WITH MAAN CREATIVE
Q:
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING ON THIS PROJECT?
MAAN:
This project has been a great experience for us, and we have thoroughly enjoyed it. It has, however, been quite a wild ride as the project’s sheer scale and lofty ambitions proved a lot more than we had naively anticipated! It is really fantastic to see it all come together though and see the positive reaction from audiences, which makes it very much worthwhile.
Q:
WHAT HAS THIS PROJECT MEANT FOR YOUR STUDIO?
MAAN:
It's been a real game-changer for us. It allowed us to create a proper pipeline and develop local talent as well as exercise our story-telling muscles. It has also been great to be involved in the project right from the scripting stage, through pre-production, all the way to final compositing. This has allowed us to really sink our teeth into it and push it as far as we could. We hope this shows in the final result.
At the beginning of pre-production, we had one, maybe two creatives working on the series, but as many as 20 or 25 at the peak of production from MAAN Creative and our collaborating studio, Mind's Eye Creative
Q:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR ANIMATION APPROACH.
MAAN:
We used a somewhat unusual hybrid technique to bring this project to life, where we combined illustrated 2D cut-out characters with live action backgrounds.
The trick for us was to hit the right balance between the illustrated and the “real” elements to create a world that feels relatable. Part of this was also getting the animation style right - 2D lends itself to expressive, exaggerated animation, but we had to keep it from getting too cartoonish.
Q:
WHAT KIND OF IMPACT DO YOU HOPE TO SEE FROM THIS PROJECT?
MAAN:
We see it as quite an honor to work on a project that aims to impact people's lives in such a real and positive way. The initial reception looks promising, and of course, more selfishly we also hope that it helps put our studio and the local industry on the map!
This project has come at a very exciting time for our rapidly growing local industry which is suddenly drawing a lot of international attention. My Better World has been key to that and is one of the few projects that has been fully developed and produced in Africa. Certainly, it has been one of the largest series productions on the continent to date.