外文翻译---马来西亚的动画产业处于十字路口.doc

本科毕业论文（设计）外 文 翻 译原文：Malaysian animation at the crossroadsTaylor andMalaysias first animation television series was screened in 1995. In less than ten years, the industry has produced numerous ongoing animation TV series, feature films and telemovies. This is an unprecedented feat among the ASEAN countries, considering that Malaysia does not have established studios, as in the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Although these countries offer animation services to foreign studios, none of them has its own ongoing feature films or TV series.It would seem, then, that the Malaysian long-form animation industry is on the threshold of greater things to come. However, the general consensus among producers and practitioners is that the industry is not headed anywhere. Breaking into the global market is the possible answer, but this is easier said than done. Except for the output of a few studios, quality is substandard or just average. The majority of the producers are satisfied with supplying animation series only to Radio-Televisyen Malaysia (RTM, the Government channel), as it is the only TV station that pays about US$10,000 for a half-hour animation episode. All other TV stations only offer about US$500. A common complaint among producers is that animation graduates are only trained in animation techniques but lack knowledge in areas such as story, miseen-scene , cinematography, editing and acting. There is no specialization in local studios, and animators have to double-up as writers, directors and designers. With this kind of scenario, the Governments desire to create more local content especially content that reflects a national identity appears to be compromised.This paper will, firstly, look at the state of the long-form animation industry and its development. Secondly, it will look at animation training, and whether students are being properly prepared for the real world. Lastly, this paper will look at the foreign influences on narrative, design and techniques of Malaysian animators, and whether auniquely Malaysian identity is being forged.The state of the industryThe average price offered by TV stations for a half-hour episode is only about US$500. Therefore, the only avenue open to producers is RTM, which in 1995, offered about US$12,000. This drew producers into the industry, who thought that by finishing three or four episodes a month, they could recoup their investments and make a profit at the same time. Without the necessary experience and knowledge, some of them soon ended up in the red, including missing the deadlines for delivery. So as to deliver on time and reduce expenses, some producers cut corners by compromising on the animation. RTM, to its credit (?), recognized the difficulty of producing animation, and overlooked the shortcomings during the early stages.The economic downturn of the late 1990s caused RTM to cut its budget per episode by 15 percent. Whereas previously RTM commissioned producers, it now decided to have an open tender system. This created havoc in the industry, resulting in some animation studios not getting any contracts, while studios that had been just set up and without animation production experience, received more than one tender. Some of these studios farmed out the animation to smaller companies instead of handling it with their own in-house personnel. Others got some of the work done cheaply in the Philippines or Indonesia, which actually defeated the governments objective to encourage the development of an animation industry using local manpower.The unsuccessful studios had to retrench their staff as they could not afford the high overheads. And as if that was not enough, the delay in getting the approved