introduction Despite the huge popularity of Western animation all over the world, especially that of Disney, a unique style of animation coming from a small eastern culture, has its own ground to stand on. Anime is famously defined all over the world as all animated material that has been produced in Japan. The television industry in India has grown to be almost as large as the film industry of the country. Ernst & Young’s newsletter Newsreel states that children’s genre has emerged as the largest viewership segment after India’s general entertainment channel (GEC) sector (Jaggi, 2015). With economic liberalization and privatization in early 1990s, television was also opened to foreign investment. The ‘Cool Japan’ campaign by the Japanese government to globalize Japan, helped bring dubbed anime content on Indian television. However, it has been restricted to anime for young children and teenage boys with shows like ‘Doraemon’ and shown on Hungama Channel, and ‘Shinchan’ on Nick, getting some of the highest TRPs. The latest study shows that Doraemon, the robotic cat on Hungama TV, is now the number one favorite character among kids (Omaxe Research, 2012). But Anime is popular amongst Indian teens and young adults as well. The core element that attracts Indians to Anime is the wide variety of genres and topics that are not even found in Indian cinema. This wide variety of genres means that there is something for everyone. With the increase of internet usage, Indian fans get easier access to their favorite Anime and it only helps in increasing the fan base further.

Method Literature Review The literature survey has been conducted in two parts; first one being about the popularity of Japanese Anime in India and in the world, and the second one being about understanding Japanese culture. A study by Manion (2005) suggests that Anime is a reflection of Japanese culture and the interest in Anime in the West is due to interest of people in Japan as a country. But the study for the above mentioned claim was conducted only in 3 states of the U.S.A. All Anime stories, that are popular in India, offer ways to confront the different stages of growing up into proper & balanced adulthood. Kids discover universality and contemporarily in both characters and stories and also Anime has a unique flavour (Thomas, 2014). However, these are just observations of recent broadcasted television series made by the author and are not backed by facts or interviews of the target audience.

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Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) 2016, Vol. 6, No. 2

Copyright 2016 by ASCO Amity University Rajasthan

It is observed that dubbing in local languages and endearing characters are the factors that are most responsible for attracting Indian children towards Japanese Anime (Jaggi, 2015). This study was concluded by conducting group interviews of the target audience in schools all over Pune city. But its limitation is that the opinions are restricted to only children of one city of India. A case study of the Anime influenced American T.V. show ‘Avatar’ and concludes that Avatar was a huge hit due to the extremely high quality in every aspect of production (Bakonyi, 2010). Also, it has a complex storyline that can be enjoyed by children as well as adults. However, the case study is written considering that the reader already has a good amount of knowledge about Anime. A study of film, narrative, perception and emotions of Japanese Anime and states that even though Miyazaki’s Anime uses western concepts of character design and narrative schemas, the stories and characters are based on Japanese fables (Stenild, 2011). However, the case studies are only restricted to two similarly themed Miyazaki films. A study of artistic traditions in Studio Ghibli films quotes Miyazaki’s belief that ‘we should embrace our cultural heritage and educate our children about it’ (McDonald, 2004). The strong female leads of Studio Ghibli films are derived from Japanese mythology. However, the films that are analysed are all of a similar theme. Post-modernism has come to shape the fundamental characteristics of an entirely new genus of popular cinema consumed by millions world-wide (Wright, 2009). However, the study which is done on the postmodern aesthetics, scholarly appeal, and remaking of contemporary popular Indian cinema does not include an observation about the Indian audience, even though it is about Indian Cinema.

Problem Statement There is very few amount of research done on the impact of Japanese Anime on the youth and adults of the world and India. There is not much animated content on Indian television which pertains to an older audience of teenagers and young adults. Another aspect that remains unexplored is the reason why Anime is more popular outside Japan as television series than a film released in the Box Office. Hence, a problem statement was formed which stated the need to design and develop a pitch for a short animated film which was based on the factors that determine the success of Japanese Anime in India.

Objectives 

To conduct Literature survey on the popularity of Japanese Anime among pre-teens, teens and young adults worldwide, and India in particular

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To determine the factors that would make a successful entertaining story for kids and young adults alike, which is age and culture appropriate

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To create a pitch for a short animated film

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To test the success of the pitch for a short animation film

Scope of the present investigation There is very less animated content that is meant for teenagers and young adults on Indian television currently. Most of the content is targeted towards young children. India does have an enthusiastic audience for animation – which is evident in the success of Disney films in the country and a large fan base for anime. Indians generally have an approach that animation is meant only for children. By making a television series which has content meant for a higher age group, it is aimed to challenge that approach and establish the fact that animation can be enjoyed by everybody because after all, it is just a mode of storytelling.

