/
BEHIND
Below is a step-by-step story of Hund i Himlen's life as an animated movie. To experience the full story - enter the slideshows.
MAR 2010 IDEA
-
It all started with a book...
-
Ellen Riis is sitting in front of her computer across from Hanne Kvist's husband. They are discussing the situation of children's books writers.
-
Ellen gets an email about a new initiative from DR Ramasjang and the Danish Film institute, who together want to strengthen and develop Danish animation by offering young directors the possibility to mature with a middle length film before taking the leap into a feature film production.
-
Approximately at the same time Jeanette Nørgaard and Frederik Villumsen partner up to create their company Nørlum.
-
Ellen calls Jeanette and asks if Nørlum is interested in a co-production with her through her company Basmati film. She suggests that they do an adaptation of Hanne Kvist's successful children's book 'Hund i Himlen'.
-
Hund i Himlen by Jeanette Nørgaard is an adaptation of Hanne Kvist's children's book of the same name.
It's a Danish co-production bewteen Basmati Film in Århus and Nørlum in Viborg.
APR 2010 PITCH
-
CUT CHARACTERS - NUNS
We started adapting the book. The process of choosing what to keep and what to cut started here and continued until the final editing of the film. The first characters to be cut were three out of five nuns. Their role was to be the supporters of Maria Helena Carmen, but this role was already fullfilled by the girls.
-
CUT CHARACTERS - MARIO
Mario’s main role in the book is to be the one who takes away dog. To keep the character gallery simple Maria Helena Carmen is doing this in the film. This also amps up the conflict bewteen her and Lora and enforces the fact that following the rules are more important to her than feelings and special needs.
-
CUT CHARACTERS - NICK'S MOM
-
CHARACTER CONCEPTS _ESPERANZA
Our main visual focus at this stage was on developing the characters. On how to design and animate them, to have the audience believe and engage in them, and at the same time be wise and economical in our choices.
-
CHARACTER CONCEPTS - ESPERANZA
-
CHARACTER CONCEPTS - ESPERANZA
-
CHARACTER DESIGN-MARIA HELENA CARMEN
-
LORA CONCEPT DESIGNS
Theese are the very first drawings of Lora. Frederik is testing some very basic shapes, exploring how to create an appealing main character with an edge. He is working with hard sqaure shapes integrated with round shapes to visually underline that Lora has a tough and hardened facade but is soft inside.
-
LORA CONCEPT DESIGNS
With the square hair and the soft and quirky expressions Frederik is capturing something that’s in line with Jeanette’s vision of the main character. Now there is a basis for the next step.
-
LORA CONCEPT DESIGNS
On these sketches Lora is very appealing, but almost to cute and she is overall to girly.
-
LORA & 99 GIRLS - CONCEPT DESIGNS
The girls are all looking the same and moving as one. This is a choice based on how Lora sees them when she first arrives at the monestary. They are all uniformed, and all behaving very mutch the same compared to Lora. The long straight hair sends a signal of some very well behaved girls living in a safe and strict world. Lora should in many ways be opposite.
-
LORA CONCEPT DESIGNS
The design is really starting to work now. The angular headshape with soft corners and the big eyes are appealing and underlines the contrasts in Lora as a character. The expressions are all very sad though and the charcater still needs some depth and originality.
-
LORA CONCEPT DESIGNS
-
LORAHUND CONCEPT DESIGNS
Lora as a dog should be more silly and less controlled than Lora as a girl. This is where she lets go and lets loose. The first sketch is the director Jeanette’s and following is the process of Frederik experimenting and making the design more appealing and looking more like the girl Lora.
-
LORAHUND CONCEPT DESIGNS
-
NICK CONCEPT DESIGNS
-
NICK CONCEPT DESIGNS
-
NICK CONCEPT DESIGNS
-
LORA & 99 GIRLS - CONCEPT SKETCH
-
CONCEPT SKETCHES
-
LORA CONCEPT SKETCH
-
LORA CONCEPT SKETCH
-
BACKGROUND CONCEPT
-
BACKGROUND CONCEPT
-
BACKGROUND CONCEPT WITH CHARACTER
-
MOODBOARD
-
MOODBOARD
First step was to apply for development funding. We created a pitch package describing the very basics of the story, the characters and its universe.
We created two animation tests (see below) to define the range of detail in drawing and movement we would want to work within. The left one is full animation with less detail, whereas the right one is a held frame that is modified digitally to create subtle and soft movement.
-
ANIMATION TEST PLANNING
Dubble click to full screen.
Dubble click to full screen.
