The Birthday (Syntymäpäivä)

Director, set design, animation Kari Juusonen
Script Kari Juusonen, Leo Viirret
Cinematography Jussi Eerola
Editing PV Lehtinen
Sound design Kirka Sainio
Music Markus Lahtinen
Producer Claes Olsson
Production support The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK
In co-operation with YLE, TVI, SVT
Production Kinoproduction Oy

Synopsis

After liberating a stubborn cow from the slaughter, a boy who works at the automated slaughterhouse is unable to get rid of the determined animal. His sick father finally solves the problem in this morality tale about values that cannot be detected with a gauge or on a monitor screen.

Fifty percent of the sound effects and atmosphere in The Birthday were created ahead of the animation. This gave the animators the rhythm of walking to animate to. The animation was created from different layers of sets and puppets and composited in Inferno. After Effects and combustion were also used. The script had been in development for eight years. It took six months to construct the puppets and 160 days to shoot the 35mm film that was produced by Kinoproduction Oy in co-operation with YLE TVI, SVT and with production support from The Finnish Film Foundation, AVEK. Produced by Claes Olsson, casting was by Nicola Usborne, cinematography by Jussi Eerola, sound design by Kirka Sainio, editing by PV Lehtinen and music by Markus Lahtinen.

Originally a metalworker, director Kari Juusonen graduated from Lahti Polytechnic Institute of Fine Arts and completed his masters in classical animation at the University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH. He likes to do everything alone. His puppet animation Pizza Passionata won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001. When not animating, Juusonen works as a set designer on short films, puppet animations, commercials and music videos.
Animation World Magazine