Guro Kjensli Johansen and Frida Bogen Lauritzen are a pair of passionate young artists who are also the co-owners of Somnium Animation Studios. They formed the studio to create innovative animations through a combination of traditional techniques and modern technologies. They used their exceptional skill to create Beloved, a short film about human companionship. We have interviewed Guro and Frida to get a behind the scenes look at how the two created one of the most touching animated short films on Reveel.
1. In your own words, can you tell us what Beloved is about?
Guro and Frida: Beloved is a Christmas tale. However, rather than the cheerful, warm usual depiction of Christmas times, we wanted to tell the story of those who are left alone during the holidays. Therefore, Beloved is really a story about loneliness and being neglected. Christmas can be an especially hard time for those who don’t have a family or a safe place to go to, and we wanted to show a snippet of their experience.
Through the eyes of a young girl who clearly would rather wander the snow-clad streets all alone than be at home, we meet an elderly woman who turns out to be equally as abandoned. Even though the tone of the film is quite sad, there is a certain warmth to how they find company and closeness somewhere perhaps none of them might have expected.
2. How did you come up with the idea? What was the inspiration behind it?
Guro and Frida: The origin story of Beloved is actually kinda funny. Frida, our story artist, had already expressed a wish to write a Christmas story. However, little did she know that the story was going to fall into her brain as she was in the middle of taking a shower. In fear of losing the idea, she quickly jumped out, wrote down the story with dripping wet fingers, before continuing her shower once she was satisfied with her notes. Sometimes, inspiration comes whenever it wants to come.
3. Can you walk us through the animation process? How many people were involved and what was the workflow?
Guro and Frida: Beloved was solely created by Somnium Animation Studios’ two founders Frida Bogen Lauritzen and Guro Kjensli Johansen. The entire pipeline going from concept and storyboards all the way through designs, character and effects animation, background painting and compositing, was divided between the two of us. What most people don’t know however, is that Beloved was our first ever attempt at 2D animation, and therefore also our first official production as a production company. Yes, you read that right, we started a 2D animation studio, before we had even animated in 2D before.
With a whole lot of enthusiasm and belief, we decided to create a 6 minute 2D animated short in the three months we had to do so. With no prior experience as to how to produce a film, let alone animate in 2D.
Covid hit and shut down the entire city of Oslo about a week into pre-production, meaning that we only had those five days where we actually got to work side by side on this project. For the remainder of the production we were sat at different locations, sending the animation sequences back and forth for review and forwarding online. For the most part this wasn’t an issue for the actual production pipeline, as the storyboards had already been done and the shot lists were ready. However, the motivation and drive took a huge hit as we had been looking forward to finally being able to work together, side by side, after a few months of dreaming and anticipation prior to getting the project started. The conditions and surroundings of this production were not ideal to say the least, but we managed to get it to work to the best of our abilities back then.
The workflow was quite simple since the two of us have a natural way of complimenting each other artistically. Where one of us does the character animations, the other does the background painting and so on. What was the most interesting part about this specific pipeline, is the fact that we decided to include shading of our 2D animated characters using masks and blending modes in After Effects; mimicking the beautiful style of Klaus, which had premiered on Netflix a few months prior. Now keep in mind that we hadn’t even animated in 2D before, so adding shading as well was a high standing goal to reach as such newcomers to the medium. But we wanted a certain look. So we had no other choice than to figure it out as we went along. Which since then has been a repeating motto and practice in our productions.
However, we did need help with the soundtrack. If there is one thing the two of us do not do; it’s music. We decided to reach out to a fellow student at the school we were currently studying 3D animation & visual effects at, and asked if he was willing to help us out as our original plan had fallen through. Håkon Bekkeseth managed to produce a full score with the help of a friend in little over a weekend, giving us more than we could’ve hoped for and everything we wanted. It’s safe to say that Håkon has forever since been our favorite musician to collaborate with, simply because he saved our short film in such a last minute cry for help. For what is an animated film without a beautiful soundtrack to go with it?
4. What were some of the challenges you had to overcome while creating the short and what did you learn from the process?
Guro and Frida: The biggest challenge we faced during the production of Beloved was Covid, as mentioned before. We had a brief period of time together in the beginning of the project, in pre-production, but after that we were more or less separated until the short was finalized. Being at different locations while working together on a film isn’t the biggest obstacle as most film productions do indeed have team members from all around – even in different time zones. What we struggled with however was the motivational aspect of being apart.
We learned that we work best when we get to sit next to each other, with the opportunity to bounce ideas off of one another in a dynamic and collaborative manner. We find so much joy, drive and peace in working closely together, and to be honest it got a bit sad not being able to do that during the production of Beloved.
It came as a surprise to us both that we found the separation to be more difficult and demanding than the mountain of work we had ahead of us and the not so shy pile of new skills we had to learn as we went. Looking back, we can’t really recall ever thinking that we weren’t going to be able to finish this 6 minute, 2D animated, shaded character film for the first time ever, in just three months. Call it being naive, but that was never considered a challenge in our minds. The challenge was motivation through hard and lonely times as Covid forced us all to sit alone and cope. Since then, through another 2 years of Covid, we prioritized getting a shared office space for the two of us, so that our future and upcoming productions wouldn’t suffer the same quality decline caused by our lack of motivation and creator joy.
5. What is the most difficult part about being in the animation business?
Guro and Frida: The biggest challenge about being in the animation business is probably getting the pay and recognition you should be getting, as well as proper work conditions. A majority of clients who come to us for commission work or to pitch projects, don’t know just how costly animation can be. 2D animation is a craft that requires time and dedicated people.
We’re saddened to say that our biggest challenge being in the animation business, has been the fact that we’re young and that we’re women. Personally, being young and female have been the last thing on our minds, but time and time again we have encountered situations where our age and gender have come to our disadvantage. Working in an artistic field is hard enough when it comes to getting the pay and recognition you should be getting, as well as proper work conditions. However, working as owners of a company, as young women, have been even more challenging.
6. What draws you to animation over other methods of storytelling?
Guro and Frida: To us there is simply just something so magical about illustrations coming to life and leaping off the paper. However, moreover, we feel like 2D animation is the form of storytelling where we have the least amount of limitations and the absolute most control of the outcome. We have discussed it between ourselves before, where the conclusion has been that in 2D animation the only thing stopping us is our own lack of skill. Which to us means that there is no true limitation, since our skill can always improve and become better, as long as we continue to experiment, practice and have fun with it.
7. What are some films that have influenced your animation style?
Guro and Frida: Our animation style has mainly been influenced by animators who greatly shaped the look of the film they were working on. Some of these are Frank and Ollie from Disney, Aaron Baise and his work on Brother Bear, as well as Hayao Miazaki and basically all his films with Studio Ghibli. From more recent times; Klaus by SPA Studios.
8. In your opinion, why do you think short films have gotten more important in recent years? What makes them so enjoyable to watch?
Guro and Frida: We view short films like calling cards – a great way for talented artists or small studios to showcase their work for the audiences, without having to launch a big production which many are not in the position to do. In our own experience, short films can pave the way for projects and opportunities of a much bigger scale – all because of a teaser, test or promo in the shape of a short film. Not to mention how short films truly are small doses of concentrated inspiration, which again just fuels how enjoyable they are to watch.
Beloved is a short film about a young girl who stumbles upon an elderly woman carrying groceries in the snow and offers to help only to realize that she’s not the only lonely one. Watch the short animation for free on Reveel!
