As surely as
Blood down the plughole
Turns the wheel
Which is the heart
Of the archaic house
So to the fact
that it was all built by a mouse
The father of the home
In his turning spiral throne
In the centre of the wheel
which is the heart.
Behind the scenes look at the production process of Tale of How. We were asked to do a talk at Resfest Capetown. We had one of these Q&A’s before, where we just stood there in front of a theatre full of people staring blankly at us and we staring blankly back at them. We decided that for this event we will answer questions without people having to ask them (even if they never planned to ask them in the first place) and we made this documentry instead. Done over a weekend on a stolen computer, with more action stories that we dare not mention…
The Tale of How has received loads of press in some top publications. Here is a selection of some of the coverage the movie has generated.
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A series of high quality beautifully framed prints formed part of the Tale of How and the travelling exhibition that accompanies it.
There are frightfully happy
except when they’re dead,
See Otto the monster
needs to get fed.
A tentacle from nowhere,
can give one a fright!
Stealing Piranhas,
a thief in the night.
They sing soothing songs,
but he never hears,
for shells and the kelp,
have grown in his ears.
Otto is deaf,
Otto means eight,
Otto means death,
To the dodos he ate.
“The future is red”
said Crown-for-a-head,
“we’ll have to migrate,
or we’ll soon all be dead!
So they got in the ocean,
to swim far away.
The water turned red,
On that terrible day.
For Otto the monster,
how hideous the slaughter,
he picked them like fruit,
from that inky black water
There where not many left,
But a handful, a few,
one of these had a vision,
and knew what to do.
They filled paper with ink.
And bottles with paper.
An ocean of bottles,
S.O.S ing their saviors.
But no one came,
they where sad and alone,
they seemed to be stranded,
on this Judas called home.
“You’re the Piranhas?
Otto wants to eat you?
Well my name is Eddy,
and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I’ve read all your letters,
I know all the wrongs,
caused by Otto the monster,
Who’s deaf to your songs”
“I’ll give you my all,
I’ll do all can,
I need palm trees and syrup,
to start my plan.”
Huge sticky pots,
cutting palms at the stem,
they built a great structure,
resembeling them.
They got a wet net,
and they sang lullabies,
then caught all these songs,
And placed them inside.
They sneaked to the shore,
and set it free in the tide.
Then all hid in trees,
to watch and to hide.
Otto is stalking
the palm-syrup snack.
He took the bait!
He fell in the trap!
The bait disappeared,
with a growl and a snap.
Otto first yawned,
And then took a nap.
So the island is sleeping,
and still is today.
Eddy had done it!
Our friends got away!
They loaded their ship,
With their mother the tree.
The wind in their sails,
and the wide open sea.
-Markus Wormstorm as Rooster Bear
How, the exhibition, explores the process and development of The Household and it’s histories. The exhibition is as much a hat tip to the achievements of The Tale of How on the international circuit as to the artistry and dedication that has gone into the creation of this piece. It consists of the animation The Tale of How, a short film named “The making of…” picture documentation in the form of prints, life sized wood carvings of various characters, poetry, manuscripts of histories and several field recordings all taken from the world in which The Tale of How exists. The gang will endeavor to recreate Rooster Bear’s study, a dark room filled with ancient texts and artifacts, which will certainly give us more insight into their Realm.
Find out more information over at the Bell Roberts website
View the official Who Shot Rooster Bear Event page on facebook
The Blackheart Gang have just returned back from France after recieving The Special Distinction Award at the Annecy Film Festival for their short film ” The Tale of How”. (the award, a shiny sparkling shape of wonder)
Annecy is the number one International competitive animation film festival. For over 45 years the town has been showing off the very best in the art. The festival is a competition between animated films of various techniques (animated drawings, cut out papers, modelling clay, 3D etc) classified in various categories. The capacity to present and promote animation in all its different forms has made Annecy a world-wide point of reference for the animation industry.
Read more about this award at the official Annecy Site.
