The People's Republic of Animation

The People's Republic of Animation
Type Private
Industry Animation
Founded 2003
Headquarters Adelaide, Australia
Key people

Eddie White (Creative Director)
Sam White (Managing Director)
Hugh Nguyen (Head of Development)
James Calvert (Head of Production)

Brodie McCrossin (Animation Director)
Website www.thepra.com.au

The People's Republic of Animation (PRA) is an animation studio based in Adelaide, Australia. Since starting out on music videos for Australian bands in 2003, The People’s Republic of Animation (PRA) has grown into a highly prolific studio creating international award-winning short films, TV commercials and developing feature films.

Contents

Foundation

As 14-year-olds, in 1996, PRA founders Eddie White, James Calvert & Hugh Nguyen began experimenting with a super 8 camera under the name of ‘Dabble Animation’. Their first short film, Natural Born Animators (1998) was made two years later and achieved some national and international festival success on the student film circuit including a selection at the Student Animation Festival, Ottawa, Canada. In 2000 Eddie White renamed the team 'The People's Republic of Animation', a name coined after he flipped through an old Funk & Wagnall's encyclopedia looking for titles and saw the heading 'The People's Republic of China' and liked the empire-like and grand connotations it had. With the addition of animator/sculptor Brodie McCrossin in 2000 and producer Sam White in 2002, The People’s Republic of Animation was officially formed as a company in 2003. It wasn’t long before the young crew succeeded in gaining their first government grant for a stop-motion tv pilot and cg animation for a music video in the same year.

Notable works

The PRA has produced two recent AFI (Australian Film Institute) nominated short films, Fritz gets Rich (2005) and Carnivore Reflux (2006). Carnivore Reflux was also voted best animated film by Australian audiences at the IF (inside Film) awards in 2006.[1] Other notable productions include the international short film co-production with The Shanghai Animation Film Studio of China, Sweet & Sour. Internationally, PRA continues to win accolades for its work at major animation festivals around the world including Annecy, Stuttgart and Zagreb.

Recent work

Having produced the first official Australian-Chinese animated co-production, Sweet & Sour (2007), The PRA studio is currently co-developing a feature film project with the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

Eddie White and James Calvert have just directed the first of the Mitsubishi Lancer/Sony Tropfest 'supershort' films titled 'Safer in a wild world', a one minute short that blends 2d animation and 3d animation in a pop-up storybook style. Eddie White & Ari Gibson of the PRA recently directed the short film ' The Cat Piano, featuring the narration by Australian music legend, Nick Cave. The film was officially selected in competition at Annecy Animated Film Festival in 2009 and has gone on to be nominated for an AFI award for best short animation.

Recently The PRA made two shorts; 'I Was A Teenage Butterfly' and 'The Ghastly Gourmet Cooking Show' were also broadcast on Nickelodeon's Sarvo program in 2008.

Collaborators

Filmography

Short Films

TV Specials/Interstitials

Music videos

Awards and honors

The Cat Piano

Sweet & Sour

Carnivore Reflux

Mermaid Story

Fritz Gets Rich

The Bomb (Sixxx Legs)

References

  1. ^ [1]
  1. "Kenny Cleans Up At The 2006 Hisense Inside Film Awards". IFA. IFA. 2006. http://www.ifawards.com.au/News/Details.aspx?newsid=79. Retrieved 2007-09-27. 

External links