Thesis Statement

​

For my research, I decided to tackle culture and how to best implement that into animated stories by looking at previous movies, their methods, filmmaker’s intent, and audience reaction. This meant looking into topics such as appropriation, globalization, and cultural exchange. I wanted to learn more about the experience of overseas Filipino workers, weavers and other craftspeople in the country, and the support towards local art or handicraft industries.

 

“Between the Lines” is a story that has overarching themes of trade through the lens of a young girl looking to make her family business succeed. Despite the many topics I looked through, the heart of the story is that of art and connection between a young girl and her overseas father. It’s a mirror to my own experience with my father as he stayed in the United States for several years to get us there. Despite the distance, he was always there for us. He gave me my first digital tablet and continued to encourage my skills as I began to post art online, and it was one of the biggest points that led me to my artistic career today. I created this animatic and its larger story as a way to explore the nuanced situation of having a parent overseas, and how art acted as a bridge for us to connect over the years.

 

As for how my research applies to my thesis, the setting and characters are all representative of the critical points I mentioned and have design elements drawn from the Spanish-Colonial era. While I’ll be using parts of what I know from my culture, my characters’ backgrounds and histories are outside of my own experiences of living in the country. Therefore, I want to apply what I’ve learned from my paper into how I think about my story. Overall, this story touches on a lot of personal feelings, experiences, and new things I’d learned: of being a Filipino immigrant and as an artist hoping to make something that resonates with someone.