Big House (2011)

Director Kristjan Holm

Six years ago, on 2008 my first animated film “Small House” unexpectedly got finished. A strange tale of a man, who for some reason can’t fall asleep and because of this causes a huge mess. Even more unexpected was the fact, that they began to show the movie voluntarily at different film festivals.
Things thus naturally developed by unnatural ways and in 2011 a new movie by the name of “Big house” premiered in selected cinemas This time a story about a house full of people, who for some unexplainable reason just can’t fall asleep. After the internet release the Vimeo crew felt intrigued as well and reacted without delay.

At the moment an interesting dynamic has occurred. In cooperation with my meanest critic Peeter Luik we have finished writing the House Trilogy’s last script, by the name of “Full House”. [---]
Drawing animation "Full House" / Hooandja, http://www.hooandja.ee/en/projekt/joonisfilm-taismaja (25.08.2014).

The Chinese influences are not accidental. Actually the whole film, expect sound, is made in China. I lived in Kunming, Yunnan province, bit more than one year. So the answers:
Most of the peasants have moved to nice concrete houses as I understood. These hats are still presented at least in Kunming.
Spinning horses were basically only late addition to the script. There had to be some kind of jolly sound that fits the rhythm and in the beginning it was just comeing from his phone (Chinese love their phones even more than Estonians), but the hat somehow reminded me roof of the merry-go-around and the music was exactly what I wanted.

Music is based on Marshall Jefferson track "Give Me Back the Love" from 1987. I had to remix it to fit the script. Well, it was not the idea to use the original track anyway, so there was enough space to play. Everything was changed multiple times.
Photoshop for scanning,cleaning, painting; After Effects for compositing&timing; Audacity for editing sounds; Premiere for final editing with sounds. No special effects added, all natural!
News are recorded from one online radio. I thought that something might go wrong with mahjong, but I didn't want to hire any expert.
Suur maja / Big House on Vimeo, http://vimeo.com/56389966 (25.08.2014).

Excellent animation!
Simple and clever!
Totally brilliant short film, full of surprises.
Great animated film. I love how the story changes so you never quite know what will happen next, while the music theme stays keyed in.
Very good animated film indeed. Minimal but full. Abstract but perfectly evoking the details. The rhythm of the time is great. Musical sounds and silence are generating the right dimension. The passages from the general to the detail are very good, sometimes genius.
Great film! It will be on Croatian tv tonight - they will present Animateka festival and will show Big House as the winner of the audience award.
This is really funny!! I always hear a million sounds whenever I try to sleep and I always wonder what could possibly be making them. Your film explains their origins so well.

Suur maja / Big House on Vimeo, http://vimeo.com/56389966 (26.08.2014).