The Pre-Production Phase in the Making of Iranian Full-Length Animated Films 1979-2012
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THE PRE-PRODUCTION PHASE IN THE MAKING OF IRANIAN FULL-LENGTH ANIMATED FILMS 1979-2012 Sayed Najmedin Amir Shahkarami A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of West London for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2013 1 To: Shahrzad and Ail, who patiently tolerated staying far from their parents through the course of the study. 2 Acknowledgement I would like to thank Professor Tony Olden who did his best to support and facilitate the progress of my research work up to the last stage of the thesis. My special thanks go to Maria Pennells for her kind help in all seasons of my study at UWL. I appreciate also the supervision of Professor Graham Roberts, as his advice illuminated the way of my research work when essential guidance was required to resolve critical problems. A thanks to Professor Francis Pott, who gave a significant amount of time and attention to read and edit parts of the thesis. My sincere thanks go to my wife Mansoreh, as she has been my main supporter in this way. In addition, I would like to thank my families and friends particularly Freshteh, Mojtaba and their kids. 3 Abstract As the pre-production phase is a vital process in feature-length animation filmmaking, this study focuses on the arrangement of this phase in Iranian animation film projects. They are Mouse and Cat, Tak Taz, Namaki & The Giant, The Sun of Egypt, Jamshid & Khorshid, Simorq’s Heart and Tehran 2121. In support of the investigation of these, the research reviews the background of Iranian cinema, television and animation. It looks also at the emergence and evolution of the pre-production phase in Disney and Pixar studios. Moreover, comparisons of pre-production phases implemented by Japanese, British and Pixar filmmakers are complementary contexts highlighting this process. It comprises four key stages: writing stages e.g. script; visualization stages e.g. concept design; scene setting e.g. storyboard, and a rough version of a film in the form of a story reel (Yun Mou et al, 2013). Implementation of these stages needs strategies to be employed by successful filmmakers. Based on such facts, a theoretical comparison analyses the arrangement of the pre-production phase in the seven projects. The findings indicate two types of factors affecting the arrangement of this phase. Indirect factors such as the dependency on management by government and its financial support constitutes issues influencing productions. Direct factors include filmmakers’ abilities and their direct actions on production. Consequently, owing to the negative effects of both sets of factors on production, certain recommendations are proposed to refine the role of government organisations, filmmakers’ knowledge and abilities, as well as the academic teaching of animation. 4 Content pages Chapter 1 9 Introduction 9 The problem 11 Contributions to the knowledge of animation film production 14 The structure of the thesis 16 Chapter 2 19 Data and method 19 The research questions 19 Aims 20 The specifics of the research 20 Research design, the study’s areas 22 Categorising data through the collection 22 Data collection 24 Data analysis 28 Open coding analysis 29 Analysis by axial coding 29 Selective coding 29 The relevant ethics 31 Chapter 3 33 Literature review 33 Emergence and evolution of the pre-production phase 33 The pre-production phase in Iranian full-length animation films 42 Chapter 4 46 The making of full-length animation film in Ghibli Studio 46 The making of full-length animation film in Aardman Animations 48 Pre-production in Pixar Animation Studios 52 The bases of pre-production in Pixar 52 5 Theoretical sampling and comparison 56 Chapter 5 58 Before animation in Iran 58 The arrival of cinema in Iran 66 Key points on the background 72 Animation filmmaking in Iran 74 Emergence 75 Primary Ministry-funded animated films 77 Growth: ‘Kanun’ and animation filmmaking 80 Television and animation in growth era 84 The signs of a new era 86 Stagnation: Animation filmmaking in 1980s 87 National TV in the era of stagnation 90 Cinema in the stagnation era 91 Revitalization: Further evolution of animation 94 Academic teaching 94 Applying computers in animation 97 TV channels and new organizations 98 Private studios and new filmmakers 101 Various types of animation films in the 1990s 102 The development of productions in the 2000s 104 Chapter 6 107 The study stages 107 The questions 107 The cases 108 Data collection 108 Evaluation and analysis 109 The projects 109 6 Mouse & Cat 109 The Making of Mouse and Cat 109 Tak Taz 115 The making of Tak Taz 115 Namaki & The Giant 120 Abnous Film’s background 121 The making of Namaki & The Giant 121 Reflections on the Namaki and the Giant project 128 The Sun of Egypt 129 Rasneh Fard studio’s background 130 The making of The Sun of Egypt 129 Jamshid & Khorshid 134 