Setting up the shot.

On this little picture Johan is setting up scene 3 shot 8; which is the last scene in the apartment. Lots of things to do. Lots of things to do indeed.

A cold and mean winter has got us by the balls, and the nighttime is leaving us lingering without beer. Alas it is tuesday, and the animation is proceeding with the pace of the megaherd: forward, yet in control and omnipotent.

Nazi Organ Blues (FIRST LEAKED SHOT!)

The moving pictures of this little video is from the preporation of scene 5 shot 1 + the actual finished shot! The music is "Samek's Theme v.3 in C-Minor" performed on the church organ.
We hope you enjoy the first shot of the film available for the masses.

Samek's theme v.1

This is the first version of Samek's theme written on the reed-organ. Filmed by Johan Oettinger and performed by Emil Brahe.

ANIMATION HAS BEGONE!

We are now on the 2nd week of animating, and an almost sacred quiet has befallen the WiredFly studio. We would like to welcome Rikke Rørbech who is gonna stay with us as a production assistant for the next couple of weeks. She cooks wonderful and delicious food for us and as I write this she is out filming black birds so we can study their every move. Welcome, Rikke.

The voyage continues... ...into the time/space continuum!
Godspeed to us all!

The Eye Movie (brought to you by WiredFly).

This li’l video beneath is different shots compiled during some of the different stages of our ”Human Eyes Composite” madness. Hjalte, he who will portray the eyes of the boy, has blue eyes – and we took him to Martin the optician to see if he could wear contact lenses; unfortunately it didn’t work, so we will have to rely on fancy computer colour-grading.

We also shot some test of Ene, she who will portray the eyes of the mother. We got our almost-neighbours Wahlberg to build a helmet that sticks on the head like glue; in that way we could film her eyes perfectly, but alas; there was some technical problems... so we postponed the eye-shoot into the ”undiscovered country” (which is the term the Klingon ambassador uses in the 6th Star Trek film about the future).

You may also notice Anders the storyboard artist taking a wee in the forest in the very end of the film.

The music is made on church-organ – with fancy organ beats and some strange effects!

Godspeed!

Sets and Props 2

We move forward... with a pace unseen in the realm of lazy heavenly bodies!



To start where we finished last: Here is the second sign, which is in polish. We want to thank Piotr Zapart for the polish expertise. WiredFly has worked together with Piotr on the creation of an Agnostic Chicken fuzz pedal for guitar... (if any of the readers of this blog are interested in great guitar pedals check out Piotr's website:
http://www.hexeguitar.com/
On this site there's also some pictures of the Agnostic Fuzz pedal).



O sweet lord; Here he is – our man Anders Bøge Henriksen (who also drew the storyboard and a lot of the concept drawings). On this picture he is drawing the polish sign.



Johan & Herr Strandgaard working on the balcony door with great precision and concentration. May the lunar rays of infinite wisdom shine upon them as the conquer the winds of haste.



Jules is doing great work creating the lamps. On this picture we see his work station with different kinds of lampshades and lamps.

Video 4

Here is a little video update from the WiredFly studio.

Sets and Props

Listening to fancy electronic upbeat music, the WiredFly crew is working steady and neat to finish the set and the props. Take my hand as I guide you through these four pictures.



During desperate and confusing times (and in lack of time) we almost decided to skip the building of the lamps. But then – inspired by the cosmic winds – we took a giant leap on the path to a great looking film and decided to make the lamps; fast and relentless. On this picture above Jules has just finished the first table lamp. AND ISN'T IT WONDERFUL!!! Let there be light indeed! Unfortunately Ellen pointed out that the kind of lampshade Jules made wasn't invented until the fifties... …by a Dane! O, the humanity! But he is working on new lampshades and lamps. Godspeed!



