Animation nation
In the ’80s I would visit our family home in Baryo Kapitolyo in Pasig for Sunday lunches and notice it evolve into something strange. Every time I would visit, I found parts of the house cordoned off and boarded up to keep the light out. I half suspected my siblings still living with our folks had turned into vampires.
That decade a few of us had left the coop to get married or go overseas, leaving the younger five of the Alcazaren brood of eight with free reign over the extra rooms in our ’70s-era split-level residence. No. 5 sibling, Johnny, and No. 7, Miguel, initiated the changes. No, they did not turn into blood-sucking creatures. They did indeed start to not sleep for long periods of time, but this was because they had become indie filmmakers and turned parts of the house into studios.
They did not do art films or documentaries but instead chose the experimental medium of claymation (or stop-motion animation with clay figures). Think Gumby, if you’re from my generation. For the younger set, think of the award-winning movies featuring Wallace and Gromit. Johnny and Mike started with almost no budget, our father’s Super-8 movie camera and their wild imaginations. Their first set was built on one of their beds (sans mattress) plus a few hundred pesos’ worth of clay from National Book Store.
A new generation of animators: Nikos Alcazaren, Mike’s son, and Liam Alcazaren-de Leon, Marita’s bunso They quickly won national acclaim and prizes for a series of experimental films, establishing them as pioneers of clay animation in the Philippines. They started to get invitations from foreign film festivals and workshops. In 1989 they set up shop as the Alcazaren Bros (ala Warner Brothers, I remember them explain at the time). They then broke into the advertising industry with the first clay-animated commercial for Van Melle’s Fruittella candy, winning a technical award for best animation in the Ad Congress the following year.
Gabby Alcazaren animates a creature frame by frame. The company expanded with other siblings Marita (who complained about the “brothers” part of the company name) and Gabriel, our youngest. They followed their debut work with more award-winning animated commercials for Sime Darby, Ramcar International, Consolidated Foods Corporation, Unilever, and the Central Bank of the Philippines.
All these works were recognized at successive Ad Congresses with Araw Awards, also with Creative Guild Awards, and even Catholic Mass Media Awards. My brothers (and sister) specialized in stop-motion animation, but also dabbled in experimental handmade techniques, not only for advertising but also for television programs like Batibot and 5 & Up.
Johnny Alcazaren today still paying attention to the smallest detail of claymation In the ’90s, their body of creative work was recognized worldwide with awards. The prestigious New York Festival awarded them a prize in 1995 for their chalk-animated title sequence for the children’s program 5 & Up. In 1993 they won first prize in the HOW Magazine International Design Competition with a series of animated ads for Pepsi, besting entries from Nike and US network giant ABC.
The group took a hiatus from 2002 onwards, when the siblings decided to concentrate on individual careers. Johnny focused on his art and sculpture (he was a 13 Artist awardee of the CCP). Mike went on to become a much-in-demand director of commercials (he also won a Palanca a few years ago for a screenplay he wrote). Marita and Gabby both went into mainstream advertising while dabbling in puppetry (Marita) and urban art (Gabby). And I thought I was the creative one.
In the last few years, the world has woken up to the magic of claymation and animation once again. Look at the success of digital animation with Pixar and stop-motion with hits like Fantastic Mr. Fox. Alcazaren Bros. is in the process of re-launching the group, producing new animated shorts using new digital technology but still animating by hand, frame by frame.
Alcazaren Brothers creatures are veritable sculptures of the imagination: Wait till you see them come to life. The new Alcazaren Bros. will be featuring these new shorts in their own channel on YouTube soon, the first of which is an interview with World Cock Derby champ Meni Cocquiao. They set up a new studio a few blocks from the old house (the area has urbanized rapidly). So the house is back to normal.
In the meantime, for more than your normal summer workshop fare, the Alcazaren Bros. will also conduct its first Stop-Motion Animation Workshop. Here, participants will be introduced to the handmade technique of making cinematic magic. It will be supported by Dragon Stop-Motion software, the same technology used by recent animated film features like Caroline, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Corpse Bride.
I’d join the workshop but I may make a mess of it. I’m sure a lot of budding animators are out there waiting to be discovered, just like the Philippines discovered the Alcazaren Bros. I can’t wait for Cocquiao to come out, though … and for the Philippine film scene to get more animated, from frame to frame, to worldwide fame.
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The brothers took scenes from Philippine life and used them in their films. Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.Learn the art of stop-motion May 19 and 26 at the Alcazaren Bros. Animation Studios. E-mail them at alcazarenbros@gmail.com for details. Alcazaren Brothers Animation is also on Facebook.
