A participant’s advice from research Denise was involved with, formed the inspiration for this project. The brief was to create an animation that promoted being safe to whānau, and communicated the main message to “Pause, stop blaming, recognize and reflect, start listening or seek help.”

Yarilo’s first step in the project was to create a simple story board, to help the team get on board and agree on the scope of the animation and what it needed to communicate. Yarilo commented that the most challenging part was thinking of an idea that can encompass such a widespread and sensitive topic, but in a culturally and socially appropriate way.

Following the creation of the storyboard, an appropriate script was then created, that would go alongside the animation to enhance the overall message. The art style was decided to be simplistic but clean and high enough in detail to be viewed and understood by people of most ages, across all devices and platforms. To ensure a coherent style and feel across the individual still frames of the animation, a set of reference imagery was captured and used specifically for this project. Each frame was then drawn one after the other to make sure there was an accurate sense of continuity within the final animation.

Interning with Good Health Design over the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic was not easy, with many Zoom meetings and plenty of back and forth emails throughout the project, but Yarilo did well to complete the project alongside our collaborators. Here’s what he had to say about his experience — “Interning and working at GHD was a very valuable and necessary experience for a design student such as myself. It made me realize a plethora of things when it comes to working on real world projects. The collaborative environment between Stephen, Denise and myself was very refreshing in a sense that all of us cared about the project and wanted it to become a reality as quickly and efficiently as possible. We developed time constraints for each other with organized feedback and thinking sessions via Zoom meetings. Everyone involved in the animation project had to play their respective roles to their best efforts to ensure that the project would come along smoothly and without any unnecessary mistakes or wasted efforts.

Initially, there were many moments where I would find myself mentally a bit over my head. Dealing with expectations from real clients about an actual serious topic is different to just another university assignment. But with time and effort, towards the second half of the project I began to realize and understand how to operate more methodically and complete the tasks in an easier, less mentally challenging way. When all was said and done and the animation was complete, it felt really nice that I was part of a project which had real meaning and thought behind it."

The animation has been put onto the Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā National Māori Pandemic Group website, distributed to members of the Family Violence Sexual Violence Joint Venture Business Unit’s Interim Te Rōpū, and will be offered as a koha to interested community groups. 

Thanks to everyone who collaborated on this project.
Producers & Script: Denise Wilson & Stephen Reay
Illustration & Animation: Yarilo Kadalov
Graphic Design: Cassie Khoo
Composer & Performance (Original Music): Maree Sheehan
Translator and Vocals: Jamie Cowell
Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau Auckland University of Technology