Manila Bulletin Feature Oct. 23, 2008

Please see the following links to read the whole article:

http://tuldokanimation.blogspot.com/2008/12/tuldok-makes-strong-point-manila.html
http://tuldokanimation.blogspot.com/2008/10/mission-animation-manila-bulletin-youth.html

Tuldok makes a strong point - Manila Bulletin Online October 23, 2008

One of the minds behind the country’s most dynamic animation studio — one that doesn’t have a real office — goes to the UK for the International Young Creative Screen Entrepreneur Awards

Since 2004, the British Council’s Creative Economy Unit has been spearheading the International Young Creative Entrepreneur (IYCE) awards. The IYCE aims to celebrate and develop the potential of young artists in fields such as fashion, publishing, music and screen.

"The creative economy is a global phenomenon. Think about this: if you see creative talent as a natural resource, pretty evenly spread across the world, then the next J K Rowling could as readily be sitting in a café in Kolkata or a bar in Buenos Aires as the café in Edinburgh where the first Harry Potter was penned. It’s a young creative entrepreneur who will spot the big talent and bring his or her work to market, this program enhances that potential and the possibility of that work reaching the widest possible audience," the IYCE concept paper mentions.

IYCE works on the premise of nurturing the world’s brightest creative minds. Delegates are given opportunities to go on educational tours in British institutions. The winner is given a grant so he could fund a dream project.

The Philippines has been part of this exciting competition since its inception. Those who’ve represented our country in the IYCE include Adarna Publishing’s Annie Almario, Island Souvenirs’ Jay Aldegeur, and musician Louie Talan.

Creative works, whether they are films, songs, books, artworks, or clothing, have become the "greatest equalizers" in the modern world.

"It used to be that only the very elite like royalty enjoyed them. That is not the case now when everyone can have access to and can enjoy artistic creations," said David Hopkinson, acting director of the British Council Philippines, during the presentation of the Philippines’ bet to the IYCE: 27-year old Benedict Carandang of Tuldok Animation.

Carandang will be flying to the UK this October to meet with 9 other screen entrepreneurs from emerging economies such as India, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Nigeria.


Tuldok Members Group Photo

God’s plan

Carandang’s fascination for animation began in 1998 when he was a visiting student in Pittsburgh. He entered the ‘’Bug’s Life Sweepstakes’’ wherein the prize was a trip to Pixar Studios, creators of the animated film A Bug’s Life. Out of so many entries, his ticket won. Ben toured the studios with his host parents and brother. "And I found myself asking, ‘Why did I win?’ Maybe God has a plan."

Around October 2005, Ben and his friends Ayen Pineda, Toffer Lui, and Ramon del Prado got together after their college graduation. From that meeting emerged the idea to work on an animated film. That got the ball rolling. They passed a proposal to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) to obtain a grant. Many months passed without hearing from the NCCA. "We thought we didn’t get it until the NCCA suddenly contacted us early 2006," Ben recalls excitedly. They were given P500,000 seed money for the project, which eventually became ‘Libingan’, a 20-minute animated feature and the first film produced by Tuldok Animation.

KKB – kanya-kanyang bahay…

The people of Tuldok Animation work like this: they would meet in fastfood restaurants like Jollibee or McDonald’s. Communication would be also done via cellphone or email. In fact, files like drawings would also be sent via email. Artists would do their work at home on their own time and on their own computer. Like one of its partners revealed in their audio-visual presentation, "Dependent kami sa Gmail and Yahoo. Uso sa amin ang KKB – kanya-kanyang bahay, KKK – kanya-kanyang kuryente at KKO – kanya-kanyang oras."

This unique set-up was said to be one of the factors that impressed the British Council’s IYCE screening committee.

"It’s an outlet for artists. We cannot offer them a big monetary compensation but they are compensated in another way because they get to express themselves for a good cause. For us, it’s not sacrificing a part of our time at all. We love what we do so it’s like playing."

Aside from showcasing Filipino ingenuity in animation, Tuldok also aims to highlight Filipino culture. Libingan is filled with traits and tales that are unique to our country, like fiestas, religious processions, extended families, playing with spiders and scary stories of kapres that are told to kids. "The younger generation has somehow forgotten about the Filipino culture and we aim to bring that to the mainstream and to the rest of the world," says Benedict.

