Sunsastera in the making

When people think about Malaysian themed animation, typical ideas would include Kampung, Silat, or Sepak Takraw in the mix. This is not to say them typical ideas are necessarily bad. But how about the weather? It’s something all Malaysians can quickly relate to. Let’s face it: we all complain about how hot the weather is here.

Sunsastera was originally an animated film idea I conceived two years ago, inspired by Lake District during my visit there. It tells the story of a machine that manipulates the weather in any way possible for as long a distressed teenager it cares about can become happy.

Joining this year’s IPCC was actually a last minute decision, first suggested by Mclelun. It was only a year ago we submitted Mesinaut for IPCC 2010 and was not even shortlisted for it. Learning from that experience, we decided to put more effort on the documentation this time around, reinforced with character designs by Daim who had also joined the team upon our invitation. Our efforts paid off this time when we receive an e-mail congratulating us for being shortlisted. With only a week away from pitching day, we scrambled to make a teaser and managed to finish it in 4 days.

Pitching day came. It wasn't frying hot that morning despite the venue being the Cyberview Lodge Resort in Cyberjaya. Yet in the presentation hall (puts on shades), things were about to get heated (YEEAAAAAAAAAH).

When our turn came Rogue handled the presentation. We proposed the idea as a TV series instead of film in hopes our budget would appear more attractive. Rogue gave a clear and concise pitch (he claims he learnt from Steve Jobs’s style of presenting). Then we played the teaser for Sunsastera.

For a while, the judges were silent. It was odd for we were expecting the torrent of questions like how the other teams got it. Finally one of them started asking question about budgets and the planned schedule for production. One nice comment she gave was that our idea is of very high quality and that it should be a film production instead. The judge from Astro said he only had one question: “What can we expect if we give you the RM50k?”

The other judges however decided to keep mum. And that made us unsure. Where were the questions about story, characters, and art direction that the other groups received? Is it a good or a bad thing that they’re not asking for any further detail? Perhaps Mesinaut’s past failure had also played a part in fuelling our uncertainty.

The results were announced some days later on a Friday. 20 winners were given the grant and fortunately, we were among them.

By the end of this program, we are expected to produce the complete Sunsastera trailer. Please look forward to it. We’re going to deliver our best.