BRIGHT SPOTS OF 2020 - PART 1 OF 3

No bones about it, it’s been a shit year on so many levels. All of us who’ve gotten through it with our health have a lot to be thankful for.

I feel particularly thankful for the creative projects I’ve had this year - so here I’m highlighting a few of them.

KATY PERRY - HARLEYS IN HAWAI’I

A concept drawing of the Hula Lamp Dancer by the artists at Váscolo Studio

This project means so much to me. But when the pitch came to Adam Bolt and I, it scared me. Here’s why:

I am lucky enough to have grown up in and around the Hawaiian community. My Mom, Māhealani Uchiyama, is a Kumu Hula and her life has exposed me to many arts and traditions from throughout Polynesia.

One thing that was clear to me from a VERY young age is that Hula, Hawai’i and Polynesia overall have often been disrespected and reduced in Hollywood and in animation. Girls with rubbery arms and grass skirts, natives with spears, tiki torches, tiki bars, etc… Reductionist, kitsch.

Now Hawaiian kitsch isn’t always bad. Some of it is wonderful. But there’s a lot that’s downright racist and to many people, Hawaiian kitsch is all they know of Polynesia.

When I first heard the song “Harleys in Hawai’i” my mind both naturally drifted towards kitsch iconography as a visual direction and recoiled from it. And from that dissonance popped an idea: What if we made a video in the style of some of the early animated cartoons that helped bring us Polynesian kitsch, but instead of featuring racist tropes we work with advisors to feature authentic Hawaiian culture? What if we commissioned a Hawaiian Kumu Hula to choreograph a dance for us that we’d animate in this old, previously reductionist style, to celebrate the beautiful parts of kitsch and replace the ugly parts with genuine cultural expression? What if the lead characters were local Hawaiians and the perspective of the video was theirs?

We pitched the idea, and to our surprise, Katy Perry (God bless her) wanted to make it.

Here are some behind-the-scenes artifacts. My blog about this video continues below.

Concept art for the Katy character by the artists at Váscolo Studio.

More concept art by the artists at Váscolo Studio

Close to finalized character designs by the artists at Váscolo Studio

One of my favorite background paintings by the artists at Váscolo Studio. The statue of King Kamehameha I.

Kaila DeFries performs a dance by Kumu Hula Patrick Makuakāne as an animation reference. Animation by Váscolo Studio.

This video could not exist without our cultural advisors. Patrick Makuakāne is a Kumu Hula who’s dedicated a good part of his artistic career to forwarding what Hula can be and where it can go. He created the dance you see in the film, the chanting you hear, and he helped me work out some of the core ideas of the video. My Mom, Māhealani Uchiyama stayed up late nights helping to ensure that our designs and story beats were considerate of the culture. Sulu’ape Keone Nunes is central in Hawai’i reclaiming kākau (tattoo) as a cultural and spiritual practice. He generously advised us on the tattoos and tattooing you see.

The video would also not exist without Váscolo animation studio and their team of artists. They labored very, very, very hard to design and animate the video. Accurately emulating 1930s animation, honoring cultural specificity, and hitting specific musical timings are not easy, and I’m very proud of their results.

Brian Covalt, who is a brilliant animator in his own right, shepherded this fairly massive music video as a producer with grace, compassion and thoughtfulness. Sara Nix at Partizan is the only reason we got the chance to make this at all. And thank you to Targa Sahyoun, of Capital Records, for your partnership and support.

I’m so grateful that I got the chance to make this with Adam Bolt. In a dark year, this was a big bright spot.