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 —by Scott Frazier
The Panda Factor: The reaction from the local populace upon seeing someone not of their own national or ethnic background. So named because the stranger draws attention similar to what a panda in a zoo does. People come up and watch the panda and find everything it does (eating, sleeping, chewing, defecating) somehow fascinating and worthy of hooting noises. They are also amazed when the panda does anything they consider human. The Panda Factor is significantly higher in remote locations where fewer foreigners have been encountered. When I was a lowly cel painter, people coming into the studio were somewhat
surprised to see a big white foreigner working there. When I became a
production worker and had to go around to the different studios collecting
work that people were doing for us, that was very shocking to people at
those companies. Sometimes they didn't want to hand over the work because
they didn't think I was genuine.Then
I became a supervisor, first of the cel painting department and later
production. That got me a lot of weird reactions.When
I ran my own company, it was not very exciting because there are many
foreign company presidents who go to Japan to make deals and such. Working
with companies as an animation consultant wasn't too hard as they kind of
equivocate Americans with computer technology so it wasn't very shocking.
Doing the technical direction on a show was quite a challenge. I had to work with the artists and get everything to look right and get all the little artistic nuances in there. The
hardest job I had, however, was as assistant director. The
staff of the various departments always look worried, as if they are
terrified that I don't know what I was doing. I never told them that it was
my first time directing and tried to act competent.I put the animators at ease when I sent back the first retakes with notes
in Japanese so they not only could read them, but also show them that I
knew what I was
talking about. Perhaps they questioned them when I wasn't there but I never
had a problem with them.The background people were likewise no problem because I've had to deal
with the same situation from their side. They were somewhat concerned but
talking with them a bit and letting them know that I had done BGs for
a year helped a lot.The
production people are always worried but then, that's part of their job.
I try to give them as little to worry about as possible. I know they worry
whether I can read the scripts and the timesheets and everything else.
Most of the problem comes in reading and writing. Speaking is not that big of a problem. But you have to be able to read people's awful handwriting and make sense of notes that very tired people send. This also includes being able to read the storyboards and visualize the scenes in your head, just from a rough sketch and text. You also must write to them keeping in mind that the junior staff are often just out of high school and have a very rigid view of the world so if it isn't in a form that they can understand clearly you might get something really strange. Once they find out you are a foreigner some kind of mental defense barrier goes up and they will automatically not understand anything you send. (The barrier may be made of Pandamonium, the element of confusion and wonder.) I had to tell our production people to say, "The AD (assistant director) wants this or that" and not mention my name. It's been smooth since. I was very ready to take on the digital coloring and compositing people
because that's something that I know perhaps better than anyone else in the
country. Unfortunately, due to schedule problems I never got to get into the
computer room and had to call in all my retakes from the first edit. It was
almost a complete reversal of my previous experiences. The parts that I knew
best were the most distant and the things that were new to me were the ones
I had to deal with on an almost daily basis.
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