-GAY ACE DOMINGO, Contributor

You can also read the article at http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2008/10/23/YTCP20081023138717.html

Mission: Animation - Manila Bulletin Youth & Campus Oct. 23, 2008


Tuldok, the Filipino word for dot, speck, or a point.

Also the most basic part of a drawing from which all kinds of lines, shapes, patterns emanate.

It could also mean the end, or the starting point of something.

But for the people behind Tuldok Animation Studios Inc., it is the realization of a dream.

Dreaming to show the world the artistic and creative talents of Filipinos, a group of four Lasallians – Ramon del Prado, Toffer Liu, Ayeen Pineda and Benedict Carandang formed Tuldok in October 2005, which aims to promote the promising yet untapped animation film industry in the country.

"Almost 25 years na ang animation in the Philippines pero puro outsourcing lang," says Benedict Carandang, who was recently awarded by the British Council of the Philippines as the International Young Screen Entrepreneur 2008.

Tuldok believes that Filipinos, being natural storytellers, have the ability to create original and captivating stories, and not only as outsourcing of talents, who are usually left uncredited and unrecognized.

"Hindi tayo na-credit kasi binayaran ka, the credit goes to the company like for example Pixar, Disney or Dreamworks. At saka hanggang ngayon wala tayong original content. Meron tayo pero it’s not a big industry. People are not patronizing it," he adds.

Although Tuldok is not the first group of Filipino animators, it is one of the few groups involved in producing an all-original content. It focuses on local folklore with the main goal of nurturing the identity of Filipino culture.

FOR THE LOVE OF TOONS

The four friends, who were all staff members of the college paper "The Lasallian," pooled in their talents together – Ramon for animation and directing (who is in New York for a Fulbright scholarship in the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan), Ayeen for voice acting, Toffer for software and information technology, and Ben for finance and management, and put up the non-stock, non-profit organization.

Then, they invited friends and artists who share the same dream of creating all-original Filipino animated films.

"Ang solution ng Tuldok, we’re government subsidized habang dine-develop namin yung franchise or following sa Tuldok, and at the same time our artists sacrifice part of their time and labor," says Ben.

The group is divided into nine teams: the core group (the Tuldok founders) as the main link to the animators, the background artists, the character designers, the music team, the voices team, post-production, support staff and promotions, and writers.

Despite the lack of funds, the group is still capable of creating animated stories with their available resources: digital technology and talents who are willing to participate for the love of it. Tuldok is maximizing the use of Macromedia Flash 8 and Adobe Photoshop to create their animations.

"We rarely meet each other. The core group is in the center of everything. We distribute the labor and ipapakita lang namin if we’ve already combined everything, kapag tapos na lahat. It’s a surprise for everyone. Although maliit lang yung ginawa nila but if you combine things, you can produce something big. Bayanihan talaga. Filipinos working together for a single cause," relates Ben.


Tuldok Members in Production Meeting

GUERILLA GROUP

Last year, Benedict and his colleagues produced Tuldok’s first film entitled "Libingan" (The Burial). The 20-minute 2-D animated short film was supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

It tells the story of a seven-year-old city girl named Anna who goes to the province with her mom and pet dog, Rambo, to meet her relatives. The visit is going well until Anna is bullied by three boys who accidentally toss her cellphone into the forest. Determined to recover her cellphone despite stories of kapres said to be residing there, Anna and Rambo traverse the spooky forest and prove that kapres do exist. But their startling discovery also debunks ancient misconceptions about these feared mythical creatures popular in the local folklore.

Benedict admits that creating animation is both labor and cost intensive. There have been some attempts made before to create original animation, but these Filipinos remain few and rare. Due to the lack of support and funding from big companies, they failed. Animation’s high initial costs have scared away many mainstream productions who just settled for "safe and formulaic content."

"We can’t just do outsourcing because foreigners are looking for original content. They’re going to Asia to look for stories and we have a lot of stories to tell, we just don’t have the money to show it to them," he shares.

The movie "Libingan" was done without the physical studio or office. It was mainly completed in different fast food chains and their own houses.

"Tuldok is a web-based group. We just meet in fast food chains, we collaborate, we bring our laptops, we go to Netopia. We’re like a guerilla group. What we’re trying to say is, you don’t need to have a studio to do animation. We Filipinos even if we have little resources, we can still create something we can call our own, given our talent and passion. We can do something and we can do quality films," he relates.

