Behind the Pictures: An Interview with the Animators

BEHIND THE PICTURES: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ANIMATORS

David and Matthew Adeboye chat with us about their experience animating for Sit-In, how children are the future, and what they hope this short film becomes.

STORY BY

Ashley Elliott

IMAGES COURTESY OF THE

Adeboye Brothers

How did you first get connected to the Alliance’s animation project for Sit-In? We connected with the Alliance Theatre through a collaboration we did with the High Museum on a documentary called Picture the Dream. Picture the Dream was an exhibit about educating kids on civil rights through the lens of children books. One of the books in the exhibit was titled Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Pinkney, which later was adapted into a play written by Pearl Cleage. The Alliance tapped us to film a mini doc/behind the scenes of the process leading up to the opening day of the play, then COVID happened, which made it impossible to have actors and crew members together on stage. So we had to re-imagine how we tell this story in a digital space.

How is working on an animated play different from (or similar to) another video project? There are a lot of similarities to producing a film vs. producing an animation, like the collaboration

between a crew and all of the different moving parts to make a piece come together: the process of pre-production, production, postproduction. But some differences between film and animation are how precise everything needs to be to the script/storyboard and to know what the director wants. For example, in a film, a point or a message could get across to the audience by emotions or body movement by the actor; whereas in a 2D animation where objects are more static, everything has to be in sync and make sense for the audience to stay engaged.

Why do you think this show is needed now? Children are the future. Hopefully when children see this play they will become aware that they can care about issues that are going on in the world, and they can help make changes themselves. We also love the diversity between characters and believe that this is always important for young kids to see. The three girls are a true representation of the world we live in today.

What is the hope for the impact that this show has on the audience? We hope that this show brings awareness to all the people that see it, but we also hope that it brings joy to people’s lives. 2020 was a tough year for everyone in some ways and hopefully this animation brightens up people’s households! Also we hope that it will put the battery pack in young kids to not be afraid to stand up for what they believe and be vocal about it.