Shanghai's usually about the big screen, but Eric Ransdell and FLY Films look to the small (cab) screens in mid July to make their mark on Shanghai and the future film industry.

Tell us about your upcoming film. It's called Shanghai 2088: Safe Harbor and it's an animated noir thriller about a private eye whose partner is murdered.

Animated noir? Basically, it's animation with a hell of a lot of shadows and shading. Of course it also draws influences from classic American private eye movies and the incredible lighting techniques used on those films.

How did you come up with the look and feel for the animation? We’ve consciously tried to stay away from Japanese anime, which we’re fans of but it’s a look that everyone in China has already been exposed to. We put a lot of energy into coming up with something that’s hopefully a little different. We’ve been very lucky to have a talented group of young Chinese animators and 3D artists working with us on this project. And the response from all of them, when we’ve shown them concept drawings, storyboards, etc., has been, “Wow, we’ve never seen anything like this in China before,” which is exactly the kind of response we’re hoping for.

We hear you're distributing this short in a unique way? The first three episodes will go up on I-Level Media in the back of Jinjiang taxis [the white ones], then hopefully everyone will get completely hooked by the story and we’ll see where it goes from there. The idea is to turn Shanghai 2088: Safe Harbor into an ongoing series, but for that we’re going to have to find sponsorship.

When we think film, we normally think theaters. Why are you taking your new flick to the (very) small screen? We think the future is in short form entertainment. YouTube and TuDou.com are huge here. With 3G rolling out, mobile entertainment is what's coming next. You can also reach a broad cross-section of the population with taxi-based media. Although the screens are small, the quality is actually very good–you can tell if something has been done well or not. And, let's face it, anything that will take your mind off Shanghai's traffic has to be a good thing.

Why set the film in 2088? I came up with the idea when I was filming on the 101st floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center for a documentary we're doing for SWFC's developers, Mori Building Company. We were outside on the roof, getting a night shot of Shanghai and the view from 492 meters above the city was absolutely mind-boggling. I kept thinking, “If this is what Shanghai looks like today, what will it look like fifty or eighty years from now?”

What should people look for when watching the film? In episodes two and three, people will begin to understand why we've called this "Safe Harbor." Our vision is a future shaped by global warming. I won't give too much away, except to say that in 2088, the polar caps have melted and there’s a sea wall 12-kilometers high that protects the city and many of the traffic jams in the future will take place on the Huangpu.

What’s one thing people should know about this film? I’ve tried to involve a lot of smart friends in this project. For example, we’ve had conversations with local architects Sacha Silva and Raefer Wallace from A00 and James Brearley from BAU about what Shanghai might look like 80 years from now. And those guys have really helped us shape our vision of a future where global warming has become the nightmare scenario that’s being predicted today. What’s cool about it is that Shanghai has survived and is thriving, so our conversations are about how a city might plan for catastrophic climate change, what sources of renewable energy will be powering the city and how will all of this manifest itself in the look and feel of Shanghai 2088.

What’s your favorite part of the film? Working with intelligent, creative people--whether it’s our own team at FLY Films, our Chinese animators or our architect friends. With our next two episodes we want to involve even more people. We’re currently talking to some Shanghainese fashion designers and contemporary artists because we’re finding that the more intelligent people we bring into this conversation the more rich, complex and detailed our vision of the future becomes.

How long have you been working on these first episodes? We’ve been working on the first episode for about five months, which is much longer than we’d planned, to say the very least. So it’s been a steep learning curve for us in terms of doing all the animation ourselves in-house. And for the young Chinese animators working with us, I think it’s been even steeper. Which is why I come into the office most mornings to find one or two of them asleep on our couches after pulling yet another all-nighter. I think episodes 2 and 3 will go much faster. But what’s become glaringly apparent is that to do this animation at the level of quality we’re demanding takes a huge amount of time.

You company has done a lot of other film work, but not animation--why make the change? We’ve done 2D and 3D animation for a number of projects, but it’s always been for a client. So this was a chance to do something completely for ourselves and be as creative as we possibly can, which is a great exercise for any creative business to go through. What’s great about animation is that you’re only limited by your imagination. If you can dream it up, somebody can draw it.

Your company, FLY Films, also showed a film at Pangea Day, right? Sure did. Although I was in Beijing on a shoot the weekend of the Pangea festival, so my partner and producer Norm Wong was there to present it.

Why did you get involved in that project? What did you hope to get out of it? It was a documentary I directed in 2005 called Shanghai Gloaming about my friend Greg Girard and his five-year art project photographing the disappearing lanes and neighborhoods of Shanghai. I got involved when some producers in Rome approached me about doing a documentary. And I thought a film about Greg’s project would be an extraordinary way of examining the velocity of change that is transforming this city. So we followed Greg around for about six months and made the film.

What else can people look for from FLY Flims coming up in the near future? On the corporate side, we’re busy with some major projects related to the Olympics. In terms of entertainment, we’re in talks with a couple of different producers and corporations about doing more animation. And some investors in Hong Kong have approached us about doing a non-fiction television series--a lot on the hook at the moment. More than anything else though, we’re just continuing to push to do even more creative work, for both our clients and ourselves.

Any advice for Shanghai’s young film makers? Shoot as much and as often as you can. There’s no substitute for being behind the camera. You can spend years trying to raise a budget or getting a green light for a project. If you have a film you’re absolutely dying to make, get a bunch of talented friends together and go out and make it. It may not set the world on fire, but what’s certain is that the next film you make is going to be even better.