Lo is an experienced anime producer and began independent anime creation in 1977. His works won the first prize at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film Festival for four consecutive times and he was promoted as panel member. In the next year, he joined the Radio Television Hong Kong to work as cartoon producer until 1993. Over recent years, he spent efforts on promotion of the anime industry in Hong Kong and planning of anime exhibitions. Recently, he worked as the curator of the 50 Years of Hong Kong and Taiwanese Animation. He currently worked as Secretary General of the Hong Kong Animation and Culture Association.
In April of this year, there is an event of Hong Kong animation industry, which is the crowdfunding scheme of animated feature Dragon’s Delusion.
First of all, let me introduce the background of this event. Originally, Dragon’s Delusion—Departure was one of the animations involved in Tier 2 of The 4th Animation Support Programme, which is organised by the Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association. It received a subsidy of HKD165,000 to produce an eight-minute animation, which was finished at the beginning of last year. This animation was directed by Kong Khong-chang (Kongkee) from Penguin Lab and was adapted from Kongkee’s comic strip of the same name on City Magazine. It brought the Chinese historical figures over 2,000 years ago to 60s Hong Kong and presented in a science fictional and narrative approach. The unique appearance and colour setting were so dizzying! This eight-minute animation participated in the 19th DigiCon6 ASIA organised by the Japanese broadcaster Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, Inc. (TBS) late last year and received favourable comments as well as the “Gold Mention” award. All of the juries thought that the narrative approach of this animation was unique and had a special Hong Kong feeling. More importantly, they saw the ambition of the production team. As we all know, this eight-minute animation was actually the foreword of an animated feature.
The Dragon’s Delusion—Departure finished at the beginning of last year was not a complete work. Even though it could be watched independently, the original plan of Kongkee is to produce an 80-minute animated feature. Dragon’s Delusion—Assassination, the second pilot chapter of Dragon’s Delusion was released on 7 April of this year, followed by Departure. Meanwhile, the crowdfunding scheme of Dragon’s Delusion was officially started.
In order to coordinate with the publicity of the crowdfunding scheme, Kongkee held the exhibition “Works and manuscripts of Dragon’s Delusion” from 1 to 15 April at Gallery 27 of North Point. Not only lots of hand-painted animation manuscripts were presented, but also Kongkee’s special painting was shown. This exhibition was thoughtfully designed, which made the participants completely involve in the world of “Dragon’s Delusion” and became part of this crowdfunding scheme.
Dragon’s Delusion is a 2D hand-painted animation consisting of two short films. The cost of these two short films was more than 100,000 respectively. The production team include three animation companies, they are Penguin Lab, Nine Monkeys Workshop and Zcratch. However, the staffs in these three companies are less than ten in total. In Kongkee’s plan, to finish an 80-minute animated feature with high quality, the production team may need 50 staffs at least and a fund of eight million! In normal situation, Kongkee should find some interested investors. However, after calculation and consideration, he decided to have a new try, which is to run a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter. In Hong Kong, it is the first time for someone to collect funds for an animated feature in the approach of crowdfunding. Thus, many local animation production companies are full of hope toward this scheme and definitely hope it will succeed as well as leading local animation industry to a new place.
To develop an animation industry in a certain area, the production of animated feature is very important. In fact, the production of Hong Kong animated feature was limited by various conditions. Investors were scarce as well as producers. For a long time, the industry is only supported by “McDull” series. It seems to be the right time for opening a new chapter.
The first target for Dragon’s Delusion is to collect 300,000. Since the response was very good, the target was finished in a short time. Up to 17 April, the funding was reached to more than 600,000, which is so exciting. Of course, it still has a long way to the final target eight million. The deadline for crowdfunding is 13 May. Dear friends, I do not exaggerate. Dragon’s Delusion is indeed a valuable animation. It only needs small amount of money. Then, you could participate in it and get various souvenirs well-designed by Kongkee, the original comic writer. If you want to watch these two short films or know more about crowdfunding, you could check on www.dragonsdelusion.com. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed with it.