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Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) 2016, Vol. 6, No. 2

Copyright 2016 by ASCO Amity University Rajasthan

Methodology A study of research papers was conducted on Japanese anime in Indian television as well as success of Japanese animation all over the world. Also, a study of books on Japanese culture and the media success of Anime. To determine the factors that would make a successful entertaining story for kids and young adults alike, which is age and culture appropriate, conclusions drawn in the literature review and doing case studies of popular Japanese anime were studied. To create a pitch for a short animated film, a storyline was developed with the help of mentor. Visual development was done and a ‘pitch book’ was created. A teaser trailer is produced for the story. The resources utilized to fulfill this objective are softwares like Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe AfterEffects, and Adobe PremierePro. To test the success of the pitch for a short animation film, a rendered video was shown to the target audience and the results were gathered through the website, www.surveymonkey.com.

Creation of Pitch According to the factors derived from the literature review, it is determined that the story needs to have a unique concept. The current content on Indian television was analysed and it was concluded that most of the shows are either based on Indian Mythology or else are of foreign content. And almost all of the series that are currently aired are aimed towards children. It was felt that content should be about something that is enjoyed by most. Hence the Thriller/Mystery genre was chosen. Even though some element of Indian mythology was used, the story is very modern in all other aspects. In its heart it is just a story about love, determination and never giving up hope. Log Line of the Story ‘A 16 year old girl in search of her lost father stumbles upon something extraordinary.’ Premise In present day India, there is a mysterious serial killer on the loose who is executing non-convicted criminals all over the country and leaves no trace. The police force is baffled and a group of private investigators are sent to various parts of the country to further investigate on the case. 45 year old Vijay Agnihotri is one of them. He is sent to Kolkata to investigate the murder of a local politician and disappears without a trace within two months of the investigation. After a thorough search with no avail, the news is sent to his family back in Mumbai. Determined that her father is still alive and needs help, 16 year old Shreya Agnihotri sets out on a journey to find him and on the way, stumbles upon something extraordinary. In its heart, ‘Lost’ is a simple story about not giving up hope and listening to your heart. And that sometimes, it is best to leave some things upon Fate.

Characters For a story to be interesting, it is very important for the characters to be well developed and have the potential to have good chemistry. There are four main characters in this story – Shreya, who is the lead, Minnie who is her sidekick and best friend, Rohan, who is Minnie’s younger cousin brother and a comic relief, and Vikram, who is a slightly grey character but turns good later and a potential love interest for the main character, as shown in Figure 1. As it was observed in the case studies, the better looking the characters, the more popular they will be amongst the audience. The bigger the eyes, the more innocent the characters; for example, Rohan who is young and very innocent has quite large eyes, and Vikram who has grey shades to his character, has comparatively smaller eyes.

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Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) 2016, Vol. 6, No. 2

Copyright 2016 by ASCO Amity University Rajasthan

The story and the characters were recorded in a book form in order to give clarification on the subject. It is called the ‘Pitch book’. A teaser trailer was created in order to test the success of the pitch. It was decided that as it a teaser trailer, it needed to be minimal but giving out vital information to the audience so as to capture their attention. Hence, the teaser trailer starts with establishing the place where the events are going to happen – that is, Kolkata, India. It is done so by showing Victoria Memorial, one of Kolkata’s most famous landmarks. A few broken leaves are shown flying in front of it to represent sadness as well as winds of change. Then a locket is shown fallen on the ground with the shadow of a tree falling on it in order to establish that this object is going to be vital in the story. The tree and the ground also establish that the location that the locket has fallen on, is not in the main part of the city. The rest of the trailer goes ahead to show the protagonist of the story, Shreya, has found the locket in a cemetery and a mysterious portal is opened. For the production work, backgrounds which were required for the scenes were created digitally. A 3D model was modelled based on the concept sketches, a basic texture was given and it was rigged. Animation was done according to the storyboard and the 3D animation and 2D animation were combined in Adobe AfterEffects. Appropriate background music and SFX were provided to reflect the sadness of the scene. From the factors that were derived from the literature review, the factors that were used in the plot and the character design for the project are as follows: •

The story has to have a unique theme

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The story and characters have to be reflective of the current post-modern society

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There can be elements of Indian culture and fables/mythology to represent the uniqueness of our heritage and provide a sense of familiarity to the Indian audience.