Here's the finished woodshed for the backyard. There is a newspaper on the top of the wood, that is an actual polish '39 newspaper that we printed down in scale and painted. It is hard to see, but in the left corner of the shed there is a little shelf, where upon there's two bottles. These two bottles was made for our project The Agnostic Chicken by Mette Bülow Duus; professional glassblowers from Aarhus, Denmark. The wood is made out of balsa wood and Styrofoam, and dry-brushed afterwards.



Nina is painting the cobblestones with a dark wash, as Johan is trying to figure out where the lamppost should stand. Speaking of which – it took as many interstellar thoughts to figure out how to do the lamppost – but then Johan & Herr Strandgaard come up with a new design that is both easy to make and looking mighty good.



And here's the finished “Achtung” sign for the German side of the wall. It is painted with a light wash and then the text is written with a Uni-pin fine line 0.8 felt pen. Oh yeah!

Set pt. 7

A quiet wind blows outside our studio. A bike is standing forsaken in the rain. An emptiness is roaming these shores - the WF.HQ is silent as the flight of butterflies.

Johan is making rubble to give the illusion that a house has been demolished.

Here we see the German side of the wall, without rubble.

In joy Johan is putting the barbed wire on the wall.

And here is the result. Perhaps we'll paint it, but perhaps it's awesome... ...time will tell. Time will tell.

Puppets pt. 5

We like to entitle this picture: "The Dangerous Duality of Nazi Mysticism", and it is a picture of the two finished puppets. Josef with his gun, and Karl making the Vulcan Salute; Live long and prosper indeed.

And here is the finished Grandmother. Isn't she a beauty... Women, some say age like wine, it matures with grace and beauty... until one point where it gets sour and lonely, but note that this hasn't happened to the grandmother yet.

A family portrait! The finished puppets together in rapture...

Behold; Ann sowing the costumes for the Grandmother, making it work, taking it across that one bridge, to quote the Macho Man Randy Savage.

Johan, in agonizing desperation.... gotta make that nazi Luger pistol (and gotta make it look good)... Will it happen? Will it look amazing? Will it be everything Johan has hoped it would be? Keep reading and watching!

Oh dear... wait for it.... wait for it....

Eureka! The finished piece! O, lordy...

WF.HQ 9

Strikes and gutters, says I! Herr Strandgaard didn't even make it to work today - he had to call in ill. Johan is getting better, and just recovered from her illness Chris came by today. Alas, yours truely isn't so fresh either... Strikes and gutters indeed! But we must document non the less:



(Here is the brand new entrence to the WF.HQ; we painted the door red and made fancy mossaic on it).



(And here is our new runner, Nina, working the windows).



(The famous shed, that once upon a time was black, but now it is painted sallow yellow-ish and washed with some fancy darker water-ish colour).

And last, a very discret snapshot taken of Johan in the midst of working on a Luger P08.

WF.HQ 8

Johan and I are fighting against a vicious illness, that has dug its wretched claws into several members of our crew. Where is the famous Dr. McCoy when he is needed? Where is Nurse Chapel? And where is Jesus Christ? Well, we shall overcome non the less.

Johan, Herr Strangaard and Steffen are still racing against time to finish the set, and one could now see the potential in Dr. Septimus Pretorius (from James Whales' Bride of Frankenstein, 1935) – who creates small weird people in glass jars who, if disciplined, could help build our set. Or maybe we should look to Bob the Builder... or that guy who invented the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park?

When not deprived of healthy energy or time Johan's looking for a motion control for the camera. (This is a strangely esoteric and troublesome task, I can tell you). More on this as it develops.

And why, you might ask, is there no pictures in this post? It is hard to tell – it is hard to tell. Well, for now there's not much more to say, then happy Monday.

