DEMO
Humans have long settled on the beautiful planet Arcadia. Due to the reckless use of the planet's resources, its atmosphere has been contaminated and humans are forced to take an antidote. They produce "medicine" from native plants.
CHARACTERS
Princess Leda
Leda is a character where all the storylines intertwine. She is needed by all to achieve their goals. The Regent wants to marry her to become King, the Duchess and Baron Victor use her to trick the usurper and buy time to prepare for a palace coup.
The girl is about fourteen years old. She spends her days as a princess, training in marksmanship and etiquette. She is unaware of the political intrigue swirling around her, and wants to be free to do as she pleases - a natural thing for her age.
Circumstances throw her into an adventure she is not prepared for. She even learns that her identity, or rather the social place in society she is used to, is not real. She is the victim of a political intrigue she can hardly fathom. Those closest to her have used her cunningly and unscrupulously.
Nevertheless, she remains faithful to her friends, the first in her life. She is forced to grow up quickly mentally and make difficult decisions, even risking her life to protect her sister, whose existence she never knew until recently.
Tahlia
Tahlia is Leda's twin sister. She grew up among the rebels of Baron Victor, who is her uncle. She can pilot like a true pilot.
She is the true heir to the throne (she was born first), but learns this as the story progresses. This discovery leads her to take charge of saving her sister, whose life is threatened by Princess Patricia's scheming and the Duchess's machinations. Her intervention in events takes the plot in another direction and involves the protagonists in a series of adventures that will lead to the restoration of justice.
Tahlia is a brave girl, mature for her age, who doesn't need the approval of the older and empowered to do what she thinks is important and right. She doesn't think about the dangers and consequences when she needs to help Hiko (who is a stranger to her), regardless of the possible risks. Her instinct tells her the right decisions and she shows determination and ability to handle complex situations. All this makes the other characters believe her and support her.
Hiko
Hiko is a farmer's son who grew up working, among the fields and domestic animals. He possesses skills that he acquired by helping his parents in their daily work - he knows how to drive a combine harvester and pilot an airplane, he takes care of the animals and the farm. He has compassion for wronged persons and treats Forry the Firefly, who has suffered from the poisonous air of the planet, as a member of the family.
Hiko falls into this story by accident after rescuing Leda from the swamp into which her plane has fallen. He clearly falls under the influence of her girlish charm, which is understandable for a boy his age. After the burning of his home farm and Talia's interference in his life, his motivation to get in on the action grows considerably. Once he has made that decision, he doesn't hesitate, and his participation in the series of adventures, filled with selflessness and resourcefulness, largely determines their outcome.
The Regent Zoltar and Princess Patricia
Zoltar is a weak personality character who is under the strong influence of Princess Patricia. Despite his natural indolence, he doesn't mind becoming King of Arcadia.
Once Zoltar has made up his mind, he does not hesitate to act. He has no doubt that he deserves to become king and even shows firmness.
Patricia cleverly feeds Regent Zoltar's ambition and easily instills him with ideas that serve her ambitions to become queen, even at the cost of killing the princess. We may suspect that the death of the King and Queen, the parents of Leda and Thalia, was the result of her machinations.
The years pass and she is eager to make her wishes come true, so she rushes to implement her plans, unwilling to let anything stand in her way.
Patricia is determined, and even when she starts to lose, she doesn't hesitate to challenge the heir to the throne to a duel.
MORE CHARACTERS
The head of security Crudellis
Chief of the spies Schuller
Crudellis and Schuller
Baron Victor
The Duchess
The Duchess
The DuchessMinor and episodic characters
The Master of Ceremonies Tøren
Court Official
Forry the Firefly
The pirate chief Felon
The pirate chief Felon
Pirates
Pirates
Zaglis
Zaglis
Soldiers
Soldiers
Soldiers
THE WORLD OF ARCADIA
Planes
You could say that the planes are important characters in this project. The relief of the planet is such that they are the only option for movement and transportation. They are of different designs and sizes, shapes and colouring. They fly differently, even the way they behave in the air is different. We use them to characterize the different groups of participants in the plot as well as the individual characters. This is the way we distinguish them during the complex scenes. The capabilities of individual planes are important to the development of the plot and individual episodes. They contribute significantly to the dynamics of the plot. Furthermore, they are particularly important for the visual solutions of the project and will give it a distinctive look.
PLANET ARCADIA
Planet Arcadia is a beautiful place with an extraordinary topography. The whole planet is dotted with high plateaus that sometimes rise several kilometers high, and between them stretch vast lowlands that are shrouded in misty vapors.
Humans learned to extract fuel from the bowels of the planet, but at a high cost. Once a well runs dry, it begins to release a poisonous gas that infects the air and plagues the brain.
The lowlands between the plateaus are semi-desert and so people live on the high parts of the plateaus, which are fertile and extensive enough for farming and livestock rearing.
There is enough moisture on the plateaus to form deep swamps, which can be quite dangerous.
The fauna of the planet is poor. Most animals get around by flying, generating gases in special big bubbles in their bodies that are lighter than air. They float and fly with little effort. Some extraordinary flying creatures of various sizes flutter and dart through the air using more conventional methods. Other animals are terrestrial, similar to land mammals.
Humans have taken advantage of the local fauna and domesticated some species, which they have harnessed to various tasks. Native species are mostly used for riding and as beasts of burden. They are gentle and trainable, and breeding them is easy.
