Animax’s Blog

LaMB’s Executive Producer Tracy Wong looking pensive

The name Tracy Wong may not ring a bell to diehard anime fans. But this petite young woman — who would most definitely make a number of guys’ heads turn because of her beauty — is the brains behind Animax’s most ambitious project to date, namely its first full length anime production, LaMB.

In this exclusive interview, Animax’s talented Creative Director talks about past projects, the progress so far in the production of LaMB, and even gives writers tips on how to increase the chances of your scripts being made into an anime.

Could you please give us a background on your work prior to joining Animax? Have you always been a fan of anime? If so, what are your favorite titles?

Before Animax, I was with sister channel AXN which is also under Sony Pictures Entertainment Network - Asia.

I grew up in the 80’s watching American cartoons as well as animation series like Princess Sarah, M.A.S.K and Transformers which only years later did I later realized were made in Japan and they were called ‘anime’.

I only came back to watching anime a few years back with great animation works such as Hayao Miyazaki’s films. My current favorites are Satoshi Kon’s Paprika and Tekkon Kinkreet because they are just such a feast for the eyes.

What made you decide to join Animax? What were the specific challenges that you faced when you joined the team?

I started first at AXN and the company moved me over to Animax to head the creative services team. So although it wasn’t a deliberate choice, I think it’s a great decision because I love design and especially visual aspects of animation.

Animax is a youth channel so if there were any specific challenges, it was that I needed to know more than ever about youth culture. It’s important to have your finger at the pulse of everything the youth are into and there are too many exciting events and happenings that you simply cannot ignore. Luckily for me, music & fashion - which are a large part of youth lifestyle, are things I already love so they naturally become important considerations in my works.

You have been involved in the making of the ground-breaking “Set Me Apart” video. How did this project fall into your lap? What were the specific challenges that you faced in conceptualizing this animated video? What was your reaction when it won the BDA Gold Award?

Music is one of the key touch points of Animax and when we signed on one of the biggest bands in the Philippines — Pupil — as Channel Ambassador, we got them to write a channel theme song and produced a music video for it.

After I decided it would be an animated music video, I thought about how best to portray the band members. I didn’t want to just animate them performing the song. So since the song was about empowerment and individuality, I decided to involve the band members to come up with their ideal world in which they would be “free”. Each of them were enthusiastic and came back with answers and I just went ahead to give a visual to their worlds.

I was very pleased when the music video won especially since it was my first attempt. All the hard work crammed over a month of production time was worth it and kudos to Pupil and the Malaysian design team — hue visualab — for their huge efforts.

Currently, you are working on LaMB. What drew you to the project? Being executive producer, how would you envision LaMB to be from an animator’s standpoint?

LaMB is the biggest and most exciting project by Animax to date and naturally I was really keen to be part of it. Plus reading the script by Carmelo Juinio made me go “WOW” and I think everyone working on LaMB project from the animation studio Peach Blossom to director Tei Ryosuke also had the same reaction.

At the start of the project, Animax’s brief to Peach Blossom was simply “a unique visual style different from most anime”. At this stage, Animax, Peach Blossom, Imaginary Friends Studio (providing concept artwork and background designs) and director Tei are working on finding this style and this involves maximizing everyone’s strengths.

What is it like working with Ryosuke Tei and Yasufumi Soejima? What unique visions/ideas are they bringing to the project?

As the former Creative Director of Furi Furi, director Tei created works for iconic brands such as Nike & Nintendo and so he understands popular culture which is probably important in making any production a hit among the youth audiences.

Tei also gives a lot of thought to the setting of the story, which is set in the future. In one meeting recently we discussed about how this world would be like, is it really full of high-tech unfamiliar buildings, machines and gadgets? He made reference to Ghost In The Shell: Innocence which is set in the year 2032 and the city is almost unrecognizable with androids and cyborgs but in one particular scene, when main character Batou goes to Chinatown to get dog food, the setting of Chinatown is exactly the same as it looks today in Japan. In the future, humans will still be preserving a lot of history and look back to the past for inspiration to construct the new.

That vision is something we can look forward to in LaMB.

Music fans are very interested in the involvement of Simple Plan and The Click Five. Could you please narrate to us how they became involved in the project? What attracted these popular bands to the project?

We approached Warner Music first who were very excited about this project and immediately thought of Simple Plan and The Click Five. Both bands are huge among the youth audiences and Animax is excited to feature both bands in the movie.

Animax will also be producing LaMB/Simple Plan & LaMB/Click Five music videos which will premiere exclusively on the channel later this year. When Simple Plan attended the press conference in Singapore, we chatted about the project and they were really excited to be drawn as cool anime characters. They even requested for their tattoos to be drawn in too!

Animax Vice President & General Manager Gregory Ho with Simple Plan at the LaMB Press Con in Singapore last Aug. 2

Right now, could you tell us at what stage of production is LaMB in? When will it be projected to air on Animax?

We are about to start on the animation process so in the meantime, we’re seeing a lot of great character designs and background works. LaMB will air in March 2009.

As LaMB is Animax Asia’s first original animation production, we are channeling all our resources and efforts into producing and marketing LaMB which goes on mobile, online and TV platforms to ensure it is a success when all of the elements and roll out over the next 7 months. We will certainly keep you and all our media friends, as well as our fans posted on the latest for the next Animax Awards.

The next Animax Awards is just around the corner. Many fans are asking what specifically is Animax looking for in the scripts that will be submitted to the contest Can you give advice on how budding scriptwriters could improve their scripts and thus increase their chances of winning?

The story is always key to a good show, and therefore the basic concept and premise which shape the entire storyline are very important. We are always on the look out for originality and creativity, and scripts should be able to capture universal themes that can touch the hearts of one and all, anywhere and everywhere.

Do you see Animax Asia doing more original productions in the future? If there is any dream project that you would like Animax Asia to do, what would it be?

Yes, I should also be working on projects similar to LaMB that will be given life from the Pan-Asia Animax Awards when we do organize it in the near future. And like LaMB I will see that selected scripts get made into anime! I look forward to working with the multitude of undiscovered talents in Asia who are hoping for a lucky break and Animax will continue to reach out to them across all platforms to recognize their creativity and capabilities.

Tracy Wong out on the town and excited about future anime projects with Animax