Bruno Collet Shoots Stop-Motion Animation 'Atomik Tour'
Bruno Collet, the Oscar-nominated director (and Annecy Cristal winner for the stop-motion 'Memorable' (more about the film here) started to shoot his new stop-motion animation short, 'Atomik Tour'.
While 'Memorable' was about a painter affected by Alzheimer's disease, 'Atomik Tour' is inspired by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident
What would happen if a young YouTuber filming in the irradiated zone of Chernobyl awakened the ghosts of the victims of the 1986 nuclear disaster?
Produced by the French company Vivement Lundi! (This Magnificent Cake!, Flee) and the Czech production company MAUR Film ('Daughter', 'Electra'), the stop-motion short film is a personal point of view about dark tourism, this new form of travel to destinations linked to death and disasters.
“Bruno had long wanted to write a film set in the Chernobyl “Zone”. He talked to us about it before making Memorable, but he didn't find the right angle” say Collet’s producers Jean-François Le Corre and Mathieu Courtois. “Then he discovered Yolocaust, the work of the German-Israeli artist Shahak Shapira, and it changed his point of view on his story, it became something more than a ghost movie.”
A € 300.000 budget has been secured by the film; € 80.000 by the Czech Film Fund, and the rest by CNC, France Télévisions, the Breton regional fund Bretagne Cinéma, the local channels TVR, Tébéo and TébéSud, Prociep and Angoa.
“Above and beyond the topic concerning our region, Ukraine, and an original perspective on the Chernobyl accident, a surreal look at the strange motives of tourists and magical realism in the space of a few minutes. With that wonderful, focused and quiet Bruno", says Martin Vandas, MAUR Film CEO.
Puppets, shooting, and compositing was made in Rennes (France) - in Personne n’est parfait ! Studio, while set buildings, original music, sound design and mix to be made in Prague. Two Czech artists – a DOP and an animator - joined the French team in Brittany. The shooting started last week and will run until the beginning of December.
“I have always thought that certain sites are forever haunted by the events that happened there. From Pompei to the D-Day landing beaches, from the concentration camps to Ground Zero in New York, these places are always inhabited by the ghostly presence of the victims of the tragedies that took place there. For many visitors, silence and meditation reflect the emotion felt in these places
of memory. However, new behaviors reflect a loss of reference, a lack of awareness of the historical weight of these sites, which are increasingly reduced to their tourist dimension alone. Sites subjected to photographic machine-gunning which only has a narcissistic function - Bruno Collet, director
The film is now shooting in France. A couple of production stills (courtesy of Vivement Lundi! / MAUR Film)
Héloïse Ferlay animating a scene at studio Personne n’est parfait !
Bruno Collet's 'Atomik Tour' is expected to hit the festivals in spring 2025.
Want to read more free articles like this?
Keep this professional animation journalism effort relevant and updated. Become our patron