Architecture
Explanation
Flying Kingdom will be a feature-length animated film aimed at children and teenage audiences and is conceived as an adventure fantastic film.
The confidence to embark on such an endeavor comes from the experience we have gained from the two feature-length films we have made so far, Zoetrope and Florentine Night.
Science fiction and fantasy allow for generalizations that are difficult to achieve when the stories are ordinary and close to reality and everyday life. Zooming out in time and space helps to focus on the important elements and ignore the minor ones. The majority of stories in human culture are fantastic (mythology, fairy tales, legends, etc.).
The script has a classical dramaturgical structure and features a convoluted plot, but is built with a logical plot sequence. Although we have striven to make the plot suspenseful and entertaining, the more important task we have set ourselves is to reveal the characters' personalities and the emotions that compelled them to take one action or another.
Friendship is the main theme of the script. Another important theme is the responsibility caused by the sense of duty.
Friendship drives the protagonists to take dangerous actions, even risking their lives to be by their friends' side at crucial moments in their destiny. Friendship causes a responsibility that they take on of their own volition, much like adults.
In addition to these basic themes, other themes are also present: the ambition born of a lust for power and greed, the arrogance that gives a sense of superiority and justifies violence, the treachery and unscrupulousness.
In the background, but tangibly, we also address the issues of nature conservation and the damage caused by the reckless use of resources.
We have tried to make the script sound contemporary, understandable to young audiences, but without underestimating them.
The visual solution was the result of a lot of work for pictorial adequacy, which creates a mood and complements the dramaturgy.
Characters development is particularly crucial. We have tried to make sure that they respond most fully to the dramaturgical tasks they have to perform, and constructively - that we can animate them. Animation has to be consistent with the music so that the combination of these two essential elements creates the rhythm of the future film.
The overall design of the film and the specific of animation will help to achieve the necessary generalized suggestion and impact. The final blending of painted backgrounds and character animation is also important, and we endeavor that the movement is convincing and that the final image has the right atmosphere to help the viewer follow the story and be moved by the plight of our characters.
Penko Gelev's conceptual drawings give a clear idea of the vision, mood, technologies and spaces in which the action will take place. Especially important are the planes, because they will become the characters of the film, occupying their own place and playing an important role in the plot.
To illustrate the animation capabilities of our studio, we present a short demonstration movie. Our aim is to create dynamic animation in which stylization is not at the expense of the small detail that creates convincing characters and brings them to life.
Every story can be told in different ways, but there is always the most appropriate way for a given story to unfold and gain density and credibility of its own. We need all the tools and techniques that are inherent in animation to tell that story in the best way. We hope that the combination of dramaturgy, design, music and animation technology will help us to create an appealing film for viewers that will address important themes in an entertaining way, without being didactic or preachy.
Sotir Gelev
CREDITS
Writer
Sotir Gelev
Production designer
Penko Gelev
Animation
Blagoi Dimitrov
Editing
Maria Nikolova
Director
Sotir Gelev
Producers
Penko Gelev
Sotir Gelev
ABOUT US
Our animation studio Four Hands is based in Sofia, Bulgaria. We are brothers - Penko and Sotir, working together for more than 30 years.
The studio has produced several short and two feature-length animated films. Our interest in the children's and youth theme has been around for a long time.
In the early 1990s, we founded the children's comic magazine Riks. In 1996 we produced the ballet for children Alice in Wonderland at the Bulgarian National Opera.
Around the year 2000, we created the adventure feature films Wizards and Kolobar of which we are producers, writers and directors. In addition, we are producers of the children's TV series Fairy Tales about Physics and Astronomy (250 episodes from 2001 to 2007) and Good Day, Mr. Jasmine (50 episodes from 2007 to 2008) produced for the Bulgarian National Television.
In recent years we have written and illustrated about twenty books and comics for children - The Adventures of Mr. Blueberry on Water and Land, Ilyicho and August, How Laura Learned to Count to Ten, etc.
So the project for this film is a natural continuation of our explorations over the years, a consequence of accumulated experience and many months of work.
SOTIR GELEV
Sotir Gelev worked in a factory, was a soldier, drew comics, worked as a graphic designer, did special effects for cinema, wrote scripts for films, directed two feature-length feature films and two feature-length animated films, produced films and TV series. He has written several books for children and illustrated some of them.
Penko Gelev
Penko Gelev was an elementary school teacher, publisher and editor of a comics magazine. He created 24 graphic novels, illustrated books for children and adults, received national awards for illustration - "Konstantin Konstantinov" in 2014, "The Pen" in 2016. He has been a screenwriter and artist of feature and animated films, and also a producer of feature, animated and television films and series. He has directed one short animated film.
Blagoi Dimitrov
Blagoi Dimitrov has been an film editor, sound engineer, cinematographer and has done special effects for many TV, feature and documentary films. He is a music composer for animation and documentary films. He was a director of a children's television series. He has animated six shorts and two features animated films. He has released two thrash albums with his band Aggressor. He is currently directing the animated film Taran Baban.
Maria Nikolova
Maria Nikolova started working in cinema as an editor of feature films and documentaries. She has written and directed the television series Fairy tales about Physics, Fairy tales about Astronomy and Good Day Mr. Jasmine. She has directed and written two short films, three feature-length documentaries and two animated shorts, for which she is also the animator. She has written four stage plays and an 8-episode crime audio series.
