Irish-owned LGBTQ + animation studio launches crowdfunding for stop-motion musical • GCN

“As two married men in their forties, we want to tell stories about how Irish society has become inclusive and stories that explore different Irish identities.

The touching idea for the animated drag musical Bovina Buttermilk Biscuit was born from the talented brains of Joe and John, collaborative creators of Studio 9, the Irish LGBTQ + animation studio. Incredibly, the duo conceived the idea after recalling a GCN article about a gay farmer breaking LGBTQ + stereotypes in farming.

“The idea for Bovina came when we were on vacation at the Black Waters in Co Waterford ”, they continue,“ we had reviewed West Side Story and walking down the back roads when the idea emerged to make an animated musical.

“The GCN article gave us the possibility that the main character is a farmer. There was a quote from the article that said: “I wish I had known that the person who had the biggest problem with this was myself. This quote gave an idea of ​​the overall narrative and a potential solution to the farmer’s struggle. On a personal level, this story was very touching and we discussed the similarities in our own release experience. The GCN article gave us the structure and frame of our story, ”the duo told us.

Bovina Buttermilk Biscuit is a heartwarming stop-motion animated musical about secret desires made public with the support of family and friends. Liam, a farmer in the countryside, hides his pleasant dancing moments as Bovina. When the neighbors get it, they put on a fabulous talent show inviting Bovina to perform.

Established in 2018, Irish LGBTQ + animation studio has developed its unique hybrid movement / digital style, working with a range of business and cultural clients in Ireland and abroad. Bovina Buttermilk Biscuit is the next stop on this journey, stepping into a stop-motion animation studio that features stories from Irish life and celebrates the diversity of what it means to be Irish through animation.

On the importance of Studio 9 in their own lives, Joe and John write that “aa married couple who live and work in the same building (the studio is in the basement and we live upstairs), it has truly become intimately linked to the very fabric of our lives.

“We have a symbiotic relationship with the studio, it needs constant care and attention and in return it provides a foundation from which we can develop and grow.

Since the idea of ​​creating stop-motion 2 years ago, they say that “we have developed the concept with regular collaborators; the screenplay with Saoirse Anton and the characters with David Delaney. We were shortlisted for funding, but ultimately failed. However, at this point, we had fallen in love with the story and the characters and decided to try and find a way to do it on our own.

Ultimately, “we got funding to take a course with Aardman Studios in Bristol to learn how to animate stop motion puppets, and we got funding from Screen Ireland to learn how to build puppets. Finally, we created our own crowdfunding page on Fundit and produced a promotional video, ”they say.

On the importance of being able to create the story of Bovina Buttermilk Biscuit, Joe and John say that “Bovina is ultimately about diversity and inclusion and Liam comes to terms with himself and is accepted by the community at large ”, and draws inspiration from their own life experiences:“ TThe theme of the film reminded us of the excitement of Club nights like HAM and the incredible drag performances there. These clubs were spaces where anything was allowed, the more scandalous the better! It was a pivotal time for us and in some ways, in creating the Bovina, history replicated the excitement of that time.

For Joe and John, stop-motion puppets will transcend the limits of other animation techniques because of the 3D characters that “cCreate engaging worlds that convey emotions and create a believable platform for telling those stories.

As for the studio itself, Joe and John found their perfect artistic medium in stop-motion: “The animation industry is booming in Ireland at the moment. We are developing a niche within this industry, as one of the few studios to do stop-motion animation, ”they say.

Not only is the animation fantastic, but Joe and John’s goals for Studio 9 are incredibly lofty. When asked what it meant to be able to fully create this project, they told us: “We shape our own unique identity as a studio in terms of the stories we choose to tell and how we tell them. We want to use our voice as a studio to represent a real sense of Irish today!

Support this worthy project on their Fundit page, so that we can all enjoy Bovina’s story ASAP and receive more phenomenal content from Studio 9!

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