By Bridget Spinks
FIVE years ago, the three main characters of a short Western Australian award-winning animation were just names on a page: James Blonde, Goldie Rocks and the Three Hares.
One of the latest writing and directing duos to emerge in Perth, graphic designer Gaetan Raspanti and Jesse Emmerson, were working on another project when the idea for a super hero spoof struck them. Their idea remained dormant until 2008 when documentary maker and producer Bridget Curran noticed a competition for local Perth animators, the Nick Shorts initiative, organised and supported by Foxtel’s Nickelodeon channel, ScreenWest, Lotterywest and the Film & Television Institute WA.
Bridget had known Gaetan socially through Catholic circles for eight years and had always talked about making a film together. She’d asked him if he’d heard about the Nick Shorts initiative and he happened to be already thinking of doing something.
Bridget, Gaetan and Jesse met up soon afterwards and, as Bridget recalls, “the way it came together was a sign it was meant to be”.
The final product was a three-minute animation short called Hairoes, which won Best Short Animation at this year’s WA Screen Awards (WASAs) on 8 March.
Their animation hit local West Australian cinema screens in Fremantle on 5 February at the Bohemia Outdoor Film Festival but it began screening Australia-wide on Foxtel’s Nickelodeon pay television channel on 26 January. It is also being repeated as an interstitial. “Hairoes is about the struggle between ‘hairoes’ and villains,” said Gaetan, co-writer and co-director, about the animation, which is set in Fringe City, a fantasy world where characters Blonde, Goldie and the three Hares must save the city from villains who seek to bring imbalance to the city by destroying the beauty of people’s hair and consequently their all-important self image.
“[The story-line] came out naturally. We developed characters and the story began to evolve around them. We found the characters were commenting on things in society that we weren’t expecting, such as vanity and corruption,” Gaetan said.
For Gaetan and Bridget, who see the world through the eyes of their Catholic faith, public story telling is a serious responsibility. Gaetan grew up in a Catholic family and he says the faith “has always been there, [and it’s] been a natural part of my life; especially going to a youth group at a young age. It was more than just Mass on Sunday, it was a real culture, no doubt about it”.
He grew up playing music at his Midland Antioch youth group and also dabbled in acting. His music has been featured on Triple J’s Unearthed website and he’s been working in graphic design for several years.
But he realised early on, when others started enjoying his music, that his “gifts are actually something to give to others”.
“In Scripture, Jesus says ‘If you’ve been entrusted with a lot, a lot will be expected of you’. I look around in the contemporary media and see a lack of good story telling; so that’s where I see my calling … I’ve got a lot of responsibility to use those talents. It’s a call. It’s never been easy. This [WASA award] is the first real piece of success for Jesse and me – after eight years of developing our creative chemistry,” he said.
For Bridget, it is creative producers “who are generous and resourceful and play a part in the story telling” that are her role models including William Castle, Roger Corman and Jim Henson. “Muppets creator Jim Henson pioneered a style that was meaningful and entertaining for adults and children alike. It had sweetness and heart to it, which is often lacking [in today’s mainstream film and TV],” she said.
Jesse, who co-directed and co-wrote the animation, said that sharing traditional values with Bridget and Gaetan is where he finds common ground, despite the fact that he “has never followed religion” and describes himself as an agnostic.
“It’s no different to working with anyone else. [Bridget and Gaetan] are still open-minded people but we share the same core values,” said Jesse, who has worked in web design, illustration and graphics.“I’ve worked with Gaetan for a few years now, and I’ve always found him to be very calm and non-judgemental. He’s at peace with himself, I’ve noticed that; and I see it in Bridget as well.”
Bridget and Gaetan agree that they are influenced by “classic styles”. “As Catholic creatives, we still feel a connection to past generations of storytellers who aspired to a moral Christian lifestyle”, Gaetan said.
This combination of purposefully selected media consumption and a desire to present something that’s deeper and more symbolic than the average is what brings together these award-winning creative contributors.
“There are a lot of themes in some shows that aren’t moral – that are vulgar and adult. For Jesse and me, when we write stories we don’t need to resort to that,” Gaetan says.
“We come from an old school Disney and Warner Brothers background; there was nothing gratuitous or graphic [in those animations], it was always exaggerated or ironic. I think nowadays there are watered-down uninspired shows or there are independent films which are so violent, and there’s nothing in between.”
The strength of a good motion picture lies in its story telling, Gaetan said. “If you can write an engaging and compelling story, you can do things cleverly and subtly without having to resort to using suggestive or profane content. I’ve always thought if you’re a great song writer you’ll make great songs. If you’re not, you’ll use something deliberate to shock people to get that attention. I don’t think they’re always aware of it though. But a great story teller holds themselves higher than that because they already got attention from writing great stories,” he said.
For Bridget, who is also the author of The Miracles of Mary, a best-selling book about Marian apparitions around the world, prayer was a key element in the process of making the film.
“We had a lot of people praying for us, and we were praying a lot too,” she said. “I think we both pray a lot when we work with other people; and whenever we come across a hurdle, we take it to God. That’s how it develops. It’s a project that’s before God and for God and that’s how we approach it; with the best intentions.”
Gaetan too finds inspiration for his story telling from his faith.
“Our faith tells us the story; in the end, God wins. [It also tells us] that there is good and evil; there’s a definitive separation. Our stories reflect the reality of good and evil; the war and the struggle between these two where the good is always stronger,” he said.
“That’s the interesting thing about living in a secular world – there’s always a contrast. If you’re in the world, I don’t know what the contrast would be. Your perspective is different being a Christian.”
As Gaetan, Jesse and Bridget continue to enter Hairoes into festivals, they’re aware that audiences around Australia and the world are meeting the Hairoes characters and situations. They say that they hope it finds an audience with both young and old alike and that the truth in the piece will resonate with its audience.
“In a spiritual way, we’re responsible now for how it influences people’s hearts,” Gaetan said.
For more info about the animation short go to: www.hairoes.com.