2007. For the second time (my fourth in India), I arrived in Hyderabad at midnight and found the city more promising than the first time I saw it. Two of my Indian colleagues picked me up at the airport and took me to my apartment for the night (Thanks to Deepak and Saravanan, I love you guys!).
I was called by Polygon Studios for the R&D of their new animated movie, but was asked to bring back (to my drawing board) the ‘Mayabazar’ song sequence which highlights their movie ‘Ghatothkach’. I did the production design and the thumbnail board of the ‘Mayabazar’ sequence six months back and thought that the production is over as claimed before I got in. Anyway, as for the schedule, I need to do it... again...
Polygon’s Director drops the first version which he approved earlier (In Manila after the approval of their Art Director) because of some "developments" both in the technical and creative. But this time, both the Producer's and his Director's idea would not sync so there’s a complication in the execution. But since the Director is away, I have to follow the producer’s call.
At first, the Producer gave me a bulk of references for the elements of the ‘Mayabazar’ so I have to integrate them in my design.
‘Mayabazar’ is a huge structure (out of magic) for the wedding of the movie’s hero and features a wedding hall, a reception, entertainment, etc. I was supplied with pictures of modern buildings and was brief on how the dome would look like which has to remain a bit conservative to complement the period, so I really have a limited freedom in the creative.
As soon as my preliminary design was approved, I have to visualize the details according to the story in the song. I have to ask my Indian partner to translate the song in English so I can explore in terms of storytelling.
On the Main Entrance, I created a tunnel of huge aquarium and establish a general look of a ‘crystal ball’. It leads to a spacious hallway to the main lobby.
The idea of coming up with a huge aquarium is to provide the tunnel (below) lights and shadows (cast from swimming fishes) that dance around the floor which I don’t want to come from a futuristic kind of ‘dancing lights’. The lights from under the ‘archway’ in the hallway are actually from billions of fireflies.
As with the Main Lobby, I was thinking of a huge spacious room with fewer elements to provide a great contrast in the size between the environment and the characters. According to the song, the characters are suppose to walk up on stairs to the next floor in e very short period of time so I came up with an escalator type of stairs (minus the structure) that starts from the floor and elevates to the next floor like an accordion.
The second floor is the Entertainment Gallery. Here, the producer wants to see everything we can find in a theme park. But the problem is, there is neither activity nor a shot in this area. Though the producer is eager to see this, I have to do it with reservations for the Directors comment.
Another Level is the ‘shopping place’ where I was asked to show a look that reflect an updated shopping structures but won’t over rate what was Hyderabad has at the moment. Here, the first thing I thought was to bring in the SM Mall of Asia element so for other Filipinos to notice, and Hyderabad’s Prasad for the characteristic.
Finally, the creation of the Wedding Hall. When I first heard the track of this sequence, I knew I would be dealing on a multitude of dancing and dancers as the Indian movies require. But the first thing I thought was the challenge to present a distinctive choreography which will not haul off the traditional Indian composition. So I asked my producer to find me the 1957 original Mayabazar movie and Indian music videos. 
To create an efficient environment according to the choreography, I have to visualize first and design the flow of the dancing and its composition. I have to do the thumbnail and let it ask for the elements needed in my Wedding Hall.
Because I want the wedding couple to stand at the center un-interrupted visually, and not the dancers to grab the attention, I designed them (dancers) to be dancing around at an elevated level in slow motion. I also don’t want them to dance while running or jumping so I made them sliding around as if they’re skating. I really love the Saris so I made the dancers in this colorful outfit but I want them to look magical so I recreated the Saris with an extended length that flows gracefully behind them floating colorfully in slow motion like fairies while the wedding is going on.
As soon as the Producer agrees to my concept, his PM came in to tell us that a hook-up sequence in the later part of the movie was already done and that it won’t match my design. They just let the Layout Artist assigned to create according to his interpretation. And that sequence is already in the Editing stage.
As time passed by and all elements were figured out and designs agreed upon, comes the day when our director visits the studio for this development.
After a short scan on my work, the Director junks everything! He was ‘sorry’ about it but there's another new development on the sequence. And that, he'll just do it according to his idea. So, he asked for a 3D artist to sit with him and do the Mayabazaar model in his instructions. They did it in-prompto without any drawing in his hand. Hmmm.... clever!
