Wing Chun - an animated short film

WING CHUN is a kinetic, adrenalin-filled, animated, kung-fu short film from acclaimed visual storyteller, Ant Sang.

The premise: 

A young woman, Yim Wing Chun, must fight a feared tyrant who she does not want to marry. Her only way to win freedom is to win a challenge fight. But against all odds and an opponent twice her size, she must summon all her inner strength to be triumphant.

This is a story steeped in martial arts myth and history, hurled into the 21st Century by eye-popping visuals and the pounding rhythm of Shihad's heavy-hitting rock-anthem ‘You Again’.

Ant Sang is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most respected visual storytellers.

He is known for his award-winning work as designer for the hit animated show bro’Town, for which he was responsible for designing characters and locations for its entire five seasons.

He is also known for his graphic novels The Dharma Punks and Shaolin Burning. His work has been published in New Zealand and throughout the US, UK, Canada, France and Taiwan.

Ant is also an emerging filmmaker and in recent years has explored film as a means of visual storytelling. He has directed six, live-action independent short and micro-short films. He co-wrote a screenplay which was selected as one of the top 20 submissions to the Black List New Zealand Project 2021.

Wing Chun is Ant’s first animated short film, for which he will be solely responsible for all the animation and editing.

Ant understands that money is tight during the current cost-of-living crisis. If you are in a position to support this project financially, Ant would greatly appreciate donations from you.

The funding will be used to pay for:

• Ant to animate, composite and edit the remainder of the short film
• Complete audio voice recording of the Wing Chun character
• Sound Design

If you’re unable to donate but want to support the project, you can help Ant spread the word to your friends, family, networks and other potential donors. Liking and sharing social media posts, word-of-mouth, and sharing the Boosted link with others would all be hugely appreciated. 

And finally, donors who support our project qualify for a 33% tax credit because Boosted is run by a charitable trust. 

The story.  

‘Wing Chun’ retells the origins of the famous Wing Chun style of kung fu (famous as the style Bruce Lee first learnt, and more recently popularized by Donnie Yen’s ‘Ip Man’ films). Created in the 1700s, the style is famous because it is one of the only martial arts developed by a woman; conceived as a style suitable for woman to defeat bigger, stronger opponents. Yim Wing Chun was an OG, kick-arse, female martial-artist.

Background. 

Because of Ant’s work on bro’Town (for which he designed character, prop and locations) many people assume that Ant is a trained animator, but this has never been the case.

Last year Ant began to study the animation process for the first time. He decided to learn animation by completing some scenes from a short film (Wing Chun) he began over 13 years ago. The film had been written, storyboarded, voices professionally recorded, music rights to Shihad’s You Again secured, original music by Karl Sölve Steven recorded, and an animatic (moving storyboard) completed. However, due to a number of challenging circumstances the film sat in limbo and was never completed.

So, Ant began learning the meticulous process of traditional 2D, frame-by-frame animation (think ‘Lion King’ rather than ‘South Park’). This is the process of animation in which every frame is drawn (twelve frames per second) to create an illusion of motion. Ant has been learning to apply key animation principles such as Anticipation, Squash and Stretch, Ease-in and Ease-out, Follow-through and Overlapping Action to his animation. It’s been laborious and pain-staking, but Ant has been thrilled to see the film coming to life with the animated scenes he has completed so far.

The animation process. 

‘Wing Chun’ is a 6-minute animated short film. It is drawn digitally but animated in the traditional, 2D, frame-by-frame style of animation. Ant is animating Wing Chun by drawing freehand on Adobe Photoshop and compositing and editing the film with Adobe Premiere Pro. Neither app are specifically designed for animation, but Ant’s familiarity with the programs have enabled him to produce quality animation with them.

What’s next. 

Ant has completed just over a third of ‘Wing Chun’. However animation is an extremely laborious process, and he now requires time (and funding) to complete the remainder of the film. He would love your support to finish this short film by the end of 2026.

The finished short film will be a fantastic showcase of independent New Zealand animation; an example of what a solo or small team of animators can create with limited software and a lot of hard work. In times when creative industries are struggling with an onslaught of Generative AI artwork and video, Wing Chun will be an example of why art, created by people, is the ethical and superior way to make films.

After completion, Wing Chun will be submitted to festivals for screenings and after its festival run, Ant plans to make the short widely available to anyone, by putting it online for free on his YouTube channel.

• Fans of Ant’s artwork, comics and graphic novels will see a new, kinetic, side to his work. The completion of this animated short film will add another means of storytelling to Ant’s skillset.
• Shihad fans will enjoy watching one of the band’s classic songs, visually accompanied by a kick-arse, kung-fu, animated short film.
• bro'Town fans will get to see new animated work by the show's designer.
• Wing Chun practioneers around the world will have an inspiring, contemporary, animated film dedicated to their kung-fu style.
• Fans of Kung fu and martial-arts cinema will have a new, exciting addition to the genre.

Ant hopes you will help him in the journey to make the Wing Chun animated short film, a reality.