The People's Republic of Animation
The People's Republic of Animation (PRA) is an animation studio based in Adelaide, Australia. It began as a creator of music videos for Australian bands in 2003, and has since created award-winning short films and TV commercials, and developed feature films. Foundation. As 14-year-olds, in 1996, PRA founders Eddie White, James Calvert & Hugh Nguyen began experimenting with a Super 8 film camera under the name of ‘Dabble Animation’. Their first short film "Natural Born Animators" (1998) was made two years later and achieved some national and international festival success on  the student film circuit, including a selection at the Student Animation Festival in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In 2000 White renamed the team 'The People's Republic of Animation', a name coined after he flipped through an old Funk & Wagnall's encyclopedia looking for titles and saw the heading 'The People's Republic of China' and liked the empire-like and grand connotations it had. Animator and sculptor Brodie McCrossin joined in 2000, and producer Sam White in 2002, and the company was officially formed in 2003. The company received their first government grant for a stop motion TV pilot and  computer animation for a music video in the same year. Works. The PRA has produced two Australian Film Institute (AFI) winning short films: "Fritz gets Rich" (2005) and "Carnivore Reflux" (2006). Carnivore Reflux was also voted best animated film by Australian audiences at the Inside Film Awards in 2006. Other notable productions include the international short film co-production with the Shanghai Animation Film Studio of China, "Sweet & Sour". White and Calvert directed the first of the Mitsubishi Lancer/Sony Tropfest 'supershort' films titled "Safer in a wild world", a one-minute short that blends 2D animation and 3D animation  in a pop-up storybook style. White and Ari Gibson of the PRA directed the short film "The Cat Piano", with narration by Australian artist Nick Cave. The PRA subsequently made two short films, "I Was A Teenage Butterfly" and "The Ghastly Gourmet Cooking Show".