In just under a year, the second PETTERSON AND FINDUS film entitled THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER will be released in our cinemas. Filming took place back in February 2015 and lasted just under two months. Now an important part of the production has shifted to Frankfurt. In the animation studio CHIMNEY on Hanauer Landstrasse, more than twenty employees are working on bringing the lovable Findus to life. And the little Mucklas and the snowy Christmas winter landscape are also being tinkered with here. Just under a year before the film's release, we paid a visit to CHIMNEY together with "Pettersson" actor Stefan Kurt, screenwriter Thomas Springer, the film's production team and Minister of State Boris Rhein of the Hesse Ministry of Economics and the Arts to take a look over the shoulders of the specialists.
Before explaining the individual steps necessary to integrate Findus into the film in such a way that you get the feeling he was really on set with Stefan Kurt, the actor first told what it was like to play alone most of the time and often only have to interact with a little blue bag or a cardboard Findus. Kurt, who shot the great multi-part "The Shadow Man" in Frankfurt for a few months in the 1990s, was however so thrilled by the lovingly designed set alone, which captured the charm of the book template just as well as the adaptation by screenwriter Springer, that he would like to be in front of the camera again as Petterson for the third and final part. The first clips, which were shown to the press, then also let it be seen that the actor has had obvious fun on the shoot.
During the subsequent tour of CHIMNEY, it then became very impressively clear how much effort has to be invested in the creation of a three-dimensional animated computer character, but also in the creation of landscape or virtual snow. A challenge, however, that the CHIMNEY team masters with bravura, as the individual presentations by some of the employees proved.
Because Frankfurt plays such a central role in the making of the film, it was once again a matter of course for the state of Hesse to support the production with funds for the second part. The fact that these were well spent is shown not only by the great success of the first part, which was a big box office hit not only in Germany, but also in Austria and the Scandinavian countries, and is now also selling very well on DVD and Blu-ray.
The visit to CHIMNEY not only gave a good insight into the making of cinema magic for small and large audiences. It also showed one of Frankfurt's many creative sides. If you want to get an idea of the work of the animation studio, you can watch the first PETTERSON UND FINDUS film on ZDF at noon on 24.12.2015 or, of course, go to the cinema from November 2016, when you can see the MOST BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS EVER.
More info on the PETTERSON UND FINDUS film can be found at: <link http: www.pettersson-und-findus-derfilm.de home _blank>Http://www.pettersson-und-findus-derfilm.de/#/home
For more info on CHIMNEY, go to: <link http: www.chimneygroup.com _blank>
An article by Frankfurt-Tipp
Copyright: Sebastian Betzold
