Dansk Tegnefilm, the Danish prodco behind TV series “Rita & Krokodrille,” winner of an Annecy 2015 Special Jury Award, is joining forces with France’s Miyu Productions to co-produce Uri Kranot’s transmedia project “Nothing Happens.”
Selected to be pitched at Annecy 2016’s Mifa market on June 15, “Nothing Happens” is an animated short film and also a cinematic VR experience, aimed at questioning the role of the spectator by inviting him to participate in an event.
Targeting adults and young adults, the project “explores an unusual kind of narrative, a unique way of being in a painting. It is about spectatorship, about watching and being watched,” explains Kranot, an Israel-born indie filmmaker and inter-disciplinary artist.
Produced by Marie Bro at Dansk Tegnefilm, the short film starts production in July and will be finished by early 2017. Both the short-pic and the development of the VR are being supported by Denmark’s Danish Film Institute and West Danish Film Fund, plus France’s CNC national film board.
Project is also backed by Viborg-based animation training center The Animation Workshop, where Kranot and partner Michelle Kranot teach and guide the undergraduate projects at the school.
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“VR technology attracts many people to experiment with new opportunities of the medium, but the artistic quality in most cases is far behind the technology. I think we bring our knowledge in independent animation filmmaking and push it to a higher level of experience,” Kranot said.
Techniques used by the project include drawing on paper, 2D and 3D computer and rotoscope.
In Annecy, beyond looking for partners, distributors and exhibition platforms, “Nothing Happens’” team “wants to create an awareness for the need of high quality projects in VR, that really mean something,” Kranot added.
Alongside Michelle Kranot, author of “Nothing Happens’” script and graphic design, Uri Kranot has co-directed short film “How Long, Not Long,” which is competing this year in Annecy’s Official Selection.
Their 2013 stop-motion short film “Hollow Land,” a Denmark-France-Canada co-production, was included by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on its short list for the 86th Academy Awards.
