Short of the Week

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Fantasy Daren Rabinovitch & 2 Others

The Tale of Hillbelly

A yogi who tries to commune with nature gets more than he bargained for in Encyclopedia Pictura's surreal short 'The Tale of Hillbelly'.

Play
Fantasy Daren Rabinovitch & 2 Others

The Tale of Hillbelly

A yogi who tries to commune with nature gets more than he bargained for in Encyclopedia Pictura's surreal short 'The Tale of Hillbelly'.

The Tale of Hillbelly

Directed By Daren Rabinovitch & Isaiah Saxon & Sean Hellfritsch
Produced By Warp Films
Made In USA

Having made a name for themselves creating jaw-dropping music videos for the likes of Bjork and Metronomy and the recent hit campaign Fly Robot Fly for Ikea, the Encyclopedia Pictura crew bring their magical style to the world of short film with their 9-minute fable The Tale of Hillbelly. With this surreal story of a hillbilly yogi and how his search for enlightenment leads to a strange encounter with a wild fox, the Los Angeles based film and animation studio once again prove boundary-pushers with their creative approach to filmmaking.

Employing puppetry, miniatures, green screen and many other production techniques to tell their tale, even if this spiritual parable doesn’t fulfil your narrative needs, it’s hard not to be impressed with the inventive craft that went into telling their story. Dreaming up a concept that revolved around Hillbillies doing yoga back in 2007, The Tale of Hillbelly has been almost a decade in the making as the team had to prioritise their client work, whilst also taking some time out to build a unique hillside neighborhood in a forest in Northern California.

Speaking to Evan Pricco at juxtapoz.com, the Encyclopedia Pictura team explained the importance of beings hands-on at all levels of production. “The idea behind building everything ourselves was that if we made everything by hand – costumes, backgrounds, sound, and even the face of the actor – we would really be able to art direct it into something unique”, explains co-director Daren Rabinovitch. “This is the way big budget fantasy films are made, but very few indie films – it’s a very labor-intensive approach. But we are illustrators at heart and we wanted to see a painted world come alive”.

From the sounds of that interview with Pricco, the trio have learnt a lot throughout the creation of The Tale of Hillbelly and with Rabinovitch revealing that “with the fields of Animation and Special Effects continuing to merge, we should be able to make live-action film look however we want”, we’re eager to see what the studio will create with their blossoming reputation surely meaning they’ll find backers for their work.

You can find out more about the ‘making-of’ Hillbelly, including a behind-the-scenes video and production photos/sketches, on their website.