In those halcyon days before Trump’s stunning victory in the Presidential Election, the Romanian Production Company FrameBreed took a step into what we all thought to be an alternative reality where the billionaire mogul emerged victorious. Addressing his nation, an animated Trump offers up an extravagant and self-indulgent rap, all while getting his groove on and pulling some of his trademark facial expressions, wonderfully realised by director Bad History. But how is the video seen now that President Donald Trump is a reality?
LBB’s Adam Bennett spoke to Bad History, a collaborative group lead by Andrei Brovcenco, to find out more...
LBB> Well, first
things first- did you ever entertain the thought that Trump could actually win
when you made this video?!
BH> We are not US based, we’re from Romania and our media
was bombarded with the US presidential campaign. The subject was intriguing and
we came out with the premise of our video: “what if Trump wins”? Little did we
know that this was going to happen, of course!
LBB> The animation
is very disquieting and made us feel quite uncomfortable! How did you capture
that feeling?
BH> The initial intent was to create an animated
caricature of Trump and how he was portrayed by the mainstream media with the
help of local animation studio FrameBreed. The direction was to go for
exaggerated poses, disregarding some aspects of motion and anatomy. I think the
unsettling element comes as a result of multiple factors that are building the
uncanny depiction of the real character. Of course, we had little time for this
project, less than a month, so we had to compromise on many levels.
LBB> How do you
think this video is going to be viewed in light of the fact that Trump actually
won?
BH> I think the common viewer will say “hah, this
actually happened! How did they know?” or will share it as a joke with their
friends, describing in a funny manner the turn of events. Or, they will hate
it, for the obvious reasons.
LBB> What was the
initial reaction to this video (before he won!)?
BH> People viewed it more as a song than an animated
short, everyone was booing the music and some of them insinuated fat shaming.
And, of course, because it’s politics, there’s a lot of hatred. This didn’t
bother us; we think it’s great that it generated strong reactions. Also, stats
showed a lot of activity in the Mexico area, people were sharing and tagging
each other on Facebook.
LBB> What was the
trickiest part of making this video and how did you overcome it?
BH> We had very short time to work and the constant flow
of material that the real Trump was constantly fuelling was overwhelming.
LBB> Any parting
thoughts?
BH> Yes, we’re planning to release more shorts with
different figures from present and past, tangled with controversy that the
media surrounded them. I think there are people that might be interested and we
encourage them to follow our channel.