The White Balance - a Bristol based CGI and Animation studio recently created 10 short 2D animations for ToryBoy The Movie. The film produced by Walsh Bros has been shortlisted for a prestigious Grierson Trust 2011 award for Best Documentary on a Contemporary Issue.
ToryBoy is a documentary following BAFTA nominated film-maker and Labour voter John Walsh's journey to become a Conservative Candidate for a seat in a Labour heartland during the British 2010 General Election Campaign. What he uncovers is a place where intimidation and neglect have scarred a town that politics has forgotten. He goes on a quest to find the local absentee Labour Member of Parliament. Using his insights as a candidate and animations provided by The White Balance, ToryBoy is a political satire that cuts to the heart of the current British anger over politicians who have exploited a system for years. Working with news footage, animation and film from the campaign shot over a year, ToryBoy is a extraordinary look into the political culture of one of the world’s oldest democracies.
Film Maker John Walsh (Walsh Bros) and Creative Director Leanne Pike (The White Balance) explain the challenges in using animation for a controversial political documentary.
Why did you think animation had a place in this film?
JW: Making a 100min feature documentary about politics can be a challenge for the makers and the audience. There were a lot of facts and back story we needed to tell and we wanted a more innovative way of conveying this than just photos and archive footage, which is the most common approach in these types of films.
Had you worked liked this before?
JW: We had break-through success with a series on childhood homelessness (“Sofa Surfers” BBC – Rose d’Or Nominee) for the BBC and a film about the children of soldiers (“Toy Soldiers” BBC). Animation was the right visual access point for our child viewers. The White Balance provided the animation work on both of these shows.
LP: Having worked closely with John on topical issues in the past, we understood the approach and sensitivity needed on creating the animations - especially when creating the characters and storyboarding the content to convey the messages needed.
How has the use of animation made a difference on ToryBoy The Movie?
JW: Animation has been used in factual programs before, but often as a bullet point presentation when stats or pie-charts are used. To make it part of the visual narrative in this way was a risk. The tone of the film is both serious and light heated so it was important the animations could walk this very narrow line. We couldn’t afford to leave animation on the cutting room floor if they didn’t work, so advance planning was key.
LP: The tone of the animations were set using humor and intricate transition techniques. We had to keep them simple but engaging, this was the brief from day one.
How did you make the animations stand out?
JW: I worked closely with The White Balance and we all agreed that we wanted to make the animations distinctive to the film without being a major distraction. We all had a mutual love of the work of Saul Bass who was most known for his angular animation styles for title sequences for the great Hollywood directors: Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, but these days his style is rarely seen. I have to say that my favorite Saul Bass sequence was for the Cinerama spectacle, “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad” world. This map cap comedy best captured the visual style and the transition my film was making from a serious expose of the political shenanigans in the North East, to a political satire. We even ended up using music from the film’s 1963 score.
LP: At the original briefing for the project John and Simon Green (Editor at Green Rock) both expressed an interest to use the Saul Bass style, this was fantastic as the simplicity and striking shapes really lent itself to the project. Although we achieved our animations with CGI we tried to maintain the flat bed rostrum cell animation style so indicative of the period.
How did it work with you making a non scripted film with animations?
JW: The White Balance would have a script from me and an audio file that might include dialogue and sound fx for each animation, then it was up to them to work out the sequence and in-betweens.
LP: We would issue a basic storyboard to check for timings, colour palette and transitions between scenes. We would agree the character design and then commit the short animation to then animate for final approval. JW: Communication is key, you don’t want too many surprises. But each time we did get an animation back it was quite exciting to watch the final version; it was always better than we had envisaged.
Was it worthwhile?
JW: Undoubtedly as we have had a commercial cinema showing in the North East with more to follow and we have just learned that we have been shortlisted by the prestigious Grierson Awards for “Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme”, quite an achievement for a film that started as a personal video diary without any broadcaster on board. The animations have been mentioned by viewers as an unexpected and effective way to sell and old product in a new way.
LP: This project has been an amazing journey, even sparking political discussions in an animation studio! We are delighted to be involved and wish John and the rest of the team luck for the awards nominations in September.
Watch the trailer for Tory Boy The Movie here: www.toryboythemovie.com.