tenders resulted in the selected studios temporarily laying off their staff. Many animators and other creative staff were disillusioned by the situation and never came back to the animation industry, moving on to unrelated, but more stable jobs. This was a big loss to the industry as all of them had been trained by these studios, and had had years of experience. The problem became further compounded with RTM commissioning only one season of 13 episodes and spreading it out over many studios. Previously there were only about eight studios and this worked well as they went on to do about four seasons each. James Ooi of Makmur Megah lamented over this fact:The cake is now smaller and our overheads are higher. RTM just doesnt understand our problems (personal interview, 12 August 2005). The only way out for him and the other producers was for their programmes to be sold overseas.Marketing woesThe Government was aware that exporting local animation would help to galvanize the industry and make it less dependent on RTM. Many efforts have been made to promote animation globally by the Government through various agencies such as the National Film Development Corporation (FINAS), and the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC). But with the tight deadline and low returns locally (now at US$10,000 per episode), producers were not able to reach an optimum level of quality that would enable them to sell their animation series overseas.Participation at film markets was also an added financial burden for animation producers, as most are only set up to do animation (except for those who had other television programmes节目 to sell). Without an overseas market, producers cannot spend more money to employ skilled personnel who can enhance production values acceptable to an international audience. And quality productions could only be realized with the involvement of qualified animators.Animation graduates woesThis has put animation graduates in a quandary. Even when employed by these studios,they are not really able to put their knowledge and training to proper use as all the TV series use the cel animation technique, whereas the majority of graduates are trained in 3D animation. Only three institutions of higher learning have formal training courses in cel animation techniques, the rest specialize in teaching 3D animation techniques. Cel animators need a high skill level for figure drawing and animation methodology. This takes many years to master, and so producers end up providing training, thus slowing down production. Compounding the problem is the absence of specialization of labour. A professional studio requires key staff, usually made up of the Executive Producer, Director, Writer, Animation Director, Art Director, and Character/ Costume/Props and Background Designers. But in a typical Malaysian studio, this hierarchy is non-existent. The animator is simply asked to double up in most of these roles and sometimes he or she may even end up doing the cartoon characters voices as well!Forging a national identityForging a national identity that reflects the art, culture and traditions of the peoples of Malaysia has been problematic, given the many races in the country, but it is something that the Government has been addressing. However, how far this can be achieved is not easy to determine. Students and practitioners (and the general public), are bombarded with foreign films, TV series, books, magazines and merchandisingthat are being aggressively marketed This influences their lifestyle, including the work they do. And it shows. Keluang Man (UAS Animation 1997) is a prime example. The main characters are based on the comic book creations of Batman and Robin , and do not represent anything