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Character design concepts can be inspired from Japanese Anime and ‘Indianised’

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The language/dialogue has to be very local in order for Indian audience to enjoy it

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The characters have to be believable and relatable

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The storyline should be complex in order to create more long-term curiosity especially if it has to have the potential to be produced as a TV series These factors were implemented as much as possible in creating a plot that would be potentially entertaining for a

target audience of teens and above. The plot would have the potential to be an animated television series.

Survey An in depth survey was conducted to find out a bit more about the respondents’ likes and opinions on the subject.Also it was done to find out whether the target audience thinks that Indian animation has the potential to do better or have they accepted that foreign animation content will always be better. Questions like ‘do you like to watch animated films or series’ and ‘would you be interested in watching Indian animation if it explored themes like Thriller or Romance?’ etc. were asked. A record of 17 respondents was taken, all of whom belonged to a similar strata of the Indian society – that is, middle class and upper middle class graduates. This means that they have access to and opinions about world cinema and are more aware of their likes and dislikes pertaining to entertainment.

Results and discussion The survey was conducted on a very small scale. However, going by the age and economic group of the respondents, and recording their likes and dislikes, a few factors pertaining to the possible success of the genre can be deduced. It can be said that the teaser trailer was interesting enough to entice 80% of the people who had said that they would be willing to watch Indian animation which explored various themes, as shown in Figure 2.

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Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) 2016, Vol. 6, No. 2

Copyright 2016 by ASCO Amity University Rajasthan

However, to some extent the theme was not exciting enough or the trailer did not create enough hype in order to have more people interested in it. Hence, seeing that all of the respondents liked to watch animated films and series in general, and all of them thought that they would be interested in watching Indian animated content if it explored more genres, the trailer needed to be more specific about the genre and reveal a bit more about the story to create more hype about it. An in-depth interview can be taken with a wider audience which explores questions like whether the target audience watches Indian animation, whether they would be interested if a more ‘grown up’ theme was showcased on television, and what they expect when they watch animation. The aim of this would be to find out the needs of the target audience as to the content on television and whether the pitch and execution of the story that was developed in the thesis excites them. Conclusion It can be concluded that if given a chance, Indian animation does have the potential to get more of an audience considering the amount of people who are interested in watching animation or are fans of animated content in general. As the survey was not done on a large scale, it is difficult to make a solid conclusion on the success of the trailer. But from whatever data that was recorded, it is felt that there is a potential for Indian animation to have a wider audience as the youth of today are open to the possibility of animation having more genres.

Acknowledgement I would like to take this opportunity to thank Senior Tutor Mr. B. S. Abhilash for guiding me throughout the project and Senior Tutor Mr. Murali Krishna J. for providing his inputs whenever I needed them. I would also like to thank all my friends who gave me great feedback and the people who answered my survey questions. This research would have been incomplete without them. Lastly, I would like to thank Head of Department, Industrial Design Mr. Lohit H. S. for allowing me to go ahead with this project.

Figure 1. The Four Characters of the Story

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Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) 2016, Vol. 6, No. 2

Copyright 2016 by ASCO Amity University Rajasthan

Figure 2. Final survey question

References Bakonyi, K. (2010). The Influence of Japanese Animation on Avatar: The Last Airbender. UCLA School of Film and TV Jaggi, R. (2015). An Overview of Japanese Content on Children’s Television in India. MEDIA ASIA 41(3), pp. 240-254 Manion, A. (2005). Discovering Japan: Anime and Learning Japanese Culture. University of Southern California: East Asian Studies Centre McDonald, R. (2004). Studio Ghibli Feature Films and Japanese Artistic Tradition. June Stenild, B. I. (2011). Japanese Animation Films; Narratives, Perception and Emotions. Dias: The Royal Library and Copenhagen University Library. Thomas, A. (2014). The Allure of the Orient: Japanese Anime and Indian Kids. VISTAS Vol. 3, No. 1 Wright, N. S. (2009). Bollywood: The Postmodern Aesthetics, Scholarly Appeal, and Remaking of Contemporary Popular Indian Cinema. University of Sussex.

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