I got a very interesting work offer to build two big heads and props made out of paper for an animated short film called "Papers". The director, Kalle Kotila´s idea sounded challenging, but yet very tempting. He wanted to shoot actors wearing huge model heads against green screen as reference for the rotoscoped, drawn animated short film. It took a while for me to figure out how to get started with the project. Kalle made the character designs and I made the mold out of plastoline based on his sketches. Of course there were lot of changes in the process and one of the biggest problem was that the actors and I live in different cities. So, we needed to organize head testing meetings in Helsinki and I rode the train back and forth with those huge heads with me. Hah hah, crazy times!
After months and quite many mistakes and changes I managed to get it right. The hardest part was to make the heads comfortable for the actors, so they could focus on acting with these huge helmets on. For instance, it was hard to figure out the proper size of the eye holes. They couldn't be too big nor too small. Otherwise the actor wouldn't be able to see out of the head. Also the actors were having some difficulties with breathing in the heads, but luckily they were brave and didn´t complain. (Thank you Lauri & Tapio!) I think the final results turned out pretty good and I learned a lot from the whole process. In addition to the paper heads I also made props to help the actor´s work in the green screen studio.
After months and quite many mistakes and changes I managed to get it right. The hardest part was to make the heads comfortable for the actors, so they could focus on acting with these huge helmets on. For instance, it was hard to figure out the proper size of the eye holes. They couldn't be too big nor too small. Otherwise the actor wouldn't be able to see out of the head. Also the actors were having some difficulties with breathing in the heads, but luckily they were brave and didn´t complain. (Thank you Lauri & Tapio!) I think the final results turned out pretty good and I learned a lot from the whole process. In addition to the paper heads I also made props to help the actor´s work in the green screen studio.
The film will have its premiere in this year 2012 and it is produced by Las Palmas Films. The storyline is based on a novel by Jarkko Martikainen who is also composing the score for the film.
I will add the full credits later. Looking forward to seeing the film!
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| Introducing Mr Huhtiniemi and Mr Valtonen! |
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| ...yes. You have to start somewhere. |
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| "Let´s make this huge peanut, it will be a great head!" |
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| The cycling helmet in progress and the head is almost ready. |
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| Hooray! |
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| Huhtiniemi´s plastoline models |
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| Ready for shooting! |
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| Some of the props. |
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| The director wanted to have a look for the film like everything is drawn by pencil. Here are some tests. |
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| Lauri Warsta, me and Tapio Wilska. |