Sets pt. 6

The spaceship Event Horizon (from the 1997 film of the same name) - disappeared beyond Neptune in 2040. The ship reappear in a decaying orbit around Neptune in 2047. The ships unique feature was that it was able to "bend" time and space and leap to any possible destination...
When the ship reappear it is discovered by Dr. William Weir (played by Sam Niell) that Event Horizon has payed a visit to HELL. Slowly the Event Horizon starts to get to the various people involved in the film, and in a diabolical and necro rage Dr. Weir watches as they fall like flies.
Why am I writing this?
What is the point of this?
Well, I guess it's just an observation that every now and then things doesn't go according to plan - and even though people and things can venture to the realms of hell one must pull through and wander towards the brave new world with good intentions and a open mind.
Thus things are progressing with the new set, and we are happy to show these pictures of the transmutation of the backyard set.


Here Johan & Steffen are glueing on THOUSANDS of foam bricks onto what will become the wall seperating the jewish ghetto from the German side.


On this fancy picture Johan is making a hole in on of the buildings so that it might look like it has been bombed.



Our plan was to build the whole backyard set in three weeks. This is the result of the first week.

The result of the second week.

And finally the result of the third week. As you can see we didn't finish it in three weeks... so we failed....... But we will preveil in the end!

Johan desperatly trying to finish the set... ...in time!

Sets pt. 5

Bees, like ants are fascinating things... unlike the domestic cat - whose lazy behavior is preposterous and a travesty upon the working mentality. Tore, Johan & Steffen has been / and still are working like the famished aggressors of the deep oceans. And I indeed are working on the sheds - and helping out with the molds. Take my hand, and follow me on this little four-picture journey through the set building.

BEHOLD!!! The new wee model of the backyard, made by Steffen. This li'l beauty will help us a lot in the making of the actual backyard. The sky behind is a print of Else's sky in the right scale according to the wee backyard.

Here, Johan is working on the backyard set. The clever observer will notice the weird duck-tape formation on his hand. Alas Johan, in a split second of unawareness cut himself with the hand saw.



Tore drilling in screws on the backyard set. (Let's all take a moment and wish Tore good luck on his new school)... May your days be glorious - and may your beers be cold.



Steffen calculating infinity... ...perhaps? In the backround Else is painting the gigantic sky-picture. (When talking about this picture, one must keep this in mind; It COULD actually kill a grown man if it chose to fall on him). But let's hope it doesn't. Stay tuned for more WF-activity... And may the Queen of Denmark bless us with her omnipresence.

WF Runners

Our man, Asqes, smiling as he leaves us to venture into the unknown (or rather to the isle of Sjælland to visit his father). With the promise of returning one day he left our studio one rainy Thursday afternoon. One might notice the rather "dead" look in Asqes' eyes... that is because I painted them black to cover up the red spots in his eyes caused by the camera flash.

In the words of Vera Lynn we send our regards to you, young prince:

We'll meet again

don't know where - don't know when

but I know we'll meet again

some sunny day.

Here's a picture of my little sister, Lærke Arberg Kastrup making the barbed wire. She has been working as Asqes' assistant and as a substitute runner in the absence of Asqes. May your work on this production be glorious! Welcome aboard.

And lastly a picture of Herr Strandgaard - who when this picture was taken didn't do much running. Working on the props - his mind became foggy and his eyelids became heavy. Perhaps it was because he was working on a bed for the apartment, and he himself wanted a shrinking machine (working in the 1:5 scale) - to shrink him so he could sleep in the comfy bed. Alas, reality seldom satisfies the tired mind, so taken refuge in the slumber realm we found him asleep in this chair, the two handsome directors found on a dump-yard.

WF.HQ 7

From beyond liquid space our friend David Ramirez popped by the WF.HQ to paint the outdoor toilet/shed and the firewood shed. Underneath here there's a li'l picture of David cutting 'n carving in the firewood shed to give it patina. Welcome aboard, David!

Bonus information for the syndicated visitors of Earth (or this blog): David is working on a great art animation project for an exhibition in some art museum in Århus. It will be awesome!

Puppet Department

The puppet department is winding down after aeons of chaotic insanity. But behold: The product of everybody's hard work.

Here is the finished puppet of Samek. What a beauty!


