Archive notice: This article was originally published on May 21, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Award winners Karin Stöhr and Lars Fischer studied Film & Animation with Professor Schopper at Nuremberg’s Ohm University and have already produced several short films, each handling screenplay, directing, editing, image processing and sound editing. Their 2007 graduation project, “Elfi and Death,” was made using puppet animation and digital moving-image illustration and has now been honoured by the festival jury of the “PrädikatWertvoll” short-film competition.
In the film, Death has gained competition in his profession: a young, ambitious manager type named Cedric. As a kind of job-creation measure, the old Death is assigned to look after the small elf Elfi, who is not exactly the most talented being in the elf world. Eventually the two meet the radiant Cedric and a confrontation erupts between the rivals. The story satirically depicts the meeting of the traditional simple worker and the success-oriented manager type of our time.
The comparison with today’s working world is obvious, as it has changed massively since the onset of globalisation and through new media and communication technologies. The film combines a live-shot marionette theatre with digital frame-by-frame painting and was awarded for its satirical wit and original story.
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