Shawnee Gibbs
(on Adopted By Aliens):
Since I'm the oldest,
I get to go first. Ha!
Adopted
By Aliens was Shawnelle's idea. We've got notebooks and notebooks
of story ideas that have never seen the light of day, but ABA
was something special. We just began developing the premise of
the series and it was hilarious--we couldn't stop! [We were really
ambitious considering that neither of us has a formal animation
background. Though we've gone to film school and know the process
of creating films, animation is a bird of another feather].The
characters kept coming, the story ideas kept coming, we were doodling
and laughing and arguing and fighting...ahem...the wonderful world
of working with family.
We've
always been passionate dreamers and being such, we never questioned
whether or not things would happen. We've been naive enough to
actually believe that the sky is the limit, and that hard work
occasionally pays off. As kids no one ever told us that we couldn't
succeed at whatever we wanted to do. If we told our mother today
that we planned on being circus trapeze artists, she'd probably
wish us well, knowing we'd give it everything we had.
Animation
is hard work! I can't call anyone over and tell them to bring
the props. I've gotta create them. No cameraman, no hair and makeup
artists, nada. Shawnelle and I had to create everything from the
ground up. It's been challenging, rewarding, and even a little
life-altering. I don't have any kids but just creating Whitney
and her gang and seeing them through their problems, makes me
feel like a 'mother' in a strange way. With all the LABOR put
into this project, I can certainly call it my 'baby,' so you'd
better not say it's ugly! :)
Shawnelle
Gibbs (on Adopted By Aliens):
I've
always considered us to be "Idea People."
Ever
since we were young, whether we were the "rescue ranger team"
comprised of the two of us and various cousins aligned to fight
crime in the neighborhood, or selling toys, baseball cards and
candy under our "big business" moniker, we were always
brainstorming and re-evaluating our purpose for being on this
earth.
Like
all of our narrative projects, with ABA, we wanted a didactic
story, a way to reach (particularly young) people with a tale
that had texture and meaning. We certainly wanted to find a way
to bypass the filmmaker's traditional festival route, which has
often proved to be more hassle than it's worth. It was becoming
increasingly obvious that the web was our most feasible form of
distribution.
And
then there was Whitney. A little girl with a global-sized problem,
who's story, in our opinion, was just itching to be told. I fell
in love with her the moment we began sketching her likeness, and
like a loving parent, have been working to nurture and protect
her since the day of her conception.
Because
we've decided (again) to go TOTALLY independent with this project,
long hours, ailing social lives and stressed out appearances have
plagued us for the past few months. Or is it years?
There's
been days when, after my foot has gone to sleep before I have
at three o'clock in the morning, I've questioned why I continue
to press forward.
"For
Whitney!" comes the answer. And for all the girls that believe
they're too small for the world when they are, indeed, larger
than the universe.