The making of the film 134 Simorq’s Heart 139 The making of the film 139 Points on Simorq’s Heart’s production 146 Tehran 2121 147 The film’s background 147 Points on this film 158 Chapter 7 161 The basis of the theory 161 Background of full-length animation filmmaking in Iran 163 Background of full-length animation filmmaking in Iran 164 Television 165 Background of full-length animation filmmaking in Iran 167 The areas of animation filmmaking 168 The area of full-length animation filmmaking 171 Pre-production practice in the seven full-length film projects 174 7 Direction of the pre-production phase 175 Lack of specialist and shortcomings in implementing stages 175 Applying the strategies 176 Other strategies 179 The media 180 The shortcomings 181 The outputs of the pre-production phase 183 The final outputs of the projects 183 Findings in brief 184 Insufficient knowledge and skills 186 Chapter 8 188 Summary of the Findings 188 The issues of the animation sector 190 The causes of limitations 193 The educational provision of animation filmmaking 196 Recommendations to improve actions 197 Recommendations for governmental animation organizations 199 Recommendations for the animation filmmakers 200 Recommendations for the universities 202 Conclusion 203 References 205 Appendix 216 8 Chapter 1 The chapter opens the thesis discussion with an introduction on the study’s focus followed by addressing the problem and the contributions to the knowledge of pre- production in full-length animation filmmaking and Iranian animation. This is followed by the thesis structure which presents an overview of the chapters and the context body materials. Introduction Among countries having with a domestic film industry, Iran was one of the earliest. Taking the first steps1 in 1897 (Mirbakhtyar, 2006), it formed in special conditions, was affected by various constraints, such as being located far from Europe, the birthplace of cinema, where it was constantly developing. This meant that the technology of cinema e.g. essential equipment, training and learning the ways of dealing with such a newborn industry, were inaccessible to Iranians. Iran was then mainly an agricultural economy with little infrastructure, which was not conducive to the development of cinema. But these hurdles could not put off the emergence of Iranian cinema. It tried to be flexible and adapt itself to the realities of initiation and growth. With contributions from a number of investors and filmmakers, Iranian cinema matured over time. It was affected by various social vicissitudes such as the Constitutional Revolution and the World Wars. After World War II, Iranian cinema set out to make further productions and to develop its fundamentals under the State’s new rules (Sadr, 2006). During the early days of television and animation filmmaking in the country, cinema was the main modern entertainment medium, and it was driven mainly by the private sector. Having its own infrastructure, 1 Mozafaradin Shah was the first Iranian who watched a cinematography show in Paris. This was a preliminary step to the emergence of Iranian cinema which followed with the making of early Iranian documentary films from 1900. 9 Iranian cinema carried on its activity only in live-action filmmaking until the first attempts were made to make animated films for exhibition in cinemas. Similarly to cinema, the private sector initially funded television in Iran in 1958. A decade later, the government took control of television, thus removing the private investor. Since then, television has been a government organization playing a key role in the development of animation in Iran. Despite the appearance of Iranian cinema and television, the emergence of animation was totally dependent on government support from the outset. This situation did not change later, even decades after the Islamic revolution when the Iranian animation sector had found a place in three types of activities: in education; production; and screening. By 2013 the animation sector had developed into a domestic industry employing substantial numbers of people. The first Iranian animation production in 1979 was never completed. In the 1990s- 2000s, several Iranian animation filmmakers tried to make full-length films. Among such projects, six cases are notable in terms of the way in which the productions were run. At the time, Iranian animation filmmaking had three decades of experience in making other types of animation films supported mostly by government budget. The filmmakers assumed that the time was come to make films for audiences and move toward a trade of animation filmmaking. Half of the projects encountered failure, but efforts on subsequent projects did not stop. Finally, the last one was successfully screened in 2013 after overcoming hurdles such as gaining essential funds, completion of production phases, development of advertising campaigns and using the distribution and screening services of the cinema industry.