Most of the members have their own day jobs and only do Tuldok on the side, whenever they have free time or on weekends. "Maraming nag-inquire sa amin na gustong sumali. And we tell them upfront na there’s no money here. We have honoraria pero hindi sya malaki," he reveals.


Tuldok Members meeting in a fastfood chain

IT BEGINS WITH AN IDEA

Tuldok is now working on a new project, the 40-minute animated short film "Pasintabi," a co-production with the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) and NCCA.

Like "Libingan," "Pasintabi" will be distributed for free throughout the country, particularly in schools, with the help of Animation Council of the Philippines (ACPI) aiming to encourage and spur the interest and involvement of young Filipinos in the animation industry, which eventually can provide jobs and develop hidden talents.

"We’re trying to bring back Philippine folklore to the mainstream kasi we’re being bombarded by Western. Nakakalimutan na sya and we have to go back to our roots," says Tuldok graphic artist Che Bello. "On our school tours we not only show the film for free, we also give them tips on both the production and business side. We want to teach them as well and introduce the animation industry sa mga kids pa lang," she continues.

The pre-production of "Libingan" took seven months while the production dragged on to about a year.

"From an idea you create your story outline, and then we make a proposal. Kapag na-approve yung grant saka tatakbo yung whole production. We do the script and from the script you audition the voice actors. Kapag nakapili ka na, you start the recording. We need traditional artists to draw the scenes and from there we pass it on to the flash animators who will trace the drawings done by the traditional artists. Kapag buo na sya, you start to add the music and the subtitling," she says.

For the new film "Pasintabi," Che reveals that Tuldok will now use 3-D animation for its background and incorporate it to the 2-D animated characters.

Tuldok believes that it is important to adopt culture and traditions in its films because that is how the Filipinos will be able to build their identity to the global market.

"Here in the Philippines you won’t see Filipinos na porke’t gawa ng Pinoy yan they’ll watch it. People are discerning now, they want quality. Ang napapanood mo Pixar, Dreamworks, tapos magpe-present ka sa kanila na medyo hindi high-quality. You have to keep pace with technology," explains Ben.

For the longest time, local animators have been looking for a chance to showcase their originality and creativity. Tuldok hopes to provide them the venue, and likewise, be known as a quality content producer for the Filipino’s talents and artistry in the global animation industry.

For more of Tuldok, log on to www.tuldokanimation.com or www.tuldokanimation.blogspot.com.

--Jaser A. Marasigan

You can also read the article at http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2008/10/23/YTCP20081023138716.html

Our own pixar - Manila Bulletin October 10, 2008

Benedict Carandang was named by the British Council Philippines as this year’s Philippine representative to the London Film Festival after recently winning the International Young Screen Entrepreneur Award.

International Young Screen Entrepreneur is supported by the British Council, the UK’s international non-political organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations. They help build relationships and understanding between people in the UK and other countries to increase appreciation to the UK’s creative ideas and achievements overseas.

Carandang together with his team, Tuldok Animations, a non-stock non-profit organization that aims to promote the artistic and creative talent of the Filipino people in the medium of animation to the world, made a 20-minute animated short film entitled "Libingan" (The Burial) with a grant from National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA). "Libingan" went on to win the International Young Screen Entrepreneur Award.

The limitation of not having a physical office or studio didn’t hinder their collaborative approach to the production. Due to this web-based group’s strong advocacy of promoting Independent Original Filipino Animation production in the Philippines, their ingenuity, and effective use of guerilla marketing, it gave birth to numerous print, web, and TV features—proving that anything is possible despite limited resources. Presently, Benedict is working on a new co-production project of Tuldok with the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) and the NCCA to produce a 40-minute Animated Short Film and an Animation Instructional Video that will distributed for free throughout the country. They plan to do this alongside with their affiliate, The Animation Council of the Philippines (ACPI), and they believe this will help spur the interest and involvement of more Filipino in this promising industry, which can provide jobs and help alleviate poverty in the country.

Carandang will be sent on a 12-day all-expenses paid trip to the UK where he will meet industry professionals and get the chance to tour leading organizations in the film ad TV industries in London, Bristol, and Cardiff. The UK trip cultivates with the Philippines representative attending the London Film Festival as an industry delegate.

-Jessie Morqueda

You can also read the article at http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2008/10/10/20081010137533.html

British Council cites Pinoy Animator

Congratulations to Tuldok co-founder Benedict Carandang! You make us all proud!
source: Manila Bulletin, August 7, 2008