A local transgender woman has been nominated for a WA Screen Award for her upcoming cartoon about a gang of ghoulish high school outcasts.
Animator Tanya Beeson was nominated for Best Short Animation at the Screen Awards this month. Her flash animation ‘Gate St High’ follows a group of spooky high school students including a zombie, a vampire and a werewolf.
The 35-year-old said it was ‘great’ to be nominated with more opportunities now on the horizon.
‘For me the nomination has a level of prestige to it, I have never been one pushing for myself out there but I would like my concepts and ideas to have world-wide appeal,’ she said.
‘The film is listed on the entertainment movie database so people could browse it worldwide.’
Currently, Gate St High has yet to be released for public viewing although the pilot episode was just completed in December. Beeson began work on the pilot in September 2009 and agreed the project was still pretty fresh.
While the cartoon was still in its early stages, Beeson hoped it could eventually tackle serious issues for young people.
‘I would like it to become a full-blown series but that requires a lot of planning,’ Beeson said.
‘I tried to give each of these characters a strong personality… it is a cartoon aimed at 10 -14 year-olds, but I would eventually like it to become more of an animated comedy version of Degrassi; just in terms of the themes I can touch on.
‘I guess the main theme from the show is “who is the bigger monsterâ€: the people who are mean and horrible or the people who are actually monsters?’
Beeson and co-creator Ryan Young developed the concept in 2005 under the working title, ‘Schoolies’. However, Beeson went on to write the original script alone and has written enough scripts and outlines for at least a couple of seasons.
‘…It just depends on how the industry likes it and whether they are interested in taking it further,’ Beeson said.
The 24th WA Screen Awards take place at the Octagon Theatre, UWA on Saturday 19 March.
Benn Dorrington
