WHEN LOVES HURTS – A MODERN TAKE ON H. CH. ANDERSEN’S “THE LITTLE MERMAID” IS A POWERFUL STORY OF UNREQUITED LOVE AND ETHICAL VALUES OF TODAY‘S SOCIETY
Deep underneath the surface of the sea, accompanied by a fish orchestra, the voice of the ocean is telling a story about Little, the daughter of the Sea King. Forced to abandon the devastated, plundered waters of their home, the Sea King, his old mother and his three daughters – Little, Middle and Eldest ventured to live among humans. In a darkened fish shop in the heart of a harbor district full of immigrants, they now lead a tedious life filled with work and loneliness. Until one day, when the fish shop door flies open and in walks J.J., a charming, handsome and rather brash young man. Little is utterly enchanted by that man and the music that´s following him. From this moment forward the life of Little and her family is to take a sea change. Thus begins the story of a great love of Little from the fish shop.
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Makin of – Part 1 / Story /
Makin of – Part 2 / Animation /
Makin of – Part 3 / Armatures /
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Little from the Fish shop wasn’t David’s first puppet feature film, but definitely most beloved one and most complicated one. Thanks to David’s experience from the classic animation school and the his last feature project /Hurvínek – marionets moved into a new CG form, note: release 2017, Rolling Pictures/, he was able to co-operate with – the puppet studio, digital studios and artists – and achieve stop-motion and CG part in good quality on time.
David managed whole digital production and post-production of the film, including the PR conferences and presentations on festivals /Lyon, Annecy…/, and interviews in TV Stations. He also help with marketing, graphic designs of promo materials, TV and Cinema Trailers of the film, and many more.
“This was most destructive and yet most creative environment I have ever been.” David explains. “A director of the Little from the Fish Shop is famous Czech director and designer Jan Balej, and he is kind of – old school guy – who wants to implement CG in to his work, but he doesn’t understand CG part at all – that is why I’m here. Two worlds meets on the red line. Some times was hard…” David smiles.
Project took nearly 4 years. Puppet studio Hafan – based on history of traditional Czech stop-motion animation – works with quite small team, only two stages with two animators, and 4-6 artists for puppets and set-decorations. “One animator can animated roughly 3-6 seconds of animation on daily basis – so – You can imagine how is process slow – mainly in the producer’s eyes..” Jan Balej laughs. “Our job is not for everybody… but we love it.” Jan Balej says about his work.
MIRACLE FILM with whole crew and co-producers successfully finished the film at spring of 2015. World Premier took place in Czech south-eastern town Zlín – the heard of Czech animation history. “I saw the film nearly 100 times – over and over again – so You can imagine, I was kind of relief when I enjoyed it on the biggest silver screen in Czech republic – for the last time” David adds.
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CG by Zdenek Havel, Concept Art: Tomas Ozvold
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Little from the Fish Shop is the “Art Film” for specific smaller audience and as the such film, it works really well. The dark world of Jan Balej’s small actors are fascinating. That is why producer Nelly D. Jenčíková decided to make unique exhibition for this film.
“My dreams came in true, director wasn’t interested, so I was delighted when I was able to design and created whole exhibition on my own. Off-Coarse with the big help from producer and whole artist crew in Miracle Film…” David whole-heartedly says about his job on the side project. More you can read on page devoted to exhibition.
Small Christmas exhibition in Karel Zeman Museum – Prague, Czech Republic /2012/
Interactive exhibition in Malostranská beseda – Prague, Czech Republic /2015/
Interactive exhibition in Monstra Festival – Lisbon, Portugal /2016/
FILM FESTIVALS
SICAF 2015 (Seoul – KR), IFF for Children and Youth (Zlín – CZ), Art Film Fest 2015 (Trenčanské Teplice – SK), AncaFest (Žilina – SK), IFF Karlovy Vary (CZ), Kecskemet Animation Film Festival (HU), Anifest Zagreb (HR), Annecy Film Festival (Annecy – FR), Animator Festival (Poznaň – PL), Animasyros 8.0 (Syros – GR), Anim´EST (Bucharest – RO), FANTOCHE (Baden – SW), 9th Big Cartoon Festival (Moscow – RU), 13th ANILOGUE International Animation Festival (Budapest – HU), The 32nd Annual – Chicago International Children’s Film Festival 2015 (Chicago – USA), 7th edition of ReAnimania IAFFY (Yerevan – AM), 39th edition of CINANIMA – Festival Internacional de Cinema de Animação (Espinho – PT), Brazil Stop-motion Film Festival (Pernambuco –BR), Carrefour du cinéma d’animation (Paris – FR), London International Animation Festival 2015 (London – UK), MONSTRA – FESTIVAL DE ANIMAÇÃO DE LISBOA ANIMATED FILM FESTIVAL (Lisabon – PT) …
AWARDS
THE SPECIAL MENTION JURY PRIZE FOR THE SOUND DESIGN ART FILM FEST 2015 (TRENČANSKÉ TEPLICE – SK)
- STATUS: IN DISTRIBUTION /2016 CZ/
- CZECH TITLE: MALÁ Z RYBÁRNY
- DIRECTOR: JAN BALEJ
- SCREENPLAY: IVAN ARSENJEV, JAN BALEJ
- STORY: BASED ON H. CH. ANDERSEN‘S “THE LITTLE MERMAID”
- PRODUCER: NELLY D. JENČÍKOVÁ (CZ) – MIRACLE FILM
- CO-PRODUCERS: MARCELA & MARIAN FERKO (SK) – MARLEN MEDIA GROUP, MICHAEL GEIDEL (DE) – MIRIQUIDIFILM
- GENRE: ANIMATED PUPPET LOVE STORY FOR YOUNG ADULTS
- TYPE OF ANIMATION: PUPPET (STOP-MOTION) + DIGITAL (CGI/3D+2D)
- PUPPET STUDIO: HAFAN FILM (CZ)
- DIGITAL STUDIO: DPOST (CZ), MIRACLEFILM (CZ), FILMPARK (SK)
- TARGET AUDIENCE: 12+ (PG-13 RECOMMENDED / ADVISED)
- RUNNING TIME: 72 min.
- LANGUAGES: CZ + EN
- RELEASE:CZECH REPUBLIC – 28th MAY 2015, SLOVAKIA – 2th AUG 2015
- CROSS-MEDIA: MINI EXHIBITION, INTERACTIVE EXHIBITION
- OFFICIAL WEB: www.malazrybarny.cz
- CLIENT: MIRACLE FILM
- OUR WORK: Supervision of Post-Production, Workflow & Work-split, Technical Director, 2D Compositing, Editing, Supervising – Online Grading, Mastering, Exhibitions…
- ..done by David Havel
- CG Generalist & VFX Artist: Zdeněk Havel
- Editor: Villiam Walla
- Making Of – Video: Jan Kulka
- Making Of – Fotografie: Irena Vodáková
- Concept Art: Tomas Ozvold, David Havel
- PRODUCTION DATE: 2012-2016