Would you believe it! The beautiful mother, Yetta in all her grace.


The flying bird – roaming the heavens up above.


The walking bird, ready to replace or be replaced by the flying bird in times of the Great Transmutation from one to the other.

Thus the two soldiers and the grandmother needs to be finished before all the puppets are done. Huzzah. Here is some pictures from the Puppet Department.

Ann is defying the laws of interstellar pace whilst sowing the costumes. It is a job that requires a great deal of patience and a wee whiff of extraordinary concentration – for the clothe has a mind of its own, and is not always easy to control. On this picture above Ann is shoving needles in one of the Germans uniforms, making it ready... for the world of possibilities.

Fighting against time, Johan is working on the Grandmother's wire armature. She has gone through a cosmetic hell – but we have finally found a design we like, and Johan has been shaping her face like a Hollywood plastic surgeon... ...beautiful she will be. Graceful she will walk the face of the Earth.

Thinking about the exotic, yet cooling effect of Netto's white wine, Henni is painting the hands of the Grandmother. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and because I just thought of the Lord I will now quote the Bible: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under the heaven”... A time to work, and a time to drink white wine!

It is with heavy heart that we said farewell to our dearest Hanna. She has returned to her nest, where she will disembark on a journey to new heights. As a farewell gift Johan and I made a little Agnostic Chicken sculpture for her to bring along, and to remember us, and remember to come back. In the words of the great Oz-man: See you on the other side!

And here, a little picture of Hanna & Henni; the ladies in red, on Hanna's last working day:

Lukkede Døre / Closed Doors.

We are happy to share our runner with a vision, Asqes' li'l film with YOU!
Enjoy.

Video 3: WF Weekend on Fyn.

Thus the two directors flee to the Isle of Fyn for drunken escapades and relaxiation.
Watch them... ...as they relax! (or don't)... anyways; here is a li'l video:

Set pt. 4

Hola from the tropical WF.HQ.
The heat is getting to us; but in the words of a dying Cowboy in Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket": I can hack it! And yes; we will preveil this vicious summer heat... we will stand triumphant when winter slides softly over our land and we will welcome it with open arms. Meanwhile one can gaze upon these pictures of the set coming to life.



Johan, Ellen and I will pay a visit to the isle of Fyn on the 23rd of August, where we, along with other animation entities, will share the esoteric knowledge of our process with the public and with a number of young filmmakers like ourselves who would like to take a peak into the animation world. The event is arranged by our consultant Jakob Høgel from NDS - and he asked us for a picture they could use. So we decided to test the unfinished apartment with the unfinsihed puppet of the mother and some of the finished furniture.



Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO! It is a new design for the backyard that Else drew some lazy afternoon whilst waiting for something to do. Thoughts come and go - mental sinewaves collapse and give ways for NEW mindscapes. Thus we grew somewhat worried that the old design wouldn't fit the new ideas we got for the backyard sequence. It's of course always weird to start from scratch - especially on something as huge as these buildings - but it is for the best. Both Johan & I are extremely keen on the new design, and we are looking forward to work on it. The sky behind is the sky picture Else will use as a reference to paint the background sky painting. We just photoshopped it in to see how it would look.



And here she is; Else, painting the gigantic SKY PAINTING! It WILL be awesome!

I will end this post with a little Star Trek story from the first season of The Original Series. It is the episode called "The Naked Time" where, due to lack of awareness, this guy gets infected with some strange sort of emotional epidemic that spreads through physical contact. Soon everyone aboard the ship gets infected and acts demented and irrational. Even Mr. Spock (the half vulcan / half human science officer) who has forsaken human emotions to live a life dictated by pure logic, gets infected. To make matters even worse the Enterprise is spinning out of control and will soon burst into flames as it breaches some planets atmosphere. But just as all hope seems lost Dr. McCoy finds out that the cure for this emotional madness is simply... ...water!
My point with this little tale is to remind people to drink water, if they want to avoid going mad.