Exclusive: Director Rasmus Siversten Discusses His Charming Norwegian Film ‘Three Robbers and a Lion’

The new Norwegian feature Three Robbers and a Lion is one of the many European projects making their debut at the European Film Market in Berlin this week. The film, which is produced by Oslo-based Qvisten Animation, stands out for the innovative way it combines miniature sets with CG-animated characters. After producing several stop-motion features, the team at Qvisten wanted to heighten the quality of the character acting, with more nuanced facial animation. The film’s director Rasmus A. Sivertsen (Helt Super, Captain Sabertooth and the Magic Diamond, Louis & Luca: Mission to the Moon) was kind enough to chat with us about his new movie and discuss the exciting new process:

Animation Magazine: Can you tell us a little bit about the development history of your movie?

Rasmus A. Sivertsen: The film is based on Norway’s best known and beloved story, When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town. The story was written by Thorbjørn Egner in 1955 and exists as a book and theater plays and even has its own theme park in southern Norway. We spent quite some time adapting the story into a screenplay that would fit an animated world. Cardamom Town is a place with mostly humans, but it also has talking camels and pet lions, so there was already an animated potential in the original material. The theater play also has 17 (famous) songs that we had to integrate into the storytelling.

What was the inspiration behind it?

The story is about three robbers that plague the cozy town of Cardamom with nightly raids to the bakery and the sausage store. The citizens of Cardamom have had enough and want the robbers tracked down and arrested. The Robbers on their side are actually not that happy about being robbers, but they do not know how to get out of their hopeless, outcast situation. In the heart of the story lies a message about tolerance and getting a second chance. The essence that everybody has equal value, outcast or not, is an important one and is something we have emphasized in the storytelling. Sadly, this theme seems just as relevant today as in the 50s, when the story first was written.

When did you start working on your movie and how long did it take to make?

We had the very first meetings about this project in 2017. The actual shooting and animation part took approximately 2.5 years.

Can you tell us a bit about the new process you used mixing stop motion with live-action backgrounds?

We originally planned it as a traditional stop-motion film, but the pandemic made this impossible. Putting 40 people working close together on a studio floor was too risky and actually against the law for a while. We ended up doing it as a combination of miniature sets and CGI-animation. We believe that this is the first feature film in the world to use this technique. First we spent almost a year shooting all the backgrounds for the film with a small corona-friendly team.

Approximately 1,300 carefully planned background plates were shot on traditional stop-motion, miniature sets, with camera moves and all. We created CGI-characters that look exactly like stop-motion puppets and animated them into the backgrounds. We animated the characters on double-frame, as you would in a stop-motion film. All combined and finished, the film looks like a stop-motion film. It was a very difficult process, but it paid off in the end. The characters get a bigger range of emotions and expressions with this technique than if it was a pure stop-motion film.

Which tools/software were used by the studio to create the movie?

We had to use some totally new techniques to make this film. All the real sets needed to go through photogrammetry to create accurate CGI-models for the animators. This was achieved in a separate unit rigged with strong flat diffused light in a circle, markers on the floor for every 30 degree angle, and a DSLR camera with AE-L. Each building was captured with 150-200 photos to give the animators an environment in 3D. Another big innovation for us was the use of infrared sensors for tracking during shoot. 25 OptiTrack cameras recorded the position of the camera and the different set-pieces on the shoot, which later was used to generate clean and aligned 3D scenes for animation.

What are some of your personal animated favorites?

My favorite animated film is Mickey’s Trailer, a Disney short from the mid 1930s. It is a prime example of how the animation itself is the star of the show. It is not the story or the dialogue that drives the film forward, but the playfulness and creativity of the animation.

What do you love best about your final film?

I am really happy about how the three robbers are portrayed in our film. I knew that, in order for the film and story to work, the audience really needed to care about and love the three robbers. They are robbers, but deep down really want to be part of the city life as other people.

What were your biggest challenges as you embarked on your filmmaking journey?

It is a challenge to make a film about something that so many people have a deep relationship with. The story is so well known in Norway that everybody has an opinion about what is right and wrong in a film like this. The film should feel close to the original story, but at the same time it should feel relevant and up to date. We therefore spent a lot of time fine tuning the script. It was crucial to find the right tone and humor of the film when it came to the acting and music as well.

What is your take on the thriving animation scene in your country?

Animated films based on known, local IP´s have been quite successful in Norwegian cinemas the last decade. The success has inspired Norwegian producers to make more animated films, so it is a trend that has escalated. I think that there are currently as many as eight animated features in production in our small country.

Finally, what do you hope audiences will take away from your movie?

I really hope that the audience have a good time, thump their feet to the catchy songs, and get pulled into the story of the three robbers that start out as bad guys and end up as heroes. I also hope that it provokes some thought about human equality and tolerance.

You can find out more about the movie at qvisten.no.