Inspiration: Choir Tour by Edmunds Jansons

I absolutely love this film. The sound design is amazing, I love the character design, the colours, the characterisation, everything about it.

I love how there is no dialogue but it still makes the audience laugh with visual jokes and the behaviour of the characters

The sounds in the film are interesting too, for example the sounds for the car with the choir in it are all made vocally. This makes the audience unsure of whether those are the actual noises of the car, or if the choir are making them. I love when the line of reality is blurred, and find the concept of the choir making the car noises really funny.

The visuals of the film are really appealing to me as well. The frame above is really beautiful. I love the colour palette, and the clean blocks of colour and negative space throughout the film.

There is something of the 50s and 60s Cartoon Modern style to it at times too, especially in the wall and frame of the lift above.

I also like how free the character design is. The choir is one collective mass, that moves like liquid around the hotel. The teacher’s body moves freely as well, and she’s designed without a neck. Also little characters like this:

are really wonderful. They break even the convention set by the film. There’s so much freedom in thinking, “The main characters are humanoid, but there’s no reason why a shape with a trumpet can’t be a character as well”. I also really like its design, it reminds me of a minor character Tove Jansson might have created.

From this film I’ve remembered that a piece of work can be smooth and elegant and well-made, but also throw convention out the window and re-make itself as it goes along. Sound can come from anything, character design can be fluid, and the jokes can be simple and silly and just as fun and effective. These things, as well as the design of the film, will definitely influence my work in the future.