common to Malaysia.Only the dialogue gives any indication of its local origin. All the series are in Bahasa Malaysia, the national language, but some of them use a Malay dialect common to some of the states in Malaysia. This goes down well with the majority of the Malay audience, but is unintelligible to a non-Malay one, thus effectively reducing its wider circulation.Malaysias folktales and legends abound with superheroes and most are well known among locals. Perhaps for thisreason, all three animation feature films The Malaysian mousedeer (Sang Kancil) had every potential to become as popular as Mickey Mouse or Pluto. Because of its small size and agility, the mousedeer has acquired a certain mystique, and at the same time, became a metaphor for the little guy who has to survive in the cruel world. If the character had been taken up by the private sector, it could have generated income in many forms, including merchandising. Advertisers, too, would have scrambled to the TV stations to sponsor the show as ratings would have been high. With consistent showings, the mousedeer could have gone into the collective memory of the nation and become an icon, just like Hollywoods cartoon characters.Foreign influences on Malaysian animationA tendency to copy foreign animation, especially Japanese animation (anime), can be seen in the design and animation of TV series such as Anak-anak Sidek (1999), Yokies (Filem Negara Malaysia 1997) and Sang Wira (Jutakira 1996). One of the reasons is that most of the animators who were involved were once trained by Japanese animators.Anime has its own unique characteristics, and is very different from Western animation and design. The character of Sang Wira was a modified copy of Doraemon while one of the sub-characters in Edi and Cici looks suspiciously like Pikachu Ngat dan Taboh (Alternatif Entertainment 2002), portraying the antics of a bear and a bee, has much better animation than the majority of the series, but the storyline had obviously been modelled after Tom and Jerry . However, Kampong Boy (Matinee Entertainment 1997), based on the characters of the internationally- known cartoonist Lat, is seen as one that best portrays the countrys image in terms of its culture and traditions. This was mainly due to Lats personal involvement in the project, which was developed in the USA and animated in the Philippines. The feature films, Silat Legenda and Mann Spider,too, have strong anime influences in their character design and background paintings.The new wave of animatorsLocal training institutions do emphasize study and research for final-year students animation projects. A number of these works reflect the various races and nations heritage and identity. Works that stand out are Zhang Kong Wahs student project, Coral Reefs (Bunga Karang) (1993), the earliest fulllength student project, about the tragic death of a Malay fisherman who becomes obsessed with sunken treasure. This film was manually-animated and painted. Another student, Alan Aziz, studied animation in Poland but came back to Malaysia to develop a local story for his Singapore Overrun by Swordfish(Singapura Dilanggar Todak) (Aziz2000).The story was based on the wellknown legend of a fishing village and how a boy saved the villagers from swordfish.It was manually animated but finished digitally. Tan Jin Hos 3D film, A Malaysian Friday (Tan 2001), became the rave of the industry and won some awards, including the PrimeMinisters Merit Award.Others in the lineup are Mohd Zahir Zainal Abidins Cutt! (2002), Teo Yong Jins Coffeeshop (2002),Shairul Azwani Omars Behind Doors (2003),Gui Tien Chiens Revolution (2004), Noor Azera Sohris Light (2004), and Vimala Perumals Lord of the Dance (2004).All these films are