Sokol
2 minutes
About the project
Each year the Czech Sokol movement chooses a past member to be the Face of the Year and commemorates their life and achievements. This year was the turn of František Pecháček who was to have a memorial erected in his honour in his native town of Záhornice.
The film needed to capture the sense of history and character-building that Sokol stands for, evoking how František's life was entwined with the organization.
Synopsis
A soaring falcon (the symbol of the organization) links the key moments of František's life into one fluid narrative - from childhood games and pouring wine for the local priest at mass, through to helping the local fire brigade and an inspiring trip to the Adriatic Sea. All these nostalgic experiences helped to create the man he became and celebrate the role that Sokol had in shaping him.
How we did it
Working within a moderate budget, it was important that we chose an approach that was simple but could still be emotionally expressive and inspiring. We opted for a solution using a hand-drawn 2D style.
The process involved research into František's life to get a feel for the period. Then a simple animatic was prepared and later combined with a 3D animatic and filmed sequences. The scenes were then redrawn by hand frame by frame and animated.
It was a little time-consuming but we felt it was worth putting in the extra effort to deliver the creative vision of the final film and the result was hugely rewarding for us.
Credits
Creative and technical team: Michal Černý, Jiří Machů, Daniel Kratochvíl, Ivan Floreš and Radek Pšurný
Sound design: Jiří Machů
Voiceover: Vladislav Beneš