An animation director said Filipino animators must focus on creating their own content amid the boom of artificial intelligence.

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We now shift our focus to a Filipino pride who brings life in motion to scribbles and sketches.

His love for animation led to him bagging awards here at home and abroad.

Recently, his film Suleiman won the Best Animated Film in the Pensacon Short Film Festival 2024,

the largest pop culture convention in the Gulf Coast.

To talk more about his work and the business of animation,

we are now joined by animation director Nelson Blug Caligua.

Hi Nelson, welcome to Market Edge. Congratulations!

Thank you. Hello Michelle, good morning and thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

And let's not forget, you are a grantee of a CCP Innovation Funding.

How much funding did CCP give you that allowed you to complete this project?

Yeah, we were fortunate enough as a group, we applied for the grant as a group,

as TULDOC Animation Studios. It's a non-profit organization

focused on original Filipino animation.

And as a group, we were able to get around 500,000 pesos to create three projects.

So, to be honest, it's not much but we pursued it like passion projects.

It began during the pandemic and we continue to work on it for on and off.

Why?

While we were also working on other things.

Alright. And Blug, you know they say there's no business like show business?

And this is really an interesting part of show business, animation.

How is the animation industry today? Is it harder to land projects?

Is it harder to sell and to offer your creations? Is money harder to come by?

Yeah, I think traditionally the Philippine animation industry has been linked as

a service provider for foreign animation studios.

So, traditionally that has been the role of many of our fellow Filipinos working in the industry.

I think the current thrust lately has been more towards creating our own content,

creating our own intellectual properties.

It hasn't yet bloomed yet the way that the service provider industry has bloomed.

But I think it is the path forward when it comes to generating more opportunities for our local animation artists.

Alright. And so, let's talk about your own content, your winning content.

This is the story of Indara Patra and Sulaiman.

It is actually a Mindanao folklore.

I know it's a story about two brothers.

The king had asked his brother Sulaiman to check out another story.

He wanted to check out another island or province where big birds and monster animals were attacking.

Very quickly, tell us the story of Sulaiman.

It has been told and retold many times in many different ways.

What makes your version different, unique?

Yes. The thrust of our proposal to CCP when we engaged in the CCP Innovation Grants

was to promote local myths and legends.

So, I was tasked to create the animated short film based on a Mindanaoan folktale.

My interpretation for this one was I simplified the story out of necessity

because the story is only eight minutes.

So, it was also a bit of a technical challenge.

So, I needed to compress the story. I simplified it.

I mainly focused more on Sulaiman's adventure and his sacrifice, his heroic sacrifice.

So, it is a more concise version of the folktale,

but I still made sure that the heroic side of the characters is in full display,

especially when it comes to these adventurous actions.

How many artists worked on this eight-minute film?

And for how long?

Yes. Yeah.

Since this is comparatively speaking a low-budget passion project,

the majority of the work was made by myself for the most part.

A lot of the rough animation has been made by myself.

But I also had some assistants, particularly interns,

and a couple of professional friends that were pitching in here and there

with a little bit of tasks that they were helpful enough to help me out with during their free time.

Okay.

So, Sulaiman, since you're a winner, where do you take this next?

Yup. Sulaiman right now is currently on its film festival tour.

I have been submitting it to various film festivals.

And so far, it has been accepted into 18 international film festivals.

I have been submitting since September last year.

So, currently, the count is around 18.

18 international festivals.

And I still aim to continue submitting it to festivals.

And when its festival run ends, I hope to also promote it online.

All right. All right.

Blug, I'm very curious how you feel artificial intelligence will change the game

for animation artists like yourselves.

I mean, the founder of DreamWorks, I think last year said that,

you know,

it used to take us five years and 500 artists to create one world-class animated movie.

With artificial intelligence, it's going to take us less than 10% of that.

Expect a 90% cut in costs.

While the idea will come from individual creativity,

the execution can be carried out by machines.

What are your thoughts on this?

And should artists, you know, Filipino artists who are just about to come out of their shell start to worry?

They will be crowded out.

Yes. Actually, this is a currently hot topic right now,

especially among us artists just in general.

Not just animators, but just artists in general.

There's a lot of debate about AI.

It has arrived and I think it's here to stay.

So, it's just a matter of navigating around it.

Now that this technological phenomena has already arrived.

I have been talking to other famous directors, animation directors and local animation artists.

And to be frank, they are worried.

They do not...

If we want to be optimistic about it,

maybe we can coexist harmoniously with this new technology

and the job market would not be disrupted.

But I think, to be honest, I think it will disrupt the job market.

Especially here in the Philippines that the local animation industry

is primarily geared towards being a service provider.

So, I think the challenge now, especially to local artists,

is to maybe shift the focus to content creation.

Especially if AI's positive impact to the industry is that

it would make the production side less painstaking

and there's less investment in terms of manpower and labor.

Maybe we could refocus and shift towards IP development instead.

But again, there's no clear answer right now.

And I'm sure that when, especially a few years from now,

it's really going to affect our media landscape.

In a big way.

Final question, Blog.

There's a saying, the starving artist.

They say that artists don't really make a lot

until they make a very big boom.

Until their name really explodes in the scene.

I wonder, what can government do for you?

Because we haven't really seen the Philippine animation scene

go full blast yet.

It's been trying to take off.

But not quite.

Is there anything that you think this government can do,

not just grants, not just a 500,000 grant for example,

but to push for you guys to finally hit inflection point

and just go, wow, explode?

Yeah, maybe I could speak on my recent encounter

with another opportunity with CCP as well.

This artwork, by the way, in my background,

this is the project that we are currently producing right now.

It is another animated short film based on Lola Basham.

This is funded by CCP as well.

And it's already near completion.

It's 99% complete.

I think we will be finished by May.

So by May, we will already be finished.

The budget here is, I'm happy to say,

is a bit more improved compared to the CCP Innovation Grant.

So we had better budget now.

We had more finances and resources to gather people to help us.

But again, to the question of what more can the government do,

and I think a more sustained effort because right now,

it's somewhat sporadic when it comes to support.

It does exist.

The support does exist.

But it's a bit more sporadic here and there.

So I think a more sustained effort and a more long-term view

about how we can get a return on investment

with regards to these projects because it is a big risk

because animation typically is more expensive

and more time-consuming than live action projects.

So I think when we're tackling this type of project,

we have to think more, a couple of steps ahead

when it comes to getting our investments back.

All right.

Blog, we don't have much time but thank you so much

for sharing with us this passion,

the projects that you're working on,

and congratulations again.

You make us proud.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

All right.

Now before we go,

we're going to take a short break.

We'll be right back.

We'll be right back.