| Denmark | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Daniel Fickle |
| Produced by | Courtney Eck Mark Smith Adam Shearer |
| Screenplay by | Daniel Fickle |
| Starring | Pily |
| Music by | Gideon Freudmann Portland Cello Project |
| Cinematography | Daniel Fickle Mark Smith Veronica Wood |
| Editing by | Jesse Salsberry |
| Studio | Two Penguins Productions |
| Release date(s) | May 15, 2010 |
| Running time | 6 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Denmark is a 2010 short film written and directed by Daniel Fickle and scored by Gideon Freudmann of the The Portland Cello Project.[1] Utilizing puppetry and hand-built sets the film tells a story about Pily, a crustacean of mixed origin, who builds a rocket ship to escape his underwater home when it becomes threatened by pollution.
Denmark premiered at the Aladdin Theatre on May 15, 2010 in Portland, Oregon. The film achieved critical success thereafter largely through established film festivals and numerous features on websites.[2]
Contents |
Pily lives a pastoral life at the bottom of Oregon's Willamette River. He tends to his underwater crops in solitude and proves to be resourceful. His home is built from flotsam and sunken debris.
Seemingly content in the world he has built for himself, Pily is actually addled by a premonition, a pre-knowledge that an invasive element is going to displace him. To prepare for the worst Pily devises an escape plan. He builds a rocketship.
When Pily's anxiety gives way to the reality of an oil spill his rocketship is ready except for one part that's essential to achieve liftoff. Pily goes ashore where he finds the missing part and returns to initiate his escape. Once airborne Pily is confronted with another challenge and reaches for a solution that doesn't exist.
"Denmark" is the title of the first track from The Portland Cello Project's album, A Thousand Words. The song was written by cellist Gideon Freudmann to honor the loss of a loved one who lost a battle to cancer; the song is a love letter and an inspired response against the indiscriminate nature of fate.
When director Daniel Fickle was approached by The Portland Cello Project to create a music video for Denmark he chose to treat the song as a score for a screenplay that was yet to be written. As a result the film evolved from a music video in to a narrative short.[3]
The film uses a stark form of humor to resonate the interplay of alienation, turmoil, and other emotions that are associated with reconciling loss. Recognizing that laughter has long been a way to cope with life's irreducible realities, the creators of Denmark, the film, use humor as a narrative device to mollify anguish and convey empathy.
The physical reality of Denmark is based on illustrations by Jordan Hull. Set construction and additional production design was overseen by Josh Brokenbourgh, Rory Brown and Andrew Brown. The design team was initially tasked with building an underwater set; however, Pily's body being less dense than water and subject to the force of buoyancy they decided to create an underwater environment by shooting the film through a 50 gallon aquarium. The set included a stage where upstage, center stage and downstage could be removed to accommodate the needs of the puppeteers. Pily's home was wood framed, sculpted by mesh wire and covered with a mixture of mud, sand and straw. The home was segmented like the stage to meet the requirements of the director's shot list and Pily's movements. The interior of Pily's home consists of items collected from various thrift stores in Portland, Oregon. Pily's crops were made from wax and his rocketship was crafted out of foam board.
Jason Miranda and Bill Holznagel built the puppet based from Fickle's design and were the hands behind Pily's performance in Denmark. The puppeteers/entertainers used traditional means to manipulate Pily's movements; Marionette bars, strings and wires. They also employed glove puppet techniques to express emotions from Pily's eyes.