AUG 2010 DEVELOPMENT
-
Creating Textures
Marie Jørgensen and Marie-Louise Højer Jensen is painting with banana peels and doing potato stamps to create textures for walls, mountains, roof etc. etc.
-
Creating Textures
-
Creating shapes
A lot of the shapes in the background are cut out in cardboard to create a nice siccory edge.
-
Concept Monastary
-
Screen shot from Pilot
-
Screen shot from Pilot
-
Background from Pilot
In this shot Marie-Louise worked a lot with layering things and creating a ghost like feel with the sheets in the foreground.
-
Screen shot form Pilot
This is a key shot in the film, and a place with a lot of emphasis on having the background express Lora's feelings. As she falls apart the background is falling apart leaving her in black emptyness.
-
Background from Pilot
-
Background from Pilot
-
Screenshot from pilot
In this shot Lora is edging Dog into the roof with a knife. Somehow it seemed too violent, and we were worried that having her run around with a knife would make the audience think about whether she would use it or not when getting angry. And how did she get the knife in the first place? We decided to replace it with a branch from the tree next to the roof.
-
Background from Pilot
-
Character Expression Sheet
-
Manuscript
This is the story chopped into pieces and rearranged by Laura Madsen who joined the team at this stage.
We receive the development funding!! We create a full script. We explore the characters and the universe further, all coming together in a two-minute pilot.
LATEST NEWS
While the creative team painted with banana peels and potatoes and the puppies played on the floor, Frederik took his first steps into the role of a producer under great mentorship and supervision of Ellen Riis. Together they created an application for production funding. In December the finance for Hund i Himlen was in place.
Dubble click to full screen.
FEB 2011 STORY AND ART DIRECTION
© 2012 Nørlum & Basmati FIlm
+45 60228167 jeanette@onbird..dk
The script was now finalized and the visual story team began the story boarding and animatic process.
In this sequence Mads Juul worked on amping up the tension and horror.
Dubble click to full screen.
-
Background Pilot
-
Final Background
-
Background Pilot
-
Concept - further development
-
Final Background
-
Bacground Process
Shapes cut out of card board are put together in Photoshop to create the layout of a shot.
-
Background Process
Handpainted textures are added.
-
Background Process
Light and shadow is added and the final touches of über niceness.
-
Bacground Pilot
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Concept - Further development
-
Final Design
-
Final Background
-
Final Background
-
Development - Monestary and mountain
-
Development - Monestary and mountain
-
Development - Monestary and mountain
-
Development - Monestary and mountain
-
Development - view from rooftop
-
Final Background - dining hall
In this shot everything is still controlled by the strict rules of the monastery. The shot is symetrical and aligned to the axis of the edge of the screen.
-
Final Background - dining hall
In this shot Lora-dog is stirring the place up a bit. The shot is tilted and a warm orange color is spreading from Loras place in the shot.
Simultaneously the final decisions were made on characters and Marie Jørgensen defined style, color and final designs for the backgrounds.
MAY 2011 ANIMATION
In May the animation team arrived and the characters were brought to life.
First stage was to animate in black line. This was done on the computer even though the technique is exactly the same as the one used in the old hand drawn cartoons.
After this the coloring team painted the characters and finally everything was put together in compositing.
-
CLEANED UP CHARACTERS
-
Character Posing - Esperanze
-
Character Posing Esperanza
A break down of the thought-process leading to the shape and posing choices made in the film.
COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS
Dubble click to full screen.
Dubble click to full screen.
If you have any questions, please feel free to share them here, and we'll do our best to answer.
Comments are very welcome as well.
JAN 2012 PREMIERE, BOOK AND FESTIVALS
In the beginning of the new year the final touch was layed on the film. The 14th of january we had the world premiere in Fotorama in Viborg with most of the team and a lot of kids.
In April it got accepted to the first festivals, and in May the book was republished with illustrations from the film, and the film on DVD.
-
Premiere on Hund i Himlen
-
Premiere on Hund i Himlen
-
Premiere on Hund i Himlen
-
Hund i Himlen
In April Hanne Kvist's book is republished with illustrations from the film and a dvd.
-
HC Andersen award
Jeanette Nørgaard is recieving the HC Andersen award (Gran Prix in the national competition) at Odense international Filmfestival.
-
HC Andersen Award
"Like no other this film is a modern descendant to H.C. Andersen's way of telling stories. It is a story that is understood by children, but also by us daft adults, where the discipline of adult society is attacked by the artist's creativity and the imagination of the child. The visuals of the film shows us a classically aesthetic precision and ability towards abstraction that has otherwise been forgotten in the modern film."