Asian in character and make use of Malaysian stories and characters, with some of them reflecting the racial, social and religious backgrounds of the filmmakers. Some of the recurring motifs used are batik and wayang kulit, the Malay shadow play.35 Diffan Sinas Woman of the Cosmos (Wanita Kosmos) (2004), is a sly dig at Malaysian life (specifically, Muslim and Malay). A woman with a head covering (tudung), is selected to go into outer space with some Russians astronauts. She returns, is awarded the honorific Dato, gets married and then gives birth to a blue-eyed baby soon after!ConclusionThe addition of Heritage (Warisan), to the functions of the Arts and Culture Ministry recently,39 actually augurs well for the local entertainment industry. The entertainment industry in South Korea has for a long time now been rightly designated a culture industry. Malaysian works, be they film, video or digitally-created, will one day be the nations heritage. And it is all the more urgent now to create local content, as more extremely well-made foreign productions are swamping TV stations, and are targeted at children. In 2004, ASTRO, the satellite station, launched more than 600 new animated TV series on its Disney Asia channel, as reported in the local newspaper (Utusan Malaysia 2004). It is important to understand that cultural production, business, and the government are inextricably connected, and, in fact, it is frequently the common interests of business and governmentthat produces culture (Smoodin 1993:136137).Source: Hassan Abdul MUTHALIB ,2007“From mousedeer to mouse: Malaysian animation at the crossroads”, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Vol 8, No.2, pp.289-297.译文：马来西亚的动画产业处于十字路口从鼷鹿到老鼠：马来西亚的动画产业处于十字路口马来西亚的第一部动画连续剧于1995年出现在银幕上。在不到十年的时间里，该产业已经生产了多部动画片、故事片、电视电影。鉴于马来西亚和其他国家如菲律宾、泰国、越南和印度尼西亚等都还没有成立电影制片厂，这已经是东盟国家中获得的空前的业绩了。虽然其他的东盟国家为外国的电影制片厂提供服务，但是没有一个像马来西亚一样有自己正在制作的故事片或动画连续剧。我们可以看到，经过长时间形成的马来西亚动画产业处于即将迎来更大的成就的起点上。但是，生产商和开业者之间的共识却是动画产业不会发展得多好。进入国际市场是可能的，但是说的总比做的容易。除了几家电影制片厂的产品外，其他的动画产品质量都不合格或者仅处于平均水平。大部分生产商也仅仅满足于为马来西亚广播电视台（以下称RTM）提供动画片，这是唯一一家会为每集半小时的动画支付一万美元的电视公司。其他电视台只愿意支付五百美元。生产商们都在抱怨动画专业的毕业生只会动画设计，而在故事设计、电影艺术、编辑、演出方面则缺乏必要的相关知识。马来西亚的制片厂并不专业化，动画片绘制者要同时扮演作家、导演、设计者三重角色。在这种情况下，政府终于放弃了要创造更多当地性的动画内容尤其是能反映国家特点的内容的想法。这篇文章首先会介绍动画产业的形成过程和发展。其次，介绍动画培训情况，以及学生是否为应对现实世界作好准备。最后会介绍外国对马来西亚动画绘制者在叙述、设计和技术上的影响，以及马来西亚的特点是否正在形成。动画产业现状电视台给每集半个小时的动画片的平均价格只有500美元。因此，唯一可以给生产商带来可观收入的只有马来西亚广播电视台，1995年，它曾给每集动画片支付12000美元。这使很多生产商都加入到动画产业的行列，他们认为只要一个月完成三、四集动画片就可以赚回本金并在同一时间开始获利。由于没有必要的经验和知识，包括没有按期生产出产品，一些生产商以亏本告终。所以为了及时播出和减少开支，一些生产商会剪切掉动画的一部分。值得表扬的是，马来西亚广播电视台认识到生产动画的困难，但是在最初的阶段却忽视了动画产业发展中存在的某些缺点。二十世纪经济低迷，导致RTM对每集动画片减少15%的预算。和之前RTM委托生产商相比，现在它决定形成公开投标的系统。动画产业的这一浩劫导致很多动画工作室没有签到一份合同，一些刚刚建立的还没有生产经验的工作室只接到一两个投标。其中一些工作室把动画包出去，变成一个小公司，而不再由自己内部的工作人员独立制作动画。其他的工作室则接菲律宾或印度尼西亚的廉价工作，这完全击溃了马来西亚政府想利用当地人力资源来发展动画产业的目标。不成功的工作室必须要裁减员工，因为它们已经付不起高昂的经常性支出。因为资金不足，迟迟不能拿到已经通过的投标会使部分工作室不得不临时解雇员工。很多动画绘制者和有创造力的员工在这种情况面前醒悟了，他们于是再也不会回到动画工作室，而是去做其他合动画无关的，但是更稳定的工作。对于动画工作室来说，这无疑是巨大的损失，因为这些人受过工作室的培训，也积累了多年的经验。而当RTM委托给各个工作室的生意只有每季度13集动画时，问题就变得更严重了。以前只有八个工作室，它们在一年四个季度里都能顺利进行工作，而现在，正如詹姆士哀叹道：“蛋糕越来越小，我们的经常性支出却越来越大，RTM根本就不了解我们面临的问题”。他和其他生产商的唯一出路就是把他们的项目外销。市场灾难政府知道出口本国动画可以刺激动画产业，并使它不那么依赖RTM。政府曾通过很多机构（例如国家电影发展公司、多媒体发展公司）做过各种努力希望促进动画的全球化。但是由于严格的截止日期和低回报率，生产商所制作的动画还没有达到较好的质量水平，以至于无法将这些动画连续剧销往国外。加入电影市场使生产商承受更大的财政压力，因为他们只生产动画片（除了有些还有其他的电视节目可以卖）。没有海外市场，生产商就无法赚到更多的钱来雇佣有技术的员工，而只有这样的员工才可以提高产品的质量，才可以满足国外观众的需求。动画专业毕业生的灾难动画专业的毕业生已经陷入窘境。即使被动画工作室雇佣，他们也不能把自己在学校里学到的知识和技能适当地应用到制作电视剧需要运用的动画“帧”技术，他们大部分人都只受过3D动画制作的训练。只有三个高等教育机构有正式的动画“帧”技术训练课程，其他的机构则教3D动画技术。帧的动画绘制者需要高水平的手绘能力和动画方法学。掌握这些需要很多年，所以生产商只好提供专门训练，也因此减慢了产品的生产速度。缺失专业劳动力使问题更加严重。一个专业的工作室需要核心员工，通常由制片执行、导演、作家、动画绘制者、艺术导演、人设和背景设计者组成。但是在马来西亚的工作室里，这样的集团是不存在的。动画绘制者被要求担任上述多重角色，甚至在有的时候，他们还要给动画配音！形成国家特点形成能够反映国家艺术、文化和马来西亚民族传统的国家特点是很困难的