Coming Attraction

Building a local film industry, one Strange Frame at a time

by Ku'uwehi Hiraishi

In 2002, MTV Networks made an offer to acquire local independent filmmaker GB Hajim's current project, an animated science fiction feature film called Strange Frame. He refused the offer. Then an offer from Bulgaria came. Again he refused. Romania, denied. China. Denied. All the offers promised bigger budgets in exchange for complete or partial ownership, and Hajim was not about to outsource his film.

"If we do that, then what that says is we're not capable of doing it all here. And if we complete the whole thing here, then in the future when people say, 'Oh, you guys can do it,' there's no doubt," says Hajim.

Not just white men

The idea for Strange Frame came in 1999, when Hajim teamed up with long-time friend Shelley Doty in creating an animated sci-fi TV series that later evolved into a feature film.

Strange Frame takes place in the 29th century, when humans have evolved into exotic creatures and humanity has spread throughout the solar system. The film follows a black lesbian saxophone player named Parker who falls in love with a guitarist/singer named Naya. Naya gets tapped for stardom and Parker gets left in the dust. The movie is about Parker reconnecting with Naya.

"I think it's going to teach the youth who see it about the value of friends and love over family and fortune," says Hajim, "'cause so much of our culture is about making money or becoming famous. We're in a very much instantaneous culture of instant gratification, and friendships and love take a lot more than that."

In creating Strange Frame, Hajim and Doty set out to undo the conventions of Tinseltown sci-fi conventions.

"Most science fiction is about a white male whose name starts with J, and so we decided to do it about a black lesbian and her name starts with P," grins Hajim.

Consider James T. Kirk (Star Trek), John Sheridan (Babylon 5), and Jack O'Neill (Stargate).

"There's going to be no James T. Kirk pure white dude left a few hundreds years in the future. Forget it! It ain't gonna exist," notes Hajim. "My vision of the future is that just like Hawai'i: everybody's hapa."

Strange Frame is tentatively set for release in 2009 or 2010, depending on Hajim's ability to secure funding.

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Hajim moved here in the early '90s, after earning his MA in film production from California State University-Humboldt. He has spent most of his time directing, shooting and editing Hawaiian Language pro-jects, animations, and educational shorts. He's been working on Strange Frame out of his backyard studio in Hakalau over the past three years. The 500 sq. ft. facility is equipped with 16 processors and cut-ting-edge technology.

"We are doing what Hollywood does," says Hajim. "We just don't have a huge budget for it,"

The project has been funded so far by individual investments, mostly from Hajim's own pocket. Hajim's funding arm of the project, Island Planet One, has lined up finishing funds, but needs at least $200,000 to keep the project alive through the end of the year.

"Frankly, I don't know why it has been so difficult to raise the money. It is a 100 per cent tax credit. Simply put, you chose to invest in this movie instead of paying state taxes and thereby help these kids get a hands on experience with making a feature film!" exclaims Hajim.

The State of Hawai'i has a 100 per cent High Tech Business Investment Tax Credit to encourage investment in businesses that produce film, television, audio, video, or animation projects. Basically, Hawai'i taxpayers receive a dollar-to-dollar reduction in the amount of state income tax for the full amount of the investment.

Home-grown talent

These "kids" Hajim refers to are the participants in his ever-popular paid-internship program. In 2004, he gave presentations at several local colleges and high schools, offering paid internships on Strange Frame. Over 80 students showed up to interview and 14 were chosen to work with Hajim and be trained in computer art and animation. Interns have participated in everything from developing character con-cepts to animating scenes.

Intern and local college student Abbey Dalere was attracted to the animation technique Hajim was using for the project.

"It was different from all the usual animation, like Pixar and all of that. It was more original," says Dalere.

The majority of Strange Frame is 2-D cut-out animation, where flat characters, props and backgrounds are moved in small steps and a picture is taken at each stage. The comedy TV series South Park is the most notable example of cut-out animation.

Scott Kita, 24, of Kea'au took Hajim's 2-D animation course at the local community college and later joined the project as an intern, which led to a paid animation job.

"Before I had the job I was working making sandwiches for much less," says Kita, "I am currently working on putting together a rough draft of the entire movie with the pieces we have so far as they are completed."

Animator Jahrain Jackson was a 16-year-old Pahoa High student when Hajim hired him.

"He's a total genius," comments Hajim. "When I hired him and up until recently, he was packing groceries at one of the grocery stores. This total genius and all his abilities are not being tapped and now he's doing incredible stuff."

Animator/character and set designer Matt Hawkins started as a freelancer doing character designs. He later took up a part-time internship, and officially became a full-time animator in mid-January. He says his job is literally a "dream come true."

"I remember being 15 and being like 'I wanna be an animator and work for Disney,'" says Hawkins.

"If you think about Final Fantasy, 75 animators took 2 1/2 years to do an 80-minute piece. That means each animator took two years for 1 minute. In seven months, [Matt] is doing two minutes," praises Hajim.

Hajim has teamed up with the Department of Education and Huiana, a mentorship program run by HELCO, to expand his internship recruitment pool and reach out to local youth like Dalere, Kita, Jackson and Hawkins.

"I'm an anarchist with socialist leanings," remarks Hajim. "I believe in the importance of community. If I don't have a community that is being enriched and growing than why am I here?"

Local film community

The Big Island continues to lure in Hollywood feature productions such as the latest Indiana Jones sequel, which filmed on location here last year. But Hollywood's stints here are temporary and leave no continuous opportunity for locals interested in developing their film industry talents. "There's so much talent on this island," he remarks. "It's really sad that there isn't an opportunity for them-especially the young people."

He hopes Strange Frame can show off the Big Island's creative capabilities and highlight the island's enormous potential to foster a thriving film production community. He views New Zealand's visual effects company Weta Digital as a prime example of a business that started out small and utilized its local resources to find success in the film industry. Weta has picked up many of Hollywood's big visual effects projects, such as Lord of the Rings and King Kong, and worked on series such as Hercules and Xena, Warrior Princess.

"All of these things had special effects, costumes, exotic locations. We have the same things here. We can do the same kinds of stuff here," says Hajim, "I think we can do exactly what Weta did. I can DO this independent feature, I'm gonna get it done no matter what."

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