Strange Frame

By PETER SUR

Tribune-Herald staff writer

WAILEA — In the basement of an otherwise normal-looking home, a vision of the future emerges.

It’s a bleak view, by any measure: Humans have made the Earth so toxic that to survive, they genetically engineered themselves to live on other planets. This places the descendants of those refugees in debt slavery.

Some 200 years after the great Earth exodus, around the year 2796, we find our protagonist Naia, a “feisty, young singer-songwriter,” who’s being forced to work as a miner on the Jovian moon Ganymede to pay off those debts.

When Naia and Parker hook up and start a band, it’s the start of their battle for freedom. One becomes a musical superstar; the other is left behind. How can these two women save their love for each other?

That’s the premise behind “Strange Frame,” an independent, feature-length animated film from GB Hajim and Shelley Doty. The movie has been in the works since 1999. It’s been in production since 2005 or so, and it’s crawling toward its final release in theaters either this year or the next.

Three things set this film apart from others. The style of animation is unlike any other. The movie enlists Hollywood’s A-list voice, music and mixing talents. And all of the work is done on the Big Island.

The look of the film grabs people first. Hand-drawn in Adobe Photoshop and animated in Adobe After Effects, the film has an unearthly feel. It’s a mix of colorful 2-D cutout animation and 3-D renderings. The Comedy Central show “South Park” is among the best-known examples of this style of animation. While a traditional cel animation production might require a cast of hundreds of artists and a budget of millions of dollars, this movie’s cost of production amounts to peanuts: $1.24 million, with $300,000 to $400,000 in deferred payments.

The 100-minute film has about 30,000 different components, from characters’ swiveling eyeballs to their locks of hair. One of the most complex figures in the movie, a winged humanoid, was animated with 115 layers, Hajim said.

In this future envisioned in “Strange Frame,” everybody is hapa-something. Humans have adapted to a post-racial, post-heterosexual world. And there are themes that would be present in any century. Is it far-fetched? Sure, some parts are. But Hajim thinks it foolish to dismiss the idea that global, man-made catastrophes will happen in the future.

“I lived in California. There’s a nuclear plant built on a fault line,” he said.

The movie will explore other themes: What is the price of stardom? How will we pay off our massive debts? Will a rock-and soul-themed space opera featuring two lesbians resonate among 21st century audiences?

Hajim hopes so. In the far future, he said, there’s no stigma about same-sex relationships. “It’s just accepted.”

The film’s voice casting has drawn from some of the best in show business. Imagine Tim Curry as the villainous Dorlan Mig. “Stargate SG-1” veteran Claudia Black stars as Parker opposite Tara Strong, who voices Naia.

Then there’s Michael Dorn, who played Lt. Cmdr. Worf on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” George Takei of the original “Star Trek” series and Claudia Christian from “Babylon 5.”

Roger Waters of the band “Pink Floyd” contributed a song to an otherwise original soundtrack. Academy Award-winning Gary Rizzo, whom Hajim calls the “top sound mixer in the world,” puts it all together.

The third factor that sets the project apart are the animators. When Hajim talks about the real reason for making “Strange Frame,” he sounds less like a filmmaker and more like a community advocate.

He hopes that “Strange Frame” can kick off the Big Island’s moribund film industry in the same way that Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop helped New Zealand.

The island economy cannot depend on tourism, he said. “I’ve seen all these boom and bust cycles,” he said. “I wanted to get something where there was more consistency.” Hence the cutout animation style, which Hajim says cannot be outsourced easily to China or Korea. He’s all for good, green, local jobs, and he thinks the film industry is the way to do it.

In 2005, Hajim visited all the schools in East Hawaii and offered some of the budding artists there a chance to work on the film. Many responded.

“I’ve had about 40 kids come through here, and every single one of them has gone to college,” Hajim said. He says the movie, once it gets off the ground, could serve as the beginning of a series of films, a TV series or a web comic.

The movie is finished and could be in theaters by the end of this year, if it’s released as is, but Hajim wants to rework the opening sequence. And that’s going to take more money. An effort to raise $50,000 on the fundraising website Kickstarter was unsuccessful.

Some people haven’t given up, though.

In another basement room adjacent to where Hajim was sitting, Janelle Young was making rubble. On her computer screen was a broken “BANK” sign with a dandelion growing from a crack between the “A” and the “N.” The 3-D rubble, created in Autodesk Maya, may be used in two shots in the new opening sequence, on screen for 11 seconds. Young is the 3-D expert of the group, said lead animator Matt Hawkins.

At another computer console sat Kim Mashiyama, who was making a background set appear worn by adding grungy textures and removing flakes of paint.

Hawkins specializes in matte paintings, character designs and animation, and special effects. He says the animation style is somewhat like “South Park’s,” “but with a much more refined, artistic style.”

“It’s been a long process,” he said, but he’s patient.

The film doesn’t try to appeal to all audiences. Doty, the co-creator, recently told an Arizona magazine that “Growing up black, gay, and an aspiring musician, I rarely saw my image reflected back via mainstream media.”

“Queer minority youth never have the luxury of watching TV and seeing themselves represented as the dominant population,” she said. “Our target audience, these 15-to-24-year-olds, can feel particularly estranged from a supposed pinnacle of life that equals a white-collar job, marriage and acceptance by the general population.”

Or as Doty once said in a phrase that inspired the movie’s title, “How fortunate are those who can frame the beauty of the strange.”

On the Internet: http://www.strangeframe.com